End of D600 &start of Fujifilm Xe-1

During my last 2 days in Gold Coast, I was by the beach shooting sunrise. With my excitement capturing the sunrise shots, I didn;t realised that my tripod was not seated properly on the soft sands of Gold coast. As the waves came, it brought down my tripod and D600. The seawater barely touches the D600 hotshoe area but the whole camera came to a stop. From then, I didn't see the camera in action. I brought it back to the Nikon Service centre in Singapore, and it is pronounced dead and not repairable. The kit lens 24-85mm has the same fate. But I am plan to use this lens manual on my Olympus Ep-1.Will use until the zoom and focus rings give me problem as there might be rusting internally. This is the last image before the tripod collapsed.

As this is my first fullframe DSLR, I kind of feeling sad and pain especially it is only 3 months with me. However, I am glad,  the loss of money is kept minimum as I will be claiming from Travel Insurance on the damage of personal item. (laptop, camera etc). However the insurance company will not be compensating the full amount. I am also glad, I bought the D600 at a used price and didn't go for the Pro zoom like 24-70mm f2.8. If not the loss will be greater. This will be a valuable lesson for me to be extra carefully while shooting near seawater.

With that in mind, I know for the time being, I will not be getting the same D600 or D610 as a replacement due to my loss of money. My coming plan of getting the Nikon 80-200mm f2.8D will be scraped for now. The money for this lens and insurance claims will be used to get a new cheaper alternative like the FujiFilm XE-1 system.

I also sold what I have from the Nikon system to generate the money for the new system. The tokina 100mm macro and the 50mmf1.8. were sold.

My choice of Fuji XE-1 is simple. The B&H online is offering the brand new body with kit lens 14-55mmf2.8-4 at US$899 from original price of about US$1139 few months ago and the good reviewed lens 55-200mmf3.5-4.8 zoom lens at US$499 (save $200).  (although the Xe-2 is out, the price of the Xe-2 with 18-55mm is equal to a Xe-1 with 18-55mm + 55-200mm. I will settle with older technology for now:-))

The Olympus OM-D EM-5 price is still quite high now thus I didn't chose it although I am more familiar with this m4/3 high end model and system. The new Sony A7 is too expensive and native lenses range is not there yet. The NEX 7/6 series, I am never keen (personally taste) The Panasonic GX-7 is tempting also but I felt the price is high as the kit lens 14-42mm is not as good as the Fuji kit lens. If GX-7 is choosen a 20mmf1.7 or the 12-35mmf2.8 or 12-40mmf2.8 should be matched. But the pro zooms from m4/3 are expensive and the constant aperture is not a must for me. Nikon or Canon Mirrorless is never in my mind as these system are not these 2 giants forte. DSLR is still their main  products.

The reviews of the Fuji 18-55mm f2.8-4 is so far been very positive.The Fuji 55-200mm lens is a in-between a high end pro telezoom like the 35-100f2.8 and the basic zooms like 40-150mmf4.5-5.6. My last Fujifilm camera was the X100. Slow autofocus and unreliable locking of focus made me gave up later. However, with Fujifilm improving the firmware for the past years even on older models, I am confident that the Xe-1 performance has improved especially with the latest firmware 2.1.

The shipment includes a extra battery, UV filters, free Ruggard bag and 16GB SD cards. It came out about $2K Singapore dollars after conversion. Currently, in Singapore, it is selling about $2900 with the same combo twin lens but they have added about $500 of free gift like the grip and leather cover. For me, to save $1000 SGD is more important now. For my macro shoots, for now, I will just be using the Raynox 250 close-up lens onto the 55-200mm zoom.

I know the XE-1 will not be able to replace my FF D600 performance and handling. I truly love the button layouts of D600.  But after the trip from Gold coast, I still fearful with the weight and size of a DSLR especially with the zoom lens.The mirrorless Pen is a preferred choice to be taken out during the 2 weeks tour.

My all black well-built XE-1.