It's Now Been Several Months Since I Sold My Fujifilm Gear; Did I Make A Mistake?

It has now been several months since I sold off all of my Fujifilm gear.  I've been asked by a couple of friends if I miss having and using it?  The answer is yes and no.  

Early last summer I made the really difficult decision to divest myself of one of my camera systems.  I had three full systems!  I felt embarrassed by my gluttony, so to speak.  I made a decision that one had to go.  But which one?

At the time I had a Nikon full frame system centered around the Z7.  The camera came as a kit with the terrific Nikon 24-70mm f/4 S lens and the FTZ (F Mount to Z Mount) adapter.  I bought the camera and lens on sale and the $250 adapter was free.  I still feel the price I paid for the three items was a good value.  I purchased the Z7 primarily for an ongoing project I am doing to copy thousands of my slides and negatives.  I've copied about 4000 slides so far and will start on the negatives in the dead of winter when it is dull, gray and unattractive to go out and photograph.  In addition, I have some older Nikon lenses that I used with my ancient Nikon FE2 film camera in a cabinet so those could be  put to use on the Z7, if needed.  I did have to buy a macro lens to accomplish the copying project so I ended up with a nifty little Nikon kit.

Additionally, I had a full m4/3 kit centered around my tried and true Olympus E-M1 Mark II.  I love using the m4/3 gear because of the size, weight, bulk and lower cost.  This is only enhanced by providing excellent image quality.  This was my go-to gear on our recent road trip and served me well.

Fujifilm X-T3 body with the Fujifilm 18-55mm f/2.8-4 lens. (PR image)

In between those two I had my full Fujifilm kit.  Three cameras and seven or so lenses—so you see what I mean that something needed to go.  I owned far too much gear and I needed to cut back.  The question became, which gear had to go?

After a lot of soul searching, I decided the Fujifilm gear would be the system that would go even though I enjoyed using it the most of the three systems.  This became a "use case" decision and I had to take the emotion out of it.  The APS-C sized sensor wasn't that much different than the m4/3 sensor and it also wasn't too much different in the opposite direction from the full frame sensor.  It made sense to keep the two systems with the greatest amount of difference.  As I said, I couldn't make a good "use case" to keep it.

After contemplating this decision for some weeks, I sold every bit of my Fujifilm gear off.  Something about me—when I make a decision, that is it.  My decisions are normally well thought out and well reasoned.  Very seldom do I second guess myself or waiver.  It wasn't hard to sell the gear once I decided to sell it.  But, now that it has been gone for several months, do I miss it?  As I said above, yes and no.  

I don't miss it in a sense that when I'm out with my Nikon or Olympus gear that I wished I had my Fujifilm gear with me instead.  What I miss about it are the dials and controls as well as the simplicity of it as compared to cameras with other kinds of menus and controls.  I still believe that the Fujifilm cameras were the most satisfying cameras to use that I've ever owned.  That hasn't changed.

X-H1 camera body. (PR image)

I thought I would miss the Fujifilm film simulations and colors.  However, with today's editing software, let's face it, just about any camera or any color science can pretty much be replicated fairly easily.  You just have to take the time to figure it out.

I don't miss screwing around on some of my image files trying to get the detail out of Lightroom that I know is in a file causing me to adopt a third party plug-in to convert the RAW files so all the potential detail is visible and sharp. I used Iridient X-Transformer to convert RAW files to DNG files then edit them in Lightroom.  Lightroom has gotten better but I found some files, especially ones that I want to display or bring out all of the nuances and detail, had to be converted first before I could edit in Lightroom.  

As far as size, weight and bulk go, as you can see in the image at the top of this post there isn't a whole lot of difference.  I'm okay with the little bit bigger that the mirrorless Nikon gear is as well as the little smaller the Olympus gear is.

Is there another Fujifilm camera in my future?  Of course, I don't know.  I wouldn't rule it out, however, but the next generation of cameras would have to have some very attractive features that I wanted but couldn't find anywhere else.  Also, I think that I would like to see Fujifilm adopt a Bayer Array sensor just to eliminate the last remnants of problematic file editing.  Finally, I think I would like to see Fujifilm remake a few of their older lenses to include the faster focusing system and weatherproof them as well.

I have nothing against Fujifilm cameras or lenses.  They are absolutely without a doubt terrific—my all time favorite handling gear.  However, I just couldn't make a good business case to keep mine when taking into consideration that I also own two other full digital camera systems.

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Thanks for looking. Enjoy! 

Dennis A. Mook 

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