About three weeks ago I was in Hanoi, Vietnam, wrapping up my yearly 7 day group photography tour. One of the photographers who joined asked if I wanted to try his Fujifilm camera (I shoot on Sony). It became this running joke between us the whole week. He’d give me shit for spending so much time editing my photos, and I’d tease him for not being able to shoot after sunset.

On the last day of the tour I caved. We were about to head out for a street shoot when I opened my hotel room door and there was Casey, holding his backup camera, the Fujifilm X-M5. He had this cheeky grin on his face and said, “You wanna try out the Fuji?” He already knew what was about to happen.

Within precisely 16.53 seconds of shooting with this little thing I was saying shit like, “rooo the colours are insane.” The straight-out-of-camera JPEGs looked so good I didn’t even want to touch them in Lightroom. The tones, the film sims, the way it renders light was soo nice and has an essense of nostalgia baked right in.

It’s compact, feels good enough in the hand, and honestly just makes you want to go out and shoot. I was hooked instantly. And yeah… I ordered one for myself as soon as I got home.

If you’ve ever thought about picking up a Fujifilm camera, I’d say give the X-M5 a serious look. It’s easily one of the most fun and inspiring cameras I’ve used in a long time.

Click here to my YouTube Review of this compact setup.