Well after over a year and a half of loving life with a Sony a7 and a7r I decided to pack it up and trade them in for a different system altogether. This article will explain both my choices on why I sold and what I traded to and of course why I decided on these particular cameras.
So first my Sony A7R – An amazing full format monster that takes beautiful pictures – probably the best fullformat sensor in the world right now. I love this camera and recommend it highly to anyone. I’ve used it to photograph landscapes, to weddings to my own family. It has worked wonders and produced amazing pictures in every instance. What people say about the shutter noise and autofocus and so on have never worked with Analoge. For me, I loved these small quirks – in daylight the A7R has fast Autofocus – at night, well not so much. But then again manual focus is no problem either. The shutter noise? Yes it’s loud, as loud as analogue? Nope. But louder than most point and shoots.
All I can say is that this camera is amazing – so the question comes down to why sell it then? Simple: I needed a camera that inspires me. Sony makes great cameras, but not tools for inspiration. They are kind of like advanced point and shoots. I needed the feel of a real camera again. For all the power and technology that the sony A7 series has, it’s a bore to use. Some might argue that one should find their inspiration from within and not the camera. That’s true, however say the samething to Leica users and ask them why they use Leica. It’s certainly not because they have the best technology in the world. For me the sony a7r is like listening to music on Spotify, yes it’s music, and yes it sounds good, but is it the samething as listening to your favorite tracks on vinyl? For me, no. I prefer vinyl any day.
So I traded my Sony A7r for a Fujifilm X-t1 and analogue developing supplies and a Nikon FM3a analogue camera. The Fujifilm x-t1 to be a direct replacement of my Sony A7r and the Nikon as a new source of inspiration. I love the process in developing film. I love taking pictures on film – I feel inspired when I hold my old Canon AE-1 program, I feel inspired when I hold my Nikon FM3a. And so far I feel inspired with the fujifilm. I love the controls, the feel and the looks of these three cameras. I love having them with me, they are all a pleasure to use and I have fun with them. I can’t say I loved taking pictures with the Sony, I loved the pictures it made, but not the process of making them. The process for me is half the fun.
So my thoughts so far on the fujifilm x-t1: It’s a beautiful camera that is backed up by aa awesome sensor and great performance. I honestly see no difference in picture quality from the Sony A7r to the Fujifilm – I can say that the lenses are better on the FUJI. I do have some gripes about the Fujifilm – the biggest one being on bracketing – why fuji can I not bracket +- 3 exposure instead of only 1. This needs to be fixed. Also, why doesn’t the fuji app allow bulb mode. Fuji –there are no excuses for these.
Anyway, I don’t feel I need to write so much on why the X-t1 is so awesome, it seems like everyone is pretty much saying the samething, and there are much better reviewers out there than myself writing the samething. I just wanted to write why I changed and what I think so far.
When I pull out the Fujifilm X-T1 I feel like this is a fun beast to play with. With the manual controls right down to the lenses that just feel like high quality. The camera is a joy to use, and for me it is so close to the old SLRs that it is somewhat of a love affair for me. Some people like the ultra sleak, modern style of the Sony A7. I think it’s boring and uninspiring. So after finally breaking down and trading in my Sony A7R for the Fujifilm X-t1 I can only say that in my experience it has been a trade well worth it!
Here are some pictures I snapped off on the Fujifilm X-T1. Minimal editing – especially the last two – no editing at all, not even a simple crop.
