Back in the Day
Ever since I sold off my Mamiya 7 film rangefinder and its three excellent lenses, I have hoped to one day return to the simplicity of being able to carry all my gear in a small fanny pack. I used to be able to carry the equipment (and film!) I needed for entire weekend in one small bag. I love my Canon gear, and have always been happy with the results. The Canon bodies and numerous lenses I have owned over the last 10 years have served me well, but it has been interesting to note the gradual expansion in the amount and weight of my equipment over that time.
At first I was able to carry all of my digital gear in a reasonably-sized backpack. Soon, however, it became necessary for me to carry my equipment in a Think Tank rolling bag. For a while I was generally successful with the idea of making room in the rolling bag for something new by retiring something old. But a couple of years ago I finally reached the point where my bag wouldn’t hold what I had, and I started having to leave things at home. Perhaps coincidentally, at just about the same time I got to the point where I was getting tired of carrying that much stuff.
While having a wide variety of lenses at my disposal gives me the ability to pretty much shoot anything I want to shoot, the need to constantly make a decision about what to take or leave home distracts me from the creative inspiration to actually make photographs. I’ve been saying for a long time that the problem with carrying multiple lenses is that it increases the chances that I will have the wrong one on my camera. I found that carrying one or maybe two lenses is all I want to do, and I have gotten used to leaving the other stuff at home.
Recent History
I have had a number of “Point & Shoot” cameras over the years and have been quite impressed by their image quality. In fact it was a Canon G5 that convinced me back in 2004 that digital was the “way of the future.” I have been watching the evolution of compact cameras ever since with great interest, and was very excited when the interchangeable lens compact cameras came on the scene. Starting with the early Olympus “Pen” cameras in the so-called Micro 4/3 arena and evolving to a large lineup of small cameras with varying sizes of sensors, there are now many choices. My early experience in this area was when I bought Kathy an Olympus E-PL2 camera and a couple of lenses. That camera is a great size, and the lenses are amazingly small and light. I tried using that camera myself, but was never really happy with the image quality. That really tarnished my opinion of the camera and I never really gave the format any serious consideration. In hindsight, that opinion was probably a result of lower-quality lenses.
Fast Forward
Probably because of my earlier experience with the older Olympus camera, I have remained skeptical of the advances in quality of the compact cameras and the various photographers that have been singing their praises. The conventional wisdom, perhaps somewhat influenced by the marketing budgets of Canon and Nikon, has held that small sensor cameras just can’t produce the image quality of a full-size, full-frame, high resolution SLR. For anyone wanting to make prints larger than 13×19, it seemed that the SLR was the way to go, the larger the sensor the better. That was and still is pretty tasty Kool Aid.
Recently, I have been hearing and reading more and more stories, from people whose opinions I respect, who have had great things to say about the newer cameras on the market. Most of these cameras are from Fuji, Olympus and Sony, although there are others. Surprisingly, the entries from Canon and Nikon have been pretty weak and generally haven’t seemed to push the right buttons for people, and the general consensus is that those companies are not taking the market for these cameras seriously.
And Now
A few months ago I decided that the only way to find out how good these new cameras have become was to try one or more of them out myself. For me the choice seemed to be between Fuji and Olympus. So a couple of weeks ago, looking at a long holiday weekend off from work, I decided to try out a Fuji X-T1 for a few days to see just what all the excitement was about. I haven’t made any decisions but have reached several conclusions. The outcome of my little experiment will be the subject of my next post. For now, here are a few of the photos I have been working on from my time with this interesting little camera.
Oh my, you’ve really piqued my interest about your impressions of the X-T1. I’ve had a go at a couple of X series cameras from Fuji and have taken an instant liking to them in terms of feel and handling. From what I’ve seen of the files that come out of them, they seem of high quality though I will admit that I am comparing them to my somewhat old Sony A57, not a full-frame or medium format camera.
Interestingly though, one of my workmates who takes excellent people shots in the street using a Nikon full-frame camera has recently bought a Sony A6000 and is completely smitten with it. What I found interesting is that his A6000 images appear sharper than his Nikon ones. he puts it down to the A6000 being far easier to manually focus with more precision when the aperture is wide open.
In any case, the point I’m trying to make is that these smaller sensor cameras have now come a long way in terms of producing quality files.
A nice set of images. You do have an eye for architectural images. I also want to hear what your opinion is of the images from the X-T1 and how it feels in your hand. These smaller cameras do handle and function differently than our DSLRS.
Well that’s a hell of a tease, Tom! I started reading this and figured, hey, we’re going to get to find out what Tom thinks about the Fuji X-T1 in particular and micro 4/3 in general. In your case, that’s not an insignificant opinion given all the high end Canon gear you’ve used. Plus, I’d get to compare your reactions to my own (having already switched from Canon to Olympus). But now I have to wait. Not nice, Tom. Not nice.
Seriously, I find it hard to believe that you wouldn’t like the change. The weight, of course, is a major consideration. Especially for guys my age. And I honestly can’t see any difference in image quality. There might be a difference in large print sizes, but how often do any of us make those? I never go bigger than 12 x 18 and they look just fine.
Anyway, let’s get that next post out!
Thanks guys, and sorry for the tease! I had to stop when I realized that I had written an entire post and was still on the background!
I just about have the next post finished but wanted to spend more time with the files before I posted it. I did have some issues with the handling of the camera due to the smaller size, but I think they could mostly be resolved by using a grip. The files are beautiful and I’m quite impressed.
I tend to be pretty, loyal (which is how I’ve stayed married for 35 years!) so it will take a lot for me to replace my Canon stuff. I haven’t reached a decision on that yet, but that wasn’t the goal. More to come soon, I promise!