I have had Nikon DSLR’s for almost 8 years now, they’ve served me very well. In fact, I can’t recall a single time where the camera was the reason an image didn’t turn out. I started with a Nikon D50 and progressed into a D7000 a few years ago.
Recently after a vacation back home to the east coast I was sorting through my lightroom catalogue and noticed that with the exception of the recent trip, I hadn’t taken more than a handful of images with my Nikon DSLR in 2013. Obviously not the fault of the camera’s, I just haven’t had the camera with me much this year. Most of my 2013 work is sitting undeveloped in the crisper of my office-fridge on rolls of 120 and 35mm film. (Lets not talk about my darkroom tardiness)
Generally the only time I seem to make for actual photography is before and after work days when I’m at my downtown office. As a result of this, I’ve been choosing a smaller, more portable Nikon FM2 film camera to take with me and leaving the D7000 at home to collect dust. It’s not that the D7000 was obscenely large but it just seemed to be too big to lug with me on the train along with all the items I drag around with me. The FM2 with a small 50mm lens is the perfect size to grab and go.
With this in mind I’ve recently sold my D7000 and associated bits and picked up a smaller mirrorless camera. I researched the different options and narrowed the field down to the Sony NEX-6 and the Fuji X series cameras. The Sony NEX options are compelling for their ability to take great stills and video. Unfortunately the NEX-6 was a little too small in my hand and they don’t seem to have the quality lenses like Fuji does with the XF series.
Ultimately I opted for the Fuji X-E1 with the XF 18-55 kit lens. The camera fits well in my hand and seems to be designed for serious photographers with it’s controls and lens lineup. I’ll do a post on my thoughts about the camera in a bit once I’ve had a chance to really use it.