Cameras

Even though I don’t consider myself anywhere close to a professional photographer, I’ve bought a LOT of cameras ever since I started getting into photography. My first ever camera wasn’t even a dedicated camera, it was a very cheap Android phone: an Honor 5X. The camera was decent and I quickly picked up photography with my best friend in my high school years. Shortly after that I got my first real camera for Christmas, a Nikon D3400. It was a massive jump in picture quality and I finally started getting more serious about my photography. It was still a beginner camera, but I learned so much on that little DSLR, even adapting old film lenses onto it eventually.

The next summer in 2018, I got my first job ever as a theme park photographer. It was great and I honed my skills on a more professional camera, a Canon D70 Mk II. It was big and heavy, but it taught me how to compose shots with different subjects and foreground/background elements. I decided to save up for my first mirrorless camera, the Fujifilm X-T20. I immediately fell in love with how light and small it was, how it rendered colors in a unique way, the tactile buttons and dials, and superb kit lens. Ever since then, Fujifilm cameras have been my favorite, and my main digital camera is still a Fujifilm X-T3.

As for film cameras, I began my journey into this infinite rabbit hole with the Minolta XG-7. One of my friends showed me their Minolta X-700 and I immediately wanted my own. That camera sparked a love for film that continues to this day. While my Fujifilm is great, nothing compares to the raw feeling of shooting film, especially on older manual cameras. While they all pretty much shoot the same film, each camera approaches that goal in so many unique ways that it’s hard to decide sometimes. I’ve ended up collecting film cameras as it feels nice to give new life to them and they look spectacular when I’m not using them. I’ve bought (and sold) Polaroids, SLRs, rangefinders, and point-and-shoots, but I’ve yet to add either a TLR or a medium format (hopefully soon!).