My Digital Film Camera
My photography is about capturing the beauty of existence as it unfolds, naturally in every moment, rather than a planned creation. As such, film is the ideal medium for my intention. Well, no. It's the ideal outcome. The friction of actually shooting film, without a local lab, is too tedious for me. Thus, my Digital Film Camera.
The Fujifilm X-Pro 3. It is by no means a perfect camera--I disable many of the buttons as they are primed for accidental presses. It could be smaller. The Sony a6xxx series are an indication of what's possible for small APS-c cameras. I don't know if I really care about the optical viewfinder. I do like hiding the back display. It's fast in terms of powering up and taking a photo.
The reason I reach for my X-Pro 3 instead of my Sony a-6300 comes down to two things:
- The lenses
- The jpegs
I live in a coastal temperate rainforest. It's wet. Environmental sealing is a necessity for me. Fuji's lineup of WR prime lenses is what lured me over. They all follow the same look and feel: They are small, solid, weighty, with beautiful aperature and focal rings. They also have splendid looking results. I can't think of a better lens lineup.
What kept me coming back, was the jpegs and the customizable film-presets. Do these have exactly the same moody, hazy, engrossing light of film? No, but it's pretty darn good. I generally edit my digital photos to mimic film anyway. To capture the beauty of a moment as it just happens means to capture the feeling. Film has a natural, innate feeling to it.
So, with the X-Pro, I shoot solely jpegs, with minimal post-processing. Without having to fuss about with digital raw files to get them to match the film aesthetic I prefer, I have something that feels like shooting a film camera (physical aperature and focal rings add to it) without the hassle of bundling up a bunch of rolls to send off to a lab.
(I was inspired to proclaim my appreciation of this camera after seeing Robin Rendle's "In Praise of Shadows".