Meet Camera Houses’s new friend. An early Christmas and birthday gift all rolled into one from Our John and his mother, The Matriarch. This is a Fujifilm X30. And marvellous. And no it is not my birthday or Christmas. It is second hand. (The latest model does not have a viewfinder and I like a viewfinder). It took some research to find. (All my cameras have been pre-loved and gifts – just like my cars when I think about it – I am proud to say I have never bought a new vehicleor a new camera – though I definitely take more care over choosing a camera than a vehicle).
This is not a point and shoot. It is a brainy camera. My next purchase will be a manual.
I don’t usually show gifts but as this one will be sending images to you I thought introductions were in order.
It seemed mean to make camera House take photographs of his rival so I took one with my phone of them together. 
My first favourite camera was a Leica of my Dads – in fact I still have it. And the body of the Fujifilm X30 is very similar. (No-one can afford a digital Leica). But this little camera is a star in its own right.
This is going to be fun. There is so much to learn about this new camera. So much it can do.
The new camera arrived after dark so the test pictures are hand held – in low light.
The joys of Double glazing. 
As well as colour you can actually shoot in a number of black and white settings; in a theme to use the modern vernacular. Any of these choices are applied before you capture your images. Old fashioned. So I think if I do this well a lot of my post-production work can be skipped. Also, I can go back to totally manual and make all the decisions myself in the usual way.
This is a very exciting camera!
And yes this dog is on a diet.
Although the X30 (MrX) will be used to take photographs on the farm when I am feeling ‘arty’ the Nikon D90 (Camera House) will remain the hardworking camera-pack-horse of the farm. Being smaller MrX the X30 will travel with me much more conveniently. And being large I can always find Camera House when I leave him on a fence post.
I will show you some shots tomorrow. I am looking forward to taking photos today. Plus my diary is clear today so I get to work on the farm uninterrupted all day. A small joy all in itself.
I hope you have a lovely day.
celi
WEATHER: As I write it is 19f/-7c and blowing 13mph/20kph a NW. A bit chilly and more normal for this time of year.
Thursday 12/07 0% / 0 in Mostly cloudy early, then afternoon sunshine. High near 30F/-1C. Winds WNW at 10 to 20 mph.
The Kitchen's Garden 
48 responses to “THE NEW KID”
Leicas were great in their day – the 40s and 50s, but Japanese light engineering peaked in the 70s and 80s, producing far superior multi coated glass lenses. Today lenses are mostly made of plastic and are nowhere near as good as those made by Nikon 40 years ago. Ironically, the post WW2 Japanese camera industry was based on making cheap knock offs of Leicas – if you look at pictures of Nikons and Canons from the 1950s, you will see they are almost identical!
I love my old Leica – it has a russian lens too!
Ha ha – they were never good 😉
WOW! Just WOW!
I know!
You already take wonderful photos. How are you going to top what is already excellent??
I have lots of room for improvement – makes things fun!
Love the new camera. I’m sure you’ll have lots of fun with it. I’ve got Smoky on a diet too, the spouse decided to let the old boy have too many treats and tastes of this and that (sandwiches, dinner, etc.) and he’s gotten pudgy.
I never thought I would have a pudgy dog either!
First time for me. Smoky hasn’t noticed he’s on a diet, just as well. Part of the problem was losing the place he could run around, fetch his stick and dig (he loves to dig). We don’t have an adequate place for him to do those things where we are now, he’s also 14 and getting a bit wonky on his hind legs.
Oh congrats, C! YESSSS! A LEICA, I knew the look of that camera reminded me of something else!; )
Umm, so is Camera House called “Camera House” because he IS “as big as a house”?
Good morning, c. I’ve been taking all of my photos lately in B&W format. Peder always comments that he prefers colour. More and more, I prefer black & white. For definition. For clarity of the subject. For mood. I’m just a black & white sort of girl, I think.
My husband’s uncles, being single men, spend crazy amounts of money on cameras. We have a Nikon D2X which when new was €5,500 (no special lenses!) in 2004. Now is worth €350 at average, despite being in immaculate condition. An iPhone has the same 12mp resolution. Crazy.
“Pre-loved” — I love it! Such a positive approach. So often I learn good things here. Gratefully,