Easy way of entering the Fuji X world

CameraPro shop in Brisbane sells Fujifilm X-E1 camera with Fujinon XF18-55mm F2.8-4 OIS lens for $579 (after $200 cashback from Fuji). It is $10 below the regular price of the lens. Not much was changed in X-E2 compared to X-E1 regarding the image quality (X-E2 review on DPReview). The autofocus in Fuji X-E1 works fine on static objects as long as you don't use 60mm macro lens. Fuji provides regular software upgrades for old models.

links for Fujinon XF10-24mm f4 OIS lens

Track to Mt Hobwee circuit / Mt Wagawn at Binna Burra, Lamington national park

Fuji X-E1 & XF18-55mm; F5.6, iso 1600, 1/30 sec

I did some math today on lenses and cameras. It turned out that two Fuji X-E1 equipped with Fujinon XF10-24mm and XF55-200mm lenses have the same weight as Olympus E-30 with ZUIKO 50-200mm SWD. ZUIKO 50-200mm was my favorite lens for a very long time. In addition to the lens and E-30 I usually carried a sturdy tripod. With Fuji I can use a small "digital" tripod.

I did the math because of my last trip to a national park. It was cloudy, and it was fairly dark in the rainforest. Most of pictures during this trip were taken at high ISO and open aperture. Very often I hit 18mm (~28mm eqv) limit on XF18-55mm lens. In this situation XF10-24mm lens will be very useful.

I have not read much about XF10-24mm because of the price. The $200 cashback offer from Fuji changes the situation.

Links to XF10-24mm reviews:
LensTip
Admiring Light (by Jordan Steele)
Bjorn Moerman (with astonishing pictures)

What GAS and flu have in common?

Gear Acquisition Syndrome, or GAS, is common among amateur photographers, camera geeks and people obsessed with fancy lenses such as zooms with constant f2.8 aperture. Flu usually happens during cold weather, GAS peaks shortly before and around Christmas time. New flu strains come from South East Asia. Source for world-wide waves of GAS is also located in South East Asia. Flu transmitted through people contacts. GAS propagates through people communications, so it spreads faster than a forest fire. Flu epidemies are caused by new virus strains, the GAS peaks are caused by rumors or announcements of new lenses or cameras. People with acute form of GAS have red watery eyes from reading too much camera news on the internet. The flu virus causes similar symptoms.