Cinematic Journey to Israel

Waking up to a Fujifilm X-T2 | Day 24

Waking up to a FujiFilm X-T2 (AKA Sony a7ii vs Fuji Film X-T2) | Day 24 of 33 Sunrises
Last night Emiliana and I played in the pool until the sun almost set then raced down to stay at her Daddy's house in Buda. John is out of town with his sick father and we were holding the fort down. We woke up this morning in Buda. It was extremely cloudy which put me in some what of a bad mood that I didn't have any gloriously lit images...
Anyway, I had grand plans of staying up long after Emiliana went to bed (9pm-ish) and configuring the new Fuji Film X-T2 I traded my gear in for, and thought the excitement alone would keep me awake but alas, I didn't wake up until my alarm this morning. 

This is how my brain feels about trying to learn new technology... 
just give me an ink-filled pen and a crumpled piece of paper and no body will get hurt.
Translation: I've shot with the same camera since 2012 so I don't really care about having the latest greatest.

That is until I took the xt2 out of the box. :)

I have been photographing on the Nikon d700 since those bodies came out in 2012 and they were the BOMB back then! I've replaced the shutter twice, shot with it in the rain, replaced all the rubber pieces, shot my first commercial gig with it, etc etc etc. To say I was sentimentally attached to that thing would be an understatement. 
But all good things must come to an end. (And I didn't even cry when that basket of thousands of dollars of my old Nikon gear disappeared with the sales clerk.) 

So there's a reason why there's only 1 camera store called Precision in Austin, Texas. If you're new here and you think "They need some serious competition" I beg of you to go in and ask for Robert. Let me say that again... go pull a ticket and then wait for Robert. To make a long story extremely short, I traded both my d700 and all flashes/lenses in and my x-t1 for the Sony a7ii but didn't feel too excited about it. I shot it a few days and then I talked to Robert on the very day I was trading in the last of my gear and he said "WTF are you doing?! Here... hold this xt2" and I hauled ALL of the gear I had just purchased two days ago back into the store, returned in and walked OUT with the xt2 and a 35 f/2 equivalent of the 50mm.

Bottom line: If you have shot with a Nikon DSLR and you're trying to switch seamlessly to a mirrorless dslr because that's the future folks, and bonus points, if you have any hopes at all of shooting video, the XT2 is your answer.

Here's a quick list how the XT2 blows the a7ii out of the water (in the less than 15 mins that I have shot with it.)

+ MENU
The #1 reason. All of the controls are hidden INSIDE of the Sony a7ii. In Robert's words, the Sony is a PC that happens to take pictures. He couldn't be more right. You have to literally "dig" into the menu to change everything from iso to manual focus, etc. It's annoying as hell. haha Especially coming from the ease of the use of Nikon with all of it's dials on the outside body, 
The Fuji Film XT2 is quite comparable, with manual shooting ease. I know I have so much to learn about what can be accessed on the outside and I'm really excited about that.

+ SHUTTER LAG
(The time difference between when you're pushing the shutter button and the camera actually takes the photograph.)
Non existent in the XT2. It's as clean and fast and crisp as the Nikon DSLR. Unheard of!!!
I noticed a millisecond in the Sony a7ii. If you haven't ever shot with a dslr, you will still be wowed by the Sony, but it's not as fast as the XT2 in my opinion.

+ IN CAMERA EDITS
I didn't play with this feature on the Sony much but I'm including photographs I shot on the XT2 that I shot as JPGS (which I don't ever shoot jpg! I always shoot in RAW and edit!) But there are some really fabulous in camera edits that make shooting in jpg possible, even freaking fabulous black and white reminiscent of film days filters, and knowing I don't have to spend HOURS editing makes me the happiest girl this side of TEXAS ya'll!!!!!!!

+WEIGHT AND ERGONOMICS
Coming from a d700, the Sony felt so much like a cheap toy camera to me, so I immediately bought the battery grip with it so I didn't feel like it was going to just fall out of my hands. Even with that it still felt clunky. The material doesn't feel substantial enough for me, but then again that's all personal preference.
Even though the Fujifilm isn't a full frame, it instantly felt familiar to me, like holding the metal body of a film camera. If you spend any time with your camera as a profession it becomes your baby and guys, the weight and fabric of your baby is SO important! Fujilfilm just has it down.

+MOVIE
Wish I could give a better assessment of this but just spouting facts: the X-T2 shoots 4k, the a7ii only 1080. Wish I knew what that meant, haha. In short, X-T2 wins again.

+WIFI capabilities
I didn't use this feature yet on either but they both have the ability to send images directly to your phone! Awesome.

+ OVERALL COST
Extremely comparable. 

Winner winner chicken dinner: FUJI FILM!!!! 
Bonus: Not to mention it just looks so much prettier than the Sony AND Amazon now has the Instax printer which you can configure directly with the xt2 in the menu! Ah!! 

Here are the photographs I shot this morning with the fujifilm xt2 as jpgs, unedited. If you know me, you know I don't shoot in jpg and I definitely don't post un-edited files anywhere. While I don't know I would give these exact files to clients, they are sure pretty as is without any adjustments at all! 

I know I'm so freakin biased to the FujiFilm, so I really encourage you if you have shot with both and disagree with me, tell me why you like the Sony so much better! Would love to hear!