take a deep breath..

 now let it out.. slowly..

OK all better. Let's review!

Fuji has great possibilities, all of which can come once the budget is not what it is now. While I love the 15-45mm lens in theory, I am not convinced in practice except at 15mm. That's too bad, as it leaves too much space before the 35mm TTArtisan and then the Pentax trio of 50/85/135 come into play. Looking at optical benchmark sites I see a serious trend in the mirrorless game: a whole bunch of uncorrected lenses are achieving greatness through in-camera reprocessing for distortion. All of the Fuji mid-wide to mid-tele 'kit' lenses have 5% distortion at the wide end, often more. Processing for that much leaves marks, and opticallimits calls them out. Vignetting also, and occasionally chromatism. Really primes are the way to go - and while Fuji handles that space very well, it comes at a massive and currently unobtainable cost.

So for now Fuji is out, but on the futures watchlist.

I have the excellent eM1 and a couple of very nice lenses, so I'm OK with it.

But I'm left with a taste of APS-c goodness, and a sour taste for mirrorless. After all many of the µ43 'kit' lenses are massively corrected in-camera as well. I've always disliked that about the mirrorless game, but other cool features have kept me in place.

Really, where else could I go? Two answers: Nikon or ..Pentax. Again! 

• F mount: 17/50/85/90mm primes and 55-200 +100-300
• K mount: 50/85/135 trio plus a couple of zooms

Both of those have gaps galore, but Pentax can be filled with 16-45 or a WR 18-50 (among others). A futures option would be the 20-40 Limited zoom, or the 16-85 or ..who knows.

After a couple of years away, it seems the Pentax leftover lenses kept a grip on me after all!

So today I swung a deal (with a dealer, of all people): xT100 and 15-45 for a K-S2 body plus cash back. That cash can buy me an 18-50 if I choose that route.  Or maybe I'll go with a couple more primes and that's what the Pentax kit will be?