I’m stuck in an analysis paralysis loop. I’m not happy with the images I’m getting from the Fuji cameras. I have several options.
- Sell all the DSLR and mirrorless camera shit and just take photos on an iPhone and be happy with that. (This is what a normal person would do. I’ll actually recover some money by doing this.)
- Sell all the Fuji gear (at a big loss, of course) and buy another type, probably a Sony full-frame Alpha variant. (This might be fun but is a very expensive option, with no real guarantee of improvement.)
- Go back to basics and take some online courses on how to use the Fuji cameras and their god-awful menu system. (This is also a normal person path, and not very expensive.)
- Give up on photography entirely. (The world has enough JPEGs, and I don’t even know what I’ll do with the 35,000 or so I’ve amassed.)
I’ve spent hours and hours doing research on these options, and I’m no closer to deciding than when I started. The forcing function is our late July trip to Africa, wherein I feel obligated to take photos of animals and locations that have (a) been photographed millions of times, and (b) photographed by professionals with great results. The world will not benefit from my 2023 photos of an elephant.
I’ll probably go with Option 3 and see if any improvements result.
I’ve looked through my folder of “Favorites” and an awful lot of them are taken with an iPhone, not the dedicated camera. I know I occasionally get a good shot with the Fujis – like the one below – but would I have gotten the same shot with a phone? Probably, and that’s the crummy part. I love all the gear associated with a pro camera, but I’m not sure my results are any better than Joe Average with a phone. If that’s so, that makes me “Joe Below Average”.
