Amateur Photographer - UK (2019-06-21)

40 15 June 2019 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113

Testbench IN THE FIELD

W

hat’s the ideal camera system
for travel photography? Which
of the various sensor sizes is
the optimum? And how about
the lenses: is it better to travel with a couple of
decent zooms or a selection of primes? These
are a few of the questions that I decided to try
to answer when I recently spent 17 days sailing
around the South Pacifi c on Holland America
Line’s MS Maasdam.
My passion for cruise ships stems from
having spent my twenties living and working on
them as a photographer. For me, one of the
only things more magnifi cent than watching a
cruise ship sail into some exotic port is being on
board and watching it from the deck. And there
is no fi ner way to enjoy a sunset than when it is
refl ected in 360° of ocean.

Nigel Atherton took a Fujifi lm X-T3 and a

selection of lenses to the South Pacifi c in a quest

to fi nd the perfect travel photographer’s kit

Back in my cruising days I spent much of my

free time shooting travel photos for a picture

library on a Nikon FA loaded with Fuji Velvia,

and would routinely carry a Billingham bag

stuffed with eight Nikkor prime lenses because

I didn’t trust the quality of zooms – probably

rightly so, at the time. But my days as a

pack-horse are long gone, so on this cruise I

decided to try out one of the many fabulous

new mirrorless systems that come in and out of

the offi ce. But which one? And which lenses?

Choosing my kit

There’s a lot of buzz around full-frame

mirrorless cameras at the moment, but some

of those optics can be pretty hefty. The Micro

Four Thirds system, with its wide range of tiny

but superb primes, is a no-brainer for travelling

light, but what if I moved up a step in sensor

size? Could the Fujifi lm X system, with its larger

APS-C sensor, be the perfect compromise for

travel ’togs between portability and image

quality? There was only one way to fi nd out.

The diminutive new X-T30 is an obvious travel

camera, but I was drawn to its big brother, the

X-T3. Of all the cameras on the market, it’s the

one that’s closest in design and spirit to my old

FA. It even has a Velvia simulation mode. I love

Fujifi lm’s adherence to traditional dials for ISO,

shutter speed and exposure compensation,

and to dedicated aperture rings on the lenses.

I don’t think a more intuitive interface has yet

been devised than this, but maybe that’s just

because I grew up with it. Either way, I found

the X-T3 easy to like, especially in retro silver.

Fujifi lm produces two versions of its most

popular primes: a compact one and a fast one.

So there’s a tiny 16mm f/2.8 and a larger

16mm f/1.4. Similarly, in both the 23mm and

35mm focal lengths there is a small f/2 lens

and a bigger f/1.4 version, and when it comes

to short telephotos there is a 50mm f/2 and a

Ataglance

£1,349 body only

● 26.1-million-pixel, APS-C sensor

● ISO 160-12,800 (ex t 160-51,200)

● Dust-proof and weather-resistant

● 3.0in, 1.04m-dot tilting touchscreen

● 3.69-million-dot OLED EVF

● Built-in Wi-Fi

● 132.5x92.8x58.8mm / 539g (inc batt)

in Fiji

Fuji

A