Anyone else prefer their XT to their X series rangefinder

lxmike said:
How do you find shooting with the nikon, can you use older Nikkors on it?
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I have the FTZ II adapter from Nikon that allows me to use older Nikkors, and supports AF, electronic aperture on newer Nikkors (AF-I, AF-P, AF-S). Non-CPU lenses of the AI, AI-S, AI-converted also work but with the expected limitations.
 
gavinlg said:
X-pro line for me. Closest I can get to a digital contax G or hexar af, and I use it how I used those cameras. The x-pro3 is really a joy to cart around every day.
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Same adaption "problem" you have. I'm so bond to the analog RF shooting: Only the X-Pro and X100 line gives me back most of the shooting experience of my Konica Hexar. If I could afford a digital M Leica: I agree the best digital solution for M-lenses.
Nothing beats an OVF for my style of shooting.
 
The hexar is one of my favourite camers to use of all time so this makes sense to me. The X-T5 is a lovely camera to use and one can set it up to be used in nearly any manner but it can't replicate that 90s advanced snapshot camera thing that the x-pro line does so well. The OVF with projected framelines is surely one of the keys to the experience. A little bit of breathing space in framing goes a long way with a camera for me.
 
The preference for Fuji DSLRs over rangefinders is a subjective matter that varies from photographer to photographer. Rangefinder cameras have unique charm and benefits.
 
I use to own a XT1. I vastly prefer using my X-Pro 2. I like to compose while viewing what's outside the frame line estimates so the OVF is important. Both cameras have great build quality.
 
Bit of both , XP1 and XT1 , but I guess having recently settled for the XP2 , that kinda makes the point for me .
XT1 for manual focus .
 
x-ray said:
I’m 74 and retired last year after almost 55 years as a commercial photographer. I kept two of my Nikons, D800 and Df and most of my G series lenses and all of my primes. I used G series on the D800 and AIs primes on the Df. Love the primes on the Df. I deal with arthritis now and wanted a small lightweight kit to take on the vacations I missed. That’s the price of owning a business. So I considered the Nikon Z equipment and already had the X-E1 with a 18-50 and 50-230. I could have stayed with that setup and been perfectly happy with the kit and the images but my wife and I were planning to take a vacation across the country in a new Mini Cooper S we just bought and wanted a little newer camera and a couple additional lenses. Space in the car was a huge consideration and weight due to arthritis.

Things I dislike about the X-E1 having used SLR cameras for many decades was the low res VF and slow AF and shutter lag when pressin the shutter button. I started looking and reading and found a NOS X-T3 and bought it. I added a Rokinon 12 and an 8mm Rokinon.

The T3 lived up to my expectations and gave me what I was looking for. Coming from a direct view SLR viewfinder took getting used to but the T3 made it easy. Resolution in the vf is good and refresh rate is fine. Size and weight are perfect and I especially love the iso, shutter speed and exposure compensation on top. It pairs quite well with my Df kit.

After returning from our 5000 mile trip over almost 4 weeks I’m very pleased with my choice. Matter of fact I traded some film equipment and put together a prime kit and added another zoom. I picked up a 16 f2.8, 23, 35 and 50 F2’s and a 50-140. The 50-140 will mostly stay in the trunk but the prime kit is really nice and more to what I used in my professional life. Let me say I’m very pleased and would buy the same kit again.

A few points to consider if weighing Fuji vs FF Nikon. I also bought a Fringer adapter and use my 70-290 f2.8 VR II, 24-70 f2.8, 24 & 85 tilt shift on my Fuji ( sold my 16-35 but it worked great too). They work perfectly.

A consideration, a Fuji kit will be smaller and lighter than a FF kit. I know quite well how much difference there is and my joints are suffering for it now.

Image quality is a little better with FF but the differences are minor and can be worked around. I got into digital in early 2000 when the Nikon D1 came out then moved up in cameras until I bought Hasselblad digital. I found that you reach a point in quality that the improvement in quality can’t be reproduced on paper. You can see it possibly on a fine monitor but you can’t retain it in print. Same he’s with aps-c vs FF vs medium format. Where the larger sensors excel are in dynamic range, color depth and printing to huge sizes. Let me put it this way, if I’d started shooting assignments on my Fuji my clients would never have seen a difference.

Matter of fact I used to use the Fuji when I’d scout locations for a shoot. I snapped images and made a storyboard of what I’d do on the actual shoot. Planning! I did this in an industrial facility where beans were canned and had good images I’d shot in raw. Turns out the particular process is shot was needed for some huge display prints and the process line had been shut down tooling up for a different product. The process needed wouldn’t be setup again for several months. Well I presented full res tif files retouched and they wound up being printed quite large and looked great. My client was happy and it made me look good too. My little Fuji was plenty good and saved the day.

Here are a few images shot with the T3 from the trip. All were from raw files.
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I found this an inspiring and a well-written narrative. Good enough to be commented on and revived for others to join in and I hope, contribute. Kudos to the author, who I hope is still out and about and recording his views of the world around him, as many of us in his age range are still doing (or trying to do).

Also intresting was his comments about Fuji cameras. Like him, during Covid I also decided I wanted to "lighten the load" in my gear and remove myself from the bulk and weight of carrying Nikon DSLRs, in my case D800s and D700s.

Initially I went into Fuji XTs. First I bought an XT1, in fact two XT1s, for myself and my partner. Neither of us bonded with it and I quickly sold them and bought an XT2, which I enjoyed using, but found I didn't particularly bond with. The biggest downside for me came when a client, a German book publisher, asked me to photograph two colonial era buildings in Sarawak for a book (to be published in 2023). Over two busy working days I took 200+ images with the XT2 and prime lenses (mostly the 23/2.0, and 35/2.0, both superb in terms of their glass and all metal construction) which I downloaded, keyworded and captioned and dutifully sent off to Europe - only to be told sorry, but their art director (a person I've worked with before, and respect for her good judgment and common sense) had rejected them all on the basis that the colors and mid tones were, as she put it, "everywhere" (= all over the place) and there was too much variation in lighting. Her decision was sorry, the mid tones were just not good enough for consistent reproduction for the six pages they intended to devote to the project. So lose-lose for me. (In a way. I was kindly invited to reshoot them with a Nikon...!)

So out with the XT2. My camera dealer kindly loaned me an XT4, but by then I was done with the XTs, rather I was dissatisfied enough with cameras to no longer want to work with them. Not so the Fujinon lenses, as I' have commented further in this post.

As chance would have it, an inexpensive XE2 came my way, offered to me for so low a price that I could hardly refuse it, all the more so as I have five Fujinon lenses. So I bought it. Love at first sight. I use it mostly with an 18/2.0 for street work and bush walks and I can truly say I am as happy as a clam with the excellent and the consistent color results I get with it. My B&W images are, to me, far better than what the XT1 and XT2 gave me, in fact I rate them as slightly better than my Nikon Ds can produce.

So yes, I will be keeping my XE2. I've used an XE4 a friend kindly loaned me, and while I enjoyed the experience, I doubt I would want to make the investment to buy one - especially here in Australia where Fuji gear prices are just too high for my budget.

My conclusion with Fujis is the lenses are nothing short of superb but for my needs and wants, the XT cameras leave a bit to be desired.

All this said, I would love an XPro 2, but good used ones rarely come on the market in Melbourne. In the last three years I've seen two on offer, and silly me I didn't bite. My loss.

All this is of course entirely subjective, I know, one photographer's opinions. Others may/can/should disagree with what I've written. Disagreement and discussion is healthy and to be encouraged. As always with my posts, my usual disclaimer applies, YMMV.
 
I had a couple of XP2’s, sequentially. I had a bit of a love/hate relationship with them. Really lovely camera and very very capable but it just didn’t work as a rangefinder replacement (I never had a contact G2). I found manual lenses and the ovf sun optimal.

In the end I swapped it out for a Panasonic S1r, which works brilliantly with my stock of manual lenses (mostly Zeiss ZF2 plus an old Pentax SMC M 50 1.1). I also have a 35, 65 and 105 macro af lenses for it.

The macro lens is really for scanning film from the rf’s. I sometimes think about another digital M, but I need to convince myself before shelling out for an M11. Ultimately, a holiday and thinking about the time to deal with a lot of film will do it I suspect!
 
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