Most of the images you will find here on my website were shot using my favorite combo of the Nikon D4 and the 70-200mm 2.8 VRii lens. I love everything about this combination except for one thing, the weight. Although I have come to accept that the weight is worth it for the quality of the images and the ability to get so many keepers using the D4's fabulous 10 frames per second. The Nikon gear is staying exactly where it is....however, I couldn't help thinking it would be nice to have a smaller, lighter system to take out with me on days when I just want to throw a small camera in my bag and not take things quite so seriously. I had already been using the Canon s120 for this purpose but as fabulous as the image quality was I found the limited focal length and the lack of a viewfinder a real pain. So often I would be outside and unable to make sense of anything on the screen because of the daylight glare that I would just give up trying.
I hadn't really taken too much notice of the Fuji's until I attended a seminar by the Wedding Photographer, Kevin Mullins. I don't shoot weddings or ever intend to but there was just something about his images that captured my attention. He has an amazing ability to capture peoples emotions but there is something else that is just special about his images, something that makes them stand out as different. He spoke very highly of the Fujifilm cameras he had fallen in love with which had taken the place of his DSLR system. So when I got home I started to investigate. Although I wasn't really looking for a camera for dog photography I thought it would be nice to have that option sometimes, so my requirements were always going to be very different to those of a wedding photographer. I looked at the X-T1 and it seemed to fit the bill in every way apart from the focus system. I needed a fast focus system, dogs can run extremely fast and unpredictably so I need a camera that could keep up. I ended up dismissing it and went off researching other mirrorless systems. On paper the Sony A6000 seemed to make perfect sense but there was something that kept drawing me back to the Fuji, I loved the image quality. I kept looking at them and then I heard of a firmware update which had vastly improved the focus system. So many reviews said all the right things, the focus system was a major improvement but it was never really going to be an action photographers camera. I decided to just go for it and if I can't use it for dogs then so be it, I still have the Nikon for that. I ended up ordering the X-T10 a slightly scaled down version of the X-T1 but with all the important things still there. Along with the 18-55mm and the 55-200mm lenses I had most of the range covered, if I love the camera enough some primes may be added later.
So a couple of weeks ago the X-T10 and 18-55mm arrived, followed a week later by the 55-200mm. I have fallen in love with how light it is, I've fallen in love with the old school styling, the dials just feel so natural to use. I love having the ability to see the changes I make to an image before I have even clicked the shutter. Within a day I was getting to know my way around the menus and it all seems so intuitive. Image quality is proving to be fabulous. The colours it produces are stunning, I am finding myself experimenting more with black and white than I ever have done before. I have been out a few times with the dogs to see how it handled action shots whilst they play in their own exhuberant way. Our Hungarian Vizslas are very bouncy and very very fast (average top speed of 40mph), the camera certainly has a lot to keep up with. The first couple of times was a complete disaster, so many out of focus images. I quickly realised I'd have to think differently and learn the Fuji focus system. I am having more success and getting more and more keepers now. Hopefully I can keep building on that, I am certainly enjoying trying. This camera is an absolute joy and a pleasure to use and I am only a couple of weeks in to using it.
You got me Fuji!.
