This is the first bit of proper shooting I’ve done with my XT30-II. The camera is really good, and I’m consistently impressed with how nice images look straight out of the camera without any edits. I highly recommend it if you’re looking for a camera to daily since it can be quite compact with the lenses available for it.
This is now the second time I’ve been overseas or on some-sort-of holiday. The vibes around Tokyo are very much different when traveling with someone else - the city felt much less lonely.
We did more touristy stuff and I genuinely enjoyed my time much more. I still met up with friends and still spent heaps of time in the arcade, but it was nice to have an extra person giving you a push to try new things.
I definitely did not take as many photos as I would have liked to - I really wanted to focus on shooting only with my XT30. Last time I traveled I had my DL-300 which was pocket-able - whereas this camera (even with a cookie lens) was just slightly too large to fit in my pocket.
Even though I didn’t take as many photos I still am really happy with the pictures I did capture. We had an Instax Mini camera with us as well which took some really pretty polaroids which now live permanently on our fridge. Last year with the DL-300 I shot more since I didn’t want to ‘waste’ film I’d specifically saved for the trip - even though I got heaps of amazing photos from that there were still loads of stinkers that will never see the light of day.
We went during the Tokyo Marathon since it lined up with some other friends traveling - It was really nice to meet up and spend time with everyone. Even if it was in a Saizeriya with a baby crying at 90db in the booth next to us.
I think next time I travel it will probably be somewhere other than Tokyo, I still feel like there’s more to do but doing it for a 3rd time in a row would feel like a bit of a cop-out. We’ve had a friend offer us board in New York if we ever end up traveling there so maybe next year we might try to do Christmas in NYC?
We’ll see.