Honeymoon Period Syndrome

‘Honeymoon Period Syndrome’, henceforth known as HPS is I suspect a sister to the well-known ‘Gear Acquisition Syndrome’ which I know some of us suffer from.

We are all well aware of all the wise statements about it not being the camera but the photographer I am sure, but there is just something very inspiring about a new piece of kit. That said there have been cameras that I simply have not got on with, the EOS 7D springs to mind as a camera I didn’t like particularly, well, not the camera as such but more the photographs I took, so perhaps it was me, whatever…

I loved my old EOS 1D2n, with it’s mighty 8.2 MP, it enabled me to take some of my all time favorite action shots. But it is a difficult thing to quantify. Perhaps because there are so many reasons to love or hate a piece of kit.  I amplified the honeymoon period with the X100 by taking it to France and leaving the DSLR in India, forcing me to use it all the time, and I fell in love with it. In fact, if I could only have one camera it would be the X100.

Then the DP2M arrived on the scene. At first our relationship was tentative, I was in love with the X100 and the DP2M is hardly a loveable creature, all austere and boxy. But then I saw the output and frankly, now it’s honeymoon time again!

Like many other users have commented, it’s when you get home and in front of the computer that the real excitement starts and opening up the freshly converted TIFFs in LR4 almost always makes me smile and sometimes even gasp…

Not that using the camera in the field is exactly horrid, in fact there are a number of things that I enjoy about using it:

-       It has a very nice and simple, easy to navigate UI

-       It is almost comically understated and to the casual observer looks like a $50 Chinese knock off made for people who cannot afford a ‘proper’ camera

o   It does not look intimidating

o   It looks hilarious mounted on my RRS BH 55 ballhead

-       The AF is reasonably quick and very accurate

-       It is solidly built and nicely metallic feeling

So I’m in the honeymoon period with the DP2M, I wonder how long it will last? There is one particular threat looming on the horizon, however, and that’s the thought of mounting my canon 400 f5.6L on an Olympus OMD. I really must put that thought out of my mind; it’s the photographer not the camera dammit