A Trip Down Photo Memory Lane:

In my last blogpost I discussed my general thoughts on gear, especially for those starting off in photography. 

For this post I had planned to share with you all the specific gear I use today, but as I was starting to write about my what led me to my current camera kit this became a small trip down photo memory lane and sorta became its own post. 

So the “What’s in My Bag” post will be next week as I’d like to share some details on my photography background and gear journey up until this point. I hope you find it interesting or it causes you to reflect on your first few cameras you had when you started off. 

What I Used for Years:

Before discussing my current gear I wanted to talk about what I used before my current setup. As I’ve been shooting for a while I’ve had a couple cameras over the years. Originally I started with a point and shoot camera which was a thing before cell phone cameras actually became decent cameras. This is what got me into taking photos and I could fit it in my pocket and I took photos of everything. I used it in full auto and I thought all the numbers that would appear on the screen such as f-stop, shutter speed, and ISO were cool but I had no idea what they meant at that time. 

While I was happy shooting away with my little point and shoot my buddy picked up a DSLR a year or so later, a Nikon D40 to be exact. I was blown away at the quality which was a whole 6.1 mp (less than my cell phone today), and the fact that he could change lenses.  I then decided to jump to the D40 as well and that started off my affinity to Nikon. I then moved to a D300 and finally a D7000. With each camera upgrade I would sell off my old one so I always just had one camera. These were also all cropped sensors but at the time I could not afford a full frame setup. As I got more into photography I also picked up a variety of glass such as a nifty 50, a 70 - 200 mm, and an 18 - 55mm lens. Lastly, to extend my shooting time I eventually picked up the battery grip for the D7000 and a few other accessories.

I really enjoyed shooting with this gear for many years and did a little bit of everything from basic portraits, to second shooting at weddings, and some studio shoots. As I was working in the photo industry I was jumping to a lot of different gigs which was honestly challenging as the work was really unpredictable. Eventually I got tired of the gig life and I then started looking for something more stable and eventually landed a retouching job that I ended up doing for a few years. It was during this time that photography started to change for me as it became my work and I lost my motivation to shoot in my free time. 

Now when I just wanted to go out and take some photos for fun my camera kit seemed too cumbersome so I let it sit there for years in my closet neglected. This was also the time the cell phone camera became much better and that became my go-to handy camera for my casual photos. So ironically I went from a point and shoot to a DSLR and then back to a point and shoot style camera over 4 years.

Enter the Fuji X100S:

Finally after a few years of not shooting with anything substantial I started to get the itch again to take more purposeful photos. I also now had a bit more time to balance work and life which gave me some time think about photography again. I know that I wanted to use something more than just my phone but that was “simpler” then the DSLR gear I had. I then came across an article and video from Zack Arias on the Fuji X100S. 

In his review he declared how amazing the little camera was and I liked the idea of the current quality of my old DSLR in this smaller package with full manual controls on the body. My D7000 was 16mp and this little Fuji was also 16 mp which was plenty for me at the time. I made the purchase soon after and this became my main camera for photography. 

As this was my first mirrorless camera it’s size made a huge difference in portability. It was light and compact enough to fit into a small camera bag that I could take with my in my larger backpack. It also eliminated the need to think about photography gear since the camera had a permanently attached lens so I really did not have any lens options to think about. The camera was far from perfect and I had to work with it’s limitations such a single card slot, no zoom, and a slower autofocus then my DSLR. But I knew this going in and was fine with those compromises because the camera made me want to go out and shoot.  As I had my day job, my focus with photography was also shifting to street and travel which this camera excelled at. I also did not need something for the studio or for sports, which the X100s was not particularly designed for, and I knew that I could always fall back on my DSLR if that need came up.

Five Years:

I used this camera for 5 years and it continued to perform well thought that time period. I was still getting some great images out of it and the manual controls were still a pleasure to use. During this time Fuji released updated versions along with other great camera models that had more megapixels, better auto focus, and other great features. Sony also became a major powerhouse in the mirrorless camera world and took over full frame mirrorless. Finally Nikon and Cannon would enter into the scene towards the end filling out the mirrorless market.

The cameras each company released looked outstanding but I always came back to my needs and for most of those 5 years they did not change. I was still taking travel and street photos and I was still happy with the images I was getting so I did not see the point in upgrading. In fact as of this writing half the images on my site were shot from this little camera such as the LA and Cuba photos.  

Limitations: 

Finally after 5 years of using this great little camera I did began to feel limited. The lack of interchangeable lenses started to hold me back a little bit as I began to get interested in other types of shooting again and having other focal lengths would be nice. I was spoiled with the portable size and was no longer interested in switching back to my DSLR. In addition, the low light performance was not great and the camera did not have weather sealing which limited where I could safely take the camera. I was getting interested in taking photos in harsher conditions and wanted something which could handle it. Lastly, I was starting to get interested video and my little X100s was not really strong in that area either. 

This all lead me to finally make a change and switch up my camera in 2018. I’ll be covering what I switched to and the additional accessories I picked up in the next post. 

Final Thoughts: 

Even though I’ve been a digital photographer since the beginning I think I would really enjoy film and have not ruled it out as something to pick up in the future. As I do photography to sort of slow things down I think film would fit right in there with my shooting style and I think it would be exciting to wait and see how the final images would look like once they were developed.  

It would be great to hear in the comments about what camera you started with and how that camera suited your style of shooting at the time. Also if you have any good starter film cameras that would be great as there is a lot I don’t know about when it comes to film.