It's been days.. weeks.. months even and I still yearn for a mirrorless camera. I have researched all the devices, I have put in my credit card number to two different websites with two different models that I knew were the one.
Both times I stopped at the last moment.
Why?
I own a DSLR, a pretty good one at that, the Canon 6D. My photo life has been built around the idea of Canon and I have been faithful and my wallet has been tarnished many a time. I started with a Canon T3i which I sold to a former employer to fund a Canon 60D. At the same time I wanted a second body so I bought the Canon 7D. After a while of owning both (for video shooting) I sold the 60D to a friend who was starting in photography. Then I bought my current camera and then the 70D was sold and my APS-C lens was sold with it.
Then there was one.
The Canon 6D... my first full frame camera. And I loved it! I loved it as much as any one person should love an amalgamation of glass, metal and plastics. I was able to get such high quality low light photos with it and the clarity and detail made me believe that I made the right choice, I got a great product from Canon.
I owned it for 14 months and then something changed... I shot a wedding with it for the first time. Did the shoot go bad? No, in fact I nailed 500+ keepers and the bride and groom thanked me and I felt good that the camera and it's user had performed superbly.
BUT... there they were.. in the RAW's I found moments that I would have loved to capture but I missed... sometimes by the smallest margins I missed focus. It happens but you can't fix bad focus, you can't fudge it and there is no going back. It's there and It's a blur on YOU as a photographer.
It hurts to look at it.
I hate to admit this but deep down at my core I'm a consumer. I love the hunt... maybe it's a primal instinct.. or an old need to home in on my prey.. but I love to compare all features and details before any purchase. I'm the kind of guy who walks into a store and says the exact model of what I want and what optional extras I want with it.
So back to my 6D, did I make a mis-calculation?
Well let's look at the cold hard facts... with my 6D I looked long and hard and waited for a killer deal before I pounced. BAM! $1600 for the 6D body and it came with a Canon Pixma Pro100 Printer with 50 sheets of 13"x19" photo paper. Hm, what if I went to next model up?
The Canon 5dmk3, the price jump? $1900.
The JUMP was more than what I paid for the 6D. I would have to be mental to buy that!! No I could never possibly justify that much of a price jump for an auto-focusing system.
So what do I do now? I have this not so cheap amount of money invested in this name.. Canon. Is there a new model on the way? Sure, but it's the 70D mk2 and that's an APS-C sensor so it's going to a lower quality camera just for an Auto-focus system.
Mirror-less Cameras.
I'll cut to the chase, mirror-less cameras have technology that a lot of purists might hate but at the end of the day the quality looks fantastic and the size/weight is hard to beat. The best camera is still the one that is on your person. I'm down to two picks, either the Fuji x30 or the Sony a6000. The a6000's technical specs are just tremendous, it's a great piece of kit and it's fast. The Fuji hits all the right places in looks and style. It even has an EVF (electronic view finder) that many are considering to be a game changer... maybe even the first one that has surpassed OVF's (optical view finders). The Fuji can't compare to the technical superiority of the a6000 but the look and feel of the keeps it in the race. I'm a big believer of a solid feel of a device, there are two necessities in any great design.
Engineering and Passion.
I live in Buffalo NY, I love it here BUT we don't have ANY stores that carry these cameras. Sure I could go to my local big box retailer and order a camera and try it at the store and then return it if I don't like it but that can lead to a lot of paperwork and honestly it's a hassle.
So in our savior, borrowlenses.com!! I've used them to rent a 70-200mm I needed in the past and they emailed me a deal they are running for Christmas, if you rent a camera (or lens) for min of 3 days you get to keep it until Jan 5th... so you're getting 15 days for the price of 3 days rental. Great. I've been looking at the Fuji X30 and it's in stock there so this is the perfect way to try it out for 15 days!
The Camera is $599 brand new.... so rental for three days should be cheap... $31.00 for three days.. oh and don't forget the $14 for the damage waiver...and $24.95 for shipping..
OK so... that's $69.95 for a 15 day rental... or about $4.80 per day. Not too bad.. that much time would allow me to fully explore the camera and I would have all the time I needed to figure out if I really needed this device in my life.
So I logged in, added my credit details, filled out my new address and then I stopped.
I'm about to pay $70 to borrow a camera for 15 days to see if it has a soul.
Size is the one that gets me, I am 100% sure that I would take more photos if I had a camera that was easier to carry around. So if I get this as a walk around then do I keep the 6D? This whole thing started because I wanted a camera with a better auto-focus system but in order to do that I would need to probably buy the a6000. The X30 has the looks but it can't do video I want and I can't afford to spend $600 on an artsy camera. I just can't do it. My biggest problem with the a6000 is that I'll have to buy new lenses if not then I could get an adapter for my canon lenses but then I have these HUGE lenses on a tiny camera therefore defeating the reason to buy mirror-less int he first place.
If you've read this far then I applaud you because you've just been down a rabbit hole that has been buried in my head for a long time and I apologize if you're gone this far looking for an answer because I don't think I have one...
yet.
cm-