Oregon Packing List | My Switch from Nikon to Fuji

The latter part of this week I’m headed on a quick trip to Oregon.  This is an almost yearly trip I take with two of my oldest friends.  We usually pick somewhere on the west coast and leave for four days then fly back on the red-eye the last night.  Since each of us have families of 3+ children each, we’ve found that this is a great way to get away for a short period while also not being away from home for too long.  On each previous trip we’ve stayed within California, however this year we’ve decided to head north from California and explore what Oregon has to offer.  We have a rough itinerary of Bend, Crater Lake, and the southern coast, but it’s usually the places in between that we find the most fun.

This isn’t solely a trip to take photos, but as is most always the case with me, I’ll be carrying a kit with me.  But before I go into my packing list, I’ll briefly go into why I switched my main kit from Nikon to Fuji.  

For years I’ve been using some sort of Nikon DX camera with a wide variety of lenses.  I’d been collecting lenses for years and steadily gained a lens for pretty much every focal length and specialty available.  I had a fisheye for my fisheye phase, a macro lens for my macro phase and so on, but over the years many of those lenses just sat in a bag as I’d moved on from the novelty of them.  Finally a couple weeks ago after a family vacation I decided that it was time for a change.  I can't quite pinpoint the reason why, but it just felt like like the time was right.  So I sold all my Nikon cameras and lenses.  This included 3 bodies, 6 lenses, a flash, and a couple other accessories.

Then I started the search for a new system.  Having already been an admirer of both the newer Fuji and Sony lineups I pretty much just focused my search within those two brands, specifically the Sony a7R II and the Fuji X-T1.  While there are some considerable differences, namely the sensory size, this wasn’t that much of a factor for me as I don’t necessarily need the larger sensor, though I’m certainly not opposed to it.  My main concern between these cameras became the lenses.  While I think Sony is coming on strong with their lenses, they just don’t seem up to par with the Fuji lenses at this point and at the end of the day I’d rather spend my money on quality lenses.  So at the end of it, that made the decision fairly easy for me.  After monitoring KEH.com for a few weeks, I finally purchased a used Fuji kit that I’ll be taking to Oregon with me.  I haven’t put it through its paces yet that’ll be a fun part of this trip!

So without further ado, for this trip I’ll be taking along the following camera gear:

Fuji X-T1 + batteries, remote release, l-plate, Peak Design strap
San Disk Memory Cards

Fuji 10-24mm f/4
Fuji 35mm f1.4

Lee Filters (Graduated Neutral Density x 3, Polarizer, Big Stopper, Little Stopper)
Lee Filter Holder and corresponding filter rings
Mindshift Filter Hive

Gitzo GT1542T Traveler Carbon Fiber Tripod
Really Right Stuff BH-40 LR Tripod Head (plus L-plates)

I’m going small this trip so I’m leaving my f-stop back pack at home and putting all the camera gear in my Dana Design shoulder bag.  I’ll pack the tripod in my Patagonia rolling carry-on bag along with clothes, etc. for the trip.  

I also just received the new Moment Case for the iPhone 6 along with a wide angle Moment lens.  About 6 months ago Moment launched a Kickstarter campaign for the case and I thought I would give it a try.  For me this may be more of a novelty toy to play with, I'm curious to see if I end up using it more than I think I will.  

Have a great week everyone!  

David

(Also in full disclosure on the camera decision, I was swayed by this blog post by Bruce Percy on the camera.)