I’ve been shooting Fujifilm ever since the first X camera and stuck with them for all of these years. Here is why I shoot Fujifilm from the perspective of a professional that is also an amateur.
I’ve been a photographer for a long time and if you can name it, I’ve probably shot it, from Canon to Nikon, Sony and Panasonic. I’ve long settled on Fujis, so here is why I shoot Fujifilm.
Why I shoot Fujifilm
1- The Leica I always wanted
Ever since I started photography, I wanted a Leica M camera. Rangefinders are really cool looking and I really like their simplicity. But just everything in life, there’s a flipside to this coin. Here’s what nobody ever tells you about shooting Leica.
First there is very often camera flaws. There was the M8 that bled the light if you shot it at the corner of the frame, then the M9 with the corrosion issue. A lot of people like to go towards the older digital rangefinders because they are cheaper, but wait till you see the M9 at ISO1600 and see what I mean. Even the recent Leica Q has a serious dust issue that you needed to fix somewhat with tape. They got their act straight afterwards.
All of this quality control stuff is very often swept under the rug by Leica fans. But more seriously however, many do not see the downside of shooting a real rangefinder like a Leica. Well first of all these can go out of alignment, and if that happens you need to get it to a repair shop.
And then there’s parallax correction that you need to deal with when shooting from far to close but there is also lastly the issue of frame lines. Actual viewfinders have a limited number of frame lines so if you wanted something like 21mm you would need an external viewfinder for it.
Many fall head over heels for Leica but look at their work. Very often it is street photography and made at zone focus. They preset their focus on the lens like f8 and everything from say 1m to 10m is in focus, and they practically never really use the viewfinder for focusing, just composing.
But shoot a Leica and you are hooked. If you are an actual photographer there’s just something zen about shooting those nice small lenses and having your finger to the focusing. The rangefinder form factor is also my favorite because while shooting with one eye you can have your other eye scanning around for your next shot. Next reason why I shoot Fujifilm…
2- The power of a DLSR without the bulk
Here’s one of the biggest reasons why I shoot Fujifilm. It is smaller then a large professional DSLR, but just as powerful. The X-pro 3 shoots large 26 megapixel files and has 30 fps and can rival pretty much any top of the line DSLRs. So instead of having a large bag, I mostly shoot with my X-pro. It can shoot anything I throw at it.
It is a beast of a camera. And if you’ve ever left limited before about what your camera could and cannot do, you understand why this is important
3- The Balance between two worlds
If you are a professional photographer, you probably have two cameras: One for work, and one for pleasure. You probably WANT to use your pleasure camera for work but for some reason you can’t because you just can’t take the risk. This is one of the biggest reasons Why I shoot Fuji, I can transform it into the camera I need on the spot.
For my personal work like my street photography, I put in the Leica M mount adapter with a Voigtlander 35mm f1.4 lens on there. Put the viewfinder on optical and remove all of the extra information. Result? Zen-like experience when I am in the zone shooting my images free of worries. I never look at any menu, the aperture is set on the lens, shutter speed on the dial and so is ISO.
That viewfinder is excellent and the framelines way more accurate then you can find on any M. If it’s time to go to work, put in an X lens in there and put the viewfinder in digital mode and what I see is what I get.
There’s a lot to deal with when shooting assignments and the last thing I need is to worry about the technical stuff. Having the frame exactly how it will appear if I shoot allows me to save all of my conscious efforts into just making my clients happy.
The fact that the X-Pro 3 is “bi-polar” and can act like a rangefinder but also can take the gloves off when needed makes it one of the biggest reasons why I shoot Fujifilm.
4- The most unique cameras in the world
I like unique cameras. Are Nikons unique? Not really. Canon? Nopes. Leicas? Some. The M line is unique because these are the only Full Frame Digital rangefinders. The Q2? Not unique, the Sony RX1R is similar. The CL is extremely nice with indeed a unique little LCD on top but not that unique. The X-Pro on the other hand?
That rangefinder feeling and hybrid viewfinder puts it on a class of it’s own. Sony makes great cameras but they are missing some “mojo” like the Fuji has. The Olympus PEN has a lot of mojo but no optical viewfinder.
This is one reason why I shoot Fuji: It is unique, no other camera nor will there very be others that have that hybrid viewfinder, allowing you to shoot and mold the camera into either a pleasure or a professional camera.
5- They look real good
Don’t fool yourself. A camera’s looks are important. An ugly camera can make just as nice of a picture then a pretty one but having cool looking cameras compel you to use them. The best looking camera ever for me is the Epson RD1 with those little dials on top, but that thing is a relic and if it breaks there ain’t many to go around anymore. The second one would be the Olympus PEN F, it is a stunning looking camera and I’ll probably tie this with the CL.
My X-Pro comes in at 3. Sure other cameras might look better but once you start using that viewfinder the way you want to? You realize the problem with every other camera is that they lack that hybrid viewfinder.
Conclusion
I hope you enjoyed my reasons why I shoot Fujifilm. To each their own, but the rangefinder form factor is one of the best. However there are real drawbacks to rangefinders like having to deal with parallax and frame lines. Fuji on the other hand has found a way to take everything that is good about rangefinders and somehow give their cameras a dual personality.
These are cameras that feel and operate like rangefinders but they also have the power of a pro-level DSLR in a smaller package. And coupled with that Hybrid viewfinder you cannot find this anywhere else.