Getting High on Shopping

No travelling this summer, thanks to Covid19. Ennui has been building up and I haven't been able to motivate me to do anything productive. No blog entry past month is a proof. I have to do my tax returns too, but haven't been able to do that either.

When I was sicker, walking used to vastly improve my mood. Walking still helps, but I don't get the same highs anymore. Fortunately, I still get kick out of shopping. Not buying itself, but just doing the research and comparing prices is enough. And that's been about the only thing I've been able to do.

It must be the dopamine. Back in 2016, I shopped into wee hours during the Amazon Prime Day and was amazed that I could still function the next day. It was 2 weeks into my first false recovery, so I wouldn't know for sure if it was the effect of shopping or the false recovery itself. But I've repeated it many times since then, so I know shopping definitely can get me the high.

I've been looking into getting a new camera for a while. Panasonic GX85 has worked well for my purpose. but I've been fumbling with its range finder style and it doesn't feel like an extension of my limb; it takes effort to translate what I want to do into what do do. It's poor autofocus on dark subjects leaves something to be desired as well. Then there is 2x cropping issue when filming in 4K. MFT already has 2x cropping, the additional 2x makes 25mm lens unusable for filming.

So, the candidates are: Sony A7III, Fuji X-T3 and Panasonic G9. They are the top of the line in their respective category of full frame, APS-C and micro four third. They are 2 years old and therefore heavily discounted as well. In my usual perfectionist fashion, I have difficulty deciding. So, in my usual fashion, I resorted to spreadsheet. I threw in the smartphone in the comparison for the purpose of value reference.

	price	portability	low light	AF	IS	bokeh	video	handling + other features	total
G9	20	10	6	7	10	6	4	10	73
A7III	14	6	10	10	8	10	3	8	69
X-T3	18	7	8	9	5	8	5	9	69
smartphone	30	20	3	3	5	1	1	2	65

I had my eyes on A7III for a while for its legendary dynamic range and low light performance. But the issue with full frame cameras is the lens size/weight. And I rarely shoot in low light, so it just doesn't make sense to carry the mass for something you need only in 1% of the time. It makes more sense to optimize for the 99% and MFT is that optimization. And you can take care of the low light with faster lens or larger lens with speed booster, if necessary.

So, I'll probably lug around G9 with 14-140mm and then carry a couple of fast prime lenses in my pocket.  Try doing that with FF camera or even APS-C.

In anticipation, I already got Sigma 56mm f1.4 for $360. A bargain compared to Fuji 56mm f1.2 that goes for $1000. (Fuji will become comparable when Viltrox come out with 56mm). It's not only a bargain, but it's also just about the sharpest lens out there.  But I'm already getting tired of it after playing with it for a few days. 56mm in MFT is  equivalent to 112mm in FF and that is too long for my kind of portraiture, I found. Anything between 25mm to 135mm can be considered portrait lens but I'm more comfortable with 50mm or shorter. The Bokeh is nice though. I'll probably alternate between 56mm f1.4 and 25mm f1.7, and then compliment them with 12-32mm kit lens for portrait.

Here are some samples:

12-32mm kit lens