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?

never before, never again?

8AM sunday, lowest central pressure

 No storm has been recorded on this side of the pacific ocean with such low pressure. Whether it's a complete one-off event, time will tell - but we already had one of those this year, with the July superheatwave! How many firsts can we manage?

Models are still struggling with such power to determine where the flow will take it. Generally they swerve more to the north before reaching the coast as they fill and weaken, but ensemble variations are high with this much energy seeking a path. Models are doing amazing work already, forecasting both this storm and the previous 953hPa low earlier in the week. Hard to complain, but residents would like as much warning before their trees and roofs take flight. 

estimated position Monday morning

Yikes!

Not actually as bad as that, since it's heading a bit north and weakening - but still a potent threat especially with this being one of many possible results.

Leaves are leaping from our maples under the hard rain and blustery weather from the passing fronts. Our hill protects us from S/SE storm winds if they do occur - at least until the trees atop the hill wear out from the pounding..

And by the way - forecast for the upcoming seven days is still at 3" or more, so the damp days we've just passed are being replaced by equally-damp ones at the end of October. No surprise, and it means that once again our monthly rainfall will be above average. Every single October of our seven years on the hill-top has been above average (though we'll admit one was by 0.01") so the streak continues. We're still almost two inches short as of the 23rd - but feeling pretty confident it will happen.

Update 10/27 - we reached 100% of the 30-yr average this evening!

late October, no surprise

 It's time for the Pacific to discard its name and start flinging moisture at us. The NWS is in full agreement, looking at the upcoming seven days. This includes two dry days!

The map also looks nice for the Sierra Nevada, which is entering another moisture-unfavorable La Nina season; a good early start would be most helpful. Can't say it does much for the lower Colorado basin.

Our little patch of new grass is sprouting decently, but it's a good thing the mix is for shade and sun; the low sun angle is only catching a small bit of the area, and only in the mornings. A decent outflow channel has developed near our steps leading into the area, so I had better add an improved drainage option before the first inch or two of this pattern finds us - otherwise a decent amount of that grass will be growing at the lowest part of our property, where only the frogs will see it!

Update - well, the dry days have passed and a few new wet ones have entered the end of the period in their place. Big numbers abound.

Fuji|X update - any future in it for me?

After nearly a month with the x-T100 I've got it set up to my satisfaction. Well, almost. Seldom does one settle in that quickly with an entirely new system! 

Images look nice with this camera and the 15-45xc lens, sharp and appropriately colorful. Focus speed is decent, not amazing but not much speed difference between this and the em1 Classic. It would be nice to check with telephoto, but nothing exists in my budget other than adapted PK lenses. No IS inside for adapted lenses, so blur is a risk. 

The µ43 system is not showing me an upgrade path. The only tilt-screen µ43 camera with weather seals is what I own now: the 8-year-old e-M1v1. Both OM-D and Lumix cameras will do IS, and weather seals are fairly common - but at the price of a flipout screen, which I've learned that I don't enjoy in the least. So for IS within and weather protection, µ43wins - but the Fuji aps.C sensor will outperform Oly (though not by a huge margin), gets decent battery life, and can be charged in-body while retaining (and improving upon!) the tip screen that I prefer. 

I'm not enthusiastic about xTrans color array, nor for retro looks that do not align with the operational memory that comes with 12 years of dSLR use. Weather seals are hard to find below a high-mid body type and definitely not for low-range lenses. The path is slightly better than µ43 though, with xT3±1 body holding to the dual-tilt screen in a modified form. The xH1 also does so, and adds internal IS. So that's a plus.

+Oly: affordable ibis, wx seals, live imaging tricks, 4:3 format plus 1:1 3:2 hd. 

+Fuji: sensor (size and resolution), screen double-tilt, battery life, 4k>8Mpx still images a la Lumix. 

+both: compact, tilt screens, interesting lenses. 

- both: moving to flipout screens and high-end items. Lumix is doing this too.

Rumor has it that 3rd-party lenses are soon to arrive for Fuji, as they made their lens-contact protocols public. That would really help with the Fuji budget and telephoto options .. some day. Sigma plans are important for me to stay in this format since Fuji has no telephoto options in my price range. OK Tamron &c could also play a role; we'll know soon what these lens suppliers have in store for the fX mount.

Attack of the -itis

 My left leg below the knee took a post-cider hit, wrecking plans for a beach trip and putting life in low gear. No major events did the damage; maybe a bit too much squatting in the mash process, perhaps too much twist when spreading peat moss on the newly-planted grass. In any case bursitis struck my pes anserine sac, and tendonitis along the outside of my lower leg felt like a perma-cramp for a few days. 

It's been frustrating to stop and let things heal, especially since a family campout formed spontaneously for the recent week. First we hoped for two nights, shrank it to one night then a day trip.. and didn't manage that either. It should Not have been so difficult!

first batch!

When celiac disease wrecked my ale-brewing hobby in early 2005, I wasn't sure what to drink, much less what drink to invent. I actually went from the doctor visit that confirmed my diagnosis directly to the brew-shop, where I bottled an ale I wouldn't get to drink. That sucked!

I figured I'd become a wine snob. I liked a few German whites like Müller-Thurgau and Gewürztraminer - but pretending to swish and sniff didn't create a nasal impression that I could casually toss to a crowd. Also, I got wine headaches pretty readily, and don't ask how my wine-tasting night ended in 2008. So wine never took.

Recently I discovered cider. Yummy and versatile, generally with an apple base and lots of room for other fruity improv in the mix. My limit seems to be around 1½ glasses so I'm just an alcohol wimp (well 1½ whiskeys I might manage.. no skip that). In general the process is similar to beer making: get a 5 gallon container, make a large mess around it, then walk away for a week or two before siphoning, then come back later for bottling. Hey I can do this!

Nearly every sibling had a stash of beer gear that they weren't putting to full use, so my brother Larry gifted me a couple of carboys and other items as an early birthday event. His son had created a fine pear-apple mashup (literally!) from the back yard, and the fruit waits for no man - of any gender. So today it was time!

Larry rented us a fine cider-maker, with a power shredder to pulverise the fruit and a screw-down tamper to squeeze the remnants and release the juicy goodness. An hour or more of that, plus a similar time gathering the ingredients, and we had two 5g buckets of must! "Must" in that sentence being a technical term, and "5g" in my case being about three gallons - my wife wouldn't be aiding in the consumption, so I needed to exercise restraint. Yay, I exercised today!

So on to the next steps. I dropped in some sulfites this evening to purge any mutant yeasts hiding in Larry's back yard, and in a few days it's yeast-awakening time. Then after a couple of weeks watching it burp through the air-lock we'll see about bottles. Gosh I used to have so many fifteen years ago; where does the time go? And escpecially, the bottles?

This being the first batch of cider, I had no feel for the process and accepted that pear and apple would be the two fruits in play. Once we see how this develops perhaps more improvisation will come to mind.

And speaking of improv: it needs a name (Mu'ad-dib? nah)! I was really good at that in the past with my ales (e.g. 'Limping' Bitter in 2000 when my L5|S1 disc ruptured), but when dating an elf and Second Foundationer most of my names became of Middle Earth. So whither then? I cannot say.

Praps mirúvor? Hm that's more likely mead than cider, so that should be saved for another adventure. 

Hm, hom. More contemplation needed. Thank goodness this stuff takes its time becoming itself!

kit Twists & Turns

 Stop me if you've heard this one before.. No wait: this is a new one! I'm certain of that!

I've gone rogue and purchased a Fujifilm X camera. Not entirely rogue, (that would be too big an ask) but an A-series body with Bayer color array not x-trans - and not with a "retro" pile of dials on the top plate. I do get the film simulations, but just one of the three Fuji marketing plays still resulted in putting a Fuji in my bag.

Update (what already?!?) I found another deal on an xT100 and swapped for that. Adjusted raves follow..

So what brought this about? A few things.

• Cost: an x-T100 for about $280 is a nice deal, and the curious new 15-45mm kit lens (that's 22-68mm/e) was available for $120 more. The Lumix S5 with its 20-60mm lens just lost its death grip on my imagination and its $2k hold on my mythical wallet!
• Features: a small body holding an aps.C 24Mpx sensor with 4k focus-stacking and image-extraction? 430-shot battery life and in-cam charging? Tip-not-flip touchscreen? One-touch square format? My kind of stuff, I confess.. and it reduces the incentive to add a 4k Lumix 𝛍43 or S-type body (hey I like Lumix stuff! A lot! But ..see the preceding point: $400 will not get me a 4k Lumix plus a lens like the 15-45mm).
• Perceived health: unlike 𝛍43 and Pentax, the X system is young and energetic, and owners don't live in fear of its imminent demise. Such fears do not haunt me, but lens developers pay attention to such trends! Being mirrorless and popular means small lens makers like TTArtisan are making X mount lenses - plus adapters for PK lenses like my 70-150mm f/4 Rikenon are available. 

So I'll be trying something truly new to me. We'll see how that goes.

I read about the x-/A5/T100 downsides in several places: a bit sluggish, no VF nor ibIS nor wx seals. Just excellent images in a package made with many features I truly use and don't merely covet. And a chance to learn how useful 4k still images might be!

Sounds about right.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

First xA5 tests went decently well. AF speed is similar to my other cameras so no big deal,Just one little problem: the viewfinder. Or lack thereof.

It was a bright and storm-free day The camera and 15-45mm zoom seemed to be taking decent photos - BUT pictures were nearly impossible to frame or review. The reflection of my dark-grey patterned shirt was overpowering the screen, and brightness adjustments weren't the answer. 

Guess I need to.. er, what exactly? 
Get an xT100 (x∙TC in Roman), apparently. The same camera with a viewfinder - not quite true, but most reviewers figured that generalization was close enough.

The next issue was entirely Fuji-induced: I ordered a grip for the x-T100, which they confirmed in my order. They then sent me the shipping announcement for my grip - for the X100F camera. Note the missing 'T' and the bonus "F". Yes they made X100 X100S X100T X100F X100V and XT100 models. I'm going rogue/Roman and it shall be called an x-TC. And I might be getting a grip soon.. or praps not.