#969. 25 Biogon, or 35 Distagon? Oh. How about the X100V?

Is this a review? Nope.

Statement of the obvious? Nope.

I’m deep in a personal preference fight with myself. I have to stop and take stock; Zeiss’ 25mm Biogon, or the 35 Distagon. Which is more likely to be my lens of choice as I wander the streets?

Most people would forgive me choosing my most recent purchase; the Distagon. It’s quite big compared to Nikon, or Leica’s 35s, but packs a great rendering punch. On an APS-C body, it’s a delight to use; fast to (manually) focus, accurate and best of all, lives up to my expectations with regard to its film-like rendering characteristics.

Of course, it has a 50mm equivalence which can limit its use on the streets, especially when I want just a little more in my viewfinder.

You’ve doubtless read elsewhere on these pages how I came to buy the 25mm Biogon and use it for several years as a go-to solution to shooting with a Sony NEX-7. Today, the -7 sits in a cupboard, its rubber cladding long ago peeled off, refusing my many efforts to re-adhere it. Not so the exquisite 25mm Biogon – enter Fuji’s X-Pro. 

The X-Pros are an ideal mate for the Biogon and its natural 35mm field of view. I’ve shot with both the -1 and -2 and if I’ve time out there, the -1 is definitely my favourite.

So, which lens? The Biogon. It’s got an ideal angle of view and even with its f2.8 aperture, can be zone focussed for optimum performance on the street. It’s sharp, can render the most fantastic detail and has delivered some really pleasing images over the years.

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OT

I’ve been a Linn audio system user for more than two decades, but often found that the requirements of time and space for dedicated listening were more than I could manage. More recently I dug out my three decade old Naim 42/110 pre/power amp kit, had it serviced and ran it into a pair of very satisfying small Tannoy bookshelf speakers in my office. For years, that sufficed very nicely.

I did want a bit more spacial listening though, so a couple of years ago. The Tannoys gave way to a pair of Klipsch’ large bookshelf speakers and what a positive change those bigger cabinets, drivers and ribbon tweeters made. Audio happiness.

Being semi-based in a small(ish) flat London for a while now, I’ve been hankering for a similarly sized, listenable sound system. On arriving, I heard and bought a Naim Cube, which sounds great, but didn’t give me the auditory happiness I sought. It now resides in our small lounge and sounds surprisingly good, but is still bounded by both space and the wishes/needs of my family/housemates.

I’d bought the Naim rather than a Devialet, or an Apple HomeKit. I didn’t opt for the former because it is laughably expensive and at the time, hard to audition. More recently, I was wandering the hi-fi department in Harrods one afternoon and found one to listen to. Great sound, but the twin bass units wobbling out of the sides of the all plastic cabinet put me in mind of an insane jelly – hardly a reassuring image for even semi-serious listening.

I eschewed the HomeKit because it is inevitable that Apple will either update of discontinue the system soon and I’ll want to go and burn boss-man Tim Cooke’s home down for outdating my brand new speaker(s).

So, while in South Africa recently, contentedly listening to the aforementioned Naim/Klipsch set-up, I discovered any number of rave reviews of KEF’s tiny LSX. Despite their extraordinary cost, they sound incredibly good for 4” drive units, barely a metre apart. Great stereo image and precision. I broke a lifetime rule and bought them unheard. I’m glad I did.

Buy them that is.

As I’m writing, Blossom Dearie is sitting on my lap, breathing the lyric to “Bye bye country boy” into my ears, accompanied by a pianist hiding just behind my 27” monitor. The drummer and bass player are there too, their perceptual location tightly defined by these tiny KEF masterpieces.

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It’s been a period of re-thinking for me being here, back in the first world. Living in South Africa I long felt that we lagged the real world a bit, with our technologies and attitudes maybe a year or so behind Europe and elsewhere.

Well, that’s not true. Not even nearly.

When we have power – not very often, it seems – we still watch the shockingly poor and expensive DStv satellite TV system, sighing about its shortcomings and only having the state broadcaster, SABC (don’t ask) or a contractlually hamstrung Netflix as alternatives.

Ditto so much else, our access to high bandwidth Internet is severely limited by the availability of radio spectrum and thus streaming of any kind is limited by the wet string South Africa is forced to use. Why? Because the government is still arguing about who makes the baksheesh from the set top boxes the terrestrial/digital changeover will require. Once that’s in place, all the terrestrial bandwidth will become available.

We’re only four years behind our own self imposed deadline…

So, streaming services like Spotify are for the wealthy few who can pay usurious rates for bandwidth. In London, our 70mb/sec broadband is free from such limitations and Sky, Netflix and Amazon Prime work a treat.

So does Spotify.

It took me months of frustration to get anything worthwhile from Spotify, but now it’s begun to understand my quirky musical listening tastes and to quote the local vernacular, I’m well pleased.

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Hey! This is a photography blog!

Yeah, I know, but it is nice to go OT once in a while.

This week, Fuji announced the X-100V, the fifth go-round in the X-100 range, bringing a new sensor, some body mods, new controls and most importantly for me, a new 23mm f2 lens.

I keep my X100F on my desk, well within reaching distance and it’s almost always in my bag when I set off for anywhere. There’s not much it can’t do and its few weaknesses have never worried me. So, when Fuji announced the V this week, I’ll admit to feeling distinctly ho-hum about upgrading.

Then I read a couple of early hands-on reviews and suddenly, I could feel a GAS attack starting. My usual first response is to go and look at what I’ve already got – in this case, a Lightroom Collection that groups all my X100F images together.

Good pictures, bad pictures, all beautifully rendered, many temporarily forgotten. Even more I mentally associate with other cameras; realising just how good the X100F has been (and still is) taking me quite by surprise.

It’s a very chilly 3C outside this morning, but the need to grab the F, go out and shoot is almost inescapable.