Joining the Crowd

I have a confession; I have succumbed. It's not often that I follow the crowd. In fact, I usually run screaming in the opposite direction. However, I have joined the Fuji fans and invested in (read indulged myself with) the lovely Fujifilm X-T1, 10-24mm f/4.0 R OIS and 56mm XF f/1.2 R. Coveting gear is a well know phenomenon with photographers and I have been quietly eyeing up some very attractive Fuji X-series in the hands of fellow togs but what tipped me over the edge was my recent trip to Glasgow. Even though I took only one camera body with one lens I still struggled with lugging around the the weight of it along with the tripod all day. Now I love my full frame Nikon D700 and it has served me well but I have got to the point where I rarely take it out (unless I am working obviously!) and even the thought of it plus a full backpack of lenses, filters and tripod makes my back and shoulders ache. I am only little (5'2", politely known as petite but has been referred to as dwarf) and the sight of me with a Lowepro Pro Trekker 400 bag has reduced some people to tears of laughter and I must admit to struggling to remain upright once I have heaved it on to my back. Until the X-T1 came along I had not been tempted as the quality I get from my full frame kit is fabulous. However, seeing the imagery that fellow photographers are producing has made me realise that graduating to mirrorless may no longer need to be a compromise on quality (check out Paul Sanders, Matt Hart and the Fujiholics for starters). I held out for quite a while as finances are an issue but as they say life is for living so some of that rainy day money has been indulged on making my everyday life a little easier. My friends at CameraNu had stock (a rarity as these babies are gone as soon as they arrive), so I bit the bullet and pressed the order button. Now I just need to dust off the rarely used gear in the back of the cupboard to sell and recoup some of the cost. One day later I had it in my hands - now that's what I call service!

It's only had one outing so far and it's a learning curve but a gentle one that the intuitive controls on the X-T1 make easy. I enjoyed the handling, made use of the Fuji app to control the camera from a smartphone (now that's cool!) and had a fabulous 90 minutes bonding with this little camera on Thursday evening during a break in the weather. I headed to a nearby windmill, De Salamander to watch some wonderful clouds scudding by and to experiment. I think we did just fine, my camera and me. It is definitely the start of a beautiful relationship!

Fuji X-T1 at work	Transferred to iPhone ready for sharing
Fuji X-T1 poised on tripod with Lee Big Stopper stacked with Lee 0.9 ND	File transferred from camera directly to iPhone via Fuji App - great if you want to post/send immediately.
De Salamander Molen, Leidschendam, Zuid Holland, The Netherlands
The final edit with minor adjustments in LR5 and b&w conversion in Silver Efex Pro.

Now if you'll excuse me, I haven't fondled my Fuji yet today. Happy weekend!