One Year of Living Out of a Suitcase
It has been over one whole year of living out of a suitcase full time and a lot has changed in the last 14 months or so. After acquiring quite a few cameras on the road last year, I've had to do quite a bit of reshuffling of my kit and I wanted to give you a little bit of an update for the months ahead.
And at the end of the video I'm going to do a little bit more of a personal channel project update because we have just hit 75,000 subscribers which is absolutely fantastic. I kind of just wanted to get you caught up on what the channel is going to be looking like for the next year and other things I'm working on outside of YouTube.
Moving Up Sensor Sizes
1. The Lumix L10 (Micro Four Thirds)
I haven't actually bought this camera, I was supposed to have this on loan from Lumix for two weeks but then when I said I was going away again, they very generously offered for me to keep the camera for a few months and then return it when I get back. The only deal is do not break the camera.
I already have one video on the way with this camera, it's currently in the edit and I'll be coming out sometime next week with lots of street photography and dog photography here in Italy which should be quite a lot of fun. I was obviously a big fan of the original Lumix LX100, that absolute cult camera from years ago so when I saw the L10 was actually going to get released I was so excited to actually get my hands on something like the LX100 and the Leica D-Lux cameras but with all the modern updates from modern full frame and four third sensor Lumix cameras.
I knew for sure that I wanted to take at least one camera with a four third size sensor so that's going to be the L10 and we're going to move up a sensor size.
2. The Fujifilm X100VI (APS-C)
Yeah this video is a bit silly, we're going to move up to our second sensor size out of three in this video and that is the Fujifilm X100VI. Yes equally as compact and fixed lens as the L10 I'm also bringing the Fujifilm X100VI.
I don't know, this was my original packing list and then the L10 came in as a last minute surprise and they're just different enough that my gear head just kind of justified taking both with me. Actually I think it's going to be quite fun to, you know, do a comparison down the line between these two cameras and kind of really weigh up which is best for which kind of photographer, because I already have very specific use cases for each of them that neither of them can do the job of each other. They're very similar but they're very particular at the same time if that makes sense.
This I actually bought back in Seoul earlier this year which you may remember if you saw that original video. I bought this second hand with a thumb grip that came with it, a sort of filter thread and lens hood adapter glued to the front of the lens, a few scuffs around the camera and a suspiciously low shutter count when I first got it, it was like five thousand or something so really, really, really low use case from whoever had it before me. But I got it for an absolute steal compared to UK prices. I saved like a few hundred pounds on this second hand even on the used market in the UK, so that's why I picked this camera up originally.
Right now I just can't bring myself to sell it, and actually instead of selling this I sold something else—and that was the A7C II. I was always trying to turn my A7C II into an X100VI. I always wanted like the perfect 35 millimeter lens, the perfect like ND filter like pop-on pop-off situation, and I was shooting with it in silent shutter a lot of the time because I wanted something close to a leaf shutter like the old RX1 for example.
The X100VI, like it or not, ticks a lot of those boxes. It's definitely not the perfect camera, there are definitely a lot of problems with this camera, the lens isn't the best. Lisa and I have both kind of agreed that like the images look really low contrast a lot of the time, but these quirks and weird things aside, it is fantastic and it does so many things really well. It's a very unique overall package that no one else is currently making.
Given the fact that I have this weird ring glued to the front, it's a bit scuffed, if I was to get rid of it I wouldn't even get a good deal for it. It's worth more to me keeping it than it is getting rid of it, so it's not the worst situation to be in. It's still an amazing camera, but yeah, having this alongside the L10 is going to be an interesting comparison to make over the next few months.
This should stop me from acquiring any other cameras while I'm on the road, unlike last time when my suitcase probably gained about five kilos in camera gear. Need to not do that again this year.
3. The Sony A7V (Full Frame)
Moving up another sensor size, I'm going to talk about a camera which is currently filming me at the moment (I'll just show you in b-roll): I have now got the Sony A7V, a full frame camera. This has replaced the A7C II that I was just talking about.
Why would I even replace the A7C II if I was to keep the X100VI, yada yada? Well, for video at the moment, Sony is my preferred weapon of choice. They are fantastic. I love the lens that I have for Sony, I have the 20-70 f4, it's just so versatile in zoom range. The f/4, what, I don't mind having an f/2.8, I've talked about that enough on this channel, but the A7V just has a couple of notable upgrades that help both me and Lisa when it comes to video.
Things like having the dual base ISO of 8,000, which honestly is so useful when you are filming just using natural light like we have been for the last year or more. When you're filming on kind of like gray days or out and about shooting low light towards like sunset, you don't need like the crazy 12,800 of like the fx3 for example, but 8,000 will be extremely handy compared to the 3,200 of the A7C II. We can talk about ISO problems for days especially in video, but the A7V does solve quite a few of those issues.
Also, when I'm shooting my ongoing recently started photography project Dogs with Jobs, I want something that is reliable and it's not going to have any sort of data issues like the A7C II was beginning to have with like these weird glitches and stuff. The A7V has dual card slots, which I've literally never cared about before, but because I'm relying on the generosity and the time commitment of strangers who are helping me a lot with just offering to be a part, the last thing I want is to waste their time.
Channel & Travel Updates
Dogs with Jobs Project Update
On the subject of this Dogs with Jobs project, I'd like to thank everyone who watched my previous video and showed support in the comments. I really, really appreciate it.
Obviously I mentioned there was this old TV series from the year 2000 titled Dogs with Jobs, and I had many suggestions for alternative titles like Dogs on the Job and different variations. So maybe I will choose one of those titles down the line, but for now we're just calling it Dogs with Jobs. I'm too busy trying to get the next shoot lined up, and I actually might have one lined up here in Italy, which is going to be an interesting shoot and hopefully I'll have more to share on that in the next month or so. So another reason to subscribe down below so you don't miss it when it comes out!
Travel Plans: Italy, Japan & Beyond
So yes, we are staying on the move, living out suitcases for the next few months at least.
Last year you may remember, may have seen, we were in the UK, we left Manchester, I've been living there for three years. We were then here in Italy for a little bit, then we spent some time in Portugal, I was in France briefly, then we went to Japan for a couple months, then we were back over in Europe, then we went to South Korea for a couple of months at the start of the year, and then we came back to Europe again. We were in the UK, then Turkey, then back to the UK, then now we're in Italy, and then now at the end of the year we're going to go to Japan again.
Outside of YouTube: Creative Clarity
Outside of YouTube, I did already mention this in the first Dogs with Jobs video, but just having a personal photography project has brought me so much creative clarity in a way that I didn't expect.
As much as I love candid street photography, the countless hours of walking and thousands of steps to get those handful of images you think are okay when it comes to street photography, I find fulfilling when I'm in the flow, but actually retrospectively I don't often look back on in quite a positive way, like the same way that I have done with dog portraits and Dogs with Jobs so far after literally one shoot.
I think a lot of people will say like, "Oh, you know, who cares, everyone takes photos of dogs and whatever," but I think it's very much down to the individual and down to the photographer. Whether you're into wildlife as well as things like street photography, if you're into photographing specific subjects, you shouldn't really care about what others might say if they don't care about your subject. For every one of those negative people, there'll be like 10 people who do care about it, and that's really where I'm trying to kind of like shift my attention and my focus.
As much as I would love to just have a YouTube channel just about Dogs with Jobs, it's not a sustainable practice. I don't think I could do that, it'd be so much work, time, and money investment, and it'd become like a documentary project. But I definitely like the idea of having this documentary photography project that I can also then showcase and share with you guys here on YouTube.
The photography project itself can exist without the YouTube videos, but the YouTube videos couldn't exist without the photography projects. Like, someone's got to go do it, and I'm going to be the one to go and do it. It's going to be a lot of fun going to meet lots of amazing dogs around the world. Who knows, I might still be talking about this when I'm 40 and I might not have finished it by then, but hopefully we get sort of close by that point!
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What style can I expect from these presets?
These presets are based on specific Kodak Film Stocks, Fujifilm Film Stocks and various film stocks I have shot in various lighting conditions which you can see in the preview images for each pack.
How many presets are in this pack?
30 - with low and high grain versions for each preset.
Each preset has both .xmp and .dng file types.
Which software supports these presets?
You can choose from these Adobe softwares:
Lightroom Classic
Lightroom CC Desktop
Lightroom CC Mobile
Photoshop (adobe camera raw)
