All photos of cameras and lenses are from the Fuji product pages.
I’m a newly Fujifilm convert. At the moment I got a Fujifilm X100f as my travel and everyday camera.
The Fujifilm X100f. I love this little camera. Sure there are faster offerings out there, smaller too, but the retro feel, the shutter sound, the handy built-in ND-filter, and those delicious Fujifilm film simulations are so cool. Perhaps one of the sexiest cameras ever. And the 35mm focal length is probably my favorite focal length.
X-T3 – Main camera
The Fujifilm X-T3 with battery grip. Bigger, heavier, beefier camera than the X100f, with a huge, clear EVF, very fast autofocus, working, but not stellar face and eye detection and insane shots per second for sports shooting. Great build quality, but the added grip of the battery grip or third-party options can be useful for people with large hands.
Fujifilm X-Pro 2
X-Pro 2 is the latest acquisition and I haven’t had much time with it, but as soon as I had it in my hands, it was obvious why it’s called PRO; everything is built to last, with high quality feeling all over.
Lenses
Below are photos of all the Fuji lenses I currently own (PS! I don’t own all the camera bodies attached to the lenses below, at least, not yet 😉 ). I’ll write some info on each of them, one of these days, perhaps even a full-blown review. Stay tuned.
This lens is not the one I use the most, because I find that the 24mm focal length difficult to work with, but what I do like about this lens is the incredible near-focus range, the bokeh the f/1.4 gives you, and the build quality of the lens, with choke for manual focusing and proper stops for the aperture ring.
Sample shots
Did some food photography of these homemade vegan hot dogs. Love the bokeh 🙂
The Fujinon 23mm f/2 is part of the Fujicrons and is Fujis 35mm f/2 alternative. It’s smaller, has faster autofocus, and costs a lot less than the older f/1.4 version. I really like the build quality and size & the clicky aperture ring. Great lens.
Another lens in the Fujicrons line-up, the 35mm is approx 50mm in full frame. It shares most of the features of the 23mm f/2. I have an internal argument of what my favorite focal lens is; 35mm or 50mm. At the moment, it’s a draw.
The XF 56mm f/1.2 is by many considered to be one of Fujis best lenses for portraits. It’s big, bulky and the autofocus is, in my experience at least, a bit hit and miss. But when it hits it can produce great results. It’s not supersharp wide open, but stopped down to f/4-5.6 it gets really sharp.
The XF 16-55mm is the only Red Badge lens I own and my most recent acquisition. I’m still not sure if I’m gonna keep it, mainly due to its weight. The lens is sharp and I love the focal range it provides.
The XF 18-135mm is a very versatile superzoom and a perfect holiday lens. I wrote a short summary after using on our trip to the West Coast of Norway this summer, read it here.
I’ve only used the XF 55-200mm lens a few times to be honest, but each time I’ve been impressed by the results and especially the optical stabilisation. Still, it’s a special focal range so it’s not something I bring with me every day.
Sample shots
Vintage lenses and non-Fuji glass
Helios 44m f/2
This lens was one of the few lenses which made it thru my previous gear downscaling. I bought it to adapt and use on my Panasonic GH5, but just didn’t like the handling and results, most likely because at that point my focus was mainly on film, not photos. After collecting dust on a shelf for over a year I finally bought an adapter, mounted it on my X-E3, and went into the garden to take a few test shots. You can read more about the whole experiment here, but in conclusion, this is a lens for special occasions, which requires a bit more work while shooting and more post-processing than I’m just to using Fuji glass. But the results can be very interesting, and it’s a cheap alternative to very expensive lenses like the XF 56mm f/1.2, with a similar degree of bokeh.
In the hunt for the Fujinon XF 90mm f/2 I came across this lens as a cheaper alternative. I found a very nice bargain online but still haven’t gotten around to using it much, as the weather is a mix of gray & boring, with more or less constant rain sprinkled on top. I’ll get back with more photos as soon as possible, but the first impressions are;
Great build quality
Miss the aperture ring immediately
Autofocus seems ok, but in low light, my X-T3 was struggling a bit and missed focus several times, but I’m going to upgrade to the latest firmware and try again soon
I bought a second-hand X-E3 to see if it could fit my needs for a smaller, simpler camera, somewhere in between the X-T3 and the X100f. There was a lot to like about the X-E3, like the clean design, but finally, it just didn’t sit right with me and I sold it. It did inspire me to do my first real product shoot, ala Jonas Rask, which was fun. You can read more about it over here :-).
The Fujinon XF 27mm f/2.8 is a pancake lens, and probably the smallest XF lens on the market, at least from Fujifilm. It doesn’t have an aperture ring, which is a big negative for me and the focus was a bit unstable. I know a lot of people love this lens, especially paired with some of the smaller camera bodies from Fujifilm, like the X-T20, X-T30, or the X-E3, but for me, it didn’t work and I sold it just a few months after buying it. You can read more about it in my X-E3 & XF 27mm post.
The X-T30 was the first Fuji camera I bought. It came with the Fuji 18-55mm kit-lens and was a great segway into the Fujiverse. I sold it a little over a year later just to trim down my gear collection. In my mind, the X-T30 is one of the best value-for-money cameras available at the moment.
This lens was my least used lens and that, in addtion to my problems with 24mm as a focal length, was the reason I sold it. It’s a great little lens, but owning both the f/1.4 and the f/2.8 version is a bit overkill for a hobbyist like me. It has great build and optical quality.
This was my second Fujifilm camera and triggered my photo interest in a major way during our vacation in Malaga. I bought my X100s used and fell completely in love with the quirkiness of the camera. The 16 megapixel sensor gave me great photos, the shutter sound was intriguing and the built-in ND-filter was very handy in bright sunny conditions. I later bought the X100f and sold this X100s, but part of me regrets letting it go.
Experience with other gear
I was a huge fan of the Panasonic GH5 for a few years, owned two Nikon DSLRs D70 & D90 at the beginning of my photo adventure, and had a very short affair with Sony A7II.
