For a while now I’ve been feeling a little anxious about not shooting as much as I’d like. Before moving to Melbourne from Hobart I was a student with all the time in the world living close to coastline and lush waterfalls. Living in inner city Melbourne it can be a little difficult trying to balance photography around full time work as I’m often leaving for work when the sun is rising and leaving just as the sun is about to set. I then had an idea. If I’m riding to and from work every day why not carry a camera and make the most of sunset and sunrise light? So I did.
After much procrastinating I thought the Pansonic Lumix LX7 camera was the camera for me so ordered it. Although a nice camera, it wasn’t the one for me so I sold it on Gumtree for about what i paid. A few days later I noticed a Fujifilm X100 pop up for sale on a forum I frequent. I couldn’t resist the price and from all accounts even with a few niggles, it’s a great little camera.
Since purchasing I’ve started carrying the camera every day and have found it a great little camera to use. Sure there’s a few little issues with the camera but hey, no camera is perfect and I can tolerate any slight niggles. The camera is a great ‘daily carry’ camera as it fits nicely into my bike bag and isn’t too cumbersome to carry if I’m out and about of a weekend. If you’re in the market for something more portable than your DSLR I’d recommend you seriously consider a X100 (or X100S if budget permits!). I still plan on using my DSLR for long exposures, my baking blog and other bits but why not have something you can easily carry and still get some great shots?
Here’s a collection of some of my favourite photos since purchasing the camera a month ago. All images are captured around Melbourme with most being on my way to and from work. I spend half my time riding keeping an eye out for things to photo. Sometimes it means I’m a little late for work but the results are worth it. In case you’re wondering, I went for a slight film look to the photos which was achieved by using Adobe Lightroom and the VSCO plugin. I’ve been a little skeptical of the plugin in the past but for some reason it just works perfectly for the style of images I’ve been shooting with the X100. I guess in the past it wasn’t appropriate for long exposures and landscape photos where accurate colour rendition of the scene is crucial. If you’re after a plugin for Lightroom that imitates film well, I can’t recommend VSCO highly enough. It’s great!
I can’t wait to give it a test run for some long exposures of waterfalls and seascapes. David from Flixelpix has posted some beautiful long exposures using the X100 on his blog so it’s definitely achievable.
PS, Sorry for overwhelming you with a ton of photos 😉
– Alex
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I’m interested to see your thoughts on the X100 after you’ve been using it for a few more months, but I can understand your desire to have something smaller than your DSLR.
I’ve been doing quite a bit of travelling (for work) recently, and have been dragging my DSLR around, but not using it much. Something smaller would definitely be preferable, and I’ve been considering the X100 or the X100S, particularly after reading some glowing reviews of the X100S by people like David Hobby, Zack Arias and others. However, as you mentioned, the X100S will definitely stretch the budget more, and I’m not sure if I want to do that… 😉
Definitely. I originally thought a point and shoot would be more than adapt for my needs but once I actually got one in my hands I realised I took for granted some features of a DSLR so was after something that was more cut down but still retaining qualities of a DSLR. The LX7 was a great camera but the X100 was more for me in terms of better manual control. I couldn’t be more happier with the purchase.
For me the X100 was a no brainer as the X100S seems to have better low light performance which while great, I can get by without it. I’ve seen a few pop up on forums for around $400 or so? A pretty good purchase if you can. More than happy to give you a play with it next time you’re in Melbourne.
Mate.. many ripper shots in there. Very happy you picked up something to make it easier for you to share 🙂
Thanks Jack! Would love to spend a weekend shooting around in Syd with it 😉
Blown away by these shots Wisie. I just sat down and had a better look and they are fantastic! Keep it up! Looking forward to seeing more.
Thanks Martin! Wasn’t sure whether presenting them this way was the best as there’s so many images and I was worried people might get a little bored viewing so it’s nice to hear you enjoyed and didn’t get too bored 🙂
– Alex