The whole purpose of this blog is really to chart my progress or, lack of it as I wend my merry way and part of that is to demonstrate openly the changes in direction that I make. I have today yet another example of making such a switch whereby I trade in two camera bodies in plus a little cash and in return get another new to me, camera body that I have decided that I want.
Not So Long Ago…
I bought second hand a Lumix G7 and mainly as a video prop for a short film I am making as part of my experimenting with video. This was a camera that I had previously owned back in 2015/16 but strangely was one of the two most significant cameras I had ever owned in terms of doing so having set me on particular and unexpected path with regard to my photography.
In truth I didn’t see the G7 as a great stills camera and I did see myself as purely a stills photographer back then though I learned that it was obviously a highly useful video camera. Whilst intending to use my Canon M6 Mk2 as my main 4k camera when I reacquired a copy of the G7, because my intention was to shoot video, I looked afresh and with a different perspective at the G7s video capabilities when it arrived. Although still available to buy new, there are some limitations with the G7 which were addressed in subsequent iterations of the same model line.
There is a later version launched in 2019 called the G90 that seemed to fit the bill in this regard but I didn’t want to just end up with just “another camera” others would have to go to create the space because I’ve reached the age and stage where something has to go before something new can arrive. Obviously the G7 would get traded in but and perhaps with a tinge of sadness there was another camera body too…
The Canon M5
Without doubt, one of the most impressive cameras I had come across, used and owned is the Canon M5, the equivalent to my original M6 but with an inbuilt viewfinder. Although there was a rumour that an M5 Mk2 to technically match my M6 Mk2 was in the pipeline, Covid and supply chain issues of various kinds made sure, if it ever existed in the first place, that it never saw the light of day which is a shame.
My M6 Mk2 is technically a great little camera and I suspect that the recently launched Canon R7 is largely an upgraded version with an RF mount and a Digic X processor. If the M5 could match my M6 technically for video work then I would keep it, instead it (M5),will also get traded in which will have several effects. I will get the G90 for very little additional cash outlay plus, I will have reduced the numbers of cameras I have in regular use and will have acquired a highly useful and upgraded 4k video capable camera with IBIS – in body image stabilisation.
Another Subconscious Decision
Last year I picked up a Canon 1D MkIII for some research I was doing on Canon camera controls, this also was for part of a video script/sequence and my intention was to ‘move it on’ and get my money back when I had finished with it. Instead and it being the first if rather an older version of the 1D I had ever handled, I fell in love with using it which was totally unexpected. I did indeed move it on fairly quickly but only as part of a trade in to get a 1D Mk IV !
And as above, when I got the Lumix G7, it was for a particular short term purpose so much so, that I didn’t bother with native lenses and instead used adapted Canon FD glass because I had both those lenses and the mount adapters in my “bits boxes” from when I originally owned the G7 some years ago. The oddity and the basic decision I sort of made when one by one as ‘deals’ presented themselves, I ended up with 3 native Lumix lenses for it so closing it off by upgrading the body is the obvious end move.
