Fujifilm XT-5 - First Impressions.
I have wanted a Fujifilm camera, or a camera that’s very reminiscent of film photography for a very long time.
I’m a long time Sony shooter, and I’ve also shot Canon, and Nikon and Lumix…
I’ve stayed with Sony for a while because honestly they are great tools. They get the job done and it’s super reliable.
However, with time we evolve and I am a documentarian and I use my camera everyday.
I don’t have the problem of not feeling inspired because I just love shooting my life and make visual diaries out of them but Sony camera’s started to feel sterile.
They work great in the field but, I didn’t feel connected to the process, or to my tool anymore.
So , today is the first day out with this camera and all the images you are about to see are shot on a 23mm F2. (35mm equivalent).
I honestly went out with no expectations and just to experience that feeling all photographers seem to be so fond of.
The first 30 mins was quite a struggle but soon after that, it started getting really really fun.
I felt at one with the process, very natural. Honestly I have big hands and thought the camera was a bit small, but in the field it was the perfect size.
The sound of the shutter was extremely satisfying, and the speed the camera allows you to have while shooting streets with all the dials is just not comparable to many other brands. It’s like muscle memory came back from shooting 35mm.
(I am not that old but shot film a lot many years ago when I started photography and couldn’t afford a digital camera)
On the other side, this camera isn’t perfect…
Coming from a past where I shot with Sony and even medium format Fujifilm, it’s hard to not look very closely at the image to look for differences.
Honestly I find that there’s definitely a difference between the image quality and overall rendering from a larger sensor. This is just a fact, and we can’t change that.
I guess I spend a lot of time processing images that I see those differences in a split second but for someone who’s not in that world, I highly believe they are unnoticeable..
I’ll highly recommend this camera if you are beginner or a professional who’s looking to have fun again with photography. Digital camera’s are making most of photography a bit boring. It’s too perfect. I like manual camera’s because they immerse you in the process and hence value the images you took a little bit more.
There’s beauty in imperfection.
I am definitely keeping that camera as a daily driver, something I can just put on my shoulder and document my life and create memories. After all isn’t that what’s photography is made for?
