The Camera for Everybody
Dear Photography Novices: When your iPhone camera is too little but a full-size DSLR is too much, I give you the Fuji X100T.
This is hands-down the camera I recommend to anyone who is looking for a high-quality camera with simple but powerful features to take great photos (or any camera in the Fuji X100 series… the X100T is a few years old). It’s compact but super powerful, and some of the manual features that harken back to film cameras actually make it easier to use for the photography novice.
Learning the basics of photography and being confident behind a camera has opened up so many creative doors for me – I believe anyone can be a great photographer if they pick the right tools and practice, practice, practice.
A LITTLE HISTORY
Photography and I have been in a seriously committed relationship since 15-year-old Amanda got her hands on a Canon 20D. It really was love at first shutter-click, and photography was my gateway into exploring a design education and building the creative career I have today. I started photographing my friends for their senior pictures, families from my church for their annual Christmas card, and then took a blind leap into wedding photography when I quit playing sports my senior year of high school and instead opted to assist a local wedding photographer. Along the way my grandfather taught me photoshop (yes – grandfather – he is a boy wonder) and eventually I got my act together and figured out Lightroom. I remember vividly hauling my full-size DSLR camera to sleep-overs, sporting events, family reunions and more… any event that I could shoot and keep figuring out how to capture what I saw through that viewfinder. Today, I shoot seasonal sessions for families, headshots/product features for influencers, and brand photography for my freelance clients.
WHY I LOVE THE X100T
DESIGN + SIZE
Vintage aesthetic of a film camera is blended with digital conveniences for the modern photographer. The compact size makes it less intrusive and people tend to notice it less when I’m shooting, allowing me to blend in more and capture authentic moments.
QUALITY
As opposed to the iPhone 11 Pro camera that shoots 12 megapixel images, the X100T offers 16 megapixels per image, meaning photos are super clear, detailed, and high-quality.
The digital screen on the back of the camera body is also super clear and allows you to really examine your photos for focus, exposure, etc.
WI-FI SIGNAL
Yes, you read that right – the X100T includes a wi-fi feature that allows you to pair your phone to the camera and import images directly to your mobile device. This was a game changer for me getting photos off my camera, edited, and out into the world.
MANUAL DIALS
Learning photography can be tricky — I feel the manual dials make understanding the camera easier and help you develop your own technique more quickly.
The X100T features a manual dial for aperture, or how far open the lens is, that ranges down to a f/2.0 so you can create images where the background is soft/blurred and your subject is crystal clear. The shutter speed dial, or how quickly the shutter opens and closes, is also a manual dial on top of the camera, making it simple to hop between exposures to achieve the right light.