Agree, there’s not much reason to buy new in 2025 unless there’s a camera that does the one new exciting special thing you want. Any decent camera from the past decade with a micro-four-thirds or larger sensor will get you extraordinarily nice photos.
1 Like
My Fuji cameras have paid for my entire life over the last decade - music gear, MX5 club, firearms, entertainment, vacations, wedding, everything… I love them dearly.
Used to run a big Canon/Zeiss/Profoto setup for a number of years which was fantastic if it never left home - incredible IQ and everything felt wonderful, but too big and heavy. After a few years of carrying that stuff up mountains I tried the RX1 which was great but flash sync was a pain in the ass. Said screw it and tried the little X100T that I heard everyone raving about. Leaf shutter and the size of an iphone? SIGN ME UP.
Within a year all of my other gear was sold and I was all in on an Xpro2 and a trio of primes. Now I’ve been running a pair of XT4s for 80/20 video/photo work and they’ve been wonderful.
Fujifilm is 
5 Likes
12800 ISO! It is crazy how high ISO management and noise in low light setting got so much better the last 5 years. Crazy sharp 
(and IBIS too I guess?)
2 Likes
Whilst sensors have definitely gotten better in terms of noise at higher ISO values over the years, noise has never really been an issue with b&w/monochrome photography. A matter of luminance vs chrominance noise, where the latter is far more distracting.
More importantly denoising software has also gotten stupid good rather recently, which makes high ISO usable even on older and smaller sensors (and in colour too, not just b&w).
Still when it comes to low light conditions (and especially when dealing with moving subjects) physics are physics and a larger sensor will gather more light.
1 Like
Beside that, in my eyes the digital „noise“ of the Fujis was always pleasing due to their special distribution of colour elements of their sensors. Looks way more like analog film grain than other digital cameras.
2 Likes
The colours I get out of my X-Pro 3 are fantastic, reds and greens in particular are beautiful.
Unedited jpg from the camera:
6 Likes
Not great photos but to show ISO performance.
These two shots are ISO 102,400
Yes One hundred Thousand +
top photo has some Noise reduction.
A7SIII
3 Likes
Canon EOS M6 (Mk1)
7Artisans 35mm f/1.2 (Mk1)
F/2.8, 1/80s, ISO 3200
Basic Monochrome mode
Handheld
Angle is not quite the same, and I realized after the fact that the Fuji version was f/5.6, not 2.8. My point was not to exactly replicate the prior photo but to show that an older APS-C canon and a (very good) 3rd party MF lens can produce equally interesting results.
The Fuji X-T5 is better than the Canon M6 in many ways, but both cameras are capable of creating very good images.
It looks like you can get a Mk1 M6 for around USD $400-$500, the 7A 35mm f/1.2 costs $140 on Amazon. Add $100 for a memory card and new battery and the total cost is $740, a bit less than the Fuji 33mm f/1.4 lens costs alone. I would also recommend the EVF-DC1 or DC2 finder, which can be found on eBay for under $150.
2 Likes
Yes, IBIS was enabled on the Fuji. The Canon M6 does not have IBIS at all. (the kit lens claims to have some kind of image stabilization but I don’t think I’ve shot more than a handful of photos with it, can’t recall if the IS is actually useful or not)
For some reason the first thing that popped up in my head when I woke up was the TTArtisan 35mm T2.1 Dual Bokeh Cine Lens. It has a slider that lets you morph the bokeh between two different types. It’s already cool to have two different types of bokeh in one lense, but I’d imagine it’ll be soo much fun looking for sweet spots with the slider.