The scientific method involves making observations and conducting experiments. Having always wanted to be a scientist, I decided to test the hypothesis that having more gear makes you better at something. I started with guitars. After acquiring more than 30 of them, I came to the conclusion that regardless of how many I had or how high in quality they were, having more guitars did not improve my playing at all. In fact, I’ve gotten worse, but that may be partly due to a lack of practice and arthritis in the hands.
So I decided to do more testing with cameras. I chose Fuji cameras to do the testing with and settled on 3 cameras, X100, X100T and X-T1, to use for the test. My initial conclusion was that there appeared to be no direct relationship between the number of cameras I had and my ability to take good pictures with them. However, wanting to be a good scientist and be thorough in my testing, I went out and bought 4 more bodies: X-M1, X-A2, X-Pro1 and X-E1. Now that I have a body for each lens that I own, I am able to conclude that having more cameras is in no way proportional to my ability to take pictures with them. In fact, the opposite might be true because I have added an additional complication in that going out to shoot now involves an additional step of choosing which camera to take with me, occasionally resulting in a decision to just say “Screw it!” and go out with no camera at all.
You might ask what have I learned from all this? Good question. And the answer is, not a damn thing! Now here I sit with 20 something guitars, 7 Fuji cameras, and no money. I suppose it could be argued that I would have been better off using the money I spent on guitars and cameras on something more tangible. And in retrospect, that appears to be a good argument. However, hindsight is always easier than foresight, and now that I’ve blown all my money on stuff that I can’t even use, the only choice I’m left with is to try to do something with the stuff I have. Now there’s a novel idea!
But you know what they say about best-laid plans, and there are complications in the wind that may very well throw the proverbial monkey wrench into my nice little collection of cameras. As I’m writing this, rumor (all but verified) has it that Fuji will be announcing some new cameras in the near future. A new smaller body version of the X100 series, called the X70, looks very interesting. A virtual pocket camera version of the X100 with a somewhat wider lens. And for a lower price than the X100’s. Very tempting. And of particular interest is the rumored X-Pro2, a new high-spec version of the now classic X-Pro1 with a new X-Trans III sensor sporting 24 mega pickles, albeit with a correspondingly high price. And later in the year, a new X-T2 which will almost certainly have the new multi-mega-pickle sensor. What’s a poor scientist to do?
