We all have bucket lists which detail the things we want to do or countries we want to visit before we kick the bucket. Up until now, I've been lucky enough that I've checked a few things off my personal bucket list, such as visiting the fjords in Norway, karting down the mountains in Switzerland, and seeing the Northern Lights in all their glory.
However, the top of my bucket list has been occupied by one thing for the last decade: visiting Iceland. And last week, I checked that off. Iceland is, in my opinion, the most beautiful country on the planet, home to over 10,000 waterfalls, majestic glaciers, and the only place where two major tectonic plates are located above sea level. Visiting all these otherworldly places felt like an out of body experience, and something I hope everyone can do at some point in their lives.
I also love photography, and Iceland feels like a photographer's dream. To capture such stunning scenery, I needed one of the best mirrorless cameras in my possession, and that's where my trusty Fujifilm X-T50 proved its worth. I took a thousand photos with it and I could have taken a thousand more and they still wouldn't be enough.
All photos in this article are straight-out-of-camera JPEGs (captured using different Fujifilm film simulation recipes) which means I have not edited them in any way whatsoever (unless stated otherwise in the captions).
Through rain or shine
Iceland is an island located in the Arctic Circle, so it's susceptible to storms, torrential rain and high-speed winds like you've never seen before. When my partner and I were planning our trip, we knew we needed to be prepared for unpredictable weather. She packed her trusty Nikon D5100, a DSLR she swears by, and I packed my Fujifilm X-T50 — neither of these cameras are weather-sealed.
The X-T50 isn't weather-resistant so I exercised caution while using it in Iceland — but there's only so much I could do when rain came pouring down out of nowhere, or when I was engulfed in heavy mist while walking behind a waterfall. And you know what? Nothing happened to my camera. It came out of that trip unscathed.
Maybe I just got lucky, so take this with a pinch of salt, of course, and don't go using the X-T50 in a blizzard or storm! Most mirrorless cameras are weather-resistant to an extent, which is why it's important to have a lens that has "WR" ("weather-resistant") engraved on it — like the XF 16-50mm F2.8-4.8 R LM WR.
Splashes of colors
I've used and reviewed many cameras in my time as a journalist and a photographer, but I'm still a firm believer in the fact that nothing comes close to Fujifilm's color science — and the Fujifilm X-T50 proved that with every photo I took in Iceland. I've always loved Fuji's film simulation recipes, and the X-T50 was the first of the brand's cameras to host a dedicated film sim dial.
I've heard people say on online forums, "What a waste of space, why can't you just dig into your settings to change color profiles?" The convenience and ease of use can't be overstated, in my opinion. Having them in the form of an easy-to-reach dial on the X-T50 made swapping between them a walk in the park, and I was able to capture images that were instantly shareable without the need for post-production.
Depending on the weather, I could pick a high-contrast or high-saturation color profile easily. While Nostalgic Neg has always been my go-to on cloudy days, I played around with Classic Chrome and the low-saturation Cinematic Cool with Eterna Bleach Bypass, and I adored the grungy looks both produced. I can't wait to use them more going forward!
Jack of all trades
I love describing the Fujifilm X-T50 as a jack of all trades because it's true. This camera can handle any kind of photography: portraits, landscapes, slow wildlife, you name it. The X-T50's autofocus system is rapid and highly capable of keeping your subject in focus — whether that's a human being or an animal, as you can see in the gallery above.
If you're familiar with my camera reviews, you'll see my partner pop up in them quite often. She's my favorite subject to photograph, really, and I couldn't stop pointing the camera at her every now and then when we were admiring a landscape in Iceland, and the photos turned out beautifully. The camera was quick to lock onto her face and eyes when I half-pressed the shutter button.
On the this trip, I had newfound appreciation for the tiny button located next to the shutter release which enables/disables face detection. I found myself using it a lot. When I wanted to take a picture of my partner or an animal, I hit the button to enable it and within milliseconds, the X-T50 had locked on.
But when I wanted to put the focus on, say, the Sólheimajökull glacier in the third slide and have my partner just out of focus as she walked into the frame, I disabled face detection, and captured one of my favorite photos of all time.
Worth a thousand words
I won't bore you more with my words any further, so I'll let the gallery above do the talking for me. After all, a picture is worth a thousand words, right? Our trip lasted just five days and four nights, and both my partner and I were extremely sad to leave such a beautiful place. We only had time to visit southeast Iceland, but there are so many other places to visit, so many sights to see in other parts of the island, and we can't wait to take another trip there in the future.
On our final night, we were lucky enough to witness the Northern Lights just on the outskirts of Reykjavik, the capital. I didn't have a tripod so I couldn't get the sharpest photo, but the first photo in the gallery above still looks breathtaking. The thing is, it wasn't even Northern Lights season when we went to Iceland — imagine how extraordinary the Lights would look during peak season!
Visiting and photographing Iceland and then going through the photos I'd captured gave me a newfound appreciation for our environment and our planet. There were a few instances where both my partner and I had tears in our eyes because we were overwhelmed by the stunning landscape. My memory card filled up quickly but like I said, I could have filled another memory card and it still wouldn't have felt like enough.
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