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I really like Fujifilm cameras. I actually ditched an entire Canon digital kit all the way back in 2014 and went all-in on a Fuji kit for all my work. I know I don't mention my work a lot but I am a photographer: http://mikepadua.com (LOTS of stuff in that port from Fuji cams)
One thing that really appealed to me was the "manual" aesthetic of the bodies: the shutter speed dials, aperture dials, old-style shutter release buttons. I mean, I completely fell for that stuff because I LOVE film cameras and film photography
It took a while to admit to myself, but shooting Fujifilm cameras DOES NOT feel like shooting a manual film camera. At all. It took me some time and thought to figure out why that was. I mean, it had all the dials and clickies and buttons of a film camera. That's the same, right?
No, not really. I enjoy manual/mechanical film cameras because they are just that: mechanical. The shutter button on a mechanical film camera (like, say, a Pentax K1000) actually triggers a mechanism that will open the shutter. That's a little thing, but you can "feel" that.
The (vintage looking) shutter button on an X100/X-T/X-E/X-Pro (all of which I've owned, and STILL own) triggers a circuit that tells a computer to open the shutter mechanism. Again--that's a little thing, but you can feel that. You can tell that you're interfacing with a computer
Interfacing with a computer is not a bad thing. I LOVE technology. I advocate shooting film heavily but I also LOVE digital cameras. I guess this is just me working out in my head why something that takes all it's design cues from mechanical cameras does not...
...feel like a mechanical camera at all, and me admitting to myself that, yeah, I kinda fell for it way back in 2014. Well, not kinda--I totally fell for it. And maybe "fell for it" is the wrong phrase. I don't think Fujifilm is trying to get one over on us.
On the contrary, I think they're trying to design beautiful, functional tools that we enjoy using and each iteration gets better and better. Anyhow...those are some thoughts that were knocking around in my brain for a long time that I figured I would organize into sentences.
