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#298. Waiting for the wind to stop
By Paul Perton | Review
The Fuji’s frame counter now reads 109. This week’s wind – quite normal for the region at this time of year – has been hammering away making trying to do pretty much anything outside a bit of a challenge.
So, I’ve not had the practice with the X100 I’d hoped for – especially as it’s camera choice no.1 for the overseas trip that starts on Monday. What I have managed to shoot has however, produced several images worthy of posting on Flickr and 500px, but I’m about to run out of those.
During the hiatus, I’ve been working at my Lightroom skills and still don’t like it much. I have found out how to make SilverEFX Pro work and downloaded yet another of Adobe’s eagerly trumpeted and seemingly endless updates. The first is critical and the fact that it is unsupported will probably stop me migrating to Capture 1 rather than LR. The second is just a complete PITA.
I still haven’t found a decent uploader for either Flickr, or 500px, which continues to colour my judgement somewhat.
I had to go into Cape Town on Thursday (I live about 70km outside the city) to meet a friend. Beset with a post-NGA itch that calamine wouldn’t still, I left home a couple of hours early and walked the somewhat less windy streets of the Mother City to give the X100T a bit more of a workout.
In between watching the magnificent weather and 60km/h wind blowing ocean spray past the window, I had started on the X100’s manual. As an inveterate aperture priority shooter, I’d ignored Auto ISO on all my cameras up until now. With early winter in the northern hemisphere just a few days away and uncertain conditions ahead, this now seemed a good place to do some experimenting. I set ISO max at 800 and a minimum shutter speed of 1/125 – Cape Town is very bright in full sun and it’s a simple change to set up another profile for ISO 3200 or higher before I leave for overseas. With those settings and the entirely silent electronic shutter, I reckoned I’d be well set.
Which I turned out to be. And the pictures?
In a word; brilliant. the Fuji’s RAW files render really well on screen and despite my dislike and clumsiness of Lightroom, have to admit that the combination delivers really satisfying, saturated images and excellent b/w conversion (using the aforementioned SilverEFX Pro). I’ll try printing when I get back.
Let me walk through a couple here:
The perfect boot print
The perfect boot print – I think this is a great illustration of the Fuji’s ability to render colour, contrast and the absurd. The colours show up really well, to which I added a bit of additional saturation in the reds. The black paint on the kerb stone has a blue hue, which is correct – it’s the reflection of the incredibly blue sky overhead. And that perfect boot print…
The Marble Halls of Plein Street
The Marble Halls of Plein Street – I would guess this tested the Fuji’s dynamic range to the max. From the brightest of daylight reflected off the walls above the fire escape across the road, to the dark corners and shadows inside the entrance hall, I’d say that this was the sternest test I’d found to date and the X100 passed it with flying colours. The SilverEFX Pro conversion just needed a bit of structure dialled in and a no.2 vignette.
Haircut
Haircut – almost completely as it came out of the camera. A tiny curves edit and a dab of Clarity. The Fuji seems to understand mixed lighting and made a single incredible exposure from both fluorescent and some daylight.
If there is a downside to this extraordinary camera, I’m finding my large hands an issue with the X100’s many rear panel buttons, but that’s not the camera’s problem and I will master those sooner or later. The LCD isn’t much use in Cape Town’s brilliant sunlight, but the viewfinder works perfectly, either in optical, or electronic mode.
I’m now pretty much packed. The Fuji will go into my backpack with the now relegated to backup NEX-7 (with a couple of lenses) and tomorrow, me ‘n Mrs P get the iron chicken first to Dubai and then on to Tokyo. I can’t wait…
Oh yes. Please don’t mention rugby.
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Hi,
I loved to read your post and at the end, I discovered that you are (were ) a NEX7 user.
I am exactly in your position. I use a NEX7 since about 2 years, and I am on the verge to offers myself a new mistress.
I was originally looking for the Fuji XT1. I really love the Fuji’s rendering.
I discovered Fuji via Matthew Hart website (www.lighttraveler.co.uk)
Matt is the creator of the Facebook Fujiholics group, and an Official Fujifilm X-Photographer.
I really like his work and his photography understanding, even if I am not really going for the same kind of photos.
You can see some of my work in my website : http://clberger33.wix.com/alex-emmathom
I would like to ask you why you have prefered to go for the X100T rather than the XT1.
– Is it, like me, that you think you can still use your NEX7 for the photos with zoom lenses, and give the preference to the X100T for her “Prime” like fix ens, knowing that you can use the WCL-X110 wide converter or TCL-X110 50mm converter?
– Will you bring the 2 cameras, or will you keep the NEX7 @ home and take her only for different purposes?
Your comments will be greatly appreciated, as I will surely jump soonest and I am still a little bit confused between the X100T and XT1.
Thank you again for your very good post and so nice photos.
Cheers,
Claude
Claude,
Thanks for the comment – I’d love to see many more from our readers.
A couple of responses; I have a fantastic NEX-7 kit with M mount (Leica 35/50 and Zeiss 25) lenses which I plan to keep and continue to get the best from. I also have as much Nikon kit as I will ever need, but that only travels in the back of my Land Rover.
So, I wanted something that would maximise what I already had and couldn’t find it – that will probably turn out to be something Sony ships next year. In the interim, I’m travelling and likely to be shooting in poor light and while the NEX is OK, its technology is the best part of five years old – and the ISO performance from then isn’t great by today’s standards.
The X100 looked like the best all-round solution – it’s brand new, has good low light performance and a fantastic lens. No brainer.
Hopefully, I’ll be posting part 3 of this review from Tokyo in the next week or so. Hopefully, that will give you an excellent perspective.
Dear Paul,
Thank you fro your answer.
Like you, I love my NEX7 and will keep it. I do not have gems lenses like you, but use Sigma 30 and Sony 50, which are very good lenses for the money.
I am too tempeted to continue the journey with Sony, having heard about great news coming early next year ( possibly a A9 and a A7000 as well ).
I am not a pro, and they could be a wining solution for me.
But I am also really seduced by the photos I saw made with Fuji. As I am not really doing sports or extreme photos, but I am more interested with the emotion I can see and render, I feel that Fuji could be a good new experience.
Said that Fuji is also producing very good lenses, what do you think or know about the XT1?
I am a little bit scare that the XT1 could just be different for the render but just a better copy of my NEX7.
As you can see on my (very simple) website, I am not the kind of guy to take photo with a big zoom. I really like to be close to my subjects, and try to make photos where my interaction can create some kind of real emotion.
If I am going for architecture or other non human subjects, I like to be close too, as I try to understand how and why they are here. Maybe because my job is related to Design…
I think that going for the X100T will be entering in a more traditional path for photography.
But I feel it is not so far from the way I do when going out, and I could give myself a chance to find my own signature by using her.
I do not know If I am clear enough, but your comments could help me to clarify my point as it is today 😉
Thank you for your nice attention.
Claude