The Gear Journey of a professional photographer and filmmaker

I wondered in a recent video whether or not my gear journey would be interesting to anyone and assuming that it is, that very journey is detailed in this blog.

The Start

My first ‘proper camera’ was a Canon 450D plus kit (EF 18-55mm f3.5-5.6) lens purchased in 2008. I’m trying to think of what made me go for this particular model, but I think it was literally dictated by my budget and the fact that my Dad shot Canon when I was a kid! I’d shot on some cheap digital point and shoots before this before buying a Casio Exilim in about 2003, but the change to DSLR was properly eye opening. Little did I know it would eventually lead to where I now am.

I added some lenses to my collection shortly after, namely the ‘nifty fifty’ (EF 50mm f1.8) and the EF 55-250mm, but a wide angle was the lens I craved most. This ended up being the Sigma 10-20mm f4 which kick started my focus on landscapes

Upgrade #1

Like anyone who gets into photography, it’s not long before you start looking for something that’s a bit better in quality in terms of both a new body and new lenses.

In 2012 (so 4 years, longer than I thought actually!), I pulled the trigger on a Canon 60D and 24-105mm f4 - my first Canon ‘L’ lens and a big step up in quality. I retained my telephoto and my nifty fifty, and shot with this setup for only about a year. However, it was a year in which everything I was doing with my camera changed and I started earning money through photography. It was also a year when I started shooting weddings, which prompted the next upgrade…

Upgrade #2

Looking back, I don’t know if I needed one or not at the time, but I managed to convince myself that I was ready for full frame and it would transform what I could do. Maybe I was right as this camera launched my career. In Spring of 2013, I purchased the Canon 5D Mark III, an absolute beast of a camera. It was full frame, good in low light and basically bomb proof.

As I made more and more money from photography, I reinvested the money into my gear. I added a couple more L series lenses and some Sigma Art Primes (35mm and 50mm), and I had a fully capable kit. I was shooting weddings, portraits, commercial gigs (like events), whilst still retaining my interest in landscapes as a bit of a hobby. I also started to play with video - the 5D MKIII was a bit of an anomaly at the time as it was able to shoot 1080p video which many DSLRs couldn’t. Seems strange to say that now, but it really opened the door to a new way of being creative for me.

As my work progressed, I landed a job as an in-house Studio manager for a major UK retailer. That was in 2015, and was shortly followed by the birth of my first son (which is relevant, I promise). The kit I had in the studio pretty much mirrored what I was using at home, and when you have a heavy DSLR in your hand most of the day, you don’t to be doing the same at home. My kit quickly became unused. I still wanted to shoot but the size was becoming a real hinderance (it was during this time I got pretty bad tendonitis in my right elbow which i’m almost certain was from work). This coincided with the rise of Fujifilm, in particular the X-T series.

Upgrade (?!) #3

Ok, not really an upgrade, but in the summer of 2015, I treated myself to the newly released Fujifilm X-T1. I wanted something I wanted to take out and about with me, and take on holiday but it’d got to the point where the 5D just reminded me of work. I needed something different and smaller, and this new camera seemed like the perfect solution. With the imminent arrival of my son, I also now had a better solution for capturing family memories.

Anyone with kids will know just how much stuff you need to take with you when they are babies, so grabbing a huge camera and lens just wasn’t tempting. Whenever we were out, I grabbed the Fuji and not the Canon (I still had my Canon system as I was doing weddings and other jobs outside of my main work). At this point, having the images mattered more than having them in the best quality - the Fuji was more than up to this challenge anyway. A bigger full frame image with shallower depth of field could not compete with the size and weight of the smaller X-T1.

Upgrade #4

I honestly can’t remember what led to this (probably GAS if I’m honest) but in Spring 2017 I upgraded to the Fujifilm X-T2.

Over the next year or so, I added an X-H1 because of its video capabilities (I was getting more and more into video). In hindsight, this was a mistake as this camera, or at least my version of it was pretty flawed, and I only shot with it for a few months. I also pulled back on the additional work I was doing at that time, and sold all my Canon gear (hence buying an X-H1) and amassed a quite ridiculous collection of Fuji Glass. This was GAS in full flow and I see that now.

This included: XF 10-24mm f4, XF 16-55mm f2.8, XF 23mm f2, XF 35mm f1.4, XF 50-140mm f2.8 (plus x 2 teleconverter), XF 56mm f1.2 and an XF 90mm f2. I’m pretty sure I had a macro lens too. Like I said, ridiculous.

I was more than happy with this setup though, despite the fact that many of the lenses were criminally underused.

Upgrade #5

This was the big one, a full system change.

When you go from full frame to APS-C (Canon to Fujifilm), your money goes a lot further. Bodies and lenses are considerably cheaper, hence why I ended up with so much stuff! But in early 2019, I’d decided my time as a Studio manager had come to an end and I wanted to go freelance. Over the last 4 years, I’d put an awful lot of work into developing my skills as a filmmaker and editor and I wanted my freelance work to be based around video creation rather than photography. The idea was that photography would go back to being a hobby as I’d really fallen out with love with it but wanted to get that back. 4 years of shooting product after product on a white background will do that to you!

But there was a problem. Fujifilm just wasn’t great for video, so I needed to switch to a better setup. Enter Sony.

Sony’s mirrorless cameras were pioneering in terms of video capability, so the choice of Sony over any other manufacturer was an easy choice to make. In my studio job, I’d used a Sony A7SII which was pretty good but not perfect. We’d also used a Blackmagic URSA mini cinema camera but I needed something more portable (and cheaper!).

I considered an A7SII, but hoped that the A7SIII release wouldn’t be too far off, so I’d wait. In the meantime, I got an A7III and an A7RIII. Both were similar in terms of video spec, and the RIII was a lot better for stills. I needed 2 cameras for filming multiple angles, and for backup in case something went wrong with a body on a job. I also added a G Master 16-35mm f2.8, a G Master 70-200mm f2.8 and a Tamron 28-75mm f2.8. That was the start of my solo filmmaking kit.

As expected, the A7SIII came out the following year, so swapping my A7III out for this made sense. As time went on, I swapped out the Tamron for the much better quality Sigma 24-70mm f2.8, and slowly added some Sigma Art primes. I also added the Fujifilm X100V at this point too - I wanted a camera I could just take anywhere and this seemed like the perfect solution.

The main problem I ran into with my new Sony camera though was the video output on the A7SIII was a huge step up from that of my remaining A7RIII, meaning whenever I was on a 2 camera setup, matching colour and picture quality became very difficult. I kept the lesser A7RIII in my kit bag though as I just couldn’t justify an upgrade at that time.

In the end though, my hand was forced. I slipped on some ice when on a shoot in January 2023 and broke my A7SIII. Thankfully it could be repaired, but not before I was heading up to Luskentyre on the Isle of Harris to film Nigel Danson’s Luskentyre series. Not great timing! We managed to get hold of a loan FX3 for the trip (a camera with identical capabilities to the A7SIII, but very different to use and not something I was familiar with), but I needed something was comfortable with too so added the A7RV in place of the A7RIII. The only reason for this upgrade was video - the RV has 10 bit colour and matches the A7SIII/FX3. If it were just for stills, I honestly wouldn’t have switched.

Upgrade(?!) #6

You might be here because of a YouTube video of me talking about this, but you might be here for another reason. I’m guessing not boredom as this certainly isn’t the cure for it…. but I’ve recently purchased a Fujifilm X-T4 and a couple of prime lenses (16mm and 35mm).

Why? Well, the best way to work this out would be to watch the video, but mainly it goes back to what I mentioned earlier. Size, weight, easy to carry round. It’s also a lot more fun to use than my Sony cameras in my opinion. That’s basically it!

I’m incredibly lucky to have the gear that I have and be able to buy luxuries like this, but as I said earlier, everything I have ever bought is by reinvesting the money I’ve made through using a camera.

The future.

Will I stick with Fujifilm?

I think so. I’m certainly not giving up the X100V anytime soon, and I don’t need to upgrade to the X100VI (even if I could get hold of one). I’m enjoying using the X-T4, and having more flexible options in terms of focal lengths. If I’m going on a minimal gear shoot for a YT video, it’s also got pretty decent video with IBIS, and IBIS was the key reason why I went for this over the X-T3. Again, I didn’t need what an X-T5 offered over the X-T4. I don’t need more megapixels, and I’ve heard that this bump in resolution makes the AF slightly worse.

I like the fact I can go on holiday with a lot less stuff than if I took the equivalent Sony gear.

Will I keep my Sony gear?

Absolutely. The Fujifilm stuff is MILES off the Sony in terms of video quality and performance, and video is still the bulk of my work.

I’ve spoken in my YT videos about getting back to photography as more of a hobby, and this seperation of my gear into ‘work’ (Sony) and ‘pleasure’ (Fujifilm) seems like a good way to go. I’ve recently gone a step further and swapped out my A7SIII for the Cinema Line FX3. I want to pursue some different things in terms of my filmmaking work, and look more towards shooting documentaries, and the FX3 is a more flexible solution when it comes to this. I probably talk about this in a future video, so keep an eye on the channel if this is something you are interested in.

Yes, it’s not ideal having 2 setups. There’s the obvious expense, although I’m not going anywhere near as lens-happy on the Fujifilm stuff as previously! I don’t ever intend to buy a zoom for it in the future, and may only add one more f2 prime.

The challenge is what I do when I want to shoot stills AND high quality video.

I did take both setups to the USA back in May, and it worked but it just seems a lot!! I am finding myself using the 16-35 and 70-200 very infrequently these days though, so maybe just chucking the FX3 and a 24-70 in is the way to go. The video that may have lead you here was shot entirely on a 35mm prime, so that’s another option. I’ll just have to make it work I guess!

I do feel more at peace with what I have now though. No doubt it will continue to evolve but I now have cameras for both stills and video that I just don’t think I’ll seek any sort of improvement to anytime soon. Depending on the direction of my work, I could see myself owning a Cinema Camera one day like an FX6 or FX9, but not in the next few years.

I don’t need more megapixels, or 8k or anything like that so whatever the camera companies throw out over the next few years will just seem a bit unnecessary. We’re very much now in the realms of diminishing returns in terms of the features in new camera releases for the majority of shooters (obviously there’ll be someone out there that needs to photography bats in the dark at 120fps or something), so it’ll be interesting to see in manufacturers can come up with anything to get me to reconsider, but I doubt it.

This setup is here to stay, and now to having to spend a load of mental energy on gear related choices should hopefully free up my creativity even further.