Because Canon and Nikon have been unable to lead, this has opened the door to a number of other companies, most notably Sony. In shotgun fashion, I have blindly tried to follow these new leaders, but so far have been disappointed. This includes purchasing, aside from a spate of mirrorless duds, the Sony A7rII, Sony A7s, the Pentax K3 and K1, and I am about to try the Hasselblad X1D.
In similar fashion, I have spun off into more technical cameras, including (aside from the Nikon bellows), the Rollei X-Act 2, the Novoflex CASTBAL and BALPRO, and the Cambo Actus. This is not to mention the slew of supporting lenses that I bought. Of the above, only the Cambo Actus has made the cut; the rest have been sold, are being sold, or will be sold.
As for the concept of Nikon taking me from cradle to the grave, well, that has gone out the window. I clearly feel marooned, isolated, and on my own recognizance. Anyone else feel this way?
I have become basically a tester. I can’t afford the expense (and also lack the interest) to keep buying every new camera that hits the streets, and there will be more and more of them as we turn toward the medium-format type of high-end gear. I was disappointed with the Pentax K1, Sony A7s, and Sony A7rII, generally, and for very specific reasons which I won’t go into here. The Nikon D810 remains the finest camera I have ever used to date.
The appeal of the new Hasselblad X1D, if it lives up to its claims, is very much as a refuge from the proliferation of new offerings and the expense of time each of them would entail. The X1D suggests a one-stop-shop, a camera that has it all or at least does enough FOR me that I can embrace it and return to the comfort of feeling that I have a complete system – a brand that I can count on.
My life, already technical enough, has become technically even more demanding in recent years. I yearn for yesteryear and to just put the gear on autopilot and enjoy taking photos for a while, perhaps for a long while. Enough already of shooting in the dark, figuratively speaking.
This is why the Hasselblad X1D promises to be (and possibly could be) a shelter from the storm of technology and a turning away from the plethora of beckoning options to the relative comfort of having a camera, a few lenses, and a system that for all practical purposes does it all, or at least does enough to let me rest in the experience of taking photos once again. Or is this allure of endless technology a modern replacement?
I have loved my walk on the technical edge these last many years, but it threatens to be all that I do, with the beauty of photography running a distant second. I am sure this will all get sorted out, but I for one yearn for a simpler solution, if it can be found. Instead of looking back to when I had “enough,” whatever that was, do I dare look forward to a time when I will again have what I need in new equipment (and lenses) to turn back to mainly taking photos? I hope so.
P.S. I still have my Nikon D810 and too many lenses, so I can tinker with that. Meanwhile, I would like to learn landscape and people photography and the X1D should be able to help me do that.
