So you want to buy a new camera?

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I have a serious case of the cravings for an X-T5, but for me it’s the dials (and maybe the tilty screen). I have an X-S10 and although it’s a great camera, I wanted the Fuji retro dials but was unable - or unwilling - to afford the X-T4 at the time. Now that I am deeply in the Fuji ecosystem, I’m ready to commit to a the camera I should have bought. I know I could get the X-T4, but I’m not a huge fan of the fully articulating screen; or I could get the X-T3, but they go for almost the same price as the X-T5 here in Canada, and I might as well get IBIS and better AF for the same price…

The only thing I’m wondering now is whether the 40MP sensor raws will slow down darktable too much.

Other than house maintenance, holidays, kids, bills, food… photography is the only thing I really want to spend my money on. It’s my hobby and passion, simple as that. I cut my own hair now (what’s left of it) and am wearing the same clothes as I did 10 years ago (they have been washed though). My wife says that I was cool once but that I’ve given up trying to look good, and she might be right :slight_smile:

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I process files from a D850/Z7 ii on an almost 10 year old Haswell i5. Having a gpu makes a load of difference. I have a gtx 1050 4gb which is not very powerful but makes all the difference. Its very usable.

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I have a 6700XT which is a modern GPU, but I’ve been having stability problems since 4.2.0. There’s an issue on Github for it, but we’ve not yet got to the bottom of it yet. But it looks to be an openCL problem, which means I sometimes have to have openCL off, and then darktable becomes painfully slow. Hopefully it won’t be an issue forever of course.

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Yes I was having random lock up issues a month or so ago and it was a bad driver from nvidia. Pay attention to your driver version and roll back if possible.

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Thanks, yes that’s an option I suppose. Part of the troubleshooting involved updating to the latest drivers, and perhaps I’m getting fewer crashes now, but I do still get them occasionally, maybe once every couple of days, but that’s an improvement over the multiple times a day from a few weeks back.

No idea which driver version to roll back to, I’d probably have to go quite far back. Seems to be the crop and rotate/perspective modules that are particularly problematic.

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You can also make sure to clear the openCL kernel cache for dt. It should rebuild them on the fly, but just to be safe.

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I think @priort mentioned that too. Does that involve renaming/deleting the folders shown here:

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Yes.

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We are off topic. You can safely delete those 3.

I lost track of your issue in GitHub. Without a log of the issue happening, it is hard to pin point to the source. I think there are some improvements to OpenCL on current master since 4.2.1. Maybe give master a try.

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I posted a new log yesterday to the issue after a crash happened, but not sure if it was any use. I’ll try the dev Windows version posted by @wpferguson and see if it seems more stable.

Yes, we are off topic, sorry everyone, but thanks to all those giving helpful advice.

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To bring it back to the topic then :), as a 'share my way of thinking '. Feel free to poke holes in it :).

I once jumped into the Olympus eco system as a cheap small second camera. I had an opportunity to go for a cheap em-10 mark 1.

I went huntjng for specs and reviews about what I would be missing compared to the mark 2. Turned out I could find little except more ibis axis and more art styles.

So, what would it being to my photography experience. Very little.

Later the em-10 mark3 came out, and again i could find little of added value to really alter my experience.

But the same for the em-5 mark1 and later the mark2.

I would have a bit of a craving for an upgrade , but i would always be looking at 'why did i get this camera and what would this upgrade do to my experience '.

Since all those cameras had basically the same contrast af, none would enhance motion shots of being movies into an interesting place. Later cameras went from 16mp to 20mp, but big whoop , what would that do for my experience?

So a few more mp, or an extra stop on the ibis, or a few more fps, or more resolution on a crappy movie recording , etc… It would all mean nothing for me.

So i kinda made a list for myself that a better evf, good phase-af and maybe handheld high-res and/or subject detection modes would me a worthwhile upgrade. That would really alter the experience of taking photos.

Since then i have been craving the e-m1 mark3 and om-1, but the new om-5 that isn’t otherwise liked also fits the bill.

It kinda helped to get my gear-cravings under control , to not think about ‘wanting something better’, but thinking how much i would notice of it during use , because that’s the feeling that will last for way longer compared to the ‘yay new toy’ feeling that only lasts a bit.

It surprises me in that context, how little difference there is between the Olympus generations , but also between the entry level (em-10) and the midsegment (em-5). I guess people will find other reasons to upgrade , but i was surprised how little there was in here.

Compared to the steps that Sony and Fuji have made in that time , for example (to be honest , Sony APS-C line up has seen very little movement as well ).

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That’s a refreshingly adult way of deciding about gear upgrades!

In my own journey, I have not been able to be so stringent. A Nikon D3000 was replaced by a D7000 when it broke. And a good change that was, for working white balance and just about everything else. Later a supposed sidekick Fuji X-E1 introduced me to mirrorless, quickly replaced by an X-E2, then X-E3, for much faster focusing, less EVF lag. These were meaningful upgrades. Then an X-T2 with weather sealing, followed by an X-T3 with USB-C charging. Less meaningful, also less expensive. Meanwhile, a plethora of compact cameras resolved to a marvelous Ricoh GR, then GR III, for the stabilization and USB-C charging.

If I notice a pattern there, it is that beyond 2015-ish, externalities like USB-C charging and weather sealing tend to rank higher for me than classical specs such as resolution and autofocus speed.

What would it take to replace the X-T3? Sensor stabilization would be nice, I guess, but I don’t actually need it with bright primes or stabilized zooms. I will upgrade eventually, no doubt, when the price is right. Just like when the sale/buy difference between the X-T2 and X-T3 fell below €200. But that’s far in the future.

What would it take to upgrade the GR III? Honestly, I am extremely taken with that little thing, and especially its thoughtful evolution and long-term support. Just last month a rather significant update added a new film simulation, and last year they added an improved focus mode — for a four-year-old camera. Whatever they will eventually announce, I am likely to buy it on trust alone because of that. Although I actually can’t think of many things that would improve it.

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[quote=“bastibe, post:72, topic:35492”]
That’s a refreshingly adult way of deciding about gear upgrades![/quote]

“Externally” I’ve not upgraded much at all but “internally” I’ve desired to (still do), so I can’t claim any purity of motive. :grin: One of the big things that keeps me from upgrading is that I can’t personally justify spending money on photography until / unless my images (subject matter and execution) start looking MUCH better than they do now. Plus, my lowly Canon 850D is technically superior to what pros had only a few decades ago, so… Can’t say the same for my glass though!

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The way multiple people in this forum talk about the GRIII gives me some real GAS :sweat_smile: Very tempting to have a “landscape/street” camera in my pocket when I go out with a large telephoto on walks to capture wildlife. I have a X100V but it’s not the same size wise, and I still baby it a lot :grinning:

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I’m also quite smitten with the GR iii. It feels very not serious to me, and I find I shoot a lot more frames with it than I think i would with the Nikon, which is “serious gear.” Yet at the same time it has manual mode and an on screen histogram that can be tweaked to be relatively close to the raw histogram, and that’s everything that I want. The lens is nice and sharp (but needs correction in post) and the sensor is relatively high in mpix to the size of the body.

Some moderate weather sealing and this thing would be a beast. But we don’t have much weather here, so.

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The GR is a one-trick pony. It is perfect for shooting from the hip, it is perfect for shooting blind, it is perfect for setting up and firing the camera before your subject is even aware of it. It is perfect for staying in my pocket at all times. A camera thoroughly optimized for speedy one-handed operation. I have gotten countless pictures that just wouldn’t have been possible any other way. It is a marvel of continuous evolution by thoughtful engineers.

But forget about the continuous focus, even single shot is slow by today’s standards. Face detection and subject tracking are rudimentary at best. It does not shoot many frames fast. The video mode might as well not exist.

It’s a one-trick pony, and it’s one hell of a trick.

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I’d like to upgrade to an X-T… anything! I have an X-T10 — which I love, but it won’t live forever. I can’t afford an X-T30 or XT-5, and you can’t buy anything in between (not in this country, anyway); even an X-T1 would be a worthwhile upgrade for me (weather sealing, bigger buffer, better viewfinder).

The GR sounds tempting, though — I shoot street photography, and that one trick sounds very interesting indeed!

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Consider the X-H1. With the fw upgrades, it’s supposed to be about as good as the X-T3. Can be had for less than 600€ on mpb.com

Here’s a ranty video YouTube happened to recommend to me yesterday:

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I’m a GRII user and for me it’s amazing. I get very annoyed when people start suggesting GR’s should have zoom lenses, or evf’s. There’s nothing better than a one trick pony when the trick is that great!

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I recently got a heavily discounted used 50MP 5DSR from a bricks and mortar store that was clearing stuff out and Darktable doesn’t seem to struggle anymore than with my 20MP MFT and 6D files, FWIW.

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