My journey from Canon to Fujifilm

I started playing around in photography somewhere around the year 2000. It began with a Sony DSC-P100 which was a small point and shoot camera but with manual controls. A few friends and I would occasionally tour the island of Jamaica looking for scenic spots to get nice photos. I was primarily focused on landscapes but would eventually venture into other areas.

At first my emphasis was on composition and learning to determine ideal lighting conditions as control of much else appeared to be very limited. I soon discovered the manual controls which I do remember allowed shutter speeds as slow as 30 seconds. Over time I tried to maximize the results I could get from the little camera via creativity and adjusting the manual controls. I dare say it was the most creative time of my photographic life.

Before persons begin to think of this article as a shameless plug for Sony, let me fast forward a few years in which some of my friends started doing weddings/ model shoots and any other gigs they came across professionally. I had a full time day job but often second shooted or assisted on these and did a few myself as well. I had started with a Canon EOS Rebel XTi (400D) with the kit 18-55mm Lens. I had also acquired a 50mm 1.8 lens which (the very cheap older plastic version, not the more recent STM version). I eventually bought a used Canon 5D from one of my friends and a Canon 17-40mm L from another. I also acquired a Canon 35mm f/2 and a Canon 135mm f/2 L. While I never felt as creative as I did back in the days of the small point and shoot, I developed a workflow and methodology to capture the world as I saw it.

Over time I noticed the quality from the Canon 5D mark 1 was exceptional compared to the 400D. That’s not to say that RAW images from the 400D were not good but the 5D images had a special “feel” to them.

Fast forward to 2018, I relocated to another country but only reach for the big cameras if I have a comercial gig. I often take a lot of photos with my phone but the quality is only so good. I wanted to start taking higher quality photos of things I came across on a day to day basis. I may have forgotten to mention that I have battery grips on both the Canon 400D and 5D and cant find the original battery doors.

I decided to look at small mirrorless cameras as an option. I went to a camera store with the intention of possibly purchasing a Canon M5, M6 or M50. While playing around with the M5, the gentleman at the store mentioned that he had used Fuji cameras personally. I never really thought much of it and did play with a Fujifilm XT-20 along with the Canon M5. The XT-20 was alright but didn’t quite grow on me. Fujifilm had a free 3 day trial for these cameras at the time so I thought I would try one out. I had initially signed up to rent the XT-20 with 18-55mm but apparently they only had the X-Pro2 with the 18mm f/2 or 27mm f/2. I opted for the 18mm prime lens.

As I left the rental office and and took a few shots with there hybrid optical view finder, some of the fire I had back with the Sony P100 was rekindled. I quickly looked like a tourist taking pics of everything around. Over the next few days, I was amazed by the X-Pro2 and the sheer fun it brought back to photography. I will admit to being somewhat of a full frame snob but the quality of the photos were also quite good to the extent that I didn’t miss the Canon 5D. It did, however, require a change to my standard mode of processing canon RAW files in Lightroom as the RAF files(Fujifilm RAW files) tend to respond differently in various RAW converters but will comment more on this in another post.

After the three day trial was over, I then tried the Fujifilm X100F. It was really quite amazing as a carry around camera and is very similar to the X-Pro2 but with a lower resolution LCD and a fixed 23mm f/2 prime lens (equivalent to 35mm in 35mm format). The focusing on the 23mm f/2 prime on the X100F seems a slight bit slower than the 18mm f/2 on the X-Pro2 in some senarios but not by much.

There is something special about the X100F that made the process of selecting a camera very difficult. Limiting yourself to a fixed focal length of 23mm (equivalent to 35mm in 35mm format) can do amazing things for your creativity and photographic skill in general. That being said, there are wide angle and teleconverer lens adapters for the X100 series of cameras that can add 33mm (equivalent to 50mm in the 35mm format) and 19mm (equivalent to 28mm in the 35mm format) with no loss in image quality. Those options will, however, affect the size, weight and general portability of camera.

The X-Pro2 also has a special feel to it, a kind of playfulness in a rather sturdy but fairly small chunk of metal that just makes you want to take it up and use it. In the end, the ability to use a cheap adapter to adapt the canon lenses I already had (with manual focus only and no aperture control) as well as having 2 memory card slots and weather resistant seals for professional work pushed me towards the X-Pro2. I will be updating this article as well as having future posts to speak about my journey as it progresses.

My journey from Canon to Fujifilm

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