More On My Decision To Keep The Fujifilm Gear And Sell The Olympus Gear

Amtrak #94 Westbound at Lee Hall, Virginia (click to enlarge)

Fujifilm X-T1, 10-24mm f/4 lens @ 13.8mm; 1/1000th sec. @ f/5.6; ISO 400

In my last blog post I wrote extensively about my journey of discovery in making my decision to keep one camera system and sell the other.  You can read about it here.  I found the process long, drawn out and difficult.  However, in the end, the decision became very easy and clear to me.  I asked myself, "what is the most important thing to me about my photography?"  The answer was and always has been the final photograph.

After examining my images over the past year, it was clear that I preferred the "look and quality" of the images made with my X-T1 and lenses.  This is a very personal decision and you may not like the color or look of them at all.  That is one of the nice things about photography.  We each get to choose what we like best!

However, there were a couple of other factors that, in the end, weighed in on my final decision.  Again, the final image was the overwhelming reason and these are lessor reasons.  

The fact that Fujifilm just introduced the X-Pro 2 with a 24mp sensor is attractive to me. With current technology, I don't think M4/3 can realistically go much more than the current state-of-the-art 20mp because of the size of the sensor itself.  I've long written that my "sweet spot" for digital camera sensors was about 24 mp.  Why 24mp?  Well, I have been photographing for stock for many years and the fact is the larger and higher quality the file, the more marketable it is.  The 16mp of the X-T1 and Olympus E-M1 is fine, but on occasion, I find I have had to uprez the file after cropping.  That leads me to the second consideration in favor of 24mp.  The ability to crop when necessary without losing too many pixels or having to uprez the file afterward.

If I didn't photograph for stock, the 24mp sensor would not even be a consideration as I have found 16mp fully meets my personal needs.

I currently own a Nikon D810 with 36mp, but I've come to the conclusion that 36mp is too much most of the time.  I just don't need that much resolution nor file size.

Now, I'm not really interested in the X-Pro 2 but am anticipating an X-T2 which, hopefully, will include all of the features introduced in the X-Pro 2.  That will satisfy that 24mp sweet spot I've been wanting for a long time.  The greater number of PDAF points also is of interest as well as the joystick to move the focus points around.  Finally, from initial reports, the focus speed seems to be better. I sometimes focus moving objects and faster, more accurate focus is always better.

All of these issues are still secondary to the "look and quality" of the final image, in my opinion.  I mention these as I know some of you will have questions about some of the technical differences between the two camera systems.

I used both systems (Olympus E-M1 M4/3 and Fujifilm X-T1 APS-C) side-by-side for over a year and, in terms of usability, both served me well.  I have no "serious" issues with either, just nit picky stuff.  Nothing that I couldn't deal with as one would with any device.  Again, it all comes down to my perception of my final images.

One more comment.  4/3 format sensor size versus APS-C sensor size—in my experience, there is no practical difference in image quality the vast majority of the time.  Only when you get to extreme ISOs or enlargements larger than 24" X 30", then the difference becomes somewhat apparent.  But how often—in your real world photography—do those situations arise?

Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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