How To Ruin Your Fuji X Experience

Once upon a time, I had a huge Canon DSLR system. Heavy, a couple of large camera bags, a real obstacle to joy when lugging it all with me. Kind of sucks the life out of you when you are burdened with too much crap. Even one body with a small zoon was a bit much when the primary reason for a little trip was not a photo job. Even my 50mm 1.2L on a full-size body was four times the size of a similar 35mm film camera. I needed something fun but capable of making pictures I actually cared about here and there.

Along came the original X100. Sign me up! After what seemed like an eternity you could actually buy one, so I did. It was great!!!; Except for a few nagging issues. So I upgraded it to the X100S when that was available. A little better but still some minor things drove me nuts like the frame line behavior between shots even in manual focus. Oh, I also really wanted a 50mm field of view as well. Out goes the X100S and in comes the X-Pro1 with all three lenses available. Oooops now I needed a small bag.

Not quite there, same bullshit frame line behavior, not nearly as capable as the canon. Loved the size of the 18mm and 35mm primes. I kinda loved a few things but hated a bunch of other things. What’s this? An XT-1 that was “better” in every way. Bought that, I guess the EVF was okay, not as bad as a few years ago but I still really wanted an optical viewfinder 80% of the time…

I had a great idea. Maybe I’ll try upgrading the Fuji system to replace the Canon system so I don’t have to decide which one to bring. I felt like I had the wrong camera when I only brought the Fuji too much. I’ll grab a bunch of the new “better” lenses for the camera I only kinda liked but I did like the size.

After a spending frenzy, I had all the stuff, well almost all the stuff. The viewfinder was still not great in a lot of circumstances. I still had a few issues with getting focus confirmation while actually focused on the background in backlit conditions. I still thought I brought the wrong system a lot and as an added bonus my Fuji bag was just as big as the Canon bag I typically packed.

Then the X-Pro2 came along, this would solve all of my problems. New OVF, “better” focusing, and more pixels. Oh, a couple new better lenses that were even bigger than the last set of “better” lenses. Gotta grab those. Meh, I did like the camera a lot better but god, I’ve saved no size and weight, and truth be told the Canon stuff was still my go-to gear for jobs and I still thought I had the wrong system a lot of the time. I sold the Fuji system lock stock and barrel.

What the hell… Why do I have two systems that are about the same size. What happened to the fun and the whole point of why I wanted the X100 in the first place. The problem wasn’t the Fuji system. The problem was me. I made something simple and constrained trying to do too many jobs. I just traded my do-anything system for another do-anything system when what I really wanted was a simple camera with no camera bag similar in size to a 35mm film camera and one small prime.

I still have my Canon system that’s evolved a little bit since that time. I love it for all of the things it does really well. I also have a Fuji X-Pro “system” again but this time It’s the two original lenses I liked, the 35mm and the 18mm. I love that camera again now that I never use a camera bag when I decide to take it.

I’m sure many people have a giant Fuji system and love it for all of the reasons I love my Canon system. I ruined my own Fuji experience because I was stupid and tried solving a problem I didn’t have. I subverted the entire reason I personally wanted a Fuji in the first place.

I wanted a good-looking well-performing, unobtrusive camera that I could travel without a camera bag at all. I wanted a non-system just with a 50mm field of view. I fall into the trap of subverting what I like about something by trying to make it do everything with no real reason. Maybe I’ll stop that someday. For now, I’m happy with my no-bag X-Pro and a clear decision process. Am I going somewhere primarily to make pictures? Canon bag. Any other time it’s the Fuji X-Pro.