New Year - Time to shed the pounds

It's that time of year again - everyone is making resolutions for 2013, and looking to improve their lives for the next 12 months.

Time to shed the pounds perhaps?

Weight (and size) was a huge part of my decision to move away from DSLR to mirror-less, and I've spent decades carrying around a heavy Billingham bag full of lenses to get to this point.

So what exactly is the weight & size difference when moving to the X-Pro1 from my existing 5DII?

To illustrate, here's my standard L lens prime set-up, the 5DII with the 24mm f/1.4L, 50mm f/1.2L, and 85mm f1.2L.

When this camera was released, this prime set-up provided some of the highest IQ available in a compact format. Industry leading camera sensor and world-class glass.

Fast forward a few years, and we now have a different option to consider - The Fuji X-Pro1 with the 18mm f/2, 35mm f/1.4, and 60mm f/2.4.

I'm covering the same range with the primes, and IQ from both the camera and lenses is on par with the 5DII.

In fact, at higher ISOs the Fuji has a clear advantage over the Canon, by some margin.

So how much do I save by going mirror less?

Well, when I look at the size of the kit - I'm moving from a Billingham 550 to a 335 bag - quite a saving in size, weight, and price. ($220 saved on Amazon)

The weight of the 5DII kit in the Billingham is 14.4 lbs - without additional filters, flash, cables etc etc.

The weight of the X-Pro1 kit in it's Billingham is 9 lbs - and that's with my filters, memory cars etc, still in the bag.

So I'm saving 5.4 lbs straight away - that's a huge deal when it's on your shoulder all day long.

So before I've even factored in price, the X-Pro1 kit is looking very attractive - it's going be be a lot more portable, and will most likely get taken out more, and hence get more photos. (This has proven to be the case)

So let's look at price:

At current prices on Amazon - I'm going to pay $6,600 for the Canon and $3,300 for the Fuji kit.

That's a huge price differential to consider when making a purchasing decision - significant enough at the time to stop me buying the 5DIII, and leading me to buy a complete X-Pro1 kit instead.

It's been 9 months now, and I've picked up my 5DII twice, both times when I've needed to shoot fast action with long (300 f/2.8 & 600 f/4) lenses.

Other than that, the Fuji has provided full service for over 12,000 frames - and the IQ has blown clients away. No one has asked me to go back to the 5DII, and the X-Pro1 has paid for itself many times over.

Looks like my resolution for 2013 will be to continue to keep the weight off - Canon need to get with the program if they want my business back. Right now they look like they're the biggest looser...

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Chris@1D-Images.com
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