{ SIZE does matter; DOESN’T matter anymore. }

{   Size does matter; doesn’t matter anymore.  }

Its more then 20 years since my dad place a SLR camera on my palm. Its was his Nikon FM with a 36-72mm zoom lens. I was on top of the world! I will shoot and experiment with it over the weekend. Pushing the camera to its limit. Its was raw without much modern sophistication but this camera do have soul.

I have stop using it since I moved to a Nikon F90 in the 1990s. And from there I switch camp to Canon. I started my professional career in 1997 with Canon and a Mamiya system. This was my stable till my crossing over to the digital world. My 1st DSLR was a Canon 60D. From there I have used 1D and 5D for my commercial work.

In 2013 I was looking for a compact camera to replace my Fuji X10. After looking around I couldn’t find something that feels like my X10; until I saw the Xpro 1. Again this is a totally different camera. In term of price and size; but I am in love with the look and feel of this camera. It feels very special, reminded me of the 1st time my dad handed me the Nikon FM. X-Pro1 have a soul too.

I started bringing the Xpro 1 along whenever I have a commercial shoot. I will use it to document behind the scene during my shoot. Sometime I will just use the Xpro1 to take a few shoot after I am done. I am very impressed with the image quality! As the months goes; I added a few more lens and a also new Fuji XT1.

During an editorial shoot for a lifestyle magazine, I decided to use both the Canon 1DX together with the Fuji XT1. While doing my selection of the raw photo files I gotten a little confused as in which shot was taken by which camera. At that point I begin to ask myself; is there a huge difference between the 2 cameras? Other then the camera size, sensor and price factor!
When I look at the IQ of of the picture taken by the 2 cameras, I don’t see much difference, or my fellow X-photograher Zach Arias would say it : It’s Negligible! ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PHYidejT3KY#t=586 ) And that started me thinking real hard……

After many sleepless nights; I decided to say farewell to my faithful big DSLR and just use the Fuji X series and Phase one/Leaf for my commercial work. At first I did feel abit “naked” without a DSLR and also some workflow issue. After a week or 2; all is iron out and was good to go.

The Fuji XT1 still lack behind in the AF department compared to Canon 1DX; again which camera isn’t? As a commercial photographer my needs for Hi-speed AF is not as demanding as a wildlife and sport photographer. My thoughts are; give CSC camera system another 1-2 years; this genre of camera will be on par with any high end DSLR.

My other issue is tethering; tether using only wifi. As a commercial photographer; 90% of the time I shoot tethering on different indoor and outdoor locations. After some time I manage to find a way that I could work with. Basically shooting with an Eye-Fi SD card with a raw and large jpeg setting on the camera. Only the large jpeg is wifi to the laptop and open in Capture One. The transfer rate is about 3 – 5 seconds per picture. As we all know a small jpeg will wifi a lot faster; but I decided to wifi a large jpeg for back up reason; more like a safety net. I am just afraid if the recored raw files that is in the SD card may be corrupted. If this were to happened; at least I have a large jpeg to work with.

Friends would tell me that my XT1 looks small; actually all the cameras in the market have grew bigger through the years; just like most of us. When I place the Fuji XT1 with my 1st camera; the Nikon FM side by side. I feel I have travel one big circle in my photography journey. The look and the size is pretty much the same. Size does matter; doesn’t matter anymore. Now I wish I weight the same as when I first held the 1st Nikon FM!