When the Fuji X100 was first released I bought one. It was my first attempted foray back into photography with a legitimate digital camera. Since then, the X100 has gone through many updates. The current version is the X100f. The sensor in my X100 is a 12mp. (In the f it is 24.3mp.) That’s right, 12. A dozen, the number of days in a famous Christmas song, months in a year, hours on a clock, etc. etc. By today’s ever escalating megapixel counts and hype, twelve is way too few. More is not just better, but necessary we are told. Many more is many better. Many, many, more is many, many, better. If you want to shoot like a pro you need mega megapixels. Is it fair for you to point out that I shoot with a Leica camera so I’m the last one to be talking about hype? Yes. Just as it is fair for me to counter that that makes me the first one who should be talking about hype.
Anyway, a few months ago while in New Hampshire there on a shelf sat my old X100. In digital life five-years-old means ancient. I hadn’t shot with it in years. I remember being very pleased with the photographs it took when I did, but it became neglected as I pursued other interests with the limited time I had outside of work. Anyway, again, I charged its battery, cleaned its lens, downloaded its latest firmware, reacquainted my self with its menus, slipped in an SD card, and headed out to take some shots. I shot only black and white and used its in-camera BW affects. So, these shots below are cropped, but not otherwise processed.
Good cameras do not make good photographs. Photographers make good photographs and there is way too much megapixel marketing hype. If you are not taking photographs because your camera doesn’t have the latest ordained megapixel count, you are needlessly passing on taking some great photos. If you are lacking a functioning digital camera, much like “The Island of Misfit Toys” from the classic Christmas movie, Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer, eBay is filled with great digital cameras at great discounts whose only fault is they boast yesterday’s megapixels.
“Nobody wants a Charlie-In-The-Box”…watch the movie.
