Tuesday, September 16, 2014

My switch from Canon to Fuji

Let me tell you a story, around this time last year my friends and I took a trip to northeast Brasil (where my family is from), I had all these grand ideas of the images I'd create and all the different gear I'd need take with me. So I loaded up my camera backpack with everything I could think of, two camera bodies with battery grips, 6 lenses, a speedlight, tripod, gopro etc. I had all this expensive and heavy gear that I took as my carry on while I traveled. During my 2 1/2 months in the country I didn't use any of that gear... Yup that's right, for 9 weeks that backpack full of camera gear sat in my grandmas house. I did however take a lot of photos, not with my fancy Canon equipment, but with my iphone and my gopro, why? Because those two were the most convenient and didn't attract much attention, after all northeast Brasil isn't the safest place ever, and I wasn't wanting to get robbed of all my expensive gear. So after I arrived back in Portland, I realized something, having a bunch of cool gear is pointless unless you use it and you can't use it if it's not with you and my gear wasn't with me because it was too cumbersome and attracted thieves. So the next month I decided to sell all the camera gear I owned and start from scratch. After researching and testing out a bunch of cameras I stumbled upon the fuji x100s, I had heard about this camera, but blew it off cause I thought it was just one of those trendy "hipster" cameras that girls bought because they look cool. Man was I wrong, legends like David Hobby, Zach Arias and even my all time fav Joey L, were using this camera, so I had to read up about it. After taking into consideration the draw backs this camera had, it did meet the requirements I had for my "travel camera". It was light, small, inconspicuous, had amazing high ISO performance and stunning image quality, after a lot of back and forth I finally pulled the trigger and ordered my first Non Canon camera, the Fujifilm x100s!



(I went with the new black version cause I figured it would stand out that much less, plus it looks a little less "trendy" haha) 

First off this camera has some draw backs, the fixed focal length and the poor video features were two things I wasn't comfortable with, but I new I could work around them. The first month I decided to shoot with the camera as much as I could, I shot everything I used to shoot, skateboarding, landscapes, portraits etc. I quickly learned the 35mm focal length and knew how I would frame my shots after only a couple minutes at the location. The leaf shutter is one thing that I love about this camera I can hand hold my camera at slow shutter speeds and sync flashes at faster speeds than any of my DSLR shooter friends! All in all this camera is amazing, it's not for everyone but for me it's a perfect fit, it's goes everywhere with me whether I'm climbing a mountain or taking senior photos this camera makes me love what I do and doesn't slow me down! 

Find me on Instagram! @nigelbarros



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