Macfilos has been covering the Fujifilm-X1 (APS-C) system recently, primarily in the context of an alternative to Leica’s discontinued APS-C cameras and lenses. I don’t have that comparison, never having owned Leica’s APS-C gear. But I can tell you why, as a career photographer and Leica fanboy, I have owned and used my Fujifilm-X system for over a decade. I have done so for both professional and personal work. And, well, okay… I am also a Fujifilm fanboy.
Why Fujifilm-X if I own Leica?
The short version for owning and using the Fujifilm-X system is that I shoot in situations that I can’t cover as well, or at all, with my full frame (FF) Leica M and Q systems. I shoot and even see differently with my Fujifilm-X system.
My main uses compared to the M11 and Q3 are ultra-wide and long telephoto focal lengths. I also use zooms, and infrared capture. An SL system could handle two of those, though SL sensors can’t be modified for infrared. More obviously, an SL system would represent a significant increase in cost, weight, and bulk for both bodies and lenses.
I have owned many non-rangefinder full frame systems over the years, most recently Sony. After years of using both Sony FF and Fujifilm-X systems, I found Fuji cameras and lenses more fun to use. They also get out of the way of my concentration on my subject and image creation. It was an evolution and now, after eleven years, I still use and enjoy the Fujifilm-X system immensely.
Top eleven reasons I use Fujifilm-X
❶ Compact and lightweight, especially compared to FF systems, yet solidly built.
❷ Tactile analogue controls (easy transition from Leica rangefinders).
❸ Top-notch optical quality of their lenses – I thoroughly test every lens I buy or rent, and Fujifilm’s lenses stand up to Leica and Voigtländer.
❹ Feels like a natural extension of myself, allowing me to create images without having to think about it. Contrast this to Sony, which always felt like using a computer with lenses attached.
❺ Best bang for the buck without compromise.
❻ Great colour science behind their film profiles and stellar colour balance to assist in visualising the final image. The accurate colour saved my neck on some commercial shoots.
❼ More extensive lens offerings than most other companies: To date, 44 native Fuji-X lenses, over 30 of which are weather sealed and have optical image stabilization (OIS). Plus, dozens of third-party options, both autofocus (AF) and manual focus (MF).
❽ The 1.5x crop advantage. More reach for long lenses, yet many lenses available on the ultra-wide-angle end of the range. Furthermore, one more stop effective depth of field (DOF), allowing you to use better performing apertures when you need to maximise DOF.
❾ Ability to store MF lens names that appear in EXIF data (my X-T5 bodies store up to six lenses).
❿ Several lenses that perform well with both visible light and infrared. I shoot both.
⓫ Fujifilm has a long track record of being committed to APS-C for professionals and enthusiasts alike, while also continuing to innovate and cover different types of photography/photographers.
A few niggles
- No camera or system is perfect, so here are some things I don’t like, in contrast to my Leica M and Q cameras. None are dealbreakers for me, but here they are:
- The menu system is not very intuitive. Of course, no worse than most other brands. There are two saving graces: I make use of the MY MENU (like the Favorites Menu on Leica) and Q menus, similar to User Profiles in Leica-speak.
- My X-T5s aren’t the easiest to configure for some autofocus situations.
- Fujifilm’s X Pro Service isn’t as good as Sony’s and costs more ($399 versus $100 per year).
- With the X-T5, the 3.69m-dot electronic viewfinder (EVF) is good, but I would prefer a 5.76m-dot like the Fujifilm X-H2/S, and Leica Q3, SL2/3. Maybe we’ll see it in the X-T6. Note that the X-E5’s EVF, although usable, is even lower resolution at 2.36m-dot.
Still lovin’ Fujifilm
Since I tried my first Fujifilm camera eleven years ago, my system has evolved from X-Pro2 bodies, then X-T3 bodies, and currently X-T5 bodies. In that process I also owned an X-Pro1 briefly, an X-T20 as a backup that I never really needed, X-T1, X-T2, X-T4 bodies and also an X-E4 for a while and an X-E5 which I returned.
I may revisit the X-E5, as it is irresistibly cute and highly capable. One of my X-T5 bodies is modified for infrared photography, which may be an article for another time.
I favour zooms over primes. At various times I have owned numerous Fujifilm-X lenses from the XF 8mm f/3.5 up to their venerable XF 100-400mm f/4.5-5.6 and 1.4x converter.
For now and the foreseeable future, Fujifilm is my APS-C companion system of choice.
Notes
Although I mention the film profiles I used for the images in this article, I don’t use the out-of-camera JPEGs to which these profiles are applied. I use them to help me visualise in the viewfinder and as a reference for processing. Typically, the Adobe versions of the Fujifilm profiles in Lightroom are a good match to Fuji’s own. In the case of the X-Pro2 images, I captured some of those using the OVF; thus the visualisation was in my mind’s eye.
| More from Joel Wolfson | Mike Evans’s Fujifilm kit |
| Jörg-Peter Rau’s Fujifilm kit | Fujifilm, the Macfilos-preferred APS-C system |
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- Fujifilm has two systems: Their X system which is APS-C and their GFX system which is medium format. ↩︎