Cyber Monday Deals, a Computer, and the Two Cameras I Covet Most

SONY LENSES on sale

NIKON CAMERAS and LENSES on sale

FUJIFILM CAMERAS and LENSES on sale

CANON CAMERAS and LENSES on sale

Superpowerful superlight: For Apple fans, the MacBook Air with the new integrated M1 chip might not be the best computer, but it's got to have a shot at being the best-yet travel laptop. 0.63 inch thick (1.6 cm) and 2.8 pounds (1.3 kg), with specs that would have sounded implausible to a science fiction writer twenty years ago. All for less than that Sony/Zeiss 24mm ƒ/1.8 lens I like so much (the price on that is never going to come down into the realm of reason).

You can get a hundred bucks off if you preorder the MacBook Pro M1 today too.

[WARNING! Somewhat NSFW illustration past the break]

 

Classicists among ye will no doubt know the legend of Odysseus (Roman name: Ulysses). He defined our word "odyssey" with his near-endless trek home to Ithaca after the Trojan War, contending with challenges, impediments and difficulties along the way. One of the most famous was his encounter with the Sirens, enchanted nymphs whose allure was so strong it drove sailors to fling themselves into the sea or sail their ships against rocky shores and sink. (No doubt this explained to the Greeks the frequency of shipwrecks on a treacherous coast). Odysseus was curious (a strong trait of my own since early childhood I might add!), and he wanted to experience the song of the Sirens but survive, so his sailors plugged their ears with beeswax and tied him to the mast after he gave them orders in advance to ignore his pleas for release as long as he was under the Sirens' spell.

Herbert James Draper, Ulysses and the Sirens, c. 1909

I've loved cameras since I was a kid, and I'd say it's more often than not I have to lash myself to the mast to resist the siren call of some object of desire or another. There's always something I can convince myself I desperately want, but that is agonizingly out of reach. Right now there are two cameras I covet but cannot possess:

The first is the medium-format Fujifilm GFX 50R. ($1,000 off today, but I'm not sure if that's just today.) It's a relatively simple, stills-oriented "Texas Leica" with a flip-up type viewing screen, and it even has a compact 40mm-field-of-view-equivalent lens. It's like it was made specifically for me, right? I thought so too.

Next, I started cheerfully advocating for a B&W-only digital camera something like, what, twelve years ago? Fourteen? Might have been more. I assumed a few would come along. (I will now get eight comments wondering why anyone would need one. No matter how many times you explain things on the tubes of the Internets, you will always have to explain the same things again. Here's the argument—and please bear in mind that the link only explains why I want one; I'm not implying you would want one.) The Universe is a trickster, though, so who actually made a B&W-only camera? Leica, of course, the last company I would have wanted to, on account of Leica prices are out of my league.

Anyway, it's my fault that Leica is the company making the Q2 Monochrom—it's so that the Universe can taunt me. All I need is for Fuji to make a B&W-only X-T30 or even X-T200 for $450–800; is that so hard? But noooo. Instead we get the temptatiousalicious Q2 Monochrom for a mere $5,995,000,000 or something like that.

You know what they say: Oh well. Soon we will float past those, and I can get untied from the mast and resume normal life. At least I got to hear the Sirens' song.

Of course, eventually some new temptation will be along, and then there we go again. But that's all right. For us camera nuts, such is life!

Mike

Original contents copyright 2020 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved. Links in this post may be to our affiliates; sales through affiliate links may benefit this site. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

(To see all the comments, click on the "Comments" link below.)
Featured Comments from:

Tyler: "What a pity that I do not own (or want) any Sony, Nikon, Fujifilm, or Canon cameras—just a range of Pentax bodies and compact prime lenses. Never used a 'smart' phone, or played pool, and am tone-deaf so I don't listen to music. Just read books and make pictures. What am I doing here?"

Mike replies: You're here because you're a man of discrimination and taste who likes a little Homer and Greek mythology and an obscure 111-year-old figurative painting along with his Cyber Monday links, of course.

Zach Schindler: "I keep hoping that Fujifilm will make a X100Vm monochrome as that would be my desert island camera. Now that I could afford. The Leica would be nice to have but the divorce it would cause would cost more than the camera."

Kenneth Tanaka: "I assume that the Leica Q2 Monochrom is what you warned as being NSFW? Actually, it might be NSFNW (Not Safe For Not Working)."

Sylvain G.: "Thanks for the NSFW notice. It almost made me stomach the full frontal view of that bare sensor Fuji! Shocking!"

Mike replies: Sylvain, have you met Ken? Ken, Sylvain.  :-)

A Facebook User: "The best question I was ever asked (and couldn't answer) in college was 'what song did the sirens sing?' I kind of assumed they were just kind of, you know, singing, like backup singers. No words. Just a tune. Nope. When Odysseus recounts his story to King Alcinous (books 9–12), he explains that the sirens sang to him of how great he was as a warrior at Troy. And he would have gladly leapt to his death had his men not lashed him to the mast. It's Homer's way, I think, of reminding us how susceptible we all are to flattery."

Jeff: "But for $5,995,000,000, one also gets a lens that typically would cost another $5,995,000,000."

Mike replies: True. Good point.

Will von Dauster: "Mike, stop reading. OK, you were warned. After months of hemming and hawing over the Hasselblad X1D II and the GFX 50R, I jumped when the price dropped to $3,500 for the latter, and ordered the GF 50mm (40mm equivalent) at the same time. The thinking was to slow my shot rate down and be more deliberate in my shooting, but to be rewarded by highest quality images. Here is where I should be nice and tell you it was a big disappointment. Sorry. WOW. The results are what I was hoping for (but didn’t get) when I tried the A7R IV: Stunning detail at all apertures, excellent bokeh, terrific colors, and a camera that performs far better and quicker than some reviews would suggest. No regrets. Recommended."

Mike replies: Aaugh! Well, you did warn me.

Julius: "A Tri-XT4 would be great."

Comments

[Stan B.]

Yeah, but the good news is that you'll be able to get that $6,000,000,000 Leica for only... $5,900,000,000 by summer!

[robert e]

DPReview points out that the Fuji X100V is a reasonable alternative to the Q2 Mono, thanks to Fuji's great mono film simulations, and at a vastly lower price point. One also gets a saner 35mme FOV, longer battery life, tilting screen, flash, a hybrid finder and a smaller, lighter body.

I suppose the trade-offs (for some; on paper) are fiddlier handling, fiddlier RAW, and lower resolution. And of course cachet.

https://www.dpreview.com/reviews/leica-q2-monochrom-initial-review

[robert e]

Interesting take on why Canon is beating Nikon at FF mirrorless. Spoiler: commitment and lenses.

https://petapixel.com/2020/11/27/why-canon-is-winning-full-frame-mirrorless/

Reminded me of Ned Bunnel's comment here a while ago that Canon plays the long game.

[Richard Parkin]

Mr Draper didn’t think that through because ear plugs wouldn’t be sufficient if his painting were to be accurate ;) .

[James]

Ahhhh! The thought of Fuji releasing a mono camera.

Sensor shift stabilization.
24 meg APS size Sony made sensor.
All the controls on the outside per XT4.
Big Battery.

Less than a $1k.

Wow!

[Albert Smith]

"...for Fuji to make a B&W-only X-T30 or even X-T200 for $450–800; is that so hard?"

Hope this doesn't come off as sarcastic or condescending, but why not just shoot your Fujifilm camera as a B&W tool by using that film simulation? I shoot my Fuji in Acros mode with red filter and with trial and error tweaks to the highlight, shadows, I get consistantly great results. The exposure compensation dial assures that the most important mid tone is right and the output is terrific.

If Fujifilm made a dedicated mono camera, it would have to do something magical to make it desirable enough to be limited to that specific output.

Every time that I go out for B&W only shooting, there are always a few color shots in the mix that I could not pass up and not having that option would be limiting.

[Ronny Nilsen]

I think you have to repeat the explanation of a digital B&W only camera is because it makes no sense. Why would you want to sacrifice the possibility to use the colour information in post processing to create the best possible B&W images from the scene?

Now to have a B&W mode on a camera where you can chose "filters" and only se in B&W (but camera raw-file have full colour) i totally get. That can be done in the camera firmware, and I can't understand why that is not a feature on every camera out there, it's only SW after all.

So maybe if you nag the vendors to make this B&W mode it will go beter than have a B&W only camera. :-)

[I added a link for you. Note that caveat, though. --Mike]

[Rob L.]

I would deeply love an X-T1 in monochrome - something about the sensor is fantastic in B/w as it stands - I'm shooting an IR converted one now and loving the results.

I'd take a Q2 Mono tho, somehow I'd suffer through. If Fuji is true to themselves, however, they'll make a GFX mono, to followup on their IR GFX camera, only available certain parties because we're still really worried about weirdos trying to see through bathing suits with IR cameras...

[albert erickson]

Mike, I may have said this in the past but I too have lusted for a high mega pixel camera of some sort. Either a medium format one like the GFX 50 R or a z7-2 or something similar. Decided to go with the Nikon only because a wise man told me to go with the camera you have the lenses for rather than the one you need to purchase the lens? I thought it was good advice at the time and still do. The man will go nameless but you get the idea? Good luck with your camera lust. Be safe my friend. Eric

[hugh crawford]

RE Odysseus:
Google maps says it is a 6 hr 57 min drive from Troy to Ithica but only 3 hours if you skip Phoenicia and Naples.
https://www.google.com/maps/dir/Troy,+NY/Phoenicia,+New+York+12464/Naples,+NY/Ithaca,+New+York/@42.3377651,-76.7220395,8z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m26!4m25!1m5!1m1!1s0x89de0fa74c108773:0x33117ef9f5a4723c!2m2!1d-73.6917851!2d42.7284117!1m5!1m1!1s0x89dcf8ac4f33d0d5:0x43c2d6a8433e7ed2!2m2!1d-74.3154254!2d42.0848126!1m5!1m1!1s0x89d10e33c87fe1bf:0x947e1b781e574660!2m2!1d-77.4024853!2d42.6153453!1m5!1m1!1s0x89d08182e0af88f7:0xae52768a56ece74!2m2!1d-76.5018807!2d42.4439614!3e0

[Peter Baglole]

Fuji already has a monochrome camera - the X-T1. Just set the simulation to monochrome. If my wife tells me to set my X-T1 to monochrome and leave it there, that is just the same as buying a monochrome only camera.

[MikeR]

I have both my Lumix LX-100 and GX-8 viewfinder & screen set for monochrome. Doesn't that give you the same benefit of seeing in B&W, if that's the goal, without the added expense?

OTOH, I would jump at an affordable (for a retired person) B&W-only camera, because then every pixel is in play without the interference of either a Bayer array, or in-camera sorting of the digital information.

[Dennis Ng]

I went out Ioc the way to get a new old stock of macbook 12 end of last year for its weight (.92kg). I went to Apple store 3 days ago and confirm air is too heavily. I had to wait for ipad to run macOS or Godet.

You want heavy my 2019 15” MacBook Pro ok. Can even play flight sim a bit.

Still awaiting.

[Dennis Ng]

Also after waiting for the stock of the Hasselblad new back which obviously all you tuber get a copy but cannot gina any in stock. Only one nasa black I know in one guy who hold it us$3000 more if I have to buy it.

After one year wait I just got a z50 with the two kit lens. Strangely after nearly 1 year of the old digital back and except trying photo protest whilst there still one, I finally do a bit non Hasselblad wmc photography.

I wonder just go out and picture instead of waiting for the price to drop, dream camera to appear or stock to have.

Light weight help, btw. (My last post is corrected wrongly by Apple. Guess it does not like me to promote an outdated computer the macbook 12”. Btw2 unfortunately I already have 2 macmini and arm Apple has to wait. But that seems very good unless you are outdated (use old software) or use wrong os (linux or windows).

[Eric Brody]

Given that many folks believe that almost all modern cameras are sufficient, eg able to make excellent images when operated properly, why would someone deliberately choose to handicap one's options with a "monochrome" camera? I spent many years with black and white film and made a heavy investment in filters to modify, albeit imprecisely, the tonalities that the film "sees." I don't miss it a bit. Also, I have not seen visual evidence of the superiority of a monochrome sensor in a print, that's all that matters, the print. I believe it's an attempt to appeal to the person who's never satisfied with what he/she has. While I also believe that amateur photographers should have the toys they want and can afford, a waste is still a waste. It may be a mild case of the emperor's new clothes when these cameras are glorified. Interesting yes, realistic not at all.

[Eric Rose]

I have found my Panasonic GX1 with the 20mm f1.7 lens to be my daily digital B&W shooter. The mono mode is just fine. A few tweaks in PS and it's perfect. Super light, reliable (I shouldn't have said that now it will crater lol) and cheap. It presents enough friction to make it interesting and slows me down. Just like shooting a "real" camera with film. And if I want I can use some of my other lenses that normally go on my GH5.

[John Robison]

All I want, camera wise, is a LNIB Olympus Pen W, that came out 55 years ago. My income demographic is such that it would be out of reach, probably about $600, money that must be saved for home maintenance (just replaced the water heater for, yes, you guessed it, $600).
I’m sure the digital Fuji, with its 8,431 different features and configurations would make much larger, and highly detailed photographs, but with the Pen, I wouldn’t need instructions that, if printed, would weigh 4.5 pounds.
*All stats presented here pulled out of thin air* But, of course, the reader already knew that.