Hi from Belgium (which is not to be considered as a h*llhole).

[jr_gn]

Hi all,

I'm a 53yo hobbyist, photographing since I was 8yo with my fathers DDR Pentor SLR.

Started with a Sigma SA300 hence my eternal love for Sigma....
Came a Nikon F90 (the one with the color LCD, really fancy).
In the digital age, ... Canon 40D, 60D, 6D (and I still love that output!).

Then came the Fujifilm era <creepy music in the background>. I've seen everything from X-Pro1 to X-E4 and everything in between. Owned pretty much there whole range of lenses over these years. I truly started to hate Fuji, because it's a brand that stokes GAS. They never make a product that really ticks all the boxes. And while doing so the fundamentals (sensor / output) never evolves to something newer, greater, bigger,.... only our financials worsen over time. And then the neverending nagging of Fuji-users on fora about "What profile did you use?". The way too expensive X-E4 with the flimsy buttons made me sell everything at once. And I turned my back on Fuji.

Missed my 6D. And the output from it.

Stoked by the Gordon Laing video on the S1 (you know, the video's with the fireplace on the background, with Gordons easing voice explaining all the ins and outs), I was really tempted by the S1.
Only seeing the video once and not owning the camera made me remember the whole camera and button layout. Which was pretty wild.
Went with the S1, and fell in love with the output.

Sold the S1 recently, and I now combine S5II + S9. Panasonic 18-40 / 24-105 / 70-300. Sigma 24 / 35 and 90. Some old M42 around too.

What I love?
- stills
- a clean output that I can work on in post
- tinkering and finding things out
- the 18-40 (no kidding)
- West-Vleteren 12° (sorry, the Abbey is my backyard)

What I dislike?
- complicated things like 4 levels deep menus
- flashes (you might convince me though)
- Canon 1000D's with looong lenses (and their owners)
- And - as you would have guessed- I'm not too keen on LUTS, the never ending "What LUT did you use?" is already infesting the Lumix fora now...
- Adobes subscription model

I hope to have time to join a photographic club in the future and do some projects, also looking forward to have time to put my collection on a Linux based system.

But for now my photography is to be considered as fluid, like ... "As I Was Moving Ahead, Occasionally I Saw Brief Glimpses of Beauty".



PS edit: on the software side LR classic, GIMP and ON1 user (and we need S5II support in ON1...), storage on Jottacloud and Synology

 

[Nevyn72]

Welcome, Welkom, Bienvenue from the country just north of yours (and me having the same age ).

I hope you’ll find here what you’re looking for – a lively and active L-forum community.

I’ve often used LUTs in video projects, but never in photos – until recently. During a recent B&W street photography workshop I tried a B&W LUT instead of relying on a camera profile. It worked surprisingly well, and LUTs have now become part of my toolkit.
Here’s the result: Amsterdam in B&W

I also shot RAW at the same time, so I had the best of both worlds: color RAW and B&W JPEG. In the end, I hardly needed to correct anything, because I was consciously checking my settings while shooting. That makes me a better photographer: enhancing in post, rather than fixing mistakes that I could have avoided on location.

About ON1: I use it with my S5II(X) without any issues; RAW support is included. Or did you mean something else?

 

[RuleOfThirds]

Hello Southern neighbour!
Just curious, French or Flemish ?

Started with Nikon slr (cheap F50), and then my first real foray into digital imaging was with an Olympus E10, which got replaced with a D70s and later the D7000. Then due to a hand accident (two severely broken fingers) I had to drastically reduce weight of a camera system, so got into Lumix m43 (G6 and G80) for 7 years. Then as my hand got better and better again switched to Fuji with X-S10 and later X-T4 (tried almost all native lenses, the most beloved for me were the XF18/1.4, XF90/2, but also the 14/2.8 and 23/2 and.... 50-230). Then got into Lumix again. Have my line-up almost as I want it to be.

 

[Vale46]

Welcome,

I have many relatives in Belgium (Liege) speaking french and italian.

Have fun with your equipment.

 

[nsbrookes]

Hi and welcome,

Not Belgian but a Belgian (Flemish!) resident. Far from being a h***hole, Belgium is an incredible place!

 

[pdk42]

Hello and welcome. I liked your take down of Fuji! Personally, I’ve always hated XTrans, and no matter how cute the bodies are, nothing makes up for that terrible sensor!

 

[Travis Butler]

Greetings! Always glad to see a new face.

I'm curious, since you like Sigma, did you consider a Sigma fp when you were looking at the Lumix S9?