I’m simplifying my life in every single area to focus on what is actually needed. I find that when things get complicated, when I have pressure coming from all angles, the best thing that I can do is remove clutter, remove any additional need to have to think, and to simplify everything.

Financially, I’ve cut everything but the essentials. Gone are all my monthly subscriptions —I now have one, and that is the Adobe Photography plan. Gone is any non-essential expenditure, and after the warning signs of May’s traffic drop, I immediately started looking for a new house, a smaller, more affordable house. We move next week, just in the nick of time after September’s catastrophic traffic decline for my website.

While initially I was left scrambling to find a fix for the problems I was experiencing, a moment of clarity came over me: I’m not going to fight the system, I’m not going to complain, I’m not going to be angry. Instead, it’s forced me to re-focus on what inspires me, what motivates me, and what helps me to do what I love to do.

Part of that was culling the superfluous camera kit that had built up over the last 3-5 years, the majority of which has now been sold off to MPB. The second was to strip my photography back to basics with my Nikon Z system. I have a decent collection of Nikon Z glass still, but in the last two weeks, I’ve found myself gravitating back to my instincts to tell stories with my photography, to work on projects, and to not try to be all things to all men by trying to cover every type of photography.

I’m the kind of person that really enjoys taking photos of most subjects, whether it’s wildlife, landscapes, street photography, or people, but that core desire for my photos to form part of a larger narrative leads me back to my project work. And in re-focusing on those, I’ve also re-confirmed my preference for shooting primes.

Yes, zooms give a lot of flexibility to get different shots in one outing, but after heading out with my Z8 with the 35mm f/1.8S attached alongside the Z6III with the 50mm f/1.8S, that way of working—knowing the focal length, removing choice, and just having to work with what I have—forces me to really look at a scene, to move around it, to vary angles, to find a way of bringing the various elements together to form a coherent frame. I enjoy that way of working.

And I’ve come to realise that it immerses me in my subjects far more than simply being able to rotate the zoom ring to frame up a shot. The images I end up creating looking better, have a coherence between them that I simply don’t get when using zoom lenses, and I think for me, most importantly of all, this way of working truly immerses my brain to a point that I attain total focus.

I find this state almost meditative. For those moments when I’m working a scene, I’m no longer suffering the physical ache of missing Izzy, my youngest daughter. I’m no longer nervous in the pit of my stomach as to whether I can pay the bills in two months’ time, and I’m no longer thinking of the response I’d like to send to my wife but don’t when she gaslights me again. I’m just David, trying to take the best photo that I can of that scene in that moment.

I’ve taken to keeping my kit on me at most times, safely stashed on the backseat of the car during the school run with Sofia. Last week, I spotted a beautiful scene with local farmers harvesting potatoes in the morning light, a huge flock of birds in their wake picking up the scraps. It was stunning.

So after I dropped Sofia at school, I returned to that spot, parked up my car, and headed out: with my Z8 + 35mm, Z6III + 50mm, and Zf + 85mm fitted into the ThinkTank Retrospective 30—which is simply the best shoulder bag I could find to accommodate that three-camera, three-prime setup—slung over my shoulder, I wandered into the field.

I watched the tractors methodically harvest the potatoes and load them while moving into the containers, ready to be shipped off to market. They were further away from me than when I had initially passed them on the way to Sofia’s school, and now the huge flocks of birds had sadly gone. A telephoto zoom would in theory have been useful to gain the reach I needed, but instead, I wandered into the field and simply watched the vehicles as they moved further away.

I could see where they had harvested and knew they would head back towards me on their next run, so I moved around and checked compositions so that when the brief moment came, and they moved into shot, I would be able to get the shots I wanted.

One of the farmers’ vehicles, a Land Rover Defender, synonymous with the countryside, was parked near to where I was standing. I ended up using it as an element in the photo, which had I had a zoom lens attached, I likely never would have done. Due to the constraints of the primes I was using—their inability to reach close enough to purely focus on the tractors working the fields—I had to search for and use other elements in order to complete the frame, and I think as a result, produced a much more interesting photo than would have been the case had I simply attached a zoom lens and been able to focus purely on the working vehicles.

Not only did I have to work the scene, which kept my mind focused, but for those 10 minutes, I was completely at peace.

Since I’ve re-focused on simplicity, a simple life with just what I need and nothing else, since I’ve drawn a line as to how much abuse (and yes, I’ll finally call it out for what it has been) I’m willing to take from a partner, and focus on the things that I can control, there has appeared a small light at the end of the tunnel. I’ve started building out the website that I want to create with davidjfleet.com, this website has seen a slight upturn in traffic which may give me a lifeline and potential runway to be able to build on, and in one week’s time, my decision a few months ago to move house will reduce my outgoings to a significantly lower level. Combined, all those things, I hope, will free up my mind to actually focus on the good things in life.

Since the move, I started to find my feet and get more photography time again and what started out with writing 70% of the time about gear, through the lens of a photographer with 20 years experience and based on cameras and lenses that I owned myself, gradually flipped that stat on its head as I found myself longing to pursue the art of photography much more so than to keep banging on about gear that in all honesty, was more than good enough for making prints and artwork 5 years ago, if not longer.

I used to earn my living soley from landscape photography. These days my tastes have changed and I find myself much more interested in stories and time. I don’t restrict myself to one genre but I consider myself to be somewhat of a documentary photographer.

In April, at any given time I would see 150+ people browsing my website. As I sit here now, there are 15 of you reading through various articles, 10 minutes ago it was just 7.

So what happened?

In May 2026, my traffic had been climbing consistantly since I restarted this website back in June 2025. Google as far as I could tell, wanted real people talking about gear and offering insight. I’ve been a professional landscape photographer, I’ve run a camera store and I have used virtually every camera system available. Great I thought, I’ll simply write no nonsense articles about the (at the time) large collection of gear that I owned, pulling from my experience. I’ll shoot all my own photography which will give me a great excuse to get out with the cameras more and I’ll also write more philosophical articles on photography and life which interest me much more. It seemed to work. Around April I reached 180k sessions and assumed the next plateau of traffic would come before another potenital climb.

I had held off on putting ads on my website while I still lived in the Philippines as I wanted to keep the website as clean as possible but with the move to the UK requiring us selling off all our belongings in the Philippines and the huge expense of setting up home in the UK, in January, I joined Mediavine and ran ads and alongside the affiliates I had within certain articles, my income grew and it looked like my family and I had a secure future, a decent income, enough to give my daughters a good life and allow me to pursue my passion.

Then around May 27th 2026 something happened, the growth didn’t materialise, I noticed strange traffic patterns on some of my most popular articles and then it hit. A huge drop in traffic, almost overnight. From 180k down to a level which suggest just over 120k sessions a month. My income is directly tied to the level of traffic that this website receives. That was a 33% hit in income that would filter through in 2 months time as I’m paid 2 months in arrears. Seriously concerning but alone, survivable.

However, if my traffic could drop by that much overnight, it caused me to worry , I mean seriously stress that this isn’t safe, this isn’t something to build my daughter’s future on.

The other problem

I mentioned my youngest daughter and her developmental concerns earlier. As soon as we arrived in the UK, I registered her with the local GP, I immediately explained our concerns and we got her registered with the local Health Visitors. They are in place to assess children’s needs, social, developmental or otherwise. She was assessed and the brevity of our concerns was confirmed.

She needed referals in literally every area of devlopment. Her scoring was like a hammer blow to us. She didn’t just slip into the referal category, shes was virtually off the scale. We arranged audiology assessments to rule that out, we arranged further visits from the health visitors, we had my sister, who has worked in childcare for over 25 years come and spend time with her to give us a no nonsense opinion and I pushed my finances to the limit getting Izzy 3 days a week in a local nursery to give her the socialisation and structure she desperately needed. She started showing signs of improvement, of seeing that cheeky glint in her eye that she has when she has been mentally stimulated, has started to pick up on the routines and is seemingly content. But behind the scenes, the pressure was mounting. My wife had been granted a visit visa only, as we opted for the fastest option to get us all over to the UK.

Eventually, after much discussion, most of it heated, myself and professionals insisting that the least disruptive option to Izzy, of remaining in the UK was for the best, my wife left the UK with Izzy and is still currently in the Philippines.

So what’s this all got to do with the algorithm breaking my website?

My initial concerns about the first traffic drop were not revolving around having an extravagant life, material possessions or anything fancy. I’m quite a simple person. Let me walk outside in fresh air and pay the bills and I’m content. All my hobbies are free. My concerns were whether the traffic level would allow me to still get Izzy back to the UK , to still fund my wifes very expensive spousal visa and both of their flights. I had no savings as I spent them getting us to the UK. I had no fallback anymore as I had prioritised getting Izzy to where she needed to be. I had to be able to save up the money to get them back here.

Apart from the obvious disruption and lack of available care for Izzy in the Philippines, my income was no longer certain and along with it, if Izzy had to wait until I have saved enough for my wife’s visa before being able to come back to the UK, it created uncertainty around how long that would be exactly.

When we moved to the UK , given the continuous growth of the website, along with me folllowing every Google guidline that I was aware of, being a real person, a real photographer and taking all my own photos, writing all my own words and giving opinions that I felt were useful, even when it would probably result in less people purchasing through my affiliate links, spending my savings seemed a small and necessary risk to take. Now as Izzy was being removed from the UK, I was absolutely unconvinced and made my concerns heard.

Since that intial drop, I have never been able to work out what it is that Google was doing. I’ve spent hours trying to work it out. I continued writing in the expectation that this new level was simply Google resetting my baseline traffic and that continuing to write articles would at some point lead to renewed growth, or even just stabilisation. At this level, the finances were tight but maneagable. It held for a couple of months and I started to work on my projects and photography. Moving away from the gear voluntarily.

I realised two things. Earning a living as an independant photographer writing about gear was getting cut off as Google controls the doorway and they are implementing AI answers to everything that they can. They’re using independant writers knowledge experience and often the exact words and photos we produce in order to cut us out and steal the entire pie.

Maybe they would do it slowly and leave me a year or two’s runway in which I could build up my photography work, which would be fine. I have a passion for photography, for documenting life, culture and the land. I have a lot of experience printing, having previously earned a living selling landscape prints, I love to create projects. I would simply transition over to that and hopefully within a year or two I would earn a meagre but very satisfying living actually doing what I love rather than focusing on gear.

But Google has yet again thrown a spanner in the works. This last week has dealt the death blow to that timeline. My taffic has now dropped to a level projecting to be around 24k sessions per month. From 180k to 24k in 3.5 months. If you are on the average salary of $65,000 per year in the USA, that percentage drop in your income would leave you with $8000. And I wasn’t earning the average salary.

My ability to get Izzy back to the UK now has a runway of two months. I have 2 months of income earned up until this point in which to discuss with her mother why it is necessary ( a difficult discussion indeed) , to get Izzy back here now, while I still can, to book flights, to renew my passport and to move house as I am having to downsize and to try to get my head out of this black cloud hanging over me in order to think straight, be productive and see the future clearly.

All I know right now is that I’ve been getting out with the camera more and more recently. Once again it may just be the thing that saves me. I have sold off almost all of my gear and have removed all distractions. Reviews of the first 2 cameras ever loaned to me, sorry, not going to happen, guides, settings, best lenses articles, all out of the window because of the algorithm, I have been forced in to focusing purely on what I actually want to do and that is to have a creative life , even a modest one, where I can provide for my children, give them a safe and secure environment and hopefully, never have to rely on Google or their algorithm ever again.

And on that note, if you want to follow along with how this all works out, see my current photography projects, or support me in anyway, as well as be notified when print drops happen, then now is the time to subscribe to my personal website and my Instagram where all my focus and attention will be from now on.

To everyone who has read this website, who has offered words of thanks, encouragement and particularly the thoughtful comments and emails I have received, I want to say a huge thanks. They really did mean a lot.

This camera doesn’t need a massive kit to be effective, but a few small additions make daily use smoother. After testing it in the field for casual photo walks and longer shooting days, I’ve narrowed down the accessories that genuinely improve the experience without weighing you down. If you’re looking for recommendations on larger bodies, you can also check out my guide on the best Fuji camera and lens setups.

This article is based on real-world use. Every accessory recommendation has been personally tested in everyday shooting here in Scotland. All accessories discussed have been evaluated and tested directly through hands-on field use.

If you have just got your camera then I’ve written a setup guide that will help you get your X-T30 III setup the right way straight from the box.

TL;DR: The Minimalist X-T30 III Setup

If you want the absolute bare minimum to make your X-T30 III work effectively in the field:

• Power: Pick up at least 1 or 2 official Fujifilm spare batteries to combat battery life limitations.
• Media: A reliable SanDisk 128GB SD card offers the best sweet spot for the 26MP sensor.
• Strap: The Peak Design Camera Leash for fast, comfortable, pocket-friendly carrying.
• Protection: An Expert Shield screen protector to keep that hinged LCD screen safe from daily wear.

1. Spare Batteries: Essential Power for Long Days

Battery life can be a genuine bottleneck with the X-T30 III during intensive shooting sessions. Sticking exclusively to official Fujifilm batteries is always the safest route for consistent performance. I find that one battery only lasts me about 1.5-2 hours worth of shooting on days out, so spares are essential.

• Recommendation: Pick up at least 1 spare battery for casual outings, or 2 spares if you plan on shooting long days out in the field.

Check latest pricing here.

2. SD Memory Cards: The Right Capacity for the 26MP Sensor

Because the X-T30 III features a manageable 26-megapixel sensor, file sizes are reasonable—meaning you don’t need massive, high-capacity cards quite like you would for higher-resolution bodies. I always use Sandisk cards as theyve never let me down in over 2 decades of use, unlike other cards I’ve used.

• Recommendation: Sticking strictly to SanDisk SD cards ensures dependable write speeds and buffer clearing. A 64GB card is plenty for everyday shooting, but 128GB cards currently hit the sweet spot, offering the absolute best bang-for-your-buck value.

Check latest pricing here.

3. Camera Strap: Peak Design Leash

When running a lightweight setup, a bulky strap completely defeats the object.

• Recommendation: The Peak Design Camera Leash pairs perfectly with the X-T30 III. It is fast to connect and disconnect via anchor links, easily adjustable, and packs down small enough to slip into any pocket when not in use.

Check latest pricing here.

4. Camera Bag: Staying Streamlined

The X-T30 III is tiny compared to full-frame systems. If you paired it with the compact kit lens, you can technically fit the entire combination inside a jacket pocket—though it’s a bit awkwardly shaped for long-term comfort.

If you want a dedicated bag that keeps things streamlined the options below suit the size of the camera best. I’ve been using Peak Design bags for years now and they are incredibly well made, have thoughtful features and the outer material protects from all but the worst weather. I’ve used mine in South East Asia and here in Scotland and my gear has always stayed dry and protected. The straps are comfortable and they don’t look obviously like camera bags so keep your gear discreet from prying eyes.

• Avoid oversized options: Standard everyday bags (like a 10L sling) are simply too large for this camera unless you intend on hauling a massive collection of glass.
• Peak Design Everyday Sling 2L: This is the ideal size for the camera, kit lens, and one small prime. It can be worn as a fanny pack or as a sling, has room for your phone and essential accessories.
• Peak Design Everyday Sling 6L: Choose this version only if you want extra breathing room for multiple lenses and a few small accessories.

5. Screen Protector: Protecting Your Investment

The X-T30 III features a hinged LCD screen that remains constantly exposed during use, making it vulnerable to scrapes and knocks. Protecting your screen is essential.

• Recommendation: Expert Shield screen protectors are tough, accurately cut, reasonably priced, and very straightforward to fit without bubbles. They provide reliable protection against damage and everyday wear.

Conclusion

There’s no shortage of accessories you could buy, but for a lightweight body like the X-T30 III, less is almost always more. Sticking to the bare essentials—reliable power, dependable media, a comfortable strap, a streamlined bag, and proper screen protection—ensures the camera stays true to its core design: compact, fast, and effortless to carry.

If you are already looking beyond the kit lens then see my guide to the best Fujifilm lenses.

Frequently Asked Questions

What accessories are essential for the Fujifilm X-T30 III?

The absolute must-haves are spare official batteries (since battery life can be tight), a dependable SanDisk SD card, a minimal strap like the Peak Design Leash, and a screen protector for that exposed hinged LCD.

Do I need a large camera bag for the X-T30 III?

No. Because the camera and kit lens are so compact, a massive bag is overkill. A small bag like the Peak Design Everyday Sling 2L is ideal if you’re carrying the camera plus a small prime lens.

Which SD card size is best for the X-T30 III?

Because the X-T30 III uses a 26-megapixel sensor, file sizes are manageable. While a 64GB card works fine, 128GB SanDisk cards currently offer the best balance of capacity and value.

You can see my first impressions of shooting with the X-T30 III here.

I’m going to assume that you have done the initial setup of turning the camera on and inputting the time and date. This guide is about getting the best out of the camera so you can get great photos straight away and you don’t have to struggle with the camera. I will also walk you through how to connect your camera to your phone at the end of the article. All settings are kept at their default values unless they are specifically mentioned below.

If you’re looking to get the most out of your camera then i’ve published a guide to the essential accessories for the X-T30 III.

Shooting Mode

The shooting mode I recommend for most people is Aperture priority. This allows you to control the aperture of the lens which gives you creative control over depth of field, in other words, you can control if you want your subject to be isolated with an out of focus background (using smaller f numbers like f/1.2-f/2.8) or need more of the scene in focus (by using larger F numbers like f/5.6 and larger). Shooting in this mode means that you can hand off control of the other exposure settings such as shutter speed and ISO to the camera, allowing you to capture photos quickly. Later in the setup we will tell the camera the parameters it is allowed to use for shutter speed and ISO settings.

Set the shutter speed dial to A (as in the above photo) to enter Aperture priority mode.

If you shoot any moving subjects then select C on the front focusing mode dial. This will allow the camera to continually adjust focus while you have the shutter button half pressed to ensure it keeps your subject in focus, even if it moves.

Image quality settings

I shoot raw as I often edit photos later in software. However I also like to use the Jpegs from the camera so I set the Image quality settings to Normal + raw which produces a raw file and a Jpeg file for every shot you take. I’ve also included settings for Jpeg shooters too. If you bought the camera with the kit lens then at some point in the future, you will want to take a look at lenses which can take your photos to the next level. That’s why I put together a guide to the best Fuji lenses.

My settings:

Image Quality: Normal + Raw

Raw recording: Lossless compressed – compresses the Raw files to make them smaller without losing any quality.

Jpeg/Heif: Jpeg

If you dont want to edit photos in software later, then select:

Jpeg only settings

Image quality: Fine – This will give you the best quality Jpeg file straight out of the camera.

Jpeg/Heif: Jpeg – Jpeg files offer broader compatibility with different devices and currently outweigh the benefits of HEIF files for most people.

White Balance: auto – If shooting raw you can change this later and if shooting Jpeg the auto setting will usually give you an accurate white balnce to ensure the color of your photos is correct for the lighting in your scene. Later, when you have mastered the camera I recommend setting white balance manually when shooting Jpeg, but for now let’s keep it simple by using auto.

High ISO NR: -4 – In camera noise reduction can smear details, resulting in unatural looking photos. The X-T30 III performs well enough in low light, and the noise looks natural enough that turning the noise reduction to the camera’s lowest setting is preferable.

Clarity: 0 – If you allow the camera to adjust clarity then it slows down your shooting as it adds processing time when taking photos. This can be annoying if you want to take several shots in quick succession. By leaving it at 0 you minimise this delay.

Color Space: sRGB – Choose sRGB unless you plan on printing a lot and need the larger color space provided by Adobe RGB.

Auto Update custom Setting: Disable – I leave this disabled. This option, if left enabled, will automatically update your custom settings when you change them. I prefer to always know that my custom settings will remain the same every time I come back to the camera. This is much better than forgetting what you changed and having to work it out before getting back to your preferred custom settings.

AF/MF Settings Menu

The Fuji X-T30 III has decent auto focus performance for general photography but setting it up correctly is essential to getting the best out of it.

Thee are my recommendations for general photography where you will be shooting a variety of subjects, such as kids, street scenes, vacation photos. If you are shooting landscapes or other completely stationary subjects then switching in to Single Point AF mode will give more control over exactly where you focus.

AF Mode: Zone – The size of the AF box can be changed by pressing the joystick and then rotating the rear command dial. I suggest playing around with the size of the focus box to see which suits your subjects best as there is no one size fits all option. Usually the faster the subject is moving, the larger you want your box to be. However, a larger box comes with the trade-off that you are giving up control of where the camera focuses.

AF Point Display: Off – When switched to off, the camera will display the active focus points within your selected zone box. If you turn this on all focus points are shown all the time which can be distracting.

Face/Eye detection setting: Off – Leave this to off by default as if there is no people in your photo then the camera may look for faces outside of your Zone AF box and get confused. We will set up a custom button to quickly turn Face detection on later.

Interlock Spot AE and Focus Area: On – This setting relates to the Photometry (called metering by most photographers) setting in the camera. In general leave Photometry set to Multi. This will allow the camera to look at the whole scene and give a balanced exposure. However, as you progress, you may want to take more control over where the camera is metering from by using spot metering. By turning this setting on, the camera will spot meter according to your focus point. This works well when shooting portraits and ensuring that the camera prioritises the exposure of the subject.

Shutter Type: EF+M+E – E-Front curtain minimises shutter shock which can create shake in your images at slow shutter speeds, Mechanical means the shutter physically moves which reduces rolling shutter effect in images with movement and ES is an electronic shutter which allows you to use faster shutter speeds (in bright light for example).

Setting up Auto ISO

Auto ISO is an incredibly useful feature if we configure it correctly. Pros use it all the time, even if the mantra of shooting in manual is propagated, often auto ISO is the most suitable option when dealing with changing light, fast moving subjects or when you simply don’t want another exposure parameter to have to control before taking photos.

These are my auto ISO settings for general photography.

Auto 1 – Default Sensitivity – 160, Max Sensitivity – 12800, Min Shutter Speed – 1/160. This is my default setting. It makes the camera default to the highest image quality setting of 160 ISO when light allows, while allowing the camera to increase the ISO value up to 12800 when necessary (which on the X-T30 III still delivers acceptable image quality) and it ensure that the shutter speed never drops below 1/160 which is fast enough to capture sharp images of people.

Auto 2 – Default sensitivity – 160, Max sensitivity – 1600, Min Shutter speed – Auto. This is my daytime setting for still subjects. it caps the ISO level at 1600 as for still subjects, there is really no reason to go above 1600 in order to ensure great image quality. By setting Minimum shutter speed to auto, the camera will shoose an appropriate shutter speed to get sharp handheld shots according to the focal length that you use.

Auto 3: Default Sensitivity -160, Max Sensitivity -12800, Min Shutter Speed -Auto. These are the same settings as above but used for low light and nightime shots to allow the camera to raise the ISO a little higher to ensure sharp shots.

Things to change in the Set up Menu

If you dont want to hear the camera constantly beeping at you then, like me you can turn off audible signals in the camera’s Set Up menu (spanner icon on the left side).

Set Up > Sound Setting > page 1/2 > AF Beep Vol: Off

Operation Vol: Off

Custom Function button setup

The Fuji X-T30 III gives you quick access to most useful functions out of the box via the default Q menu (which you can customize via menu option >Set Up > Button/Dial Setting > Edit/Save Quick Menu). However adding the following custom function button settings speeds up the camera in use by allowing you to quickly access settings you may need to change on the fly regularly.

Menu option: Set Up > Button Dial Setting > FUNCTION (Fn) Setting

Fn: Set to Face detection ON/OFF – This allows you to quickly turn face detection auto focus on and off depending on if people are in your scene.

AE-L: ISO – This gives quick access to ISO settings including the auto ISO modes that we set up earlier. The reason that this is placed here for quick access is that if you are using the Auto 1 option that we set up earlier and you come across a still scene that doesn’t require 1/160 shutter speed, we can quickly change to Auto 2 to ensure that we get sharp shots without the camera artificially raising the ISO level uneccessarily, ensuring maximum image quality. You can of course control the shutter speed via the shutter speed dial which can come in useful, for example if you are shooting water and want to create silky water effects by using a slower than standard shutter speed, but for general use and when taking lots of shots of various stationary subjects, Auto 2 does a good enough job while keeping things simple and easy.

Connecting the Fuji X-T30 III to your Phone

One of the great things about the X-T30 III is that it allows you to easily connect the camera to your phone so that you can quickly see the photos you have taken and post them to your social media. Setting this up is quick and easy if you do it the right way.

Firstly, you will need to download Fujfilm XApp from the App store or Play store.

Open the App and click on the camera + Icon in the top right of the screen.

Turn your X-T30 III on and navigate to Menu >Network/USB Setting > Bluetooth/Smartphone click ok or right on the AF joystick.

Now Click Pairing Registration and you will see the screen below:

Click Pair on the Fuji XApp when you see the above screen and Click the OK button on the camera to confirm the numbers ar ethe same an finalise pairing.

This process is usually fairly quick. It took my Iphone 13 Pro about 30 seconds to connect to the camera. Sometimes it can take a little longer though so give it a minute or two.

Once pairing is completed you will see your Fuji X-T30 III appear in the app.

Now you are all set up. You can choose to receive photos from the camera automatically, downsize the photos for transfer or have full resolution images sent to your phone, remotely control the camera, have geo tagging information attached to your photos so you know where you took them and importantly, esily update your camera’s firmware via the app to ensure it gets any new features or bug fixes.

And that’s it—your Fujifilm X-T30 III is now set up to take great photos in a variety of different situations. These settings provide a strong foundation to ensure sharp images of people and places, while giving you control over the aperture. As the most important tool for storytelling in your photography, managing your aperture lets you shape your creative vision without getting bogged down by every single exposure choice.

I talk about one of the deeply personal choices that I’ve made on my personal website which I feel is a more appropriate place platform for that particular article. I hope it gives a much deeper understanding to those of you who are generously following along with my journey.

Read more details in the article here.

Yesterday, I headed out for the second time this week with my Z8 and 180-600mm in tow, tripod packed, and walked onto my local patch of woodland, open fields, and burns. It was a little later than I’d hoped for, after having dropped Sofia off at school, so I didn’t hold out much hope. But as I’ve found in the last few months, waiting for the perfect conditions means I’d drastically reduce the number of outings I take.

In the end, I was blessed with some fantastic encounters, discovered new areas, and found one particular location that I will be returning to with my full wildlife setup to try and capture the best shots that I can.

Gear Notes & Reflections

I took the decision over summer to reduce my kit down to just one system, in large part because of my heavy investment in Nikon Z wildlife lenses. Although I currently own the 400mm f/4.5 and 800mm f/6.3, it is usually the 180-600mm zoom lens that I take on these kinds of trips.

It’s heavier than the 400mm f/4.5, but it’s so flexible that it enables me to react to a wide variety of subjects, which is incredibly helpful when I don’t have one specific location or species in mind. On the Z8, I’ve found that it focuses fast enough even to allow me to capture fast-moving birds in flight, as well as being sharp enough to capture fur and feather textures satisfyingly.

The only areas where I feel the primes do better are in a slight AF speed advantage (marginal), the ability to isolate subjects, and—as I found in my latest outing—when the light levels drop, the aperture does sometimes force me to push the ISO higher than I’d like. No deal breakers, and at the price, it’s a fantastic lens.

I’ll be heading back to these spots to document the incredible wildlife we have right here on our doorstep. I can honestly say that simply searching for and being in the presence of these animals gives me a deep sense of peace and solitude that I’m truly grateful for.

As for the Z8, it continues to impress me and leave me wanting for nothing, whether I’m tracking birds in flight, shooting landscapes or capturing video clips of these beautiful animals. You can see my full review to learn more about it or see how I set it up for wildlife photography,

If you’ve already bought your X-T30 III I’ve written a setup guide which will help you to get the best out of it and after much more use I’ve now written about which accessories are worth buying.

Having spent the last five years shooting primarily with larger systems—including the Fujifilm X100VI, X-T5, GFX100S, and full-frame Nikon bodies—I’ve grown accustomed to substantial handgrips. At first, the camera’s diminutive size and weight made me worry handling would be fiddly. Muscle memory initially had me trying to turn the dedicated Film Simulation dial to adjust ISO, and the lack of an aperture ring on the kit lens threw me off. It definitely isn’t a mini X-T5 out of the box.

However, after half an hour of mapping custom functions to various buttons to mirror my X-T5 setup as closely as possible, the ergonomics began to make sense.

The real turning point came the next day during a rainy walk along the River Earn in Perthshire. Paired with the new, remarkably compact 13-33mm kit lens (offering a versatile approximately 21-50mm equivalent range), the entire setup genuinely slips into a waterproof jacket pocket. For a photographer used to carrying bags or slings, the appeal of a pocketable, interchangeable-lens APS-C body is immense. The X-T30 III lacks weather sealing, which required dodging the worst of the Scottish rain by putting it back it into my coat between shots, but the sheer convenience altered how a walk felt—it didn’t make the entire outing “about photography.”

Handling the Controls & Mechanics

• Physical Dials: The top-plate shutter speed and exposure compensation dials are well-damped, offering enough resistance to prevent accidental knocks while remaining easy to adjust.
• The Film Simulation Dial: Initially, I dismissed this as an unnecessary gimmick given the Q menu or touch-swipe options. But having a dedicated physical dial right at my fingertips genuinely encouraged me to experiment more. Programming three custom Fujifilm X Weekly recipes to the FS positions makes jumping between looks much quicker and actually encouraged me to experiment more.
• The Screen & Viewfinder: The tilt screen is lighter, more discreet, and far better for waist-level or high-angle photography than a fully articulating screen. The 2.36-million-dot EVF looks tiny coming from professional bodies, but having a physical viewfinder is non-negotiable for bright sunshine and I am just one of those people who cannot take good images using the rear screen.

Lens Performance & Autofocus The 13-33mm kit lens uses a twist-to-extend mechanism similar to my Nikon 14-30mm f/4. While I’m usually not a fan of extending designs, the resulting pocket footprint justifies it. Optically, it performs surprisingly well. Files reviewed on my iPad showed decent sharpness and zero glaring flaws. It is a slower variable-aperture lens, meaning you hit higher ISO values quickly, but shots at ISO 8000 handled well with minimal noise and no weird color shifts. Fine detail on things like leaves aren’t bitingly sharp, but for non-professional or casual use, I can see it being more than adequate for a lot of people.

Quickly testing autofocus on our young puppy, the tracking picked up eyes and body reliably, landing plenty of sharp keepers. It occasionally missed during erratic movement, but my X-T5 and X100VI would do the exact same.

Practical Realities & Battery Life The main compromise with a body this size is power. Using the smaller NP-W126S battery (the same as the X100VI), my 2 to 3-hour outing plus a brief setup session chewed through well over half the charge. You will definitely want a spare for a full day out.

Initial Verdict The X-T30 III has me questioning the need for a dedicated pocket compact like a Ricoh GR IV; with this Fuji, you get interchangeable lenses, beautiful film simulations, a proper viewfinder, and better physical handling. If I stick a compact prime like a Fuji 35mm f2 on it, it could be a great everyday carry or vacation camera. Over the coming weeks, I’ll be testing it more with portraiture, local landscapes, and documentary work here in the Scottish Highlands.

Fujfilm UK have sent me the X-T30 III to test. This was a prior commitment, arranged before I decided to focus more on my photography than the gear. I will be testing the camera and lens over the coming month. Fujiflm have not asked for anything in return, have not requested a say in what I write and I am free to say it as it is, as I always do.

There is one particular field that keeps catching my eye, and I keep saying out loud to Sofia, on her school run, I must bring my camera and photograph that field. She will be relieved that today, after weeks of saying this to her, I finally took my camera out and captured it.

This particular field is full of bales of hay, all rolled up tightly and strewn across the landscape for as far as the eye can see. From my vantage point, the bales spread out towards and onto a gently sloping hill. The combination of the land’s natural beauty along with the geometric man-made shapes covering it get my creative juices flowing. It’s a veritable playground of compositional possibilities. Fortunately, the sun came out on this, the last day of August, and the farmers were kind enough to have not removed all the hay.

Recording the land in Perthshire, whether its natural beauty or the way in which man works with it, is part of an ongoing project of mine to document ‘The Land’.

Now I know that a lot of people will say that photos should be edited to within an inch of perfection, but I’m going to be brutally honest now and say, I really don’t enjoy spending any more time than I have to editing photos. For me, the joy is in seeing, not in tweaking. So these photos are all straight out of camera black and whites from my Nikon Z8 set to the Monochrome profile. I retain the raw files too, just in case one of the JPEGs doesn’t cut it, but in this case, I got the exposure pretty close in camera and simply adjusted the endpoints and cropped some shots to a 16:9 aspect ratio where I felt it worked best.

It’s a place where the solitude and natural beauty really speak to me. It feels like the Scottish Highlands that my mind goes to when I look back on my younger years. Wild hills, huge bodies of water and the feeling that this place belongs to nature and not to us. You can see the video I shot there this week below.

But I thought it would be interesting to break down a few of the photos I took there during the harsh mid day light to see what worked, what didn’t and give an insight in to how I work. Firstly, a bit of context as to why I shot how I did. I chose black and white for the majority of shots, only switching to color when I felt the color actually added something to the photo. I find myself predominantly working in black and white these days, those of you who have read my previous articles will know why. I still see the beauty around me everywhere, but it feels tainted by at the moment. I’m trying to work through that and photography, as always is my crutch.

Let’s start out with this black and white shot of the dam wall and water tower at Loch Turret. I’ve marked up the photos. Green are the things that work well, yellow shows the compositional guide such as the rule of thirds or golden ratio and Red highlights the problems or mistakes.

Lighting & Exposure

The harsh light creates shadows that help add depth, particularly in black and white images. The overall exposure works well, with one caveat to come later.

What Worked Well

• Green A: I Positioned myself and composed the image to create a triangle shape from the rocks pointing further into the frame, helping to draw the eye through the photo.
• Green B: I Used the dam wall to create strong converging lines that draw the eye deeper into the photo.
• Yellow: The main subject is placed on one of the intersecting lines using the rule of thirds, giving it prominent attention and balancing the photo. It is placed on the opposite side of the dominant dam wall to help achieve balance.

Room for Improvement & Critiques

• Red A: The top of the dam wall was in deep shadow; even after lifting the shadows, it remains slightly distracting and draws the eye away from the main elements. The positioning is also uncomfortable, running into the photo about 3/4 of the way up from the bottom, which throws off the geometric balance.
• Red B: The rock is cut off so doesnt sit naturally, neither fully in the frame, nor removed entirely.
• Red C: Although the converging lines of the dam wall draw the eye deeper into the image, ideally they would have run toward the water tower.

Conclusion

• Overall, I like the photo, but with a little more thought and time, perhaps I could have lined up the elements in the scene to work even better together to create a stronger, more focused composition.

Loch Turret: The First Frame That Didn’t Work

This was the opening shot in the video, and I knew right away that it simply didn’t work but as I was in position for the video clip, I took it anyway. Rather than trying to force it, I moved positions, but it’s worth looking at why this composition fell flat:

• Red A (The Rocks): The foreground rocks are naturally drawing the eye away from the subject (the water tower) and dragging it toward the dam wall instead.
• Red B (The Dam Wall): While the dam wall is less prominent here than in other frames, the deep blocked shadows and awkward placement still pull the eye away from the rest of the scene.
• Red C (Mountain Peak): The highest peak of the background mountain sits dead center in the frame, creating imbalance.
• Red D (The Water Tower): The main subject is stranded in “no man’s land.” It isn’t centered with intent to anchor the frame, nor is it placed on any of the rule-of-thirds intersecting lines to create balance.

There are no green notes on this one—sometimes a composition just doesn’t work.

This is the frame I shot after trying to build a composition that worked better than the first image. When I’m shooting, I tend to instinctively recognise the issues without consciously diagnosing them right away. This image works much better than the first and feels significantly more balanced.

• What worked:
  • Green A (Foreground Rocks): I positioned myself and framed the shot so that the foreground rocks converge directly toward the main subject (the water tower).
  • Green B (Mountain Ridgeline): The background mountains now feel balanced, with a natural flow from left to right that leads your eye to explore the hilltops. Their placement feels right, with enough sky above them to provide proper environmental context.
  • Green C (The Dam Wall): The dam wall that caused issues in the previous photos has now been minimized by the angle of the shot, removing it as a heavy, distracting element.
  • Yellow (Subject Placement): The main subject is now placed purposefully, allowing the eye to come to a natural rest on it after being led around the various elements of the frame.
• The Trade-Off: In an ideal world, the subject could feature more prominently by being larger within the frame. I could have achieved this by using a longer focal length to compress the elements together, but doing so would have made it impossible to include the foreground rocks in the same way. Every shot is a compromise and a balance.

All of the photos here, and in the video are completely uncropped in post. I tend to prefer to try and get things right in camera but of course, if you get back home and can see an issue, sometimes the resolution of the Nikon Z8 can help out and allow you to crop distracting elements out of the frame. What it can’t do is change the position of elements, relative to each other after you’ve taken the shot.

And I’ve always run into the same fundamental problem.

I’m a stills photographer first. I’ve always felt that video is a useful medium to showcase my photography, but I’ve never quite worked out the correct format for doing it. I’ve leaned into gear reviews, basic vlogs, and documentary-style videos, but I’ve always considered video an inconvenience when I’m out trying to do both. Trying to capture video seriously impacted my ability to get what I considered good photos.

To counter that, I tried POV with a lightweight action camera so I could just run video in the background without thought while focusing on my stills. I was never happy with the results. Not technically, but in how the video represented the act of photography. It never met the vision I had in my mind of what my videos should look like and convey.

A couple of years ago, everyone was raving about the DJI Osmo Pocket 3 as giving great quality while minimizing friction. Even up until last week, I shot using it as my primary video camera. It really does make things easier when you’re a photographer first: I can slip it in my pocket, pull it out at a second’s notice, and because it’s on a gimbal, the footage is smooth. The quality is decent, and it can quickly flip from forward-facing to backward-facing. I have no complaints about it—it does exactly what it says on the tin.

But when I look through the footage, it just doesn’t match my vision.

The video coming from it looks very digital, stuck at the same focal length, with a strange floating feeling due to the gimbal. I also had some issues with micro-jitters and focus hunting during shots. All of these issues I’m sure have fixes, but given the final look of the image, I simply didn’t want to spend the time hunting them down.

During last week’s walk at Knock of Crieff, I shot just a handful of clips with my Nikon Z8 in 4K 30 using the standard picture profile. Seeing those clips side by side with the Pocket 3 footage, the difference jumped right out at me. Everything felt more natural, more organic, and infinitely closer to the feel I produce with my stills photography.

After my recent gear sell-off, I settled on keeping my Nikon Z8 and Z6III—the latter specifically for video and as a backup stills body. But I had reservations. From past experience, I know that anything that creates friction in my video process is likely to lead to me simply not recording as many clips as I need, or abandoning the video entirely.

Would the weight put me off? Would having to shoot dual video and stills become irritating? Would the dual-body approach impede my mind from getting the photos I’m actually out there for?

Now, here’s the thing. I always hear about LOG footage being considerably better than straight-out-of-camera profiles. In the back of my mind, I know this is true. But I’m not a colorist. I can work with raw photo files all day and know my way around image processing to the point that it’s second nature.

Yet, I’ve had many attempts in the past at shooting LOG video, and I always ended up butchering the grade and getting worse results than the standard in-camera profiles.

The problem is that there are so many conflicting opinions online about the process of color grading. There are countless different techniques that pull you straight down a rabbit hole of contradictory advice: Use the official LUT. No, grade it from scratch yourself. LOG is noisier, it’s not worth it. Use nodes—build a complicated node tree. Put the LUT at the start of your node tree! No, put it last.

Now, the footage straight out of the Nikon Z6III and Z8 using their Neutral and Standard profiles does look good, but it doesn’t maximize dynamic range because the contrast is baked right into the file. Sometimes that results in crushed blacks and a slightly digital look that I couldn’t help but feel wasn’t optimal. I knew LOG would give me the flexibility to create a more organic-looking video, so I had this nagging voice telling me I finally needed to sort out this whole LOG puzzle.

I spent many hours last week doing just that, and set out yesterday to put everything into practice.

If I’m going to do video regularly—which I am—I don’t want to live with that constant feeling of disappointment when the final result doesn’t match my vision. I’d noticed technical issues in my previous videos: micro-jitters from handholding, focus hunting, and awkward framing. I decided that if I’m going to do video, I need to do it properly.

And that means separating my video body from my stills body and giving them both equal weight.

It means not treating video as an inconvenience I have to tolerate, but putting the same thought and effort into it as my photography. It means bringing the gear needed to get the quality to match what I see in my mind. Ultimately, it meant tweaking every single thing—from testing mic setups to finally giving in and packing a tripod and fluid head on my hill walk.

For someone who has often espoused the benefits of a minimalist, lightweight setup, it was quite the mental leap.

This week’s trip was intended to test whether that extra weight and effort are actually worth it, and whether this workflow is right for me.

And here’s the surprising bit…

Once I changed my mindset to giving video equal weighting—in fact, priority weighting, since my video skills need more work than my stills do—I actually started to enjoy the process.

This was not a lightweight setup. I had my 30L backpack, which contained a waterproof jacket, fleece, lunch, and a drink, as well as basic essentials like a compass and first-aid kit. It also held my 85mm f/1.8 S lens wrapped in a sock and stuffed in a dry bag, along with audio gear, spare batteries, and a camera cleaning kit. Clipped to the strap was my Nikon Z8 paired with the 24-120mm f/4.

On top of that, I carried my Leofoto LM364-C carbon-fiber tripod, a Sachtler Ace XL fluid head, and the Nikon Z6III with the 14-30mm f/4 S mounted to it.

In the past, one of the main friction points I found with video was the constant setup: mounting the camera to the tripod, attaching mics, checking audio levels. So I went out yesterday with the intention to avoid most of that by simply sticking the Z6III on the tripod, leaving it there all day, and carrying the whole rig across my shoulder.

Was it heavy? Yes, if you count the kilograms. But was it restrictive? Not really.

I’m not some super-fit 20-year-old. I’m 44, my right shoulder hurts, and I’m building my fitness back up naturally through walking after a sedentary decade living in the Philippines with little exercise and a bad diet. I’m not particularly overweight, but my daughter Sofia does like to point out that I have a belly.

Yet I found the whole setup surprisingly friction-free in terms of workflow and weight. With the Z8 clipped to my Capture Clip, I could simply place the video rig down and shoot stills. When I wanted to switch to video, I could quickly re-seat the Z8 and be hands-free to focus entirely on motion.

I walked about 8km around Loch Turret. It was only on the final stretch home—where I had to rush back for about 2.5km non-stop because I was late picking Sofia up from school—that I felt a little discomfort across my shoulder from carrying the tripod and Z6III. I changed its position a couple of times on the walk back, switched shoulders at one point, and it wasn’t too bad.

The thing is, once I checked the initial video clips and saw how great they looked right there on the back of the screen, that was all the motivation I needed. It pushed me to shoot way more clips and angles than I normally would, and to actually think about how to convey what I’m doing in a video format.

And because I have so many years of stills experience, I found I was still able to get photos I was happy with in a very short time. One did not negatively impact the other in the way I used to feel it did.

Once I got home and viewed the LOG footage, running it through my simple workflow to bring the color back to a Rec. 709 look for viewing, the results instantly confirmed it: this setup, and this way of working, is worth the slight inconvenience of carrying a bit more gear. It resulted in me capturing more coverage, getting better-looking clips, and ultimately, it’s going to get me much closer to using video the way I envision to showcase my photography.

Now, could I just use one camera and make the Z8 pull double duty?

Absolutely. But the mental friction that adds is simply too much. I know I would miss both photos and video clips because it would require constantly removing the camera from the tripod to shoot stills, or vice versa—resulting in me doing both much less often. It would mean constantly switching camera settings between stills and video mode (not a massive deal, but another small point of friction), and my suspicion is I’d end up heavily prioritizing one format over the other out of sheer annoyance.

Is a single-body approach doable? Absolutely, but…

I’ve always been of the opinion that if something is worth doing, it’s worth doing properly. My mum instilled that in me. As I’ve got older, I’ve realized there are no real shortcuts in life. If you want the results, you have to be prepared to put in the effort and the work. I think that goes for content creation, photography, video, and every aspect of life. In today’s age of instant gratification, this middle-aged stills photographer is quite happy to put in the work before any rewards. I’m not quite there yet but for the first time ever, with video, I see the way forward.