How can I start shooting more photos?
My answer: shoot more photos of my growing family every day and on trips. But how?

I tend to hoard—“collect”—cameras because they will “have a specific purpose.” I looked through my collection and first settled on shooting 35mm film on our upcoming trip to Disneyland and then possibly our day‑to‑day lives. Unfortunately that didn't work because my Pentax ME Super (which was my first camera) died right before our trip to Disneyland. I then had two days to figure out what camera I should bring.

Thankfully, after watching many YouTube videos, I settled on two cameras: the X100VI or the X‑E5. Since the X100VI is very hard to get and now more expensive than it originally was, I went with the X‑E5—and I absolutely love it! I purchased the camera Sunday afternoon and had one day to familiarize myself with it, which was very easy to do.

When we got to Disneyland it was raining, which is not fun when you don’t have a weather‑sealed camera, but I made it work. So, how did the camera perform on the trip? Let’s see!

(For privacy reasons I will not show photos of my daughter; instead, I’ll show the photos I took around Disneyland.)

This camera took some getting used to, but I will say that it was very fun to shoot with. The 23mm f/2.8 is wider and slower than I'm used to, but after a few shots I was ready to roll. The biggest issue was the weather: it rained for the majority of the first day, which hindered my shooting a lot. The second day eased up, allowing me to shoot more.

Before I show more photos from the trip let’s go over some pros and cons of this camera.

Pros:

Size. Small, easy to maneuver when trying to get quick shots. This was a huge plus for me coming from the LUMIX S9 which is also a smaller camera but all the lenses are much larger.
Film simulations/fujifilm colors. I used to have the X-S10 before switching to LUMIX and I thought the colors weren’t really anything special since I was able to edit my photographs to achieve similar looks. I now realize that shooting fujifilm means I don’t have to edit if I don’t want to since I can achieve the looks I like in camera.
Layout is pretty good. Once you’ve held and shot this camera for a bit the dials and buttons are very well laid out. It took me a bit to get used to the locations of everything but it wasn’t hard to figure out.
Image quality. Even though this camera isn’t full frame, you still get great images straight out of the camera. I am someone who pixel peeps all of my photos (which I'm working on) but with this camera I'm not bothered by the grain or noise because it feels intentional.

Cons:

Startup time. I heard many reviewers talk about this and for me it isn’t a deal breaker but sometimes its a bit slow when you turn it on,
Location of the Viewfinder sensor or whatever it’s called. This is another one I saw mentioned and it’s not a huge deal but was a little annoying at times when trying to use the film sim dial and the screen turning off. Just need to get used to it.
No screen cover/protection. This is more of a personal preference but I like when I can flip the screen around to protect it and with this camera the screen is always exposed. I will probably add a screen protector to “solve” this.

I’m sure there are things I'm missing from both categories but overall this camera is the perfect EDC camera for capturing day to day memories/moments. This camera will now be my go to for not only everyday shooting but for my street/suburban photography as well. I hope to make a lot of content around the X-E5 so stay tuned for that!

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Now here are some more photos from the trip!

The fujifilm x-e5 @ Disneyland

shoot more photos.