One month in

It’s been a little over four weeks since I said goodbye to my DSLR kit and started using Fuji exclusively. It’s been a learning curve, but a worthwhile one.

Here’s the list of negative points.

Fuji lens hoods suck. They’re plastic and loose, and don’t feel in proportion to the cameras*.

That’s it. That’s all I’ve got.

That’s not to say it’s been all plain sailing, but so far the only thing I’ve had a problem with which I felt needed immediate remedy, is that the quality of the lenses I bought (more about them in a minute) and the quality of the hoods supplied with those lenses is worlds apart. So they’ve been replaced with some third-party metal hoods that are a bit shorter and a lot more likely to stay in place.

*there are exceptions. I really like the hood of the 35mm, although it’s still far too loose for my liking.

I’ve yet to see any problems with contrast-sapping lens light leaks in the lenses I picked. I went with the 14mm F/2.8; 56mm 1.2, and the 50-140mm F/2.8. The 56mm is the only one so far which has shown any sort of flare, and it resulted in a beautiful warming glow in the “affected” area. And it’s exactly what I wanted in a lens: character.

Flare from the morning sun. Fuji X-E2 + 56mm

I owned a Nikon 70-200mm VRII a few years back, which I sold after taking receipt of the Tamron equivalent. In all other respects, I preferred the Tamron. But when you shot a backlit portrait with the Nikon, there was a beautiful yellow haze that would cover the entire image. Every time I used the Tamron in similar circumstances, I missed that haze. It was an optical imperfection, but it made the images a bit more special.

So I don’t need a hood to cut down glare, but I do like to keep them on the lenses as a way of protecting the front element, and to give me a bit of choice in whether or not I need a lens cap when out in the field. Having a shorter hood gives me that option, but doesn’t require a larger bag to put into practice. And that’s the real beauty of my new kit.

That's my entire kit, in a bag the same size as my paltry size 7's

I’m now using a Think Tank Change Up 2.0. In that, I can fit a 14mm, a 56mm, a 50-140, an X-E2, an X100T (with 35mm TC), a Nissin i40 flash unit, and all manner of batteries and filters for a trip. There’s even an old Nikon 55mm macro lens and adaptor in there that used to belong to my Grandfather. Full, it weighs 5kg. That’s everything I have (for really lightweight trips, it’s just the X100T, which brings it down to a few hundred grams). I don’t have to plan a trip anymore, I can just grab the bag and go.

There are things which I still feel could be better. I know that Fuji is already addressing some of those things with the X-Pro 2, like the fact that there are times I do make use of the optical finder (which I miss on the X-E2), and the selection of single focus points. But they aren’t deal breakers. Even the continuous focus, which feels very strange as it hunts. Because when it hits, it nails it .

Scarlet Macaws over Sheffield. Really. Fuji X-E2 + 50-140mm

I would love to see a firmware update that lets us change the focus ring sensitivity for each lens, which I’m sure must be possible with fly-by-wire lenses, and other options for panoramic shooting. But none of these things would send me running back to a DSLR anytime soon.

The best DSLRs will give lovely, crisp images with eye watering resolution. However, my images became more and more sterile over time. The constant push for technical perfection robbed me of the desire to simply respond and shoot. I needed something that was more carefree, easier to carry and fit into my life. I didn’t need more resolution than the Fuji X Trans II offers. I’ve built a system around the X100T, using that as my central starting point, and buying a set of lenses for when I needed to go wider, faster, or longer. There’s not one weak link in the chain, and I’m delighted with my choices.