Mai
13
Late last year, I was fortunate to get hold of a Fuji X Pro 1 from Fuji UK for a week and write a review based on my experiences with it. The review was in 2 parts and you can read Part 1 here and Part 2 here. I was so impressed, I fell in love with it, well, not love, but you know what I mean..hopefully! Being so busy in the following weeks, I finally settled down to buy one and heard news of the imminent arrival of the X100s. I decided to hang fire on the X Pro and wait for the X100s. As soon as I could afford it, I sent off for one. After my time with the X Pro 1, it was fairly easy to “get into” using it. However, I simply wasn’t expecting or prepared for what I was about to discover. I used it around the house for the first couple of days and just couldn’t put it down. I ran the battery flat several times as it was seemingly attached to me! We had a wedding coming up and I decided I loved the X100s so much, I would take it along and see if I could use it confidently in the pressured environment of a full day wedding shoot. Normally, I use a Nikon D3s and mainly a 24-70 2.8 which I l.o.v.e! However, it is heavy, obvious and, well, just big! So my thoughts were…would I be confident to use the X100s over the Nikon? Would it suit our documentary style of photography? What would the reaction of the couple and guests be? Would I feel “less” professional? Would it help with my “tennis/ photographers elbow”??? Anyone other photographers suffer with that? Mine is agony and using the X100s is a blessed relief…..
So, here are my answers, then some images with all the settings for all those who want to pixel peep. As soon as I started shooting the groom prep images, it was hard to stop. it just felt so natural, so “right” and it really did make me feel less obvious. It certainly suits our style of photography, being almost exclusive documentary. The couple didn’t really notice it to be honest and it was other guests and “uncle Bobs” who seemed the most interested. In fact, one guest asked me”that’s a bit of a comedown isn’t it? Not a pro’s camera is it?” I just laughed it off and said something about paintbrushes and paper and being able to paint….
I couldn’t care less really what people may think or say, as long as the clients trust us to produce emotional and creative documentary wedding photography then a camera is just a tool for me to do that, and the Fuji X100s is a pretty good tool. Is it perfect? Well, have you ever got that “perfect” shot? Is that your fault or the camera’s? Oh yea, it will certainly help relieve the pain in the elbow, though I’m not sure it will part of a prescription on the NHS any time soon…imagine that!! It is a joy to use. I can’t help but agree with the reviews by Zack Arias and Bert Stephani…this is the best camera I have used. It’s small, feels right, looks right, produces stunning images and feels like an extension of my eye/ mind/ heart/ soul. It’s the best, in my opinion, not because of one outright performance factor, but because of the sum of the parts. It really just gets out of the way and allows you to shoot. I had a short street photography trip a couple of days after it arrived and you can see the results on my personal project site A Simple Mind. So much has been the impact so that it has made me think about what my gear bag may contain in the next couple of years. At the moment, I can honestly see us covering complete weddings with a couple of these and maybe an X Pro 1, which I could get for less than the price of, say, a new Nikon D4. The summer is going to go a long way to help making that decision as I use it more and more at weddings…as I’m writing this down, I’m finding it hard to believe I’m saying these things, but there you go. Sometimes, one just knows when something is right, and, for me, the X100s is simply that, right. We’ll see what happens over the coming weeks and months…..
See more pictures on ianmacmichaelphotography.blogspot.co.uk
Apr
30
London-Paris, Paris-Saint Brieuc, Saint Brieuc-Lamballe, Lamballe-Paimpol. Then, Paimpol-Saint Brieuc-Rennes-Paris-London, all in just six days…what an adventure! Isabelle & Florent’s wedding : SIMPLY AMAZING! I can’t wait to share it…this is just a preview. Isa (Elisabeth) et Flo (Zacharie) Félicitations and thank you for having me along.
“I would love for you to check out this international wedding I documented last weekend in France, every single image is from the x-pro-1. I used two of these “magical boxes” + the 18mm & 35mm lenses exclusively for this wedding. The more I use it, the more I love it. – Vincent”
See more pictures on vopoku.com
Apr
25
Eigentlich kann ich solche Sprüche wie “die X100s ersetzt alle DSLRs”, “die Fuji ist die neue Leica” oder “seit ich die X100s habe, brauche ich keine Vollformatkamera mehr” nicht mehr hören und lesen. Immer wenn eine Kamera vorgestellt wird drehen sich bei vielen Benutzern und Propagandisten dieser Modelle auf einmal alle bisherigen Anforderungen. Scheinbar. Komisch. Für mich ersetzt diese Kamera auf keinen Fall eine Vollformat DSLR und auch auf keinen Fall ein System mit Wechselobjektiven und ordentlichem Blitzsystem. Dennoch ist die “Kleine”, wie ich meine X100s immer nenne, eine extrem gute und sehr “geile” Kamera. Der Spaßfaktor beim Fotografieren, das unauffällige agieren damit auf den Straßen und die reduzierung auf das Notwendigste machen die “Kleine” bei mir zu einer wirklichen “immer dabei Kamera”! Sie ersetzt aber keinesfalls eine richtige Vollformat DSLR. Dennoch wollte ich es wissen und habe bei der letzen Hochzeits-Emotionen-Reportage statt meiner zwei Nikon DSLRs nur eine umhängen gehabt und statt der zweiten Nikon D3 die “Kleine” umhängen gehabt und habe versucht damit einen zusätzlichen roten Faden der Hochzeit damit aufzunehmen ohne die Anwendung der Nikon zurückzuschrauben. Versteht Ihr? Bisher zwei Nikon D3 und D3s bei Hochzeiten. Dieses mal nur eine schwere Nikon und dazu die “Kleine”, die Fuji X100s im Einsatz. Natürlich war immer eine Ersatz Nikon am Set, da meine liebe Frau ja der Second Shooter (tolles Wort für einen zweiten Fotografierenden Menschen…) mit zwei Nikons, immer in meiner Nähe war und somit für den Fall des Ausfalles meiner D3s sofort eine andere Nikon da gewesen wäre. Wir fotografieren niemals ohne doppelten Boden. Das ist aber nebensache, den in diesem Blogposting soll es mal nur um die X100s gehen. Nachfolgend für Euch mal eine kleine Auswahl an X100s Bildern, die alle mit Lightroom 4.4 bearbeitet und auf SW konvertiert wurden. Bei uns verlässt kein Bild das aus unbearbeitet.
Google Translater (GER -> ENG)
http://bit.ly/11E8gX1
http://bit.ly/11E8gX1
See more pictures on www.digitaler-augenblick.de
Apr
15
I noticed that I have been using more and more the Fujifilm Xpro-1 at weddings. It was fast becoming my go to camera for Black & White photos and detail shots. I have enjoyed the camera not only for its lightweight and rangefinder profile but also for its image quality. With a 400% Dynamic range option and a huge amount of latitude on the highlight and shadow tones I found very fast the detail it could record was much better than the Canon’s I had been using. The noise or grain in low light is very similar to that of film that I had really missed at high ASA (of film). I know many people have talked about whether the camera would be suitable for wedding work with regard to image quality and speed. So below are a few of my findings with this awesome little camera: Quality – The Xpro-1 has incredibly sharp images straight out of the camera. I typically shot every image in raw with a JPG. I have found that the JPGs are awesome and very little tweaking is ever required from the Raw images. The sharp image quality is primarily due to the lack of the low pass filter. The low pass filter helps eliminate moire’ from a patterned array of pixels in traditional SLR cameras such as most Canon’s and Nikon’s. Fuji has a new pattern array which helps eliminate this patterning and ultimately the evidence of moire. Next, in wide apertures such as 1.4 there is no evidence of chromatic aberration (hugely evident in most of Canon’s lenses). While it is a 1.5 crop / APS-C sensor the print and image quality is very close if not better than my 5D Mark III. Color – I have used several cameras over the years from Kodak’s, Nikon’s, Olympus, Fuji’s and Canon’s. Each were very good in many respects. The Fuji Xpro-1 is the first to nail color almost dead on every time. The image quality is very film like with respect to color and dynamic range, in my opinion. Electronic Viewfinder – One of the features I have loved in this camera is the electronic viewfinder. If you are unfamiliar with this feature it is a small digital display of the image in the viewfinder rather than a pentaprism or reflected image you get from standard SLR cameras both film and digital. Why I love this is it displays the images you will be capturing prior to actually capturing it. The reason why I love this so much is when the image is captured it looks like what I was looking at through the viewfinder. Why I love this so much is I no longer have to look at the image on the back of the camera to check, not that I did that much but it has made the use of the camera much more analogue or film camera like feeling. Speed – As many of you know I am focused on the emotional moments during a wedding day and speed is of the essence as these moments happen so quickly and then are gone. The Xpro-1′s focus speed is much slower than my Canon’s and therefore I typically am reaching for the 5DIII for the moments in between. If you have a few moments the Fuji works amazingly well.
See more pictures on cdbsi.net
Jan
18
I’ve been using the Fuji X-Pro1 camera system now for over a year for my wedding photography assignments. This year, I was presenting a session at a trade show and wanted to demonstrate how I use the X-Pro1 during my wedding shoots. I’ve had “a lot” of conversations with many photographers about this camera. I always say the same thing. The camera is amazing, the results are amazing, and perhaps, as importantly, this camera empowers us as photographers to think a little more about our images. The X-Pro1 is certainly not a “spray and pray” camera. Each picture is considered, composed and timed. It has to be that way with this systems – and, in my opinion, that is a good thing. I’ve said it many times, the X-Pro1 gives you an advantage as a documentary wedding photographer – it’s small, light, powerful and produces amazing imagery. Below is my slideshow of images shot on the X-Pro1 over the last year. You may also be interested in my sixth month overview of the camera. Turn the sound up, click full screen and enjoy the next three and a bit minutes. As always, I’d love your comments and questions and please feel free to share on social media if you so wish…..
See full article on www.kevinmullinsphotography.co.uk
Jan
07
Too early to comment too much on the Fuji X-Pro1 for now but I brought one along with the 35mm lens to a wedding at Passion Road in Ampang to use along side our pro-cameras. I will let the images speak for themselves, but I think I like it.
Grant is a New Zealand professional wedding photographer, based in Malaysia, in high demand for classy, destination, beach, and resort wedding photography worldwide.
See more pictures on www.grantcorban.com
Dez
05
Todays blog post is a little different from usual, being aimed at fellow photographers. Below I’ve posted a few images from a complete wedding with the Fuji X Pro 1 camera. I’ve tried to keep away from the technical details, so hopefully everyone can enjoy the photos.The Fuji X Pro 1 is a relatively new camera, that is increasing in popularity, especially with documentary wedding photographers due to its small size and amazing image quality. The camera does have a few quirks, but as already mentioned, I’m not getting into technical with this post, and will let the images speak for themselves instead, which is my way
The first complete wedding I shot using the Fuji X Pro 1 was Lydia and Michael’s, the perfect wedding opportunity as it was a lovely small intimate wedding. A relaxed affair, without some of the more ‘usual’ aspects such as 1st dance. Being unobtrusive was of paramount importance, and I think this little camera helped me achieve that. I used the X Pro 1 at this wedding alongside my trusty Canon 5d Mark III, and I would say about a 3rd of the images handed to Lydia and Michael were shot with the X Pro 1, nearly all using the 35mm lens (approx 50mm equivalent). There are lots of reviews and blog posts online that look at this camera, and most of the things you read are true. I would not be confident using it for the fast action aspects of the wedding day such as the bride coming down the aisle (fast aspects in wedding photography terms!) as the auto focus is not good enough. But this camera has made me slow down, and consider my framing more, it is a joy to use. During the reception, I can put my large Canon to the side, and mingle with the guests with my Fuji….its easy to forget I’m not a guest myself!
See on www.adamrileyphotography.com
Nov
21
Big weddings, small cameras. Here are the pro tips you need to survive.
…. as always, I learned more in a day’s live shooting than you ever can in hours of studying forums, reading manuals or even in safe practise shoots. At one point you just have to make a leap of faith and deal with anything that turns up. None of this is really news but here are my main pieces of advice from the day:
- Forget multi shots – I typically leave a Nikon in “continuous low” mode and shoot either single shots or “double taps”. In marginal light the second frame is usually sharper. Forget that. On an X-Pro 1 or X-E1 (can I just call them X-CSCs and we’ll agree it means this?) the burst mode can lock your camera for a considerable time. Stick to single shots – first shot is the best, right?
- You’ll need spare batteries. More than you think. An X-CSC goes from “everything is great” to “I don’t have enough battery to turn on the low battery warning” in about 2 shots. Change early, change often. In 8 hours’ shooting I made it all the way to the 5th battery I had with me. The 16GB cards I had in each camera weren’t full.
- The Q button is your friend. I have a number of shooting profiles set up under the quick menu which are identical on both cameras and can swap to my preferred black and white or macro settings at the push of about 4 buttons.
- Auto ISO is not your friend. This has been pointed out all over the web and hopefully Fuji will fix it in a firmware upgrade. The floor setting for shutter speed in auto ISO are way too low. If you shoot auto ISO you will get blurry pictures. I can handhold an X-CSC at slower speeds than a DSLR but still I got blurred pictures if I nudged it to auto ISO.
- Strong backlighting can confuse autofocus. When a subject has their back to a bright window I’ll often dial in +2 EV of compensation or more on a Nikon. On the Fujis +2 is your max and there seems to be a risk that the autofocus will be wildly out.
- I took the EF-20 flashgun. This isn’t really versatile enough for me. I shoot a lot of available light (or off camera lit pictures) but when I need flash I need more. I’ll look at some other options – there seem to be plenty.
- Speaking of flash, the X-E1 hotshoe seems to have a little play in it. I was using a remote trigger to run my Strobeam lights. This has worked perfectly on a number of cameras but if it gets the tiniest knock in the X-E1 then it won’t make contact and the lights won’t fire. If you’re shooting on flash then consider leaving image review set to “on 1.5s” so you can double check. I usually leave it off to avoid confusing myself.
- I would have changed to using the X-Pro 1 with flash but for some reason I couldn’t get it to fire at all – I know that’s my fault. It will be a menu setting.
- It’s too slow (for me) to change AF point on the fly in a live fire environment. Focus and recompose. Be careful with that at f/1.4….
- Fuji need to make a decent portrait lens stat. Sadly it’s not yet on their roadmap. If the 18-55 is anything to go by then the 55-200 could be quite nice but at f/4.8 it will be a little “slow” for me. I had the Nikon 105 DC and adapter handy but didn’t feel confident nailing focus with it on the day.
See on words.peoplebyryan.com
Nov
20
See on Scoop.it – Fuji X-Pro1
On the most beautiful Autumn day of the year, I headed over to Northbrook Park in Surrey for Kinari and Zaf’s wedding. It was kind of an odd feeling when I arrived. For various reasons I hadn’t had chance to meet up with Kinari and Zaf before their wedding and we’d done everything by phone and email. But the odd thing was, I knew lots of the people there. There were several people whose wedding I had photographed amongst the guests and all day people kept coming up to me and saying “oh yes, you did my sister’s/daughter’s/brother’s/friend’s wedding.” Including one couple whose wedding I’d photographed almost exactly 6 years ago. What a lovely warm welcome. Just as well, because the day was beautiful but cold. Beautiful like this…
Jonathan Ryan photographs Kinari and Zaf’s wedding at Northbrook Park with a selection of Fuji cameras…
See on peoplebyryan.com
Nov
06
See on Scoop.it – Fuji X-Pro1
A week or so back I shot another wedding predominately with my Fuji X-Pro1 system. I’ve just got to the editing stage and wanted to pop up a couple of images that struck me and explain why; The first image was shot with the 60mm macro lens. I love this lens, and in fact, I think it produces the best optically out of the three prime lenses available. It’s pin sharp and in macro mode it produces incredibly clear close up images. I’ve been taking it along to weddings with me for a while and have used it occasionally but rarely in anger. Focusing of this lens is relatively slow (which makes sense considering it’s a macro lens) but I wanted to use it in this situation as I was quite a distance away from the bride during the preparation photography. I’ve shot this in JPG and and decreased the exposure compensation to remove most of the clutter in the background (there was bright streaming light on the brides face from a window at the front). I shot a whole sequence of wedding preparation photographs using the lens and I remain immensely satisfied with this lens. The second image was shot on the 35mm lens. Again, I’ve used the exposure compensation to a certain extent to affect the structure of the image. I’ve cleaned up a few more elements in the background to make the image stronger still (I think). I’ll be sharing a lot more images from this wedding when I blog it later in the month but in the meantime the Fuji X-Pro1 remains a reliable workhorse for me as a wedding photographer. I’ve yet to see the X-E1 but the reviews so far are also very impressive.
