My photography friend, Aaron Mashburn, and I recently went to Antelope Island State Park in Utah. He has a Sony A6000, and I have a Fujifilm X-T30. We both like to use vintage glass, and we both have several M42-mount lenses. We had the idea to go on a photography adventure and share lenses. I had the chance to borrow his glass and he had a chance to use mine, which worked out great. Our trip was a lot of fun!

This camera showdown–Fujifilm X-T30 vs. Sony A6000–is completely for amusement and nothing else. You will not find test charts, massive crops or a winner declared. We each like our cameras, both of which are good photographic tools, and we didn’t try to convince each other to switch brands. We had a good time, and it was great to see what we had captured. Interestingly, there were several pictures that were nearly identical, not because we were copying each other, but because we both happened to see the same thing. If there’s any lesson, it’s that vision is more important than gear, and most cameras are fully capable of fulfilling most photographer’s visions.

We each brought with us several lenses, but for the pictures in this article only three were used: Asahi Pentax Super-Takumar 50mm f/1.4, Asahi Pentax Auto-Takumar 55mm f/2.2, and Helios 44-2. We used other lenses, but none of those pictures were selected for this. All three of the lenses that I mentioned are great, but the 50mm f/1.4 really stands out as special. It has the “it” factor, for sure! The Helios 44-2 does magical things sometimes. The 55mm f/2.2 is consistently good. If there’s any winner to declare in this showdown, it would be the Asahi Pentax 50mm f/1.4 lens. This is a must-have vintage lens, in my opinion.

The pictures below are some examples of what we captured on our Antelope Island State Park photographic adventure. Even though different cameras and lenses were used, together these images tell a story. I hope that you enjoy the photographs from both cameras, as both cameras proved to be perfectly good for this purpose. I would like to give a special thank-you to Aaron for allowing me to use his pictures!