What’s in my Camera Bag, 2022?

photo by Harper Gray (my oldest son)

It has been a while since I have shared a true, “what’s in my camera bag?”-style peek into the gear that I use on a regular basis. I am going to take the opportunity to really deep dive into what I pack in my primary kit, my everyday carry, and for travel or street photography. I will also summarize my thoughts on Fuji, after three years of using this system as my primary choice.

Fuji GFX 100s

The museum where I work may be updating the camera equipment in its photo studio, so Fujifilm USA sent me a GFX 100s and three lenses (GF 24mm f/4, GF 45-100mm f/4, and GF 120mm f/4 Macro) to test out for a week. I’ve been shooting Fuji’s X series for several years now, and I consider it a very competent, versatile system. However, there is “capable” and there is “CAPABLE”. This camera fits easily into the latter, as you will soon see.

First Impressions: Vallerret Ipsoot Photography Gloves

Vallerret Ipsoot Photography Gloves

I was recently sent a pair of Ipsoot Photography Gloves by Vallerret, and asked to share my thoughts. This is the Norway-based company that is the winter weather best friend to cold hands everywhere. Things have been a little unseasonably warm here in St. Louis, so my more in-depth review will come later. However, I wanted to take a quick moment to give my first impressions.

7artisans 7.5mm f/2.8 Fisheye Lens

Photography is not all about MTF charts- in fact, it’s not even all about gear. The point of photography is expression, and that is conducted in all manner of ways: with film or digital capture, from large to small format, with equipment that is perfect to purposely using equipment with flaws. That said, sometimes you just can’t get around the equipment, like when it actually impedes your ability to create…

The lenses I review are measured in terms of their performance in three categories: Specialist, Utility or Passion. As always, I am not a technical reviewer, so this won’t be charts and tests driven, just real world experiences.        

Fujinon XF 55-200mm f/3.5-4.8 OIS Lens

Several years ago, I decided to convert from zoom lenses to prime lenses. This was a pivot designed to benefit my creativity (prime lenses encourage you to move around, which lends to new perspectives, and they simplify compositional decisions), and to give my work a more cohesive “look”. Since making that decision, I’ve never really looked back, and couldn’t imagine lugging heavy 2.8 zooms around anymore. However, when I converted from Nikon to Fuji, I recognized that I needed a focal length longer than 50mm, that could fill the shoes (mostly) of my old Nikkor 105mm. I considered the Fuji 90mm f/2, but this 55-200mm was on sale, fast enough for my occasional use, and offered more reach than I had previously. I took a chance, and boy, am I happy that I did!

The lenses I review are measured in terms of their performance in three categories: Specialist, Utility or Passion. As always, I am not a technical reviewer, so this won’t be charts and tests driven, just real world experiences.        

Fujinon XF 50mm f/2 WR Lens

The Fujinon XF 50mm f/2 R WR Lens is a workhorse lens for me. For portrait work especially, this lens comes out for every single session, and it is most often the lens on my second body for walking around or event work. In Fuji’s lineup, this is essentially the “nifty fifty” that almost all manufacturers make (usually, an inexpensive 50mm f/1.8), though at $450, it is quite a bit more expensive than most others. However, for the extra money, you get quite a lot over those other lenses: weather resistance, a metal build, very quick and advanced focusing, and optical performance that is often reserved for much more expensive lenses.

The lenses I review are measured in terms of their performance in three categories: Specialist, Utility or Passion. As always, I am not a technical reviewer, so this won’t be charts and tests driven, just real world experiences.        

Fujinon XF 35mm f/2 WR Lens

The Fujinon XF 35mm f/2 R WR Lens is the most recent Fuji lens that I have purchased, but it has already become my third most used Fuji lens ever (according to my shot count in Lightroom). It is a lens that I have travelled with extensively, hiked with extensively, used as a walk-around lens extensively, and have leaned on heavily for event work, portrait work, art documentation and more. In simple, this lens, like the 23mm and 50mm lenses, is a lens that I trust to tell my story as a photographer (and in turn, the stories of my quite varied subjects). That said, it is not a perfect lens- it has character, and I’ll get into that in a bit.

The lenses I review are measured in terms of their performance in three categories: Specialist, Utility or Passion. As always, I am not a technical reviewer, so this won’t be charts and tests driven, just real world experiences.        

7artisans Photoelectric 35mm f/1.2 Lens

Sometimes, photography is just meant to be fun. Not worrying about being consistent to a body of work, or not worrying about botching a client’s expectations is often the source of that fun for me, but it can also stem from pure experimentation. From taking a piece of equipment out that may miss the shot, but might also deliver something really beautiful and unexpected. A piece of equipment, by the way, that harkens back to a time when photography was conducted at a slower, more deliberate pace- an analog piece in a digital world. The 7artisans Photoelectric (what the heck does that mean?!) 35mm f/1.2 is that piece of equipment.

The lenses I review are measured in terms of their performance in three categories: Specialist, Utility or Passion. As always, I am not a technical reviewer, so this won’t be charts and tests driven, just real world experiences.        

Viltrox 85mm f/1.8 STM Lens

I am in the camp of those who acquire lenses only to accommodate a variety of purposes. This is partially why I switched predominantly to primes years ago- I recognized that even with a zoom lens, I gravitated toward particular focal lengths and tended not to use most of the remaining zoom range. Once I realized that I was using my expensive 17-55mm f/2.8 Nikkor as essentially a 24mm f/2.8 lens for greater than 80% of the shots I took, I sold it and acquired a less expensive, though dedicated 24mm lens, that because it was dedicated, turned out to be better for me in many ways. I recognize that this strategy may not work for everyone and for every photography purpose, which is why the lenses I review are measured in terms of their performance in three categories: Specialist, Utility or Passion. As always, I am not a technical reviewer, so this won’t be charts and tests driven, just real world experiences.        

Review Announcement

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