My Kit
Left to right: Olympus OM10, Nikon L25 AF, Camp Snap, Fujifilm X-T10
This is more a story of my journey collecting the kit I own today than an official review. I will be making separate posts to review each camera in full.
I bought my first film camera, an Olympus OM10 around 2021. At this time, I had no idea what I was doing and just wanted something cool to spend my first grown-up paycheck on. The OM10 looked the part to me, a classic film camera with full manual control flexibility. It came with the standard kit F.Zuiko 50mm f/1.8 lens, and a couple of cracks in the body. I’ve since added a dent around the filter thread of the lens..
The 50mm lens is good for portraits and catching abstract shots within a scene. Sometimes I get light leaks through the film. I thought this might have been a side effect from dropping the camera, but a little research revealed that film cameras include foam seals that area designed to prevent light leaks. I’ll make a separate post on how to manage light leakage.
Though I bought this camera several years ago, I only really picked it up seriously around mid 2025. This is the kit I started my street photography journey with. Overall, I find the OM10 to be a solid camera, but I started to notice I was missing opportunities for good shots as it would take me some time to adjust the manual focus.
For my next camera I did some actual research. At this stage I was quite committed to the 35mm film aesthetic and experience but wanted something that would allow me to shoot in an instant without having to take the time to setup a shot as I did with the manual focus on the Olympus. I learned about the differences between SLRs, rangefinders, and point & shoot cameras and determined the best option for my needs. I bought the Nikon L35 AF point & shoot which comes with a built in 35mm f/2.8 lens and auto focus.
I’ve used both black & white and colour film with the Nikon L35 AF with decent success. The autofocus works well enough and often enough for my liking.
After working with two film cameras for a short but impassioned while, I was starting to notice film was burning a hole through my pocket at an alarming rate. It was time to face the digital reality. This time I did a lot of research. I was strongly considering was the Ricoh GRIII or GRIV, but I wasn’t sure how I would fare with the 28mm fixed lens. I had only worked with 50mm and 35mm at this time and I was still quite shy about getting close to subjects, though the discrete design was somewhat comforting. I decided to be brave and settled on the newer Ricoh GRIV but had to wait a short while for its release. In the meantime, I wanted to buy the cheapest digital camera I could get my hands on. I found the Camp Snap for $100 AUD on sale.
The Camp Snap felt like a toy camera in my hands, and while it tended to struggle in low lighting, despite the flash, it can take a nice shot in the right environment. I did find that my shots most often required colour adjustment in post processing, but this was a good excuse for me to jump into Lightroom for the first time.
By now I had tried a couple different types of film cameras and a simple digital camera. I was this close to buying the Ricoh GRIV and if I didn’t have to wait for its release I probably would have. But, while I was patiently awaiting the release and biding my time with the Camp Snap, I discovered the world of sensor colour science. Enter Fujifilm. I was swept away by Fujifilm Colour Science. The images I was finding captured just as much mood and emotion as film if not more. I started seeing the word “punchy” getting thrown around when describing colour qualities and I wanted IN on the experience (I was already trying to get a little punchy with the camp snap as you can see in some of the images above). I had officially been poached by Fuji. I agonised over which model to purchase. I was leaning towards the Fujifilm X-T50 as a decent mid-range photography priority camera, but I just couldn’t justify spending $2500 AUD on a camera at this stage of my photography journey. Finally, I settled on the Fujifilm X-T10.
A major benefit of choosing a DSLR over a fixed lens camera was that I could experiment with a wide-angle lens without committing. I paired the X-T10 with the Fujinon 18mm f/2 28mm equivalent as a decent budget pancake lens. The lens hasn’t arrived yet and I’ve heard mixed reviews so I will have to keep you in suspense and update on a future post!