Break up. 

Since Fuji did not have a lot of lens choices, I decided to try some of the old manual Pentax lenses I had.  Did some research, found the adapters, and went to town.  The problem became apparent quite quickly.  There was no visual indication when things were in focus.  Bugger!  More research lead to the discovery of the Sony NEX-7 camera.  Even though it did not have a lens line up, it had focus peaking, plus a whole lot of other features, bigger sensor, 10fps, etc etc.  I got the Sony.  I actually shot one wedding just with Fuji and Sony.  It was a great experience.  I was able to freely move around, with out bumping into people with my big cameras.  The only draw back to this strategy is that people didn’t recognize I was there as a paid photographer, and thought I was just another guy with a point and shoot camera, so they constantly got in the way.  At one point I was setup to photograph the cake cutting moment, and another guest purposefully wiggled her bottom right in front of me so she can take the shot with her iPhone.  I think I was a little rude telling her to move her behind out of my way.  She didn’t budge.  

But, lets get to the break up.  What can I say, Sony impressed me, with it’s flippy screen, higher magepixels and lovely focus peaking.  I started to use it more and more.  Even though the Sony lens line up for the NEX line was, and still is, quite abysmal, I was happy to use old manual lenses.  On the plus side Sony did have their wide angle zoom 10-18 f4, which is, to be honest, really great lens.  Thus Fuji sat on a shelf.  Lonely, and sad.  Upstaged by a shiny, flippy screen, bastard.  

Resurection

It’s stupid, I know, but I felt a little guilty that Fuji X-Pro1 was collecting dust.  I always liked the feel of it.  Loved the images… then came a huge update.  Finally focus peaking!  Fuji to it’s huge credit, has been slowly updating the X-Pro1 with better/faster auto focus, and few other functionality.  They also updated their lenses, making them quieter and faster.  Not a lot of companies do that.  After the big update I’ve decided to give the X-Pro1 another go.  I was happy they added focus peaking, and when I saw it my heart sunk.  It was there… sort of.  I had to look hard to see it. Very hard.  Sony was still at least 10x better.  At this time Fuji started releasing more and more great lenses for the X line, so I could slowly update from old manual lenses to actual Fujinon lenses, and the quite crappy focus peaking on the the X-Pro1 and X-E1 played a much smaller role.  

Flashing weddings and Sony wins even though it looses

This time it was mirrorless all the way.  Sony and Fuji together in perfect harmony.  Why still Sony, you may ask.  It was a simple usability problem.  To trigger an off camera flash, I was using Radio Poppers http://www.radiopopper.com/#!jrx/cgws Because of a silly design of the transmitter, I could not mount the transmitter on the Fuji.  The transmitter has a plastic knob of an antenna facing down where the hotshoe is, and the X-Pro1 flat profile on top prevented me from attaching it to Fuji.  Now because Sony NEX-7 had a stupid design of their proprietary hot shoe, I had to get a converter, which in raised the profile of the hot shoe allowing the transmitter from Radio Poppers to mount properly.   Really silly designs on both parts, even though the RadioPoppers are quite wonderful and inexpensive.  Never had any issues with them not working.  During that wedding, most shots during the day were with Fuji, and the Sony came out when flash was required.  It was a lot easier to spend the 11 hours running around with small cameras.  Did not miss my Canons at all.  

More Travels

Europe again.  As with the previous European vacation, a new camera from Fuji showed up, a few days before the departure, Fujifilm X-T1.  This is where Fuji and any of the small cameras shine.  I managed to pack 3 cameras, and 5 lenses into a Billingham Hadley Pro bag, and a small laptop to boot.  Most days I carried everything (minus the laptop) everywhere I went.  I’m not going to lie, and the bag was getting a bit uncomfortable by the end of the day, but never to a point where I was ready to throw it into the river. 

Now and the Future

I have sold my canon and most of my manual lenses.  I gave my Sony cameras to my wife.  FujiFilm is the only camera’s and lenses I shoot with primarily the X-T1, and X-E2.  The venerable X-Pro1 is used from time to time, same as the X100S, but not often.  I can’t remember of having so much fun, using a camera system.  I really like everything about it, and the short comings are quite easy to get around.  They simply work.  Some would call this fanboism, but in reality it’s not.  In large retrospect of my photography I come to a realization, that I don’t really care which camera I’m shooting with.  As long as it provides me with the results I’m looking for.  Fuji and their X cameras, provide me with those results. The ability of easy updates to the cameras and lenses, with out being forced to buy new cameras and new lenses, create trust as a consumer.  Trust, that is very hard to come by these days.  Also the way the Fujifilm pays attention to detail and workmanship.  It’s been only about 4 years since first Fujifilm X100 came on the market, and the amount of great lenses for the camera system is staggering.  Currently there are 18 lenses in production with 3 more to come, and all of these lenses are stellar.  in comparison Sony has only 8 lenses for their full frame mirrorless cameras, and it seems they abandoned their APS-C lens line all together.   This trust and quality of products is what makes me shoot with Fuji, and I do not see myself changing any time soon.