Why Fuji does the perfect travel cameras (for me)
Back in my Nikon days I had to do some planning for each trip. When you're exploring a a different landscape or city you need to pack your backpack carefully and do some extra exercises at the gym to avoid neck pain etc. In 2009 me and my wife did a trip to London and I was tired of packing my backpack with all that heavy clunky stuff and I decided to shoot the whole trip with my iPhone and it was a relief.
The quality of the photos turned out not that impressive but it was so much more fun to travel with a light and invisible camera, not looking like a damn tourist with all that gear in a big photo (c'mon steal me!) backpack. I remember my Sigma 50-150mm that was great but heavy and bulky like a drain pipe transforming my Nikon into a cannon.
In 2012 I bought my first Fuji X100. I always wanted a small rangefinder style camera with a bigger sensor, but there was only Leica and Epson (that great RD!) who did a decent camera for a horrible price tag. After playing around with it I took that new Fuji on my first trip to Copenhagen to find out how this little thing will perform on a vacation.
With the near silent leaf shutter on board I was nearly invisible in the streets and from that day on my love for street and travel photography started (without even knowing). It was more of a transition that the new way of shooting with light gear put me through. I enjoyed photography again!
And one year later (after buying a new Nikon DSLR) I sold my whole rack and started over with a Fuji X-E1 and the stunning sharp 35 1.4. I added the 18 and the 60 mm to the lens-park and it felt great, because the that lineup just fits perfectly into a little messenger bag with a gorilla pod and some other stuff on top. I don't need to mention the good quality of the Fuji glass. There are enough reviews and articles about that on the web.
Now I am not looking like a complete tourist, stuffed with equipment and shiny backpacks (steal me again!) and it is easier to take photos without getting noticed too much. Today I own some more lenses and a X-PRO1 and X-T1. And if things are too complicated I just grab my X100s to keep things simple. On vacations it is so easy to change lenses while walking down the streets. The camera just hangs around my neck on the left side of my body. Just grab it and shoot. And a little mint-tripod will be enough for such a light camera to do most of the long exposures etc.
Nowadays you don't have to go with fuji. There are many small profile mirror-less cameras on the market made by different well known brands, but Fuji started that whole thing with an affordable high quality product. Their excellent sensor technology may also interesting for many photographers, because you get great photos out of cam that can be uploaded right from the hotel or streets (with built in WLAN) without retouching. So this is also a great camera for doing photography assignments with the ability to deliver good quality without hours of retouching.
Like Eric Kim said in one of his articles: travel light! And this is why Fuji saved me from quitting photography.
Cheers,
Nils
The quality of the photos turned out not that impressive but it was so much more fun to travel with a light and invisible camera, not looking like a damn tourist with all that gear in a big photo (c'mon steal me!) backpack. I remember my Sigma 50-150mm that was great but heavy and bulky like a drain pipe transforming my Nikon into a cannon.
In 2012 I bought my first Fuji X100. I always wanted a small rangefinder style camera with a bigger sensor, but there was only Leica and Epson (that great RD!) who did a decent camera for a horrible price tag. After playing around with it I took that new Fuji on my first trip to Copenhagen to find out how this little thing will perform on a vacation.
With the near silent leaf shutter on board I was nearly invisible in the streets and from that day on my love for street and travel photography started (without even knowing). It was more of a transition that the new way of shooting with light gear put me through. I enjoyed photography again!
And one year later (after buying a new Nikon DSLR) I sold my whole rack and started over with a Fuji X-E1 and the stunning sharp 35 1.4. I added the 18 and the 60 mm to the lens-park and it felt great, because the that lineup just fits perfectly into a little messenger bag with a gorilla pod and some other stuff on top. I don't need to mention the good quality of the Fuji glass. There are enough reviews and articles about that on the web.
Now I am not looking like a complete tourist, stuffed with equipment and shiny backpacks (steal me again!) and it is easier to take photos without getting noticed too much. Today I own some more lenses and a X-PRO1 and X-T1. And if things are too complicated I just grab my X100s to keep things simple. On vacations it is so easy to change lenses while walking down the streets. The camera just hangs around my neck on the left side of my body. Just grab it and shoot. And a little mint-tripod will be enough for such a light camera to do most of the long exposures etc.
Nowadays you don't have to go with fuji. There are many small profile mirror-less cameras on the market made by different well known brands, but Fuji started that whole thing with an affordable high quality product. Their excellent sensor technology may also interesting for many photographers, because you get great photos out of cam that can be uploaded right from the hotel or streets (with built in WLAN) without retouching. So this is also a great camera for doing photography assignments with the ability to deliver good quality without hours of retouching.
Like Eric Kim said in one of his articles: travel light! And this is why Fuji saved me from quitting photography.
Cheers,
Nils
Comments
Post a Comment