The Decision
I have made a decision to focus on getting better at producing more content from my shop. Over the weekend I started working on producing a shop tour video. Working with my cell phone to do this was very frustrating. I had my youngest daughter, Megan, helping me. She is great at being creative with videos and photos. She also is an assistant director in the theater department at her school.
Things went okay. We shot one or two takes at different locations around the shop and learned a lot about what was working and what was not. However, using my phone as a dedicated video camera was far from ideal. It was making me realize how much the frustration of working that way was keeping me from making content in general. I decided that if I am going to work on content then I am going all in.
The Plan
Rather than continuing to beat my head against the wall with my cell phone, I decided to really sit down and research what was available in terms of cameras. I spent a solid day reading articles and watching videos. Where information was available, I also looked at the type of things that other woodworkers on YouTube use.
I finally decided that a mid-range mirrorless camera that does a really good job with video would be the way to go. Though not an absolute requirement, a camera that could shoot 4k video at 60fps was my goal.
The next bit of research was to find what was the best-rated camera that was currently available in the rough category that I had defined. It became clear pretty quickly that the Sony line-up was the most likely place to look. However, I also came across a very promising camera from Fujifilm.
The Purchases
I narrowed my choices down to either the Fujifilm X-T4 or one of the Sony a6000 series cameras, specifically the a6400, a6500, and a6600. I spent a few hours looking at the differences and reading/watching reviews. In the end, I decided to go with the X-T4. It is expected to arrive today.
I purchased the camera with a kit lens. As far as I can tell, this just means a lens that comes as part of a kit with a camera as opposed to a lens purchased separately later. Lenses can be quite expensive in their own right and have very specific characteristics that lend themselves to specific use cases. The kit lens I am getting is pretty generic and should be fine to get me started. As I learn more, I may decide to acquire other lenses but that is a bridge I will worry about crossing later. As it is, this setup will be infinitely better than what I have been doing.
I also purchased other assorted items such as a tripod, SD cards, an extra battery pack, an external battery charger, a camera backpack, and a couple of microphones (a shotgun mic and a lapel mic).
So Why The X-T4?
I kept reminding myself that whatever I chose, it was going to be such a huge improvement that I shouldn’t sweat the research too much. But that’s just not how I’m wired so I dug in. In the end, there were a few videos that sealed the choice for me. If you are interested, here are links to three videos in particular that I found really helpful in making my choice:
- Best Camera for Youtubers!! – Fuji X-T4 vs Sony a6600
- FUJIFILM X T4 VS SONY A6600 | Who Wears The Crop Sensor Crown?
- Best APS-C Mirrorless Cameras 2021 – Sony a6600, Fujifilm X-T4, Canon M6 Mark II & Nikon Z50
What I got out of my research was that Sony makes some really great mirrorless cameras. Despite the fact that the Sony a6000 series cameras are older than the X-T4, they still hold some advantages over the Fujifilm camera. However, those advantages are not in areas that are particularly relevant to me. The areas related to video where the X-T4 exceeds the Sony cameras were more pertinent to me and my use cases. One capability that the X-T4 has that the Sony cameras do not is the ability to shoot at 4k/60 which, as you remember, was a goal. Another factor that made it easy in the end to get the X-T4 was that it was more readily available. I had a hard time finding a place that had one of the Sony cameras in stock.
So for the reasons articulated in the videos and the in-stock availability at the time I was trying to make a purchase, I place an order for the X-T4. (UPDATE: It just arrived.)