Back in 2013, I had spent about a year with primes. First, the bang-for-your-buck Canon 50mm f/1.8, then after realizing how great it was, trading up to the 50mm f/1.4. After far too long, I had discovered the magic of a prime lens — you know, zoom with your feet. But the Canon XSi it was mounted to was just terrible. It was clunky. It was bulbus. It had no heart. I began reading about these "mirrorless" cameras that were able to be much smaller due to lack of a mirrorbox inside a traditional dSLR (do people still say dSLR?), and after some research, ordered a Fuji X100S.

It was take-everywhere-with-you small, had the perfect 23mmf2 lens, crushed in low light, and it looked great. I didn't know it at the time, but this object would end up making an outsized impact on my world. In a time when the cameras in our phones were still finding their way, the X100S came with me most places. It made a life in my work bag, on my shoulder after dinner on a weeknight, in the bottom of my backpack in Guatemala -- through the sun, snow, and rain; no lens cap required.

This is the first shot I took with the X100S in my apartment at 11th and Walnut -- unabashedly boring and unimpressive, and meaningful nonetheless.

I've always wanted to keep a journal -- maybe it's some idea that putting pen to paper is romantic. And I've made attempts a number of times that predictably fall off after a week or so. But all I really want is the superpower to look back on who, and where, and what we were all doing. This camera has become my medium for that.

Over the next seven years, I used it alongside the larger interchangeable lens Fuji XT1, the iPhones 4s, 5s, 7, and XS with increasingly improving optics, and the XT3. When the X100V was released in March 2020, it felt like the right time to leap forward.

But why bother? Phone cameras have gotten to the point where they’re producing incredible results in all kinds of unfavorable conditions — mostly due to software improvements, the average Jane who doesn’t give a hoot about the exposure triangle can produce a usable shot in a dimly lit bar.

Still, the image quality out of the Fuji is just better. Although the content of an image will always weigh more than the technical quality of it — Henri Bresson missed focus on countless historical shots that are 100x more impactful than the high res color snap of my weekend eggs benedict — phones still can’t produce the dynamic range (the difference between the brightest highlights and darkest shadows), the sharpness, or the depth of field (no, Portrait Mode doesn’t count).

In 2020, no one needs a standalone camera because the best camera is the one you have with you. A few times a year, someone asks what camera they should get — usually they’re becoming a parent or going on a big trip. A common line of thinking is if you’re not looking to spend at least a grand or so, the camera in your phone is going to do you best — you’re not going to lug that big camera anywhere, and it’s a heckuva lot more work to ship the photos out to Instagram or the Grandparents. Or maybe you do want to spend some dollars for better image quality.. bigger photos — 30 years on, you won’t regret that. It comes down to what you want — what you’ll use.

So I bought the new one. At a glance, they look like twins, but the sharp edges of the V sure are an improvement. It holds heavier and more solid in the hand, that flecks in the paint are smoother/finer-grained, and all the tech yadda, yadda. It's a jewel.

For me, this entire conversation is obvious, and I enjoy the process of a “big camera” — not entirely dissimilar from someone choosing to sometimes drop the pin on a record instead of streaming compressed from Spotify. Sales from the major camera manufacturers (Canon, Fuji, Nikon, Sony) are falling — a fact no one is surprised by (Flickr shows some version of iPhone in their top 5 most popular cameras).

So for now, an X100 continues to hang with me -- the V on a shoulder or in the stroller -- the S lives on my desk as an artifact, and will probably make a second life as my son's first camera if he's cool with it not having YouTube.

For posterity, a few other random x100s bits..

Over Chicago, 2017

Somewhere on Walnut in the 40's, 2014

Winter, 2013

Venice at night, 2017

Guatemala, 2015

Malibu, 2014

NYE 2013 -> 2014