 When I was in first grade, I told everyone who asked that I was going to become a lawyer. I didn't even fully understand what a lawyer did at the time but it always satisfied the adults who, when we're all young, are persistent on asking what our role in life would be. I grew up during the 90s so there was no such thing as making a living by playing video games or taking b-roll shots of one's cable management. Thanks by the way, you guys are awesome. And so when I began my pre-law course in literature, I would always look at how weird and silly my counterparts taking up film looked as they worked with their fancy gear. I remember thinking, there is no way going through silly poses or angling an item towards less or more line was necessary for the footage they needed. If I ever had to shoot something, I could care less. I'm Rafael from Hardware Sugar and no, I didn't physically trade my law license for the Fujifilm XS10 but I have allotted most of my time now learning more about filmmaking rather than the law nowadays. I have never held a DSLR for longer than a minute in my life because I've been terrified that I wouldn't be able to give its output justice but mostly because I was concerned I wouldn't even be able to get it to run. And so when Fujifilm sent over the XS10 and two of their lenses, which is quite generous on the part of Fuji, I finally found an excuse to see what the fuss of using a real camera was all about. Everything I filmed prior and even now for this a-roll was shot using a cell phone camera, my S21 Ultra. This is thus not going to be a typical tech review but rather a personal account of my experience using a high-powered camera for the first time in my life. Holding the Fujifilm XS10 with one hand through the textured grip reminded me of why I used to think in college that film and communications majors resembled a SWAT team moving about the halls with their stealthy black camera gear inside metal crates or while lugging long tripods which reminded me of light machine guns. The XS10 is sculpted to look like the cameras of old while housing modern power. I appreciate this for two reasons. First the design of a handle jutting out to the side makes the camera ergonomic and comfortable to use for extended periods of time. In fact I sometimes found myself just picking it up for no apparent reason just so I could feel the heft of the camera and the way my fingers securely curl around the entirety of the device. It's a design which has aged gracefully over the years not because it still looks good but because it drastically helps in maintaining camera stability with two hands as you shoot. The textured surface which looks like black crocodile skin but which feels like the natural grooves of one's fingertips makes me want to keep holding onto the camera just for the sheer power it makes me feel. Second a professional camera just isn't a professional camera to me if it didn't have this sort of grip. It conjures up an image in my mind which identifies itself with the seriousness of its purpose which is to capture life similar to the seriousness of a gun handle which is meant to end life. In spite of the classic design you will of course find a touchscreen and an LCD viewfinder which turns on only if you bring your eye towards it. A viewfinder is not always present in modern cameras nowadays such as the Canon EOS M6 which we reviewed here but it is nevertheless something I personally would have always wanted to have because it promotes intimacy between the photographer and his subject. If you use the LCD touchscreen in an event you run the risk of inviting back seat driver photographers from behind you and I like it because it also looks cool to go through the formal motions of what one imagines a pro would do. The LCD touchscreen can also be maneuvered to face you thus quite handy for people who don't have a film crew such as myself. It also gets a big boost from the fact that you have the option to use a small joystick as an alternative to your finger. This not only makes navigating faster but also help keep the camera clean when my fingers were covered in cupcake cream as I was shooting Anton one time. Every morning for 30 days I would get up and literally just shoot anything. Shots which I would normally conclude to be too dark for my cell phone camera came out great. The XS10 showed me that low light is not always your fault but rather is an opportunity to add depth to your subject. Usually when I shoot with my S21 I just turn on as many lights as possible within the room but when I was shooting our review of the Charcoon the low light brought out more of the chair's natural color as opposed to when it was overly saturated with my overhead lights. I took this shot of the Charcoon at the gym in which its shadow was just as important as the illuminated side of the chair itself. The result added gravity to the shot. The XS10's ability to grab so much detail from a scene during low light shots made me think differently about how to prepare a shot. In this time and age where a lot of people are obsessed with lighting of all sorts whether that be a ring light, an Elgato stream light, or a Philips Hue product it is refreshing to be free and just shoot with whatever lighting is already there. I don't know what professional photographers call a scene which is both low light and bright at the same time such as this shot in my room. The wood planks show just enough of their color to add contrast to the lounge chair which is illuminated by the sun barely coming out from my white curtains. During the day, the house has a lot of details a person can focus on but at night the XS10 was able to dial everything down so that you focus only on the living area and the glowing pool. A statement that the house is first and foremost a home. When I was shooting my desk for our cable management video, I purposely made sure to take the same B roll shot twice. One with the overhead lights on and the other with just purely natural light coming from my windows. The latter may not bring out as much color from the wood. Nevertheless if there was such a thing as an out of bed hairstyle look for a desk it would be the low light shot which guides the viewer to inspect the desk itself rather than the tech on it which was the purpose of the video. I've had to reshoot my desk several times after returning the camera to Fujifilm. In spite of all its fancy camera lenses the S21 Ultra is still just a cell phone camera and it could never come close to the level of detail and warmness the XS10 was able to draw out from low light shots. The autofocus on the XS10 for B roll is top notch. It adds a subtle drama to a shot as though I'm slowly revealing something from behind the curtain. A lot of reviewers have raved about the lightning fast autofocus of the XS10 which I agree with for the most part except for when it came to when I shot a roll. There is facial autofocus on the XS10 but when I had it turned on it chose the focus on the monitor rather than my face. I had to reshoot two different videos of a roll before I gave up and just switched to my S21 again. It's a shame because this is what it would look like had everything worked out. Unfortunately when I shot this it was a trial shot and so it never made it to the falchion video which it was meant for. Again even if I didn't have lights on the image was crisp and the shadows helped add character and contrast to the scene rather than being eyesores. Because I am not an expert by any means I'm going to chalk it up to my user error as to why it focused on the wrong thing prior especially since I did get it to focus on myself that one time. Just to highlight how much of a noob I am when it comes to cameras I was shocked when I stared at just the body. I was like can this take pictures without the accompanying lenses? Yup the last real camera I owned was a point and shoot and so being able to attach lenses to a DSLR is all very new to me. I imagine the body already came with a built-in lens and thereafter you can improve on that lens by attaching other lenses. Obviously this is a google search away it's just never occurred to me to ask. The XF1855mm lens is what I use for the most part during my testing because there is a zoom function something which doesn't exist with the XF35 and P2 lens. Being able to twist the knob of a camera lens while zooming in and out of your subject has always been part of my fantasy when it came to being able to play with a DSLR. It also comes in handy when taking various b-roll shots. I use the non-zoomable XF35 and P2 for our live tech show but it might turn on once and while I must say I look great on camera and this there was no way to dial back and zoom out because its field of view is fixed. There are numbers and dials galore on each lens and I can see why film and photography are entire courses in school by themselves. This is all undoubtedly a science to which I have honestly only scratched the surface off and I can see the professionals shaking their heads at this video. The same way Italians judge other people making Italian food on YouTube. In conclusion as a tech reviewer all of my subjects are inanimate pieces of electronics. I attempt to capture how they exist in our lives and how we react to them as we use them. Being able to add some degree of character to an otherwise lifeless object is the biggest challenge when it comes to reviewing tech and presenting it to you guys, our audience. While getting a DSLR or even a mirrorless camera isn't the most important thing when it comes to starting a YouTube channel it definitely adds warmth and clarity especially if you think on investing in the Fujifilm XS10. In summary if you are in any way impressed by the footage you saw in this video know that the XS10 is very forgiving even if the user is a noob like me. Special thanks to Fujifilm Philippines for letting us the XS10 and two of their latest lenses. Let us know in the comment section below what other content you want us to produce and if you think a mirrorless or DSLR is still a must when it comes to professional YouTube vids. And we would like to give a special thank you to our top fans. Rafael James, Liam Magnaje, Ian Meru, Richard Rónquico, ITX addict, John Rubinoccia, and Christian Espinoza. Thank you so much for gonna be able to get to 100,000 subscribers pretty soon thanks to your consistent help. Thank you.