Parting Is Such Sweet Sorrow
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| Old Blue |
Today I sold Old Blue, the silver 17mm µ4/3rds that left a bit of itself in Boston, to a very good friend of mine who'd picked up a new in-the-box E-P2 for the fire-sale price of $250 on eBay. I'd priced the 17mm at an equally fire-sale price to move it. Along with Old Blue I also sold one of my five(!) 4/3rds to µ4/3rds adapters, a Panasonic DMW-MA1. Before the sale I had an MMF-1, and MMF-2, and three DMW-MA1s. I think I can get by with just four...
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| The Stoic Englishman |
Hopefully nothing will go wrong with the 17mm and we'll stay very good friends. The lens works just fine, it was the cosmetic issue that bugged me a bit. In the end I felt a certain tug at the heart-strings when it came time to give Old Blue up, like I was selling one of my own as it were. But it was better to find a good home for Old Blue rather than let it sit in its box on the shelf. And Jim, one of the few Olympus users I know of in Orlando, has a meaty 4/3rds collection which consists of a Panasonic L1, a pair of E-510s, and a few lenses which includes but isn't limited to the 70-300mm. Jim's going to play with the E-P2 and adapted 4/3rds lenses and see how they behave on his body.
It's been a while since the two of us went out on photo safari together. When I went by his place to deliver the gear it was a real pleasure just to sit, talk, and look a bit on his new camera. I was able to quickly enable the gear menu item on his E-P2 (why in the hell didn't Olympus enable that by default?) so we could go in and set the upper limit on auto-ISO. As we were walking out we both promised one another to go out on another Real Soon Now. My wife likes traveling on my photo safaris as well, so the three of us may do something along those lines.
Oddly enough, now that I've sold some of my hoard, the idea of selling more of it, let alone any of it, is no longer anathema to me. With the new gear that's appeared in the past few months, and seeing others sell major gear wholesale, maybe it's time for me to part with a few things if for no other reason that to lighten the load a bit.
I know how you feel – I said goodbye to my D700 last night. I was sad to see it go.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm eager to receive the camera that I have on order. It's a serious professional model that's smart, fast, and second only to medium format for image quality – and even then, with advanced image processing, it doesn't lag by much.
Yes, I'm buying a Nikon F5.
Bill, thanks very much for parting with one of your family. I promise to take care of Old Blue and put her to good use. I have tried a few of my 4/3 lenses on the adapter you sold and for the most part they work better than I expected. The ZD25 pancake works pretty nicely as does the 40-150 MK2. the 35mm macro and 40-150 MK1 less so. I haven't tried my 9-18 or my 14-42mm yet, and although the 70-300mm will supposedly work I don't think it will be very well balanced.
ReplyDeleteI must say the EP2 is not as sharp as I am used to, but I can fix that in PP.
Jim
Hi Bill,
ReplyDeleteI understand your predicament, when I convinced my wife I "needed" the E-5, she agreed on the basis I part with the old stuff. Its a shame that my E-1 with HLD-2 and 40-150 Mk1 was only worth $175 as a part trade from the store :-). I guess I get the best of both worlds now!
cheers
Bryan