Year end musings 2020 edition

A whole year without a post. Life remains a time suck, and working remotely hasn't helped. I've regained two hours a day by not having to commute, but I'm spending more time working, and spending more time being active outdoors. The latter is great, the former not so. 

On to photography. I added just one lens this year, the Tamron 35mm f/1.4. I haven't managed to get the hang of the lens yet as my shooting opportunities have been very limited since I got the lens. So far the IQ has been very good: sharp wide open, with good contrast and smooth bokeh. Vignetting is more than I'm used to though, even with the ACR profile applied. Don't think about using this lens for astrophotography because of that. It's a solidly built lens, and is probably too big and heavy for the Z7. I'm unsure that it's going to be a walkabout lens that I thought it would be. 

I sold the Sigma 12-24 f/4.5~5.6 HSM, for a net of zero lenses. This is a lens that didn't get that much use. It definitely suffered from messy corners, surprisingly even on the D5200. The Nikon 14-30mm is light years ahead of it, even if it doesn't go as wide. One lens that won't bring back fond memories. 

I managed to get Gallery 3 Revival working, but unfortunately I haven't figured out how to import my old galleries. I don't think I want to re-create them from scratch as that is a tedious process. Plus since Gallery 2 won't run under PHP 7, I'm not even sure what photos I had posted.

What's in store for 2021? I'm not sure at this stage. There is a Zeiss 50mm f/1.5 that's caught my eye, but I really, really don't need yet another normal lens. The Z7 should still be good for another two years or so, which means no Z7 II for me. Maybe a Z9, if the AF is as good as a D6 out of the box. Price will most likely put a stop to that upgrade though. And some of the lenses I purchased last year didn't get much use this year, so 2021 will be busy with getting to know them.

 Here's to a quick end to 2020, and the desperate wish that 2021 won't be worse.

Updates:

1. Thanks to the very helpful gurus of the Gallery 3 group, looks like I have to get my host service to downgrade my PHP in order to run the older gallery version and then upgrade. Something to try next year.

2. I've put four lenses on Craigslist, and so far I've only sold one.

3. I bought a Nikon 50mm f/1.8 S. Quite a hefty lens, and given that I had a hard time finding sample images from my 50mm f/1.8G, I doubt it'll get much use. But I just had to see what all the fuss is about hehe.

4. I also picked up a Lenovo P32-u10 monitor. Having a 32" and a 24" is getting to be a bit of a pain when I move windows around. I'll need more desk space though.