Robert Catto, Photographer - Superb, Professional Photography for Business and the Arts in Sydney, Australia

View Original

So, here's a thing - I'm now an official Fuji X-Photographer!

Robert Catto

Eli Paperboy Reed and the True Loves at Bodega, Wellington As many of you will know already, I've been using Fuji's great range of small cameras with their amazing hybrid optical / electronic viewfinder for a couple of years now, and really enjoying them - first the X100, then when the larger X-Pro 1 came along I had to jump to that system.

The interchangeable lenses were really what made it for me - while the X100 was a fantastic one-lens camera, for me the 35mm-e length wasn't quite what I liked having with me - I was wishing it was just a little wider, or just a little longer, a lot of the time.  So, when they made one with a 28mm, 50mm and 90mm-e lens range available, I was ready to upgrade.

In fact I also sold another camera to do it, my much loved & well used Epson R-D1s - a strange & quirky beast, with a body based so closely on the Voigtlander Bessa models that you still had to cock the shutter manually before every frame with a 'film advance' lever - on a digital camera!  But I loved it, and the Leica & Zeiss lenses I'd accumulated along the way.

I sold all that* to get into the Fuji XF lenses and bodies, so I was committed - the Leica M-Mount glass would have fit other camera bodies if I'd decided to change to something else - but I haven't regretted it once, I have to say.

The River by Adam Cvijanovic, at the 18th Biennale of Sydney, Cockatoo Island

So, when Fujifilm New Zealand got in touch late last year to ask if I was interested in being one of their X-Photographers - and along with the great Tony Bridge, only the second in the country - I was really quite pleased.  It took a little time to put together a portfolio of images from the two cameras for them (as I was moving to Australia as well at the time) - but on the weekend, it went live along with a select group of photographers from around the world.

So here I am!  And it's great to be here.  Thanks to Fuji for making great little cameras, and to Fujifilm New Zealand for making me part of the gang!

 

 

* Actually I didn't sell ALL the lenses, I've still got a Zeiss 28mm f/2.8 Biogon w. lens hood for sale, if anyone's in the market!  It's a great little lens - just doesn't fit any cameras I have...