If you have followed me on Light Stalking for a while, you will know that around two years ago, I sold my Fuji system and went all in on a Sony a7Rv with various lenses. The decision was not made lightly but based on both my photographic and video needs as well as lingering doubts about more recent Fuji cameras.
The final breaking point was the fact that a shutter button failed on my Fujifilm X-H2, whilst about to embark on a long road trip across Europe. It knocked my confidence in a brand that I felt had become less well made than their early X series cameras.
My Sony system has been brilliant and still is. It's a workhorse camera with sublime image quality, 61 million beautiful pixels, built like a tank and also produces great video. Moreover, I do not have issues processing the RAW files in Lightroom, a problem that still exists on Fujifilm cameras to this day.
So why have I returned to Fujifilm? Well I haven’t, at least not on a professional basis, but I have bought a Fujifilm camera. Let me explain
The Best X-Trans Sensor
Over my 12 years with the Fujifilm system, I owned cameras with all the X-Trans sensor models. The last was my X-H2 with the 40mp X-Trans 5. It was also the most disappointing in terms of image quality, as far as I am concerned.
Peak Fujifilm for me was the X-T2, one of my favourite cameras of all time. It was robust, an ergonomic delight and featured the X-Trans 3 sensor. With 24mp the sensor was a big leap up from the previous 12 and 16mp X-Trans sensors. But the increase in resolution wasn’t the key factor that I loved about it.
It had a beautiful aesthetic to the image, one that I actually find quite hard to put down into words. The only way I can describe it is with the tired old cliche, filmlike. It genuinely had a softness to the look, a subtle soft contrast, colour that didn’t scream out look at me and whilst this sounds like an oxymoron, there was a softness to the sharpness. It lacked the clinical bite of later X-Trans sensors and indeed my Sony system, and that was a good thing and I missed it. So I bought a used, 8 year old Fujifilm 24mp camera, but which one?
Meet The FujiFilm X-E3
There are a few options for the X-Trans 3 sensor, not least the X-T2 that I owned previously. However, what I was actually looking for was a small, day to day camera that I could simply have fun with. The X-T2 is only a little smaller than my Sony a7Rv
Other options were the rangefinder style X100F and X-Pro2. The former despite being 8 years old has a massively inflated price due to the Instagram craze for the current X100Vi. The X-Pro2 is similarly sized to the X-T2.
So, I decided on the unsung, cheaper hero of that generation of cameras, the Fujifilm X-E3. It’s a tiny camera, only a little bigger than the X100 series. Yet it has interchangeable lenses and the traditional controls on the outside, shutter speed and exposure compensation. Much of the control is done by a tiny and remarkably efficient joystick on the back of the camera.
There were other reasons for going for the X-E3. I wanted a camera that put me in charge of the image. There is no flip screen, so I have to work the camera and myself to get the right angle. I also love the Fujifilm interface, the way they have worked in the auto modes to the traditional, old style controls. Want aperture priority? Move the shutter dial to A. Want shutter priority, move the aperture ring to A. For program mode, move both to A. It’s a wonderfully intuitive way of shooting that allows you to switch exposure modes without removing the camera from your eye.
But what about the lens? I have laid down strict criteria for this camera. The lenses must be prime, small and relatively fast. They must also be inexpensive and have an aperture ring. For my first lens I have gone with the Fujifilm 23mm f/2 WR This is a tiny lens that gives a 35mm full frame equivalent, and effectively makes the X-E3 an interchangeable lens version of the X100.
My First Shoot
Eager to get out and shoot with this tiny camera, I headed to the amazing High Level Bridge in Newcastle for sunrise. Despite not having photographed with a Fujifilm camera in over two years, the muscle memory soon kicked in and I found myself taking all sorts of different types of images. Street, landscape, urban, whatever I had in front of me, I found myself lifting the camera.
The camera was an absolute joy to use. Most of the shots were taken in manual exposure mode with autofocus. The joystick button is much easier than a D-Pad for placing the focus point on a subject, the fixed screen meant that I had to get down and actually line my shots up. I used autoISO, mainly because AI denoise has become so good these days that I do not have to concern myself too much about noise. I always found the X-Trans 3 sensor one of the better ones for noise control. The 40mp in the X-Trans 5 was very noisy even at relatively low ISOs.
So much was I enjoying myself that in the space of 2 hours, I shot 350 images and depleted my only battery. I actually found myself quite sad at not being able to continue, but spare batteries are fairly cheap and are now on my shopping list. Of the 350 images, about 25 are ones that I want to keep, which for me is a very good hit rate.
So yes I have returned to Fujifilm, not for professional work, but simply for fun. The joy of a small, ergonomic camera and prime lens cannot be over stated. It’s the sort of camera you can take with you anywhere and not worry about the weight and size.
More importantly the fun it puts back into day to day photography will trickle down into my professional work, hopefully revitalising that. Thank you Fujifilm, I have missed you.
