New Member (and new to Fuji)

[Jeff A]

Hi,

I'm new to this forum and am looking at purchasing my first Fuji X camera. I'm getting back into photography after 10+ years away doing other various hobbies, mostly as a gigging musician. I have several old film cameras and a Canon Rebel XT with a few lenses. I've been very impressed with the current Fuji X system cameras I've seen demo'd/reviewed on YouTube, reviews, etc.

I'm not sure where to start my journey with Fuji, as I'm very excited about doing mostly landscape photography, as well as some product photography. The Fuji film simulations are a huge selling point to me.

I have an Adobe Creative Cloud license (I'm a UI/UX designer) so Lightroom looks very powerful, however I've read the Fuji and Lightroom do not play well together so I want to learn more about that as well. 

Looking forward to various conversations, thanks!

[Olaf W.]

Welcome here!

[bem]

Hi,
I suppose if You are into serious photographing maybe one of the top end Fujifilm cameras could be something to check out?
But personally I would check other brands also.
Much depend on Your budget for a new camera, what You can choose between. And how heavy camera You cope to carry around for example. And any other special requirements the camera must fulfill for You.
I have taken much photos with a iPhones (at least until now) because most of the time I can not drag a heavy camera with me.
But some months ago I thought why not try a more professional camera? So I checked for rather long time what may be a reasonably good kind of mid priced camera that is not starting to be outdated and have got many positive reviews.
Fujifilm X-T4 seemed like good camera for me. Unfortunately my camera seems to be a "lemon" so I had to return it after 6 days of use with much trouble (freeeze of all buttons, dials and LCD screen). Also very dark photos even in bright sunshine, but that might be me using wrong settings, but I tried autosettings everywhere in the camera but it did not help. 
It is little heavy for my taste really but manageble. Quality maybe is good but I was not that impressed, maybe I had too high expectations what to expect for a camera in this price range. I have seen X-T4 made in Japan, others X-T4 (including mine) made in China. I had lens XF 16-80mm F4 R OIS WR on my X-T4. I will receive a new X-T4 and lens next week from the reseller since Fujufilm support think it is a hardware problem with the camera I had.
Although it seems standard procedure to work with the photos in Adobe Lightroom or similar applications to get desired final results, but for me I have not time with that except a few photos (I take photos just for fun). I have Adobe Photoshop Elements 2020 for such work and it is enough for me so far. I had Adobe Photoshop full version before but after they changed to "hire" the license for mothly fee I reverted to Adobe Photoshop Elements and it is OK, it can be bought and no need to "hire" a license for mothly fee.
For me personally I would prefer a very small seize and lightweight camera that still take very good photos (and video) with good autofocus and good image stabilisation etc. But I have not really found any yet. The really good cameras are the more heavy  ones it seems (in my world what heavy is).
I had some cameras in the past but had a break for many many years. But now I will test again and see if I still like photography. I had a little bad start at the comeback but I learned alot also when I had trouble with the new X-T4 camera. It forced me to read the user manual carefully to understrand the camera settings etc. I like to spend time out, not so much sitting and adjust photos afterwards in a computer, but for pros that seems neccessary many times.

Good luck! If You get a Fujifilm camera please post some photos in the section of the forum where they have Street-, Landscape-, Naturephotos etc.

/Bo

Edited July 27, 2020 by bem

[bem]

If You have time and want to be little meticulous and make more sure Your hard earned money go to a product You really want/need try to set up a list with "must have" features and "prefered" to have (and what it absolutely should not have, for whatever reason).
Also make sure when reading or watching reviews on any camera You read between the lines also and do not swallow all they say/write. But if a camera get consistently good reviews with few cons it may indicate it can be a good camera (for what it is intened for). Despite that You can get a "lemon" like it seems I did. But the risk is rather low I think?
In my country we have a nice law for consumer, that is when buying products Online (as a consumer, not as company) that are locetad in our country You have  right to returned a product within 14 days. Make life much easier and that was what I used when I returned my probably defect X-T4. That way I avoided any discussion on the warranty.

For me I set up a few basic requirements (that seems an X-T4 fulfill) below:
- Rather new (not so outdated/little obsolete).
- Clear overweight for very positive reviews (online, in photo magazines etc).
- Good quality (the camera house seems fine but the flimsy hatches and shutter button was dissapointing on X-T4).
- Swivable screen (preferebly OLED screen, not LCD as the X-T4 has but it is reasonably clear unless in direct sunshine).
- Not super heavy (an X-T4 camera house is 526 gram, the battery NP-235 is another 79 gram, and the lens I use  XF 16-80mm F4 R OIS WR it is another 440 gram for total 526+79+440=1045 gram).
- Image stabilisation in camera and lens.
- Alround lens (I maybe buy a special macro and tele lens later if I'm satisfied with the X-T4).
- Many lenses to select from later (it is many XF lenses to choose from, almost overwhelming as a new Fujifilm user).
- Reasonably good Autofocus and many Auto settings (for me important in the beginning since I'm new to Fujifilm camera).
-  Good battery capacity so You do not need many batteries.
- Silent shutter.
- Support for fast SD cards (V90, 300 MB/s read/write). I have two Sony Tough SF-G64T SD cards for my X-T4, set for RAW+fine and backup in camera settings so all files is backuped automatically to the second SD card for safety).
There is a SD card compatibility list for X-T4 on Fujifilm homepage to follow.

Video features and video quality is not important to me for the moment but X-T4 is supposed to be a reasonaly good video camera also.
Some of the cons with the X-T4 I have read (I have not discovered all myself yet), for exampe:
- The Autofocus not in top class (not in class what  Sony, Nikon, Canon can offer).
- No subject following Autofocus in video.
- Difficult to use with gloves on.

Accessories I bought for my X-T4 (so far):
- VG-XT4 battery grip.
- Two extra NP-235 batteries (one is shipped with the camera).
- One B-W35 dual battery charger.
When I see my new (replaced) X-T4 I get next week work as it should I will order better neckstraps (Slide, Slite Lite and or Leach and a Cuff)
https://www.peakdesign.com/collections/straps/
And possibly also a Camera Cube (bag, for camera and lenses):
https://www.peakdesign.com/products/camera-cube/?currency=USD&variant=11530961649708

/Bo

Edited July 20, 2020 by bem