What's in my Camera Bag in 2026?

Over the last 15 years, I have had many different digital camera systems. My foray into digital cameras started with a Sony a230 that I purchased from a friend along with a few lenses. Sony DSLR cameras were very unpopular at the time. It was hard to find anyone talking about them on YouTube. Canon and Nikon dominated and Fuji X cameras weren't a thing yet. But the great part about Sony DSLRs was Minolta glass. You could get these old Minolta autofocus lenses cheap and they were decent quality. This was because Sony bought Minolta and used the same mount. You can still use them today.

Anyway, I have owned many different camera brands over the years but for the past 7 years, my primary camera has been a Fuji X-T2. Yes, the newest camera I own is a 10 year old camera and I'm perfectly comfortable with that. The X-T2 is a great camera and has never let me down. The image quality is excellent at 24 megapixels, the autofocus is good enough, with an additional grip, the handling is solid and I'm not a video shooter so the latest video features do nothing for me.

This generation of Fuji camera ticks all the boxes if you're doing still photography. Recently, I checked out a Fuji X-T5 at my local Best Buy store and found it to be just okay. It handled pretty much the same as my X-T2, the build quality seemed worse to me and honestly, it doesn't do anything for me that I'm not already getting with my older model. Again, if I was into video, that would be a different story.

As for lenses, I carry the legendary Fujinon 35mm f1.4 R. Just a great 50mm equivalent with lots of character. Slow to focus? Yes. But I don't care. The images looks so good. Recently, I acquired the Viltrox 23mm f1.4 and the Viltrox 56mm f1.4 which honestly, are amazing lenses. I can't believe how high the quality is both on the build and the images. Both of these lenses are sharp wide open and I couldn't be happier with the cost/value ratio they offer.

I also recently bought the Fujinon 10-24mm f4.0 lens as I've been wanting to get into landscapes. It's a great lens but I'm still not used to shooting wide. I'm still learning how to use it. Again, a high quality build and I'm happy with the image quality so far.

Finally, I just boxed up and sent off the Fujinon 18mm f2.0 and the Fujinon 60mm f2.4 to mpb.com to trade for a Fujinon 16-80mm f4.0. I didn't use either of these lenses all that much and I really want an all around zoom lens for landscapes and for photographing my outdoor activities. I love the idea of the 24-120mm equivalent focal range so I made the trade, pretty much even (they're paying me $8.00).

All of my gear is bought used. Of all the cameras I have owned (and there have been many...like a lot) I don't remember ever buying one new. The reason is simple, 90% of people who buy a camera aren't in it for the long haul. They purchase a camera system way beyond anything they need, play with it, loose interest and sell it at a huge loss to people like me. For instance, my X-T2 had something like 5,000 shutter actuations on it when I bought it. My latest camera, the Canon 5D Mark II, has just over 6,000 shutter actuations in 18 years.

Anyway, that's what's in my current bag. The Canon has its own bag and I'll get into that another time.