My style of shooting hasn’t really changed much over the past few years. I’ve always been a vernacular, off-the-cuff kind of photographer, and when I do landscape or I”m in less-than-ideal conditions, i’ll break out the tripod. But typically, I’ll be shooting photos hand-held while walking around with friends.
I’ve been a Canon shooter for eight years. I got my first Canon camera with manual functions in 2012. I got my first DSLR in 2017, and upgraded to my first full-frame DSLR in 2018. Canon has always been there in my life, even in school, there were canon cameras to check out.
I’ve become akin to Canon’s operating system, their lenses, their color reproduction, and ergonomics. So why would I ever change to a different brand? Canon has always been reliable to me, anyway.
Anyone who has talked to me about cameras knows that I’ve raved about how good Fujifilm is. The irony of the matter is that I never actually owned one, and seldom even handled one. I was always going off of online reviews and photographs I’ve seen shot on Fuji cameras. Some of my photogrpahy friends have even asked “why don’t you switch to Fujifilm if you love their quality so much?”
Well, I finally did. I sold all of my Canon gear and put it all toward a new Fujifilm kit.
But why did I switch? It’s not because of the perks of mirrorless, if that’s what you think.
There were a handful of criteria that made Fujifilm feel like the perfect match for me:
1 - The camera needs to be small, but have a firm grip that feels like a film SLR
2 - The camera needs to have good lenses available, sharp and relatively fast (I’m okay with f/2 lenses)
3 - The camera sensor needs to produce true-to-life colors that need little post work
4 - The aesthetic of the camera body can’t look intimitating or invasive, like how a professional DSLR does
5 - There needs to be adapters available for my vintage Minolta lenses
6 - Bonus point: Film simulations that look amazing, and are apparently available for RAW processing in Lightoom
The Fujifilm X-T3 and the X-Pro3 were the two cameras I was looking at. They’re essentially the exact same camera in different bodies, with, of course, the major differences being the viewfinder and rear LCD. I’m quite fond of the reverse screen on the X-Pro3, I think it’s clever and really drives home Fujifilm’s goals with their cameras. However, the X-T3 produces identical results to the X-Pro3, and for hundreds of dollars less.
I wound up getting an X-T3 kit for $1300 — that’s $500 less than just the body for the X-Pro3. Both the body and the lens are used, but barely. They’re both in stunningly good shape, and with the upcoming X-T4 next week, that’ll drive down the price of the X-t3 even more.
But that begs the next question: Why not wait for the X-T4?
I did a lot of thinking about this very question. The X-T4 is officially released on February 26, which happens to be my 23rd birthday, so maybe it was meant to be? I proceeded to do some digging on what has been rumored and what has been confirmed about the upcoming successor to the X-T3. What I realized is that the only real upgrades to the camera are in the video functions (and they’re pretty good upgrades, honestly).
I’m not a video guy. I’d be okay if the X-T3 only did 1080p at 30 fps. I don’t need much, and most people don’t have even a 2K monitor. People’s phone screens are only 1080p. I see no reason for me to worry about having insane video specs. However, the upcoming X-T4 will be a substantial upgrade to those who frequently shoot video.
As of writing this post, I’ve only had the X-T3 in my hands for half a day. I’ve already felt better about carrying it around with me and shooting anything that I see that’s colorful. Walking around with a 6D MKII was cumbersome and almost irritating, and made me stick out too much. If the whole goal of being a vernacular, street photographer is to not be seen, having a camera that is low-profile and looks like a film camera helps tremendously.
I’ve been amazed by the color reproduction and the look of all of the film simulations. I’ve also played around briefly with Lightroom’s updated “enhance details” and it seems that they’ve really improved it. And upon further digging, you don’t really need to sharpen Fuji raw files all that much, in fact the default 40% sharpening with 5% detail and some minor masking is more than enough to bring out the details in the files. Fujifilm really is just amazing at getting things to look perfect in-camera.
In time, you will see a cuple videos relating to my new kit. From a live unboxing video, to first impressions, to a later “my thoughts so far” video.