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Day 141 / 365

Finally a chance to have a leisurely stroll with the Fuji x100 today. The sunshine has returned and the wind has dropped.
After yesterdays blog rant I felt somewhat purged and refreshed to shoot this morning. I shot quite a few different images for today but figured I’d post this as it kind of works with my man Wills shot from yesterday.

So the Fuji X100 then?
Well I’m loving the thing. I’ll admit it has it’s quirks, it isn’t cheap and it isn’t going to be everyones (most peoples) cup of tea. Why do I love it so? well it just makes me think, it begs to be used in manual mode (using auto focus or manual with the back button quick focus to get close enough to tweak with the manual focus ring (Quirk!)). I’m slowing down and feeling my way through my photography more with it, looking at the meter with regards the subject and considering what it’s telling me, do I need a third stop more / a stop less etc. to get what I want? and composing with just that beautiful 35mm lenses view. Sure I know other cameras do this and I could just use exposure compensation but once I let the camera decide things part of my brain tends to switch off and that just isn’t what I want. Compared to the Olympus PEN for example, that has full manual mode also but to be honest I never used it as it made quick changes to aperture and shutter speed too fiddly, so that left me in Aperture priority and hence a departure from fully being control of my work. I guess that again harks back to yesterdays quote from Mr Adams, If the creation of the photograph takes more effort & input from oneself then the outcome is usually that much better. If I just have to point the camera in roughly the right direction and shove a button to get a photograph then I’m not engaged enough to truly experience the “being in that moment” or capture its essence.
There are some scolding reviews of the camera online along with very favourable ones too. This I feel is about right for the X100, for some it’s a perfect tool they’ve been waiting for for some time, it fits their photographic style and way of working. For others it just seems wrong, their way of working is counter to how the camera wants to work, leaving them something which seems deeply flawed.
As a working photographer I like it, it fits my style and desires. It isn’t a “professional” camera (whatever that means) as in it isn’t a 1D mk4, you wouldn’t want to shoot sports with it, or nature. It is however more than capable of producing “professional” quality images and in some instances could well be more suitable than a DSLR to get the job done.
So far so good for me, I’ll keep testing for a few more weeks to fully make my mind up but the PENs days could be numbered.