My recommendations for Fujifilm gear and equipments (photography oriented).

Table of Contents

• Introduction

• Camera

  • My main contenders

  • “Another life” choices:

• Lenses

  • 50mm equivalent primes

  • Rest of the primes on my list

  • Zooms

  • Adapting vintage glasses

• Accessories and “stuff”

• And that’s it

Introduction

This is my gear recommendations page, so I can link it every time someone asks me about gear.

I did tons of research before I go out and purchase equipment. I want to make sure I get the best bang for the buck.

These recommendations are mostly budget and weight oriented. Money don’t grow on trees, and I like traveling light.

Also note that my gear choice is connected to my genre and style of shooting, which is mostly street and travel stuff. Buy gear that works for your use cases.

They are also photography oriented. I never had that much interests shooting video. So if you’re looking for video oriented gear, this is probably not the best article to read.

Camera

First, know what you want.

• Do you edit raws or do you want sooc jpegs?

• Do you want budget stuff or do you want the best of the best?

• Do you need weather sealing?

• Any features you really want, and anything you don’t care for?

It’s important to know what you want and don’t want. But taste and preferences do change overtime as well, and it’s fine. You don’t have to get married to your gear (still, better to not have to think about gear once you’re done shopping).

For me, I know that I really want something affordable with the most jpeg options, which leaves me with X-trans IV and above cameras. I know that the base sim Reala Ace is pretty close to Pro Neg Hi, and Nostalgic Neg can be reproduced with Eterna (from what I’ve read anyways), so I don’t actually need the latest and greatest (at least until Fuji makes more base simulations anyways). I also don’t really care for megapixels, never have. More pixels are not going to make me a better photographer.

What I want is something a bit smaller and lighter. I lightly broke my wrist at a few years ago and it’s never really the same afterwards. Now I get wrist pain if I carry a heavier setup for extended amount of time (my vintage lenses for example are much heavier than modern lenses, and I can’t really use them anymore). My back also does feel the different of a few hundred grams of gear when you lug them around all day. I can sacrifice weather sealing, and other “pro features” on the X-Pros and X-T bodies and pro Fuji lenses if overall I save a few hundred grams for my back.

I also don’t care for “blazing fast” focusing system or whatever. It’s mostly due to my style of slower pictures taking.

That landed me with these bodies, which has close to the same spec sheets and price. (oh and a reminder to check used markets!)

My main contenders

• The Fuji X-S10: While this is the technically superior camera to the ones below (it got IBIS which I do want, and a flippy screen), I just really dislike the PASM dials. This could have been the perfect camera for me (could be for you too if you don’t care about that).

• The Fuji X-E4: My first choice actually, until I realize that the ergonomics is not very good, and I’d need to buy a grip for my style of shooting (I have a wrist strap and hold my camera in hand for hours), which adds to the weight.

• And what I finally landed on: The Fuji X-T30 mark ii. It’s mostly identical to the X-E4, but it got more buttons which I like, a built in flash which is useful, and better grip. Funnily enough, I heard this one was not very well received. It’s close to perfect for me though (still wish it had IBIS for some slow shutter goodness, but for now I’m fine with bumping the ISO up on XTrans sensors). So that’s what I have.

With that said, here are some of my…

“Another life” choices:

If I edited my raws and wanted the bare minimum gateway drug: X-E1 or X-T1. Very affordable these days on used markets. Some people say the first generation X-Trans sensors (on X-E1 and X-Pro1 and some other bodies) have some magic, and while I don’t have anything to say about that, it probably doesn’t hurt 😸.

If I edited my raws and wanted a pro body: X-T2 or X-T3. Also very affordable on the used market, and got weather sealing.

If money wasn’t an issue for me: X-T50 (or maybe X100VI with a teleconverter, probably not though). I do “want” the latest jpeg options and IBIS, but it’s just a nice to have thing. I’d like to upgrade to the X-T50 eventually, but it’s not really necessary for me, so I just keep the cash for now).

Oh and I had a Ricoh GRIIIx for like a year until I sold it to get my Fujifilm gear, if you are into the 1 pocket camera powerhouse thing. I really loved it too. It’s aps-c. It got some nice jpeg options. It’s actually pocketable and I can bring it everywhere. It has a 40mm equivalent lens, which I like more than 28 or 35 (still less than 50mm though). I would keep the camera if I could, but it’s too expensive to be a sometimes camera for me.

Lenses

Again, same deal. Ask your self if…

• Do you want zooms or primes?

• Do you need specialty lenses? (ultrawide/telephoto/etc?)

• Do you mind manual focusing?

• Do you need weather sealing?

First, let’s just get this out of the way: I really don’t care that much about sharpness. Modern lenses are all more than sharp enough. There, I said it.

50mm equivalent primes

This got its own category because it’s what I’ve come to realized that it’s my favorite focal length.

My favorite recommendation and what I use: Fuji XF35mm f1.4. The GOAT. The legendary “character” lens everyone talks about. I do love “character”, and the weight and the 1 stop brighter aperture seals the deal for me. If I can only keep one lens, I’d keep this (I regularly travel with just my camera and this lens attached to it). I bought used and it’s not that much more expensive than the XC35mm f2 anyways. I also like when they talk about how this lens has “magic”, probably because I have no talents and so anything that compensate for that is good.

The budget alternative: Fuji XC35mm f2. It’s cheap, light, yet still retains excellent optic qualities (same optics as the one below).

The weather sealing 35mm: Fuji XF35mm f2. For the practical ones out there. I baby my camera and would never take them out to harsher weather conditions anyways, so weather sealing is the first thing I’d sacrifice.

The manual budget alternative: TTArtisans 35mm f1.4 mark II. I went on a deep rabbit hole with this one, because initially I wanted to stick with a MF lens on my camera (until I realized it’s too slow sometimes for my street photography). There seems to be so many of these things, from 30 dollar cctv lenses, to the fast and furious f0.95 ones. I landed with the one above because its optics are decent and non offensive, it’s fast, cheap, small, light, and has a click aperture ring. Everything I needed really.

Rest of the primes on my list

The short telephoto: Viltrox 56mm f1.7. I got this to shoot street sometimes when I want to do more abstract, Saul Leiter style photos. Also nice for portraits of people and “things”. This lens checks all my boxes of “cheap, fast, small, light”. I bought it for like 130 bucks and I felt like a thief 😂.

The “bootleg” X100 series combo: Fuji 27mm f2.8 or the TTArtisan version (I’d probably just take the TTArtisan and keep some change). Attach this to a smaller body like the X-E4 and it’s pretty much a X100 series cameras (except one less stop of light). I shot my fair share of 40mm equiv lens with the Ricoh GRIIIx though, and I’m kinda done with the 35-40mm focal length, so in the end I didn’t get this thing.

I don’t really used any other focal lengths. I would like to experiment with more focal lengths some days (will update this page if I do). But it’s not today, and it would be a bit sketchy to put a bunch of gear recommendations on stuff that I don’t have anything to say about.

Zooms

There’s pretty much only 2 options on my list:

The XC 15-45mm “kit” lens: This lens is quite underrated, seriously.

• It’s small, light and cheap (or it comes with your camera).

• It’s more than sharp enough (sharpness doesn’t matter).

• Believe it or not, there are more things to photography than shallow depth of field.

• 15mm on the wide end is very underrated as well. This is my “wide angle lens” when I need one. Every mm you get on the wide end is very significant, and this goes to 22.5mm equivalent on full frame.

• Low light you should get comfortable with shooting at 3200-12800 ISO, and I’m completely fine with that. In fact, I usually prefer it over a clinically clean image.

(Fuji got a new kit on newer cameras, which looks nice too, but is 700 bucks if you buy it separately though. At that price point I might as well get the sigma below, which is 500 bucks and has a constant f2.8)

The Sigma 18-50 f2.8: In another life, I would have gotten this lens. Maybe I’ll still do one day, but for my current style of shooting, probably not. I restrict myself to going out with one camera and one lens anyways (shoutout to onecameraonelens.com!), so this would means I leave my XF 35mm f1.4 at home. But Ii just love that thing so damn much!

Oh and I have the XC 50-230mm on my “list” too. I’m comfortable shooting at ISO 12800 on my Fuji camera. The focal length and the weight (and the price) is more important to me than one or two brighter f-stops.

Adapting vintage glasses

This is a thing I used to do with my Sony E crop system. I sold all my Sony gear eons ago, but I still have a set of Canon FD glasses (which I loved the images I got from them, which are quite warm and nostalgic). You could try going this route if you want extra “character” for your photos.

I had a cheap Chinese “speedbooster” (I think I got it for like 100 bucks) for my Sony camera for the wider FOV and the extra stop of light, so you could do that for Fuji cameras as well (although it has been harder to find those than for E mount, and I don’t plan to shoot with manual glasses that often anymore, so I just bought a dumb Canon FD - Fuji X adapter to play around with my Canon FD lenses sometimes.

Accessories and “stuff”

Do you like bloom?

If yes: Black Pro-mist 1/4 or 1/8 or White Pro-mist 1/4. I got a White Pro-mist 1/4 and it lives on my 35mm f1.4 for a while, but it feels a bit too overpowering sometimes, so I dialed it back to the Black Pro-mist 1/8. I got the cheap KF Concept ones because, well, I don’t think the expensive ones are any different.

Do you like bokeh with a fast lens?

My XF35mm F1.4 is way too fast sometimes (especially when shooting with recipes that uses DR400, which bumps the base ISO to 640), so I typically use a variable ND filter in daylight if I want that sweet f1.4 bokeh. I’ve been a lot less of a bokeh whore these days though, so I don’t actually use this often anymore.

Do you need/want a tripod?

I don’t actually use a tripod (got one a while ago that mostly sits in my closet), so this is one of the categories I have no research on, and therefore has no recommendations. Though make sure you find a sturdy one if your work needs a tripod. I’ve heard way too many stories about tripods knocked over by wind and broke cameras.

I actually have a small Manfrotto mini tripod though. I do bring it to trips often (feels weird to not have any form of tripods around). Though I rarely bring it out of the bag.

Other

These quick release straps thingy from Peak Design. I had these for like what, 7-8 years now. It’s so simple and useful. I can switch between a neck strap for travel and longer sessions, and a wrist strap, which is what I use most of the time.

And that’s it

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