In January 2012, now a decade ago, Fujifilm released the X-Pro1, its first X-Mount camera. It signalled the start of a complete range of mirrorless interchangeable-lens cameras. Cool, retro, modern and packed with the latest technology had arrived.
To celebrate this 10-year milestone with the global community in 2022, Fujifilm has launched a hashtag campaign, aptly named #10YearsOfXMount that includes a series of photographic themes.
At the beginning of each month, a new theme is announced and Fujifilm users are invited to share their images on social media using that hashtag. If you search this hashtag (on Instagram), you will see thousands of beautiful images created with a wide range of Fujifilm cameras and lenses over the last ten years. It is a “Fujifilm” showcase of the community’s’ journey over the years since the launch of the X-Pro1.
It’s also been a pretty epic ride for me! Next year marks my 10 year anniversary of shooting on Fujifilm and although I have been an official Fujifilm X-Photographer for 5 years, I have been in love with the images I have been able to create for much longer than that.
My first Fujifilm camera was the amazing X100s. When I got it, I didn’t realise what an incredible journey awaited me, but it didn’t take any time at all for me to fall in love with how making pictures with the X100s made me feel. Of course I wrote an article about my beginnings – you can read it here: https://blog.nathalieboucry.com/ode-to-my-perfect-camera/
I loved the images that I was able to produce with my X100s and increasingly found myself creating more and more personal images on a daily basis. This passion was shared with my husband and two close friends of ours, who also shot on X100 Series cameras. Our newfound enthusiasm gave birth to a blog we titled X-Frame. Each of us, and many others who then joined us too, published an image a week, shot on the X100/s/t/f Series range. Over the next 4 years I published a photo a week and then created a photobook out of my first 100 images shared on that blog. These images now represent a collection of precious memories captured during those years.
In 2014 my husband added an X-T1 with the XF 16mm F/1.4 R WR that I nicked on a regular basis and loved the results so much that, in 2015, I finally started shooting on an X-Mount camera for my professional work too. Initially I used an X-T2 with a number of XF primes, added an X-H1 in 2018 with more XF zoom lenses, upgraded to an X100f and finally added an X-T3 in 2019.
In addition to this, I tried, tested and reviewed the XT-100, XT-200, X-A7, as well as the X-T30, X-S10, X-Pro3 and the X-T4 together with almost all the Fujifilm lenses in the line-up.
I love the results I get with my gear and have many reasons to celebrate my experience as a Fujifilm user.
Over the years, then and now, wherever I go, the gorgeous retro design of the X-Series camera range has been and continues to be a real conversation starter. It never gets old. And it’s a feeing I know first-hand because after I had handled mine for the first time, I didn’t want to put it down again.
The form factor of the mirrorless range enables me to carry my camera with me wherever I go. I am always ready to take photographs whenever an opportunity arises. The upshot of this is that there have been plenty of candid moments that resulted in special memories I may otherwise have missed.
Thanks to how the X-Trans sensor renders files, I have also been able to achieve beautiful looking images with much less time spent editing. That has meant more time shooting, with the result being a serious boost in my photography joy. In addition, the considerable reduction in the cost – the capital invested in my professional gear – has meant that I am able to run my photography business in a slicker, more profitable way.
All in all, this has been and remains the perfect fit for me in more ways than one and I am grateful for the day I received my first Fujfilm camera and when my journey began.
The official Fujifilm Global hashtag campaign started in January this year and there are three themes that have been covered so far: January – Best Photograph, February – Favourite X Mount Camera and March – Favourite X Mount Lens.
April’s theme is “Your Favourite Film Simulation” and because it’s such a great fit, we featured it in the latest episode of SOOC:
Choosing my favourite film simulation is a difficult ask, but I think Classic Chrome is a very serious contender. As a partial compromise, here are some of the shots I have taken in the last year with various film simulation recipes (by Fuji X Weekly) that are based on Classic Chrome: Kodachrome II, Kodacolor and Kodak Gold 200:
You too can, and probably should, participate in the campaign and share your favourite images with the global community using the hashtag #10YearsOfXMount to your social media accounts.
In addition, we are running a campaign on SOOC in which we are inviting viewers to submit the first image that they took with their Fujifilm camera that made them go “oooh, yasss, that’s why I shoot Fujifilm”!
Ritchie and I shared our sample images in the show – you can watch the chapter by clicking the link above. If you would like to participate and share your image – and, we’d really love you to – please upload it here by 11 May and add #10YearsOfXMount to the file name.
Here’s to sharing beautiful images celebrating 10 years of the Fujifilm X-Mount!
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