So my buddy over At A Time To Get asked an interesting question today. What are the four most important parts of your everyday wear? Mine is simple… Red Wing 1178 boots, vintage Ollech & Wajs 2063 MP, Ray-Ban Aviators, and a Billykirk card case. I wear this stuff 99.9% of the time I’m out and about.

What’s your final four?

It’s come and gone and frankly, was a bit disappointing. I was hoping for two things from year’s gathering: Some kind of an affordable digital rangefinder solution from Leica (Micro 4/3 perhaps) and the GF2 from Panasonic. Neither happened. Instead, Leica offered a stupid expensive ($27,000) limited edition M9 (pictured above) plus the predictable D-Lux 5 and the black X1 and Panasonic… Well, nothing to get excited about there either.

Really, the show stealer was the previously mentioned Fuji X100. It looks like it will take the market by storm – classic looks, rangefinder functionality, and a reasonable price – $1000.

Nobody covers Photokina better than these guys.

Yep, it’s camera week here at the Gear Journal. Why? Because Photokina, the biggest and best photography convention, is kicking off today and many manufacturers will be announcing their new releases. The first and what might end up being the most exciting is the FujiFlim X100. It’s a large sensor compact (12 mp) with a fixed lens (23mm) and a hybrid viewfinder – your choice between a digital or optical view. The damn thing looks killer to boot.

Details here.

Leica X1 killer? A lot of folks seem to think so. Get this one priced under $1500 and Fuji will have a sure winner.

Film is dead. It’s a pain in the ass. It’s expensive. It’s a mess. And nobody likes it. But, ya know what? I kind of miss some aspects of the grainy stuff… Mostly, I miss that anxious feeling I used to get when I finished a roll and just knew there was going to be great surprises waiting for me once the film was developed. The instant gratification of the digital camera killed that excitement.

This one is showing up everywhere, so I might as well post it as well. It’s the smallest flash drive ever… The MosKeyto weighs in at 10 grams and is only 22mm long. Stick in your USB drive and leave as an extra drive or cary it around in your change pocket – you won’t even notice it in either case.

Available in 4GB ($18), 8GB ($28) and 16GB ($TBA) capacities.

Details here.