Evolution.

Ch-ch-changes.

I love my little X100s. It’s a great camera, both in form and function.

And I’ll admit that I’m a gadget junky, so when I purchased it back in mid-2013, naturally I wanted to dress it up with a few extra gizmos.

I started with a Gariz black leather half-case. Then I attached the extremely useful LensMate thumb grip. Next was the JJC LH-JX100 slotted silver metal lens hood.

Added up to a nice little set-up.

It was a long while before I’d noticed another shooter using a slightly different JJC lens hood, and thinking it was pretty cool that the original Fujifilm lens cap fit over it, I switched to the JJC LH-JX100II, a cool lookin’ hood without any slots.

The good thing about both JJC hoods is they fit over a 49mm UV filter, no adapters necessary.

Well, today the Squarehood MkII arrived in the mail. Another cool lens hood for the X100s.

I’d seen pictures of them on IG over the last year or so, mostly the black model, attached mostly to X100f cameras.

I like the look of the Squarehood, but I didn’t get the filter adapter. It’ll do just fine without.

At some point I’d like to move up to a Fujifilm X100f – or whatever the next iteration happens to be, but I’m still diggin’ the X100s.

Rusty shutters #23.

Olympus Stylus XZ-2.

March 2019.

The XZ-2 was originally released in November 2012.

I got this little gem for travel. It’s a factory refurb I purchased off eBay for less than $300 and for an 8 year old camera, it’s actually a quite nice compact point-and-shoot.

The first thing I did was update the firmware. Then I added the VF-4 electronic viewfinder and the LC-63A lens cap.

Using this camera for the last 9 months has helped me come to terms with the Olympus user interface.

The articulating LCD is awesome. The controls on the back of the camera are well placed and intuitive, although I have accidentally hit the video button a few times.

The extremely versatile 28-112mm lens produces sharp images. The XZ-2 has great macro capability and the auto focus is super-quick.

It’s a cool little shooter.

Resolution: 12 megapixels
Max image size – 3968 x 2976
Display: Fixed 3in LCD @ 920,000 pixels
ISO: Auto, 160, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, 12800
Shutter Speeds: 60 sec – 1/2000 sec
Metering: Multi-segment, center-weighted, spot
Dimensions WHD: 4.45in x 2.56in x 1.89in
Weight: 12.2 oz
Power: Lithium-ion Li-90B rechargeable battery
Memory card: SD/SDHC/SDXC

Purple Shamrock

Hiding

Pink Water Lily

Ranunculus

Little white shed

Rusty shutters #22.

Agfa Click-I.

May 2006.

Another fun film shooter from my collection. A very cool, very simple little camera made in Germany from 1958-1970.

It uses 120 film and has a switch on the lens barrel with three settings: two are aperture sizes, ƒ8.8 (cloudy icon) and ƒ11 (sunny icon), plus a yellow filter which is also ƒ8.8.

It uses a single fixed-focus convex-concave meniscus lens, a rotary shutter with a speed of 1/30th of a second, and the camera has a curved back cover that serves as a film pressure plate.

This little guy takes sharp pictures from about 5 ft. to infinity and I’ve even used hand-held close-up filters over the front of the lens for decent macro shots.

Film type: 120
Exposures: 12 @ 6×6
Shutter Speed: ~1/30 sec
Aperture: ƒ/8.8, ƒ/11
Focal Length: 72.5mm
Viewfinder: Optical
Focusing: Fixed, 5 feet – infinity
Dimensions WHD: 5.5in x 3.75in x 2.75in

Flag and branches

Rose

Not happy

Fucshia

Fleur de lis

Rusty shutters #21.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8.

September 2017.

The GX8 was the first M43 body I’d added to my collection since the GX1, nearly four years earlier.

I’m not much of an early adopter, so it took me a while to decide on this particular body. But I’m glad I did. I’m a fan of having the viewfinder on the left side of the camera, and the flip-up feature is just perfect for my style of photography. I added the larger eye-cup.

I’m not big on touch-screens, so I don’t usually have the swivel LED display showing, and I carry the camera in my bag that way just for protection.

All the dials and knobs are well placed and easy to use, and the grip is quite comfortable in my right hand. The size is perfect.

The Olympus 12-40 ƒ/2.8 PRO lens is what’s usually attached. Great chunk of glass.

The auto focus is super-fast.

I’ll be using this set-up for a pretty long while.

Resolution: 20.3 megapixels
Max image size – 5184 x 3888
Display: Fixed 3in LCD @ 1,040,000 pixels
Viewfinder: Articulated, electronic, 2,360,000 pixels
ISO: Auto, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, 12800, 25600
Shutter Speeds: 60 sec – 1/8000 sec
Metering: Multi-segment, center-weighted, spot
Dimensions WHD: 5.2in x 3.1in x 2.5in
Weight: 17.2 oz
Power: Lithium-ion rechargeable battery
Memory card: SD/SDHC/SDXC

Golden flames

Winter Rose

A+S L+A

Imperial

Grey beard

Rusty shutters #17.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX1.

July 2013.

The only reason this camera is in my collection is because I spotted it on Amazon – body only – for $199, and even though it’d been released a year earlier, that price was just too good to pass up. I added the DMW-LVF2.

I mostly use the Panasonic Lumix G 14mm f/2.5 ASPH Lens on this camera, but also use the 20mm and the Thingyfy Pinhole Pro S11.

Great little camera.

Resolution: 16 megapixels
Max image size – 4592 x 3448
Display: Fixed 3in LCD @ 460,000 pixels
ISO: Auto, 160, 200, 400, 800, 1600, 3200, 6400, 12800
Shutter Speeds: 60 sec – 1/4000 sec
Metering: Multi-segment, center-weighted, spot
Dimensions WHD: 4.58in x 2.67in x 1.55in
Weight: 11.2 oz
Power: Lithium-ion rechargeable battery
Memory card: SD/SDHC/SDXC

Tiny white rose

Sky

Headphones

Love Noir

Fruit bowl

Rusty shutters #16.

Polaroid Colorpack II.

April 2008.

Funny story. I bought five of these cameras on eBay to cut up and make into pinhole (pinholaroid) cameras. Two pinholes got made. The other two Colorpacks were junk.

But one Colorpack II was in such good condition that I just couldn’t bring myself to altering it. So I kept it as is.

I still have it. Great little camera. I should use up some of the remaining Fuji peel-apart I have stashed. Maybe when the weather gets a little cooler, this Fall.

Film: Peel-apart 100-Series or Fujifilm FP-100C, FP100B, or FP3000B
Lens: 114mm, f/9.2
Shutter: Electronic, 10s-1/500s
ISO: 75 & 3000
Focus: 3 feet to infinity
Batteries: Two standard 1.5V AA batteries
Cold clip included

Flamin’ ’55

Diana

ARS

A slight breeze

Toy car

Rusty shutters #4.

Polaroid Spectra System AF.

I haven’t used this camera a whole lot. Finding useable film on eBay wasn’t an issue when I first got this camera back in 2006, and I only went through a few packs using this cool shooter.

I’d like to use it again, but the time just isn’t right. Polaroid Originals stopped producing film for this camera for a short while, apparently because of issues with the film jamming at ejection, so I’m reluctant to spend any money on what amounts to an experiment with their pricy film.

First released in 1986 and simple enough to use, a majority of the Spectra AF’s controls are located at the back of the camera. Among them, switches for autofocus off/on, flash off/on, and exposure compensation. The sonar auto focus could be tricky at times.

The viewfinder is positioned at the back of the camera on the left side and the shutter release is located top right, just above the picture counter.

The right side of the camera has an adjustable hand strap that makes it easy and secure to hold the camera and access the shutter release.

I like the images I made with this camera, and although I haven’t used it in quite a while, the Spectra AF is still in my collection.

Image size – 3.6in x 2.8in
Film size – 4in x 4.1in
ISO: 640
Shutter Speeds: 2.8 sec – 1/250 sec
Aperture: ƒ/10
Focal Length: 125mm
Dimensions: 5.3in x 3.7in x 6.8in

 

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The 5 part