Gear Guide

The flagship X camera from Fujifilm, the X-T3 is in theory my ‘main’ camera though for a mix of reasons I increasingly only use it on serious full-day photo outings. I'll tend to take the X-Pro2 out more for street-style shooting and now I have the GFX line too, it’s always hard not to want to play with the medium format sensor.

None of which should detract from the X-T3 which is frankly an outstanding camera. If I wasn’t so lazy, I’d take the vertical grip off and the X-T3 body itself is a perfect size for the instances when I tend to reach for the X-Pro2.

It performs better and has a much better EVF (particularly important for glasses-wearers like me)

The other top-end Fuji body, the X-Pro2 is my street camera. The one I’ll more often have in my bag on a daily basis in case I want to take any pictures.

Partly this is due to the rangefinder form factor, partly it’s the button layout (so much easier to quickly review images) and partly it’s that I tend to leave the vertical grip on the X-T3 bringing size into things (lazy, I know—the X-T3 is actually smaller without the grip). It has a slightly older sensor compared to the X-T3 but the difference is minimal in practise.

Mostly retired for some time now, the X100 is the camera with the deepest emotional connection for me. It introduced the Fujifilm X series, but more importantly it re-introduced the joy of photography for me. The classic rangefinder styling and use of physical controls for most of the key exposure settings encourage you to get out of auto and really get to know your camera. After a near miss leaving the camera on the Jubilee line in London and thankfully getting it back a month later, I still take the X100 for the odd outing and still adore the image quality, even at ‘only’ 12MP.

The fourth iteration—hence the ‘F’, weirdly; they went roman numeral V for ‘fifth’—of the X100 line. Almost exactly the same body (and actually the same lens) as the original X100, the X100F simply packs all the latest goodness Fujifilm had to offer in early 2017 into an already-near-perfect form.

A focus selection joystick and front dial, plus the combined shutter speed/ISO top dial from the X-Pro2, are the main physical differences from the original.

While resolution doubles from 12 to 24MP, the only real thing stopping me still using the original X100 regularly was performance (both auto-focus and general speed) and the X100F basically solves both. I’m also totally bought-in on the focus joystick with newer Fujis so it’s great to see it here.

I picked up a second-hand X-Pro3 with the ‘Dura Black’ titanium top and bottom plates, which was a lovely upgrade on the X-Pro2 (slightly bigger viewfinder being key, as a glasses-wearer).

The infamous rear flip screen takes some getting used to, though it does discourage chimping. First impressions were good and I particularly enjoyed pairing it with the Contax G mount Zeiss Biogon 28mm F2.8.

After 6 or so months though, I decided to move a few bits on and the X-Pro3 got sold as the X-Pro2 could also do a great job. 18 months later, the itch came back and I picked up a ‘Dura Silver’ copy which I’ve had since.

I first bought the X-E3 in late 2018 with the idea of it being an almost-pocketable, X100-style camera for the lighter days out but with the option of interchangeable lenses. A month or so later though, I picked up both the brand-new X-T3 and a used GFX 50s, both of which overtook the little X-E3 in usage quite quickly. Eventually, I sold the X-E3 back on as it wasn’t seeing enough usage, while the smaller viewfinder was a bit of an issue as a glasses-wearer.

The X-E3 is still a great little camera however: the same 24MP X-trans sensor and processor as its larger siblings, in a much smaller body. And it’s that size (narrower even than the X100F) that recently led me to buy another copy, this time in silver to match my X100F and for more of that retro feel.

After holding out hope for an X-Pro4 to be released in early 2023, I gave up and bought a silver X-T5. Very early impressions are that the resolution is great—approaching the 50MP I have with the GFX bodies—but the IBIS (in-body image stabilisation) is outstanding.

This is surprisingly the first camera I’ve owned with IBIS and it’s excellent. It will open up way more usage possibilities with some of my slower or longer manual lenses; it might even make the old Soligor 100-300mm hand-holdable, who knows!

As with so many other photographers, I eventually had to give the Leica world a try. A visit to Red Dot Cameras got me a lovely black M 240 body and off I went to excitedly try it out on a walk home through the streets of London.

Over the course of a couple of weeks though, the camera frustrated me and I quickly sold it on again. I got a few lovely pictures but wasn’t used to rangefinder focusing and only had one rangefinder-coupled lens, the Voigtländer Nokton 50/1.5.

Ever since though, I’ve occasionally looked back at the few images I took and regretted selling so quickly. The colours and rendition could be lovely and maybe I needed to just persevere a little longer and not expect it to be a camera with a wide range of lenses—I have plenty of other for that!

Nearly a year after trying the M 240, I had another attempt at the Leica M system and picked up a used M10, though it didn’t even last as long as the 240. Leica Ms really need Leica lenses but I still only had the Voigtländer 50/1.5 and quickly got frustrated again.

Worse, the new optional electronic viewfinder was even more awkward to use when using non-rangefinder-coupled lenses and after only a few days I traded the M10 back in for a Fujifilm GFX 50R which has been my main camera since. The M10 is a lovely object but I prefer the handling of the Fujis in almost all other ways. I’m sure I’ll try Leica again one day though.

The game-changer.

Plenty has been said about the GFX 50S and after managing to pick a second-hand body and two lenses for a great price, I've been loving it. Image quality is beyond excellent and while obviously big and heavy relative to the X-series bodies, it’s actually 100g lighter than my old Canon 5D Mark II body. The 50S is a beast for landscape photography but I’ve also increasingly taken it on short family outings with success.

In short: it’s the same sensor and image quality as the GFX 50S in a rangefinder-style body and without the protruding box at the back.

After a very brief second sojourn into Leica territory with the M10, I thought better of it and traded in for the 50R. Initially I found it a little unbalanced, but using the smaller GF lenses (63/2.8, 50/3.5, etc.) or adapted manual lenses work great. For larger lenses, I have an L-bracket that includes an extended grip to help out.

While quite a bit bigger than an M10, the 50R isn’t that much heavier and so it works pretty nicely with adapted manual lenses. The EVF and focus peaking are excellent. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the GFX 50R and it’s my go-to camera of the past couple of years.

The first film camera I bought, a 6x6cm medium format tank (albeit a good-looking tank).

Sadly, after buying the S2 on a work trip to California, I returned to London and had the film developed only to find the focusing screen was out of alignment. I had to return it, but I absolutely loved using the S2 and I’ve just recently bought another one.

My first roll of film through the ‘new’ S2 seems to suggest a light leak however, so I either have particularly bad luck with this camera or I’m doing something wrong. More investigation needed…

While the Bronica S2 had been a dud, it got me excited about film photography and I quickly looked around for a replacement. Slightly burned by the faulty S2, I wanted more of a sure thing to get stuck into film with and ended up buying the much more modern Mamiya 645AFD

With a familiar SLR layout and auto-exposure, it was certainly an easier camera to use and I did really enjoy the 645. After a while though, I decided the more familiar form factor and aspect ratio—particularly the ease of shooting with auto-exposure and -focus—was lulling me back into shooting like I did with digital cameras.

All on me, but it was time to go square(ish) again…

The Mamiya 645 was a lovely camera, but too close in style to my digital cameras and I ended up just using it the same way, which was a bit of a waste. So I decided to sell it on and go back to a more square format camera with waist-level finder—something more like the Bronica S2 I'd started, and fallen in love, with. Much ebay-searching and review-reading led eventually to the Bronica GS-1, a 6x7 medium format camera that's on the heavy side even for medium format but is a great camera.

I really enjoyed the GS-1 and got some lovely images from it but wasn't getting enough use out of it and eventually decided to sell it to raise funds towards the Mavic Pro. I'll bring back film photography to my repertoire one day though as there's just something special about the process.

While most people have jumped on the drone wave for video, I picked up the DJI Mavic Pro a couple of years ago purely for stills photography. Compared to every other camera I've owned in years, the camera specs aren't great but the new perspective you can get from aerial photography totally makes it worth it. I haven’t been able to fly as much as I’d like (I’m mostly in and around London which isn’t the most open airspace) but have still got some great images from the little Mavic.

The raw files start out very flat, much more like a video log file, which gives them tons of leeway for editing but also means you have to work quite hard at getting them back to what you saw in person. Put the effort in though, and even that little 12MP sensor can put out some lovely imagery.

While I haven’t had as much use out of the original Mavic as I’d like, the results I’ve had from even a few flights have totally made it worthwhile. Using it solely for stills photography though, resolution and dynamic range are definite issues you have to work around and so the Mavic 2 Pro with its larger, 1" sensor and Hasselblad-designed lens was always going to be too tempting.

My early testing shows a definite improvement in image quality and particularly dynamic range, while the extra resolution is very welcome without being exactly generous.

After so rarely flying my Mavic 2 Pro due to the size and weight that it and its batteries added to my already-heavy backpack on photography outings, when the Mini 3 Pro came along with 48MP raw files, a camera that could rotate 90° like the original Mavic Pro in a tiny, sub-250g package, I eventually decided to make the switch.

With 2022 being something of a washout for my photography, it took me until the start of 2023 before getting out to fly the Mini 3 Pro, but I’m already impressed with the results. Of course the Mavic 2 Pro (and no doubt the Mavic 3 Pro) will have sensor size advantages, but the Mini 3 Pro is small enough that I’m actually likely to take it with me.

I bought the Osmo Pocket with the idea of attempting a little bit of vlogging on the theme of location scouting, as I work on SceneMapper. I’ve done a few test recordings but had neither the time nor the confidence to actually attempt to create a shareable video yet.

The Osmo Pocket is pretty easy to use at a basic level, as with DJIs drones, although the touch screen interface isn’t the most intuitive and I’ve found myself lost swiping around fruitlessly looking for settings and trying to figure out how to either get the camera to follow me, or to stop.