I Am Nikon

After many years of using Fujifilm, I decided to go back to Nikon. There are numerous reasons, and I will highlight those reasons and tell you all about my change and equipment here. The adventure is just beginning, and I hope you will be along for the ride.

As of today, Wednesday January 24th 2024, I no longer have any main Fujifilm cameras (I do still own my Fujifilm Instax Evo). I have gone back to Nikon! For me, it is an exciting time, and I bet so many of you are wondering why on earth I have left Fujifilm, where I have built up such a reputation as a Fujifilm ambassador of sorts, and gone back to Nikon.

First of all, let us look at what equipment I now have (most of it is shown in the photograph above), and why I chose the things that I did.

• Nikon Z6ii full frame mirrorless camera – The main attraction and star of my changeover to Nikon is the Nikon Z6ii. Not the original version. The reason I chose this over the original and spent a little bit more is because of a few reasons, including the extra card slot, more autofocus modes, better EVF, ability to add a real battery grip, faster operation overall and of course the promise of being supported longer with software updates.
• Nikon Z mount 24-70mm F/4 – for everyday photography. This lens is regarded as an amazing piece of kit, and it needed to be a part of my kit.
• Nikkor 50mm F/1.8G – A lens I will use for portraits and a aperture I can really take advantage of on full frame.
• Nikkor 70-300 AF-S – for wildlife and landscapes, this lens gets a great reputation for an extremely good price. I’m really looking forward to using this and seeing my bird images, as it’s a very similar focal length to my Fujifilm XC50-230mm that I have been using.
• Nikkor 14-24mm AF-S – A super wide angle lens that is wider than any lens I have had before. My widest Fujifilm lens that wasn’t a fisheye was 13mm (19.5mm full frame) and even the 8mm fisheye which was hugely distorted comes to 12mm, so not too much difference.
• Nikon FTZ adaptor – So that I can use F mount lenses.
• Two spare third party batteries – Because I need them!

Why then, did I leave Fujfilm?

The answer is not a simple one to answer. I loved Fujifilm, in fact, I built this website up on the back of my Fujifilm adventures. However, things are very different now to how they were when I decided to move to Fuji. I wanted to go with a smaller camera, and I wanted the straight out of camera jpegs that Fujifilm offer. With the Nikon Z6ii, it is almost identical in size to my X-T3 that I owned, so the size thing does not matter anymore. During the last 6 years or so, I have been very active with the photography group, however, things have changed, and although we still meet, we no longer run around like idiots, but actually do photography, slow and with purpose.

Fujifilm colours are to die for, they honestly are, but there is a world of film simulations out there for Nikon cameras too. With many options and parameters to change, to alter your jpegs, this is only the start of my Nikon film simulation journey! More importantly though, I actually process raw files much more these days. Typically, I only use jpegs as backing up for historical purposes, or for quick sharing.

And there is one elephant in the room that must be addressed. Fujifilm promised full frame performace on a crop sensor body. However, as close as it gets, it is not full frame. The extra benifits that full frame will bring me to my photography, far outweigh anything else. Much better low light, nicer bokeh and of course, there is never a need to worry about ISO with the Z cameras!

What is next?

The first thing I have been doing is configuring my brand new Nikon Z6ii to the way that I want it. This will be tweaked once I have been out for a session with it. I have currently only taken a few images of my kids, and nothing else, and I love the output that I get from the camera. Shooting in the dark, at ISO12000, there was literally no noise to be seen. Beautiful!

I have so much planned, and as well as a makeover of this website, I hope to share my journey with you all. So please, stick around and enjoy the ride. I may even tempt you away from your Fujifilm cameras!

Stay tuned for my first batch of images, that I hope to be getting very soon (well, as soon as the weather lets me!)