Adventures of an Idiot - occasional ramblings of a photography freak

This here is my photography-kit shopping list, with priorities being pretty much as listed (though there’s no guarantee I’ll stick rigidly to that order!).

Actually, that’s not strictly true. That its a shopping list. I’ve been saving for ages now and still seem little closer to even getting the very first item, on which basis it’ll probably take me about twenty thousand years before I’ve got the whole lot. If I ever do, that is. And that’s assuming I add nothing else to it!
So perhaps it’d be more accurate to describe it as a wish list. A secret fantasy if you will. Sad really, cos its not even very ambitious. And what sort of person is it that has fantasies about camera kit anyway? Oh, what depths to which I have sunk!

Anyway, here goes…

1. A better walkabout lens to replace the kit one for the GX10… at the moment I’ve got my sights set on a Sigma

2. A proper macro lens (for the rest, ditto above)

2. A bigger shoulder bag (the backpack I’ve got isn’t always the best or most appropriate thing to use, and my existing shoulder bag is just a tad too small for two cameras with lenses attached). I have in mind something in the Lowepro Stealth Reporter range

3. A RAW-capable point & shoot… the Canon G9’s still the front-runner for this, though apparently there are rumours that Nikon are about to introduce one as well (the P6000 I think), so my mind could be changed fairly easily (as it very frequently is!)

4. A decent flash for at least the GX10, and possibly one for the 400D

5. A decent and easily portable tripod to slot in between the monster Slik and the real cheapie lightweights I’ve got… something from the Manfrotto range looks fave

And then, in about a million years’ time…

6. A Nikon D300 or similar

(But we won’t even talk about the latter cos I dread to think what actually getting one would entail… loads more highly expensive glass for a start… that wouldn’t fit anything else I’ve got! Er… so what’s new?)

The list being perodically interrupted of course by all the other odd little bits and pieces (memory cards, batteries, filters, spare lens caps, pouches etc etc) that one seems to accumulate without really knowing how, or even why occasionally… somehow they just manage to slip themselves into the shopping from time to time.

Now nowhere in that list is there any mention of upgrading the dSLR camera bodies I’ve already got.

Well, is there?

Nope! I thought not. So how come I mysteriously, suddenly, and quite unexpectedly seem to have acquired an example of the latest Samsung GX20?

As some of you (well, one of you at least) will already know, I’ve been having a bit of a love affair with the Samsung GX10 (basically a re-branded and slightly customised version of the Pentax K10D).
Ok, its got its little foibles. The supplied kit lens leaves something to be desired (though, strictly speaking, this isn’t part of the camera per se); the OIS (Optical Image Stabilisation) switch is cleverly in exactly the wrong place, making it peculiarly vulnerable to being inadvertently knocked into the “off” position; the fact that no matter how much you tweak the white balance the pics always seem to determinedly end up with a bit of a blueish cast; the function button and circular controller on the rear of the body seem perversely over-sensitive, so that the slightest tap (as when, for example, slung around the neck the rear of the camera bounces against a jacket button, zip or whatever) can irritatingly reset the white balance or ISO etc for you. Not too serious… providing one notices. Which all too often I don’t! And hence end up with loads of crap pics! (That’s my excuse, anyway.)

But hey, nothing’s perfect. And even allowing those little quirks I still rate the camera… they could even be considered as a feature, giving it a character uniquely of its own! Regardless, I still think its far superior to my Canon, and there’s something about the way it processes pics that I just adore.
And its chunky. You feel like you’re holding something substantial; something that’ll stand up to a bit of rough and tumble. Not a cheap bit of plastic that’ll likely stop working at the first slightest bump.
I’d happily trade the Canon in for a Nikon. But the Samsung? Hmm… probably not. You get the idea.

I’ve had the GX10 getting on for nine months now (or thereabouts). Got it in fact not too long after it was first introduced into the UK market. And I’m still happy with it. In fact, the more I use it the happier I become with it, and the more features I discover how to use (of which there are a plethora… many of them I still haven’t yet played with). Its one of those bits of kit that actually seems to work with you rather than just presenting one frustration after another. It almost actively encourages you to want to try taking better pics, and to experiment… to play, and have fun.

But we live in a consumerist-driven society, and camera manufacturers appear just as committed as any other industry to capitalising on this.
Long gone are the days when you could buy a piece of hardware and confidently expect it still to be in service in 15 or 20 years’ time. Still functioning; still maintainable in terms of parts replacements; and, more to the point, not having been replaced by an “updated” model or version!
This is the blight by which virtually all industries nowadays seem afflicted.
A new model range, distinguished by little other than a different and often confusing “model number”; or a new colour range or other purely cosmetic change; the inclusion of one or two new “features” that are so often little more than unnecessary gimmicks, all too frequently masquerading as “new” or “the latest” technology. And so it goes on. Which of course necessarily entails the inevitable price-hike.

With little intention other than to put yet another dividend into the pockets of the manufacturers’ shareholders at the expense of us, the poor (and daily getting poorer) weak-willed victims of the marketing Machiavellis.
Which is to say nothing of the impact on the environment of churning out all this extra, and largely superfluous, “stuff”. All in the name of the great god “Profit”… which ain’t much use to a species that could well be on the verge of extinction!

So Samsung, just a couple of years or so after announcing the GX10, have introduced a “new”, “upgraded” model… their now current dSLR flagship the GX20!
Far as I can tell, the differences are few and unlikely to cause that much excitement…

An increase in the ISO range from 100-1600 to 100-3200, with an option to configure it up to 6400… accompanied by the warning that selecting such may result in increased noise (what a surprise!).

An increase in megapixels from 10.2 to 14.6 - a dubious blessing at best (and a change in sensor size from 23.5 x 15.7mm to 23.4 x 15.5mm. Hmm).

A new processor, said to have been developed jointly by Samsung and Pentax which, as far as I’ve been able to learn, only affects performance in the JPEG-processing area. Though I could be wrong. But if I’m not, then presumably this is practically irrelevant to someone (such as myself) who shoots only in RAW.

And the inclusion of “Live View”. Yes. Well. The less I say about that the better probably. Um… with an LCD increased from 2.5″ to 2.7″.

Finally, the body-weight’s increased from 793 to 806gm (including memory card and battery).

And that’s it! Oh… nearly forgot… a re-branded kit lens that looks virtually identical (apart from the name badge) to the one that came with the GX10. That one had Schneider-Kreuznach on it, the GX20’s is allegedly Samsung’s own. It’ll be interesting to discover whether the difference is purely in the naming, or if they’ve managed to sort out the vignetting problem as well.
But, at the end of the day, its still just a kit lens so one can’t complain too much.

Hmm… there’s another “Oh, I nearly forgot” item… the manual’s now printed landscape instead of portrait. Whoopee!

Not much really then to warrant replacing the GX10, and absolutely no valid reason to even consider laying hands on yet another dSLR at the moment. Particularly without the one feature that I think would have represented a real value-for-money improvement… upping the burst mode from 3 to 6fps or thereabouts.

Except, and unfortunately, in certain areas (notably and currently that of camera kit) I’m as prone to the temptations of consumerism as anyone else. Dammit!

So, as I said (seemingly ages ago), it seems I’ve mysteriously and quite suddenly acquired one of these GX20s.

I can of course justify it… sort of (actually a fabricated rationalisation for my shameful consumerist lifestyle, but there’s no need to mention that!).
It now means I’ve got a backup in the event that my camera gets lost, stolen, or (likeliest scenario) confiscated/trashed by the cops at any one of the protests or other such events I cover.

Whether the GX20 will actually assist me in taking better pics is of course another matter entirely, and remains to be seen. But if it doesn’t I suspect I shall be more than a little miffed. Yet, bizarrely, I can’t think of one real good reason why it should!

* By way of explanation: the title of this post is “Psst… whatever you do don’t tell forkboy!”. For those visitors unfamiliar with my ramblings I should perhaps explain that the “forkboy” therein refers to a particular person who otherwise would remain nameless who has no greater joy than honing his wit on my occasional (and rare) acquisitions of camera gear. Hence the appeal to please not to tell this particular person about my coming into possession of the GX20. Please! Else I shall just fall victim to a torrent of sarcy remarks. And he’s a fine one to talk… what with his huge lenses, and huge mansion to match!