Not too long ago I bought a small, mirrorless camera to use specifically for travel and personal situations where my bigger Canon rig is needlessly cumbersome. I’ve mentioned it in previous posts (24 Hours Out West, Ruminations on Italy) but thought I would do a little feature on it here in the inaugural installment of what will be an occasionally recurring blog series called ‘Gear Closet.’
I don’t talk too much about gear. I do love it and geek out as much as the next guy on cameras, lenses, lights, grip, software, etc., but ultimately it’s just a set of tools for making the work. Nobody cares how the sausage gets made if it doesn’t taste good so that’s always my main focus. That said, how a piece of gear is designed will have an effect on the user and sometimes might even be a source of inspiration in itself. Like the elegance of an Apple product or the precision of a BMW, this Fuji Xpro3 holds me in thrall not just with the quality of images it can produce, but with the way it produces them. To be honest, it’s not so different from other modern cameras; its quirks are subtle. Released in late 2019, It’s not even all that new. But taken together its small, rangefinder-like form factor and, most importantly, its foldaway, anti-chimping screen make me feel like I’m taking pictures the old way. That is to say, I’m setting exposure parameters based on my environment and intended result and then shooting and trusting the process. I’m not checking images after each frame. Sure, I’m not shooting 36 frames at a time, sending film to a lab, then waiting days to see what I got, but I might go hours or even days before going back through the card and seeing what I shot. It’s refreshing. Completely different from the more methodically planned, tethered workflow I usually use. That’s not to say it’s more or less enjoyable; only different. And sometimes different inspires us. There’s a kind of humorous irony in the fact that I shot the pictures of this quirky camera I’m raving about using my Canon R5, on a tripod, tethered to a laptop running Capture One but, like I said, both are valid, compelling, and fun. I also had a blast one night shooting the product video at my kitchen table!
I won’t bore you with the technical specs but this is an impressive little workhorse of a camera. The inside baseball, photography nerd stuff can be found with a quick google search if you’re so inclined but, as I’ve said many times, I’m more concerned with the emotional side of what I do; how does the work I produce make the viewer feel? How does the sausage taste as it were? Even shooting an inanimate object - a cold, hard chunk of titanium, magnesium alloy, and glass - I’m shaping the light and composing the frame to try and convey a feeling. Maybe you have a product or service that could use that kind of vision? If so, have a look… and let’s make some work together.