By Braden Gunem
I like to travel alone. Partners and friends are great, but they can also hold you back from really experiencing a culture deeply. Solo travel allows you a freedom and adventure rarely achievable for those rushing back home for dinner. So when a group of friends and I booked a house in a rather touristy area of Panama, I didn’t plan to spend much time shooting. I grabbed my trusted X-T1 and my favorite lens – the XF23mmF1.4 R.
One of the local attractions in this area is a beach only accessible by boat or a long muddy trail through the jungle. After attempting the trail, we opted for the boat and were dropped at a small dock in a lagoon filled with mangrove trees. A short walk across the island towards the sound of surf led us to a beautiful beach. 
We were walking along the beach when a foreign couple approached saying that a man with a machete had tried to rob them, but they were able to run away. Suddenly. I regretted bringing my camera. We stopped walking for some time. We swam, did hand stands, and drank beer. Eventually, the allure of discovery won over and we continued along the deserted beach.
On my extensive travels, I often have a specific image in my mind when I’m shooting. Sometimes, the search for this image blinds me from all the other potential shots present. It’s refreshing to go out with no expectations and see what organically appears. When I saw locals on horseback approaching, I sank into the jungle looking for a frame to contain them as they passed. They had ridden the muddy trail, and were headed to the far end of the island to go hunting.
This long strip of sand is interrupted occasionally by large trees overhanging into the ocean. They are a natural jungle gym, and soon we were climbing all over them. From the trunk of a tree,I realized there was a good shot and picked up the camera again. I tilted the LCD to get super low to the ground and avoided wallowing around myself.
As my friend Laura was working on a new route for this particular tree, I switch on the Cinematic Mode; it’s accessible on your camera by turning the mode dial to CH and holding down the shutter release button. As it’s clicking away, I’m able to make slight adjustments to the composition. But, I’m mostly waiting on the subject to look at their best. Yes, it fills a memory card really fast. That’s why I use Lexar 128s, so I don’t have to worry about changing cards very often.
Beyond the beach, we came across some boys walking around with machetes. They seemed to be out honing their skills with these essential jungle tools. One boy was carefully opening a coconut to drink the water. I sat my X-T1 on the ground near his feet, using the tilting LCD to compose. It must be great to grow up in a land where snacks fall readily from the trees.
In the evening, we returned home to discover the hunt had been successful. 
It’s rare that I do a trip with no photographic objective. It’s refreshing to travel light and go with the flow – and it’s authentic and easy to capture with FUJIFILM X Series. On to the next adventure!
To start, I need to talk a little bit about my experience with this camera. I’ve been working and playing with Fujifilm cameras since the X100S. During the past few years I’ve also shot with the X-E2, X-T10, X100T, X-T1, X70 and X-Pro2.
As a curious photographer who gives classes and lectures about the mirrorless revolution all over Brazil, I’ve also tried on Olympus, Samsung and Sony gear together with many a variety of lenses for weddings and portraits. I did this because, as an X-Photographer, I can’t be fully knowledgeably about Fujifilm without also experiencing other brands. I have had great experiences with DSLR cameras, too. I first used Canon cameras back in 2001, testing many different models and lenses.With that brief history, let me begin my X-T2 review.
Several months ago, I put my hands on the X-T2 with the Vertical Power Booster. My first impression was that I would never use this booster: I hate weight and big cameras, but as I was going to travel for 21 days, I would have time to experiment.
The first part of my trip was Portugal. There, I attended a workshop group at “Quinta” in Viseu, a wine farm. I tried the camera in different situations: on hot days and situations of high contrast, on overcast days with softness, and also during times of balanced light. I began testing the advanced filters, film simulations, and the drive modes. 
I headed to Paris, where I shot in mixed lighting situations, such as: contrasting scenes and scenes at twilight in the city. Some images were also made with third party lenses with manual focus and an adapter.
Then, I returned to Brazil and photographed two weddings. I took along my X-Pro2 and shot the weddings with both cameras, just to feel the differences in action. And not surprisingly, I did feel it.
So, l will talk about my recent experiences by making X Series-specific comparisons.
In my opinion, the compensation dial was a negative change from the X-T1 to X-T2. The dial now takes 2 fingers instead of one like with the X-T1. I know Fujifilm engineers changed it by listening to the demands from photographers, but I prefer the old way.
Two good things that I loved were the inclusion of a joystick, which helps a lot for many uses and the continuous shooting that was changed to a controlled one by your finger, so you can shoot even one image on the continuous if you want.
I always say that the X-Pro2 is a camera for rangefinder lovers, documentary or street photographers. In my opinion, it is prettier than the X-T2, but, according to complaints of most users, it lacks an articulating LCD and the ISO dial is also a negative aspect. I suggested that Fujifilm give photographers the option of setting the ISO with the front or back command dials..
Another important thing is the vertical power booster that is available for the X-T2 allows much longer battery life: the grip adds the power of two more batteries, so it raises to three the number of batteries; which, for me, is enough for my entire wedding. The commands in this new booster grip are very well situated and even include the joystick. This booster grip also increases the number of shots per second in the high-speed drive, and this is a very good thing for sports and wildlife photographers.
The lacks that many photographers used to talk about Fujifilm cameras were mainly related to the resolution (that the sensors were 16 megapixels), autofocus speed, sensor size, dual card slots and flash system.
This camera has 24 megapixels with huge quality and increased resolution – the size of its rich RAW files can reach up to 60 megabytes. This size is ideal for photographers who normally crop their images.
In regards to the sensor size, everybody knows that nowadays, technology has been advancing incredibly fast and that the latest APS-C sensors can now achieve beautiful results at high ISO levels and wide latitude. Fujifilm’s latest generation sensors are very competitive in the DSLR market.
The adding of the dual card slot helped a lot for the wedding photographers who need instantly back up.
It was unthinkable that we could have such great and competitive system with this price and such high quality some years ago.
To sum this review up, I must emphasize that Fujifilm is a brand that listens to their users very carefully, and that is the secret behind their huge success. You can list some cons about them, but they will be happy to listen, take notes and fix them, maybe even in a simple firmware update.
Nowadays, people make decisions based on details. The competition in the camera industry is tremendous. For choosing the best photography gear, we must also make our decisions based on details. Fujifilm has paid attention to the critical details, and the X-T2 is a perfect example of a beautiful result.
