We have officially hit week 31 of curve flattening, infection prevention, disease curing, bizarro world. With the weather growing colder here in Pennsylvania there has been an uptick in positive coronavirus “cases”, meaning positive PCR tests. There has been a small increase in hospitalizations, but the death curve is so far flat.

Remember that the New York Times reported that by the current method of PCR testing, up to 90% of people who are PCR positive may be noninfectious. My fear about the rising case numbers is that our governor and health secretary will use the occasion to increase the restrictions upon us. Remember the severe “red phase” lockdowns in spring. All that misery and lots of people still got sick.

Of course, the big news in the last week was the fact that President Trump and a significant number of White House staff have tested positive for coronavirus. Although there have been allegations, that the president was cavalier about masking, the bottom line was that he has been tested frequently if not every day, along with apparently anyone who was in contact with him in the White House. This clearly was an extraordinary effort to protect him from the virus. Yet it failed. It did so for one reason: this virus is ubiquitous in the environment.

He was admitted to Walter Reed Hospital, not so much because he met the criteria for admission, but because he is the president. Though apparently never requiring oxygen, or getting particularly sick, he was treated with a very aggressive regimen of medications including the antibody preparation from Regeneron which is clearly experimental. After a 2 day admission, he was discharged.

Apparently, he is testing negative for coronavirus now and has been deemed “noncontagious”. The other “infected” staffers, including the first lady, have all done well. As I understand it, no one else was hospitalized.

The Pennsylvania new “case“ numbers are impressive. On October 7 there were roughly 1400 cases reported, roughly the same number, as were reported on April 23 for instance. The difference is that on October 7 there were roughly 700 patients admitted to the hospital with COVID, versus 2700 in April. Whether these patients are actually sick from the virus, or merely PCR positive is anyone’s guess.

It’s also was noting there was far less testing being done in the spring. Clearly, either the tests are oversensitive, or the virus has changed. Maybe it’s a little bit of both.

The search for a vaccine apparently is continuing at a rapid pace. Apparently, the Johnson & Johnson candidate may have provoked some unusual symptoms in one of its test subjects and for now hold has been placed on their efforts.

So now we have increasing cases and so far, God willing, little morbidity. Given the availability of more sophisticated care for those to become ill, I continue to believe that continued numbers of asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic COVID infections is actually good news about our journey to a helpful degree of herd immunity.

Remdesivir is also in the news. On October 8 a study comparing the drug to placebo in ICU patient’s revealed that the median time to recovery, defined by the study as either discharged from the hospital or to a custodial situation was 10 days in the treatment arm and 15 days in the placebo arm. This is a fairly significant result suggesting the drug is a useful part of our growing options for the treatment of COVID 19.

I continue to believe that given the persistence of the virus, it’s declining virulence, the improvements in treatment, that we should relax the regulations killing specific industries and small businesses. We need to react, not to PCR tests, but to actual illness, hospitalizations, and death from COVID, not PCR positives with other acute medical problems.

Finally this week, the World Health Organization seems to change its mind on the advisability of lockdowns. In an interview, Dr. David Nabarro, the WHO’s Special Envoy on Covid-19, warned against using lockdowns as the primary control method for the coronavirus, for fears that global poverty and malnutrition may ultimately result. He expressed concern that for instance, the suppression of the tourist industry has impacted many destination countries severely.

In other words… after eight months of masks and misery, people continue to be exposed to this virus. Time for plan “B”.

Hopefully, Governor Wolf is listening.

As always, I’d be delighted if you’d share this with your friends.

Header image: Maple in the Glen (Fujifilm X100V, TCL X100 II)

If it’s gonna be a rainy day
There’s nothing we can do to make it change
We can pray for sunny weather
But that won’t stop the rain.

   – Jim Morrison

 

I live in an old resort community, on the edge of the Pocono plateau in Pennsylvania. This is an old settlement, founded in the 1880’s on either side of a what was then the main road between towns. In the center of the community, there is a creek that runs below a 70-80-year-old masonry culvert.

Over the years, the road, still owned by the township, services only a few properties beyond our community. It is no longer a main thoroughfare.

The creek at this point is perhaps 200 yards from its inception in an artesian spring, one of many that bubble up in the surrounding woodlands. Being so close to the source, there is little watershed to feed the creek. Typically, by late July, the creek bed under the road is dry. In the 30 years I have lived there, this has always been the case.

In the last 3 years the culvert has been deteriorating to a point where it needed replacement. it’s an expensive proposition, and the Township has been struggling to find the money.

A state grant was obtained, and the job bid out. This spring we were told, that the “culvert” would finally be replaced in the late summer when the creek ran dry.

Unfortunately, however  the summer of 2018, about the wettest summer in my memory. As of early October, the stream is running as vigorously as though it was late March.

As it turns out my memory is fairly good.  According to NOAA, this is been a record here for rainfall in my region.

Now I want to recognize devastating effects caused by hurricanes, that have already occurred and will apparently occur again in the southern US.  The fact is however, we’ve had more rainfall as compared to normal than anywhere in the U.S.

The wet summer has had a variety of consequences. Fall foliage is clearly delayed by at least a week or maybe two, and many trees apparently affected by the super-saturated soils have already lost their leaves prior to any change in color. I understand that this is particularly true of apple trees. Sometime in the summer, both of my apple trees dropped their foliage, and then feebly tried to push out a second crop of sparse greenery.

It is a great year for mycology. In both the forests, and the lawns, I have never seen a greater variety of mushrooms springing up in places they are not generally seen.

It has been a constant battle to fix the washouts of the gravel driveway that leads to up to my barn. My house painter, who works on part of my house every year, is so delayed that I doubt he will get to me.

As I alluded to in an early article, on any warm day biting insects remain a significant problem even at this late date due to the persistence of vernal pools.

 

As I write this (October 9) we have just enjoyed a 3 day weekend of fog, mist and intermittent downpours.  It was so humid, in the outdoors, that my X100F autofocus started to act strangely, only to return to normal in my dry studio.

At our location and altitude, normal peak foliage time is around 15 October, yet at this point, with less than a week to go , most of the foliage is still green. It will be interesting to see the effect of all of this rain on the quality of the colors when they finally occur. 

I’m afraid I am not optimistic.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It has been an unusual summer for the Pocono region of Pennsylvania, if not for most of the mid-Atlantic region.  Brief periods of muggy partially sunny weather have offered inadequate solace for the long periods of days of gloomy skies with intermittent downpours that flooded our basements as well as our creeks and rivers.  Unusual for August, the Susquehanna River came near the top of its banks, and flooded many low-lying areas.

Despite this, summer goes on.

I am of an age, where the children of my contemporaries are now getting married.  I had 2 such ceremonies this year where I could be the guest, and not the photographer.

 Weather-wise the first wedding came off without a hitch, occurring during a rare appearance of pleasant sunny weather. The second wedding, which was held in a gorgeous lakeside lodge in Bucks County, was thoroughly rained out.  It was kind of sad to look out at the teeming rain, and see the archway, and the white chairs still forlornly waiting to be occupied.  Nonetheless it was a lovely ceremony, even held indoors.

The weather this year has certainly affected my photographic output.  Often the rainy periods occurred over weekends when I have time to shoot. Even when it wasn’t raining, the warm muggy air seemed to egg on the biting flies and particularly the mosquitoes.  The latter are breeding profusely given the persistence of vernal ponds and other areas of standing water.

This weekend, given the extravagant run off, I thought it would be interesting to photograph moving water.  How naïve.  I grabbed my X100f and a tripod, and gamely hiked out into the nearby State Forest intending to visit a hidden glen I know well.

It took about 5 minutes to figure out, that this wasn’t the day for unhurried tripod work.

I was almost instantly set upon by hordes of mosquitoes who would likely exsanguinate me, if I stopped long enough to set up a tripod.  They certainly provided me the incentive for a brisk walking pace.

I have another wedding to attend, this time for my niece Alex, in Jersey City this weekend.  The weather it is said, will have turned by then, providing bright blue skies, cool temperatures and low humidity.  I will probably shoot a few images, and try hard, as always not to get in the way of the hired gun.

 I am happy that she will not have to come up with a plan B.  And I am hopeful that this weather change portends a more hospitable late summer and fall.

 And hopefully, less mosquitoes.

 

I consider myself an interested, if not a keen observer of natural phenomena. For instance,  I have over the last 25 years, kept a diary of snowfall events as measured on my back patio. I maintain 2  weather stations. 

So when I ventured outside on the morning of January 13th, I noticed that something interesting must have happened overnight.

For 2 days before, we had rain, some heavy, with temps in the fifties and even sixties(F) which wiped out the little snow we had. Overnight Friday into Saturday, the cold front passed, which was predicted to provide a period of freezing rain, then sleet, then perhaps a coating of snow.

So I was not surprised that Saturday morning, to find the yard white again.

It was in the single digits when I went out to clear the walks, and defrost my truck. I was not surprised to see an icy veil over the tree branches and pine boughs.  As I took in the lovely morning, I noticed that something looked different.

The bright morning sun filtered through the icy foliage looked extremely specular, an unfamiliar appearance to me

 

On closer inspection of the branches, I noticed not the uniform coating of ice that is the usual result of freezing rain. Rather instead, there were individual droplets of water, like crystal beads, on bare branches and evergreens alike.

This is why it looked unusual, for I was observing each tiny droplet as a tiny point of refracted light. The effect was quite stunning.

My community exists at between about 1650-2000 feet on the western edge of the Pocono plateau. the icing event occurred from about 1700 ft and above, with no icing below 1600 ft.

So what happened? I went to my online weather station which is located at around 1900 ft.

First, let me say that the sensor on this station is sheltered from the wind (as is most of my property) A 35 mph gust is impressive indeed and really emphasizes the strength of this front. Note that the temperature late Friday drops rapidly from almost 60 degrees (f) to just above freezing for a period of time and then plunges to the mid “teens” in just over an hour.

  To form this ice pattern, I suspect it continued to rain with the temperature just above freezing, and then stopped during the final plunge. Sleet, and finally snow would have come in as, or just after the front had passed. And the droplets from the rain were in fact “flash frozen” by the unusually abrupt drop in temperature.

It’s admittedly a small thing, a slight deviation in our usual weather patterns. But as a photographer, it created a tangible difference in the appearance of a small portion of our natural world. One perhaps that can be anticipated in the future.

 So why do I feel like such a geek?

 

 

It has been cold in Northeastern Pennsylvania. For us at least, it is very cold.  With high temperatures in the single digits and lows well below zero, this is a stretch of weather quite the opposite of the warm January’s we had over the last 2 years. 

Up on the Pocono Plateau, we have a few inches of light powdery snow, sadly inadequate for cross-country skiing.  Still, in all it’s pretty, and with the cold temperatures, the ice formations in our creeks and streams get rather interesting and complex.  With a snow cover, the scenery is interesting again, and at this depth, it is no impediment to hiking and exploring.

With this frigid weather has come wind, which makes outdoor activities more challenging.  Anticipating a trip coming up to the even colder Adirondacks, I’m spending time out in the elements to acclimate myself to cold weather sports.  As I get older, this gets more and more difficult.

The forests change in the bitter cold.  A walk in the woods during single-digit temperatures is a quiet one; with little evidence of the chickadees, nuthatches, blue jays, and squirrels one encounters in more normal temperatures.  The squirrels I understand, are probably holed up in their leafy nests, but the location and condition of the birds is more mysterious.  Due to they find shelter?  Are they in torpor?

This cold has real consequences for people.   My neighbors live in an even larger Victorian summer home that I do, albeit one that is not as obsessively sealed and insulated as my own.  On such cold days, even with the use of auxiliary coal and wood stoves, they struggle to keep the house in the low 60s.

Even though we live in a natural gas producing region, I’m told that with such high demand, the gas suppliers are forced to ration supplies, diverting them from businesses, to homeowners.  This can obviously be quite disruptive. It’s slightly embarrassing to me, that in these times the schools actually stay closed on the coldest days for fear of exposing the little darlings to the winter’s chill.  Whatever happened to “bundling up”?

A friend of mine who runs a heating oil distributor once told me that surprisingly, he actually hates bitter cold times because people who live on the edge financially, run out of money to buy heating oil. This leaves him with a difficult choice: to either extend credit or refuse a delivery.  More often he chooses the former than the latter putting him at financial risk.  These conditions also challenge his service people, who work long hours, doing emergency repairs on poorly maintained heating systems.

 

Still, in all, this will pass.  Our normal winters have highs in the 30s and lows in the teens, a temperature.  regimen to which we are all more accustomed.  People will still grumble, complain, and pine for spring, while we skiers wait for the Northeaster’s of the later winter to kick start our outdoor winter sports.

Soon the snows will come.

 

I am a creature of habit. Whether it is merchants, restaurants, vacation spots… etc., I derive comfort in familiarity. It is an impulse I endeavor to resist… not always successfully.

It’s also true in terms of camera gear. For I just bought my fourth version of the Fujifilm X100… the X100F.

It arrived in late March, of the latest iteration of an old photographic friend, the newest camera in the X100 series. I have been shooting it since then, in the somewhat sparse scenery of early Spring.

Over the last several years, this camera line has been the one that I reach for the most. I have been looking over archived raw files in preparation for my upcoming photography exhibit. I couldn’t help but notice that particularly in the last 3 years; my X100 series uploads far exceed those of my other equipment. I have grown very comfortable with the camera’s functioning, the image quality, and the range of focal links offered between the native lenses and the lens adapters.

Given this, I may skip other upgrades, but the newest X100 will always be interesting to me.

 

I have no desire to be repetitious and waste the reader’s time. Therefore if you wish, you can read my reviews of the original X100, the X100s, and the X100t which will serve as a basis for this review. My desire is to discuss what I think are the relevant improvements, and what they mean to my workflow in the Fuji system. There are also websites such as DPReview, and The Imaging Resource that can be a source of feature-by-feature descriptions of this product. My mission here will be to describe the effect those changes have had on this user.

The best way to summarize my reaction to this camera is this: that in terms of image quality, controls and features, it now is almost completely in sync with the X Pro 2. This is very important to me as these cameras are my go-to pairing for weddings and events. I now can shoot the same resolution files and film simulation on the X100 style body that I can on the interchangeable lens X Pro 2. And the relevant controls and menu structure are now roughly the same. This means that I can quickly make intuitive adjustments on either camera without thinking.

First and foremost, the camera in hand feels roughly the same as the previous generations. All of the buttons on the back of the camera have been relocated to the right side which does facilitate their operation while looking through the viewfinder. The camera feels extremely well-built, though weather sealing is still not a feature.

 

I have written here and here about my reactions to the new sensor offered in the later Fujifilm cameras. The resolution increase from 16 megapixels to 24 is not trivial, but also not overwhelming. It certainly means you can crop more aggressively, which is certainly helpful on the fixed lens X 100, and the images do seem to have improved “per-pixel” sharpness. In particular, because of my exhibit, I’ve been doing a lot of printing. I remain extremely impressed with the amount of detail on even 17-22 inch prints that even the earlier 16mp Trans-X megapixels can produce without straining. Obviously, the new sensor will be better yet.

What is nice about the Fuji’s in general, and the X100F, in particular, is that all this resolution is very usable. Again in reference to my upcoming exhibit, I had identified an image shot with my D800E for inclusion. This is a 36mp DSLR, and given this, I have always been aware that camera technique must be perfect in order to avoid shake artifact, (which is much more evident the higher the resolution). For this reason, I shot this image from a stout Gitzo tripod, and with a remote release.

When I printed the image, however, I discovered that there was camera shake, which essentially ruined the image for me. Undoubtedly this came from the impact of the mirror as it swung out of the way of the sensor. I shoot all the time with the mirrorless Fuji bodies, and particularly X100, on a much smaller tripod, and essentially never have this problem. Because of its leaf shutter, the X100 is particularly forgiving in this regard. So bring on the resolution!

 

I remain underwhelmed with the purported improvements in high-ISO performance for the new sensor noted on some other websites, but on the other hand, I don’t really do formal tests on this. I was already pretty darn happy with the earlier cameras. It’s certainly no worse than the earlier chip and may be a smidge better. I’m certainly content continuing to use ISO 6400 as the upper limit on my auto ISO setting.

Then there is the matter of the mechanical ISO dial which it also has in common with the X Pro 2. Many people were unhappy with this feature when it first appeared. From my style of shooting, however, it is very convenient. So good are the trans X sensors that I generally shoot in auto ISO without much worry. But if, for instance, I’m shooting moving water, or daytime fill flash, the ISO dial makes it easy to quickly switch to ISO 200, and then switch back when I’m done.

 

Several improvements do really alter the relationship between the cameras. The X 100F now uses the same battery as all of the other Fuji bodies. This really simplifies keeping a good collection of batteries charged and ready to go, it also means when I change camera bags, I don’t have to worry about which type of extra battery I have stowed there. Also, since the X100 series has an onboard USB charging, in a pinch it can charge batteries to be used on my other Fuji bodies. The battery indicator apparently now displays a more accurate representation of the percentage of power remaining. Oh, and hopefully battery life will be longer, though this was never really a problem for me.

I’m a big fan of the Acros black and white film simulation, which given the new sensor and processor, is now finally available on the X100 series. I like the fact that I can set the film simulation, but shoot the camera in RAW alone, but still see the film simulation in the viewfinder. I later apply the film simulation in post processing, as it now is available in Adobe Camera Raw.

 

Then there is the focus point joystick, which again appeared in the X Pro 2. Now that it’s available on the X100, I feel as though I can begin relying on it. For those of you who unfamiliar with the feature, it allows direct access to focus point adjustment without first pressing any other buttons. It thus frees up a programmable button on the camera for other functions. It is a feature that is long overdue.

Another really likable improvement in the camera is its ability to recognize when one of a new series of lens adapters is mounted. With the older cameras, I was forever forgetting to change this adjustment manually, which theoretically results in some distortion in the image. I did acquire the 50mm field of view TCL X100 II (the adapter I most often use). The old version sold on eBay for surprisingly good money, which is heartening.

 

 

Every time there is a new version of a particular model in the Fujifilm lineup, auto focus has been improved. Before I sold it, I compared the “T” model to its replacement. There did seem to be a slight improvement in focusing speed, particularly in low contrast areas, but again these cameras of gotten good enough that for my style of shooting such improvements are not that impactful.

There is an increase in the number of focus points from 49 in the X100 T, to 325 and the newer camera. This is the same as on the X Pro 2.There is a little wider screen coverage, but in general, to me, the larger number of points seems to increase the amount of time it takes me to move to the right part of the sensor. I tend to keep these cameras set to show a lower number of points in the viewfinder.

 

I’m sure as time goes on, I will have additional comments as I gain more experience with this instrument. Overall I am quite content. In most ways, this is a superior camera than its predecessor (which happily also sold for decent money on eBay). Who knows what is yet to come in future firmware upgrades.

Yes, I am definitely a creature of habit.

But if you find something that works, why not stick with it?

Here it is mid-February, in the middle of another unusual winter in Pennsylvania. Ten days ago there was a crusty cover of snow on the ground here in the Pocono region. Unfortunately, an altitude related ice storm seven days ago wrecked the brief period of cross-country skiing we had enjoyed after a 9-inch snowfall.   This week, a 5 day period of >50-degree weather finished things off, cruelly teasing us into thinking that spring is around the corner (it is most certainly not).

I am somewhat heartened that this heat wave will not be fully expressed up in the Adirondacks, where I hope to be recreating in several weeks. Nonetheless, these lackluster winters can be very discouraging to those of us still enjoy snow sports and the photographic opportunities that “normal” winter provides.

Unfortunately, at this latitude, it appears that for at least this year, winter will be a cold damp brown and gray season with occasional teases of snow. I am starting to hate winter, but for different reasons that most of my friends.

The worse thing about this has to do with living on a dirt road. For most of the winters over the last 25 or so years, the road will freeze in mid-to-late November and then remain frozen, and often snow-covered, until sometime in March when we get our first extended bout of above freezing weather. There will then be a roughly 2 week period, where the road becomes soft and unstable. Driving on it can feel as though he will sink down to your axles; it leaves our cars coated with splats of red shale mud. Then one day the road dries and compacts, and is all is well for the remainder of the year.

This year, the road has been through maybe 3 cycles of freeze/thaw which is getting rather irritating. Freeze/thaw also leads to large potholes in the paved roads. I really hate this.

I sometimes think I should either move permanently to the Adirondacks for January-March, or give up on the whole winter thing, go south, wear shorts with black socks, and gradually prepare for death.

On a happier note, I pretty much have determined that I will purchase a new X100f along with at least the TCL X1 100 mark II teleconverter (I use this much more than the wide converter). It will be extremely pleasant not to forget to adjust the camera when the lens converter is on (the phase II versions of the converters talk to the camera so it adjusts automatically). I’m hoping to use it in the Adirondacks, so I am waiting to see whether it goes on back order after the introduction date. At some point, my used (but not too used) X00t will go up on E Bay.

 Boy o’ boy, May feels a long way off.

 

 

Back in the days before digital imaging, it was much easier to keep your gear current. I think back to 1980s vintage Nikon F3 which was produced (admittedly in multiple forms) for perhaps 20 years. The camera featured very simple technology, with little pressing reason to update. There was finally an auto focus version of the camera in the last several years of its twenty-year lifespan, but for the most part there was little change over its long history.

Nowadays things are radically different. Cameras are far more sophisticated, and photographers now expect fairly frequent updates to them, even though they long surpassed the performance of those older cameras long ago. I think also the fact that the technological advances of new models involve not only exposure and focus, but the actual film stock (the digital sensor) that the camera uses increases the interest in upgraded models.

In the last week, Fujifilm has announced replacements for 2 cameras that I currently own. The X100F replaces the X100T model in a somewhat confusing nomenclature scheme. And the X-T10 is replaced with the X-T20.

As always the question of whether to and when to upgrade comes up.

Let me first acknowledge, that photography is not my main source of income.  I have always tried to be rational about equipment purchases.  Every once in a while I find myself with a bloated collection of gear which needs to be thinned.  I am there now.  Soon, I suspect I will once again become a frequent visitor to my FedEx drop-off point.

I see that I am not the only one who faces this dilemma. A Fuji photographer I very much admire, Zack Arias, writes about gear simplification here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First my thoughts on my current X-T10 currently the budget version of the SLR style X-T1 interchangeable lens camera. This for me as a modestly used device (I have learned that I prefer rangefinder style cameras and I already own a nearly identically spec’d  XE-2). The main improvement in the newer camera is, of course, the sensor, which is now 24mp.  I already own a version of this sensor in my X Pro 2.  In my experience, the real resolution boost offered by the newer chip is modest, and the high ISO performance is roughly the same.  Still, more resolution is not a bad thing.

Whereas I do enjoy the Acros film simulation that is only offered in the 24 mp cameras I can typically get pretty close to the same profile with a custom RAW conversion I have set up in Photoshop. There are autofocus improvements I suppose, but I’m not grossly unhappy with the current camera (and perhaps there is more to come in a firmware upgrade). Finally, while I think the enhanced video capabilities are interesting, they are not important to my workflow. 

Thus I probably won’t upgrade this camera anytime soon.  In fact after this analysis, as much as I like the little X-T10, I would consider putting it on E Bay list, and waiting for the rumored rangefinder style XE3 to be introduced.

The X100T to “F” upgrade is slightly different for me. I like the fact that the battery will now be the same as all of my other Fuji “X” cameras though the older battery was fairly cheap(and I have a lot of them). I hope the camera will still be chargeable through its USB port. Once again the new sensor (the same 24mp sensor of the XT-20) is not really a draw for me, but not a detriment either.  Apparently, unlike a lot of other people, I do like the new ISO/shutter speed dial (same as on my X Pro 2).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I do wonder however whether the incremental improvement in auto focus in this model line will be greater (the X100T had earlier auto focus technology than the X-T10). To me, a very significant improvement is the autofocus “joystick”. It was a very useful addition to the X Pro 2.

Ironically, I have actually avoided using it on that camera for fear of it becoming reflexive when it is not available for focusing on my other bodies.  Currently, if one is to retain the largest number of function buttons on the camera, moving the autofocus point, requires you to first press the lower button of the four-way pad, which then tells the camera that the keypad  is to be used for autofocus.  This means an additional step and occasionally results in lost opportunities.  With the joystick, moving the autofocus point can be done instantly.  Adding it to the X100F means that I will be more comfortable relying on it in both cameras. In fact the lack of the joystick on the X-T20 means that it will be more difficult to integrate that model line in the future.

I hope the XE 3 will have a joystick.

 One new development I am both frustrated and intrigued by is the improvements in the lens converter system for the X100F. the new converters communicate with the X100F, allowing the camera to automatically adjust when they are mounted (I often forget to do this on my current camera).  This is wonderful, except that I have pristine copies of both of the older lens converters for the X 100 series which I understand are optically identical. I would probably first upgrade the TCL (50 mm FOV), as that is the one I use far more frequently than the WCL(28 mm FOV).  I could really save some money here if only my interaction with the camera was a little more disciplined.

As this is my most commonly used camera, I believe it makes more sense to upgrade this instrument, given that I will obtain the most benefit and enjoyment from the money spent.  And my fairly pristine X100T, on eBay, seems to have decent residual value.

This explains my thought processes, on upgrading equipment.

Feel free to offer your comments and ideas.