I´m a Fuji Fanboy

Yes you read the title correctly. I am a Fuji fanboy and I am proud of it. Going through a long period of looking for the right camera and camera company for me I have finally found what I want.

And I definitely have fallen in love with the Fuji cameras. Starting in 2011 with the Fuji X100 and then just a year later with the X-Pro1.

Nowadays I use the absolutely awesome Fuji X100S and the X-Mount camera Fuji X-E1.

The question of course is, why I have become a Fuji fan.

1. The cameras itself

Just take a look at this masterpiece of manmade technology. 

I love my X-E1 and the X100S

Everything is set to place on this X100S. 

It was not quite so on the X100 which brings me straight to number 2 on my list.

2. Fuji itself is listening to us.

Whatever has been said on forums, blogs and reviews has been seen and read by Fuji, that I am sure of. Just look at the great firmware updates Fuji gave us for the "old" X100. With the 1.3 this camera was and still is a very different one as we got in the beginning.

One might argue about the fact that Fuji should have done right in the first place. But one must remember that the X100 was the first camera of this type for the company and just like Olympus a few years ago Fuji also had a learning curve.

In fact they still are.

This shows on the latest firmware updates for the X-Pro1 and the X-E1. These too are in my eyes new cameras. If I think about my X-E1 with the first firmware and compare it with the X-E1 with the version 2.0 

Just think of the autofocus. Or think about them implementing focus peaking, moving the focus point. The list goes on and on.

3. The lens line up.

In one word. AWESOME

The Fuji XF35 1.4 is such a great lens. The color rendition, sharpness and bokeh are wonderful

The Fuji XF18-55 2.8-4.0 is a standard zoom lens. Well not really. This is a zoom lens which is near enough a prime lens with different focal lenghts. I personally have never ever seen a zoom lens. The only difference to a prime lens is the slower aperture speed.

The upcoming Fuji XF23 1.4 will be my next one. I am sure that this one will be at least as good as the XF35. Maybe even better.

And not to forget the Fuji XF14 2.8 This lens has not been used by me on a long run, but I have had a short burst with a copy from a friend. This also is an absolutly stunning peace of glass.

There are some other lenses on the market as well. They are native X-Mount lenses so you do not need an adapter.

I myself use the Walimex 8mm fisheye lens and I absolutely love, love, love this lens. Sorry Fuji but this is one of my favorites.

Not to forget the Zeiss Touit lenses. These though are very expensive.

4. The X-Trans sensor and the jpeg´s you get

What Fuji has done with this sensor is nothing but amazing. I just love the output of this sensor. Again, color rendition, sharpness and ISO noise performance is great.

I must admit that the Raw files out of the X-Trans Fuji cameras are such great files to work with. Use your tool of choice which supports these files and you will be full of joy.

But I must admit that I am so happy with the jpeg´s I get out of these little cameras that I just add a little contrast and a vignette to them and am happy.

Most of the time I use the VSCO Toolkit to do this using Apple Aperture. In some cases I can take the jpeg straight out of the camera and use this. I would even use these to do large prints up to 90x60cm. Sometimes even up to 120x90. That is how good these jpeg files are.

And what is not to love about the film simulations Fuji has given us.

Provia, Velvia, Astia. The pro neg series and even the black and white is very good.

I personally have found my favorite settings which you can also read about in a separate blog post here.

In this post I am not going to show many shots. Just a few.
All of the shots are jpeg´s ooc with some small tweaks using the VSCO Toolkint via Aperture 3.

Final Word

My final word on this is that I have finally found my camera system. Yes sometimes I get frustrated with the camera. It does not always focus where I want it. Sometimes the flash takes a little too reload before I can take another shot. Sometimes I think of switching back to micro four thirds and the Olympus E-M1. The have great lenses.

The thought is gone by the next minute I have used the Fuji camera. It does not matter which one.

As soon as I see the output I am that little Fuji fanboy again.

Thank you Fuji for being what you are. Please keep on listening to us and please do not make the same mistakes other camera manufactures are doing or have done.

You don´t need to speed up the pace.

You don´t need to throw new models at us every six months.

You don´t need to think that Fuji cameras need to be good at video.

You don´t need to up the megapixel of the sensor to 36 kazillion mepapixels.

Do what you have been doing in the past. Build some absolutely awesome, stunning stills cameras for us photographers. Keep listening to us but don´t listen to everything.

I will stay with Fuji that is sure.

So let us look into the Fuji future with joy and hope that this awesome camera manufacturer keeps on the same track as the are.

Thanks for reading. If you wish you can leave a comment below.

Your
Stockografie