So, it’s been a while since I added anything new to this site. I’ve been really busy with school, which forced me in in this unwanted hiatus.

A couple of weeks ago, Belgium was covered in snow. The snow acts as one, huge reflector and gives a very nice and soft natural light. No need to carry a lot of gear with me, just packing light and shoot with available light. I planned a shoot with Catherine Van Boeckel, and the make-up was done by Laura Dierckx. I wanted to go for a really natural look in this.

But first, speaking about packing light: I’ve recently made the switch from Canon DSLR’s to the Fuji X-Series. I have some extensive travelling lined up the coming months, and wanted an alternative to the big and heavy equipment I had. A Canon 1Ds series body and L-lenses are certainly nice tools, I just don’t see myself carrying them with me while backpacking for a couple of weeks. After reading some excellent reviews on the Fuji X-E1, I took the risk to sell my Canon gear and go for this cute, little rangefinder-like camera.

This was the first real test for the Fuji since I got it. I’ve used the excellent Fujinon 35mm 1.4 and picked up an old Leitz Summicron-M 90, because a long, wide-aperture portrait lens is still missing from Fuji’s lens line-up. The 35mm is technically a superb lens. Sharp, good colors and a nice, fast aperture. The Leitz doesn’t need an introduction. It renders everything so nice and smooth, in a way only vintage lenses could do this.

It’s a completely different way of working compared to a DSLR. It’s definitely slower, and certainly not a camera that everyone will enjoy because of that. But when looking at digital cameras, aside from the Leica digital rangefinders which cost an arm and a leg, this thing is probably the closest to using a film RF that’s available on the market today. Quiet, easy to use and the image quality is just stunning. Too bad it doesn’t have a fullframe sensor, but it’s certainly one of the sweetest APS-C sensors available now. On higher ISO’s, it beats the sensor I had in my 1DsII with ease.

Anyway, pictures! No brick walls to test the Fuji, check review sites of you want to have a look at those. I prefer a real-world test