Strobin' With Fujifilm

The "strobist" fad went through here a couple of years ago and was quite popular for a while - but I suspect it was before its time in some respects.

You see, the little clip-on and strap-on accessories that we sold for speed lights were all very well - for the most part they did modify the light output - but they were accompanying large, heavy regular DSLR cameras. In some cases the DSLR's were bearing even larger and heavier lenses. It might have been fun, but it wasn't balanced.

The fad seems to have passed - some of the manufacturers have stopped making the accessories, and other fads have appeared. Yet - the time is right to take this up as we have smaller and lighter mirror-less cameras to use now...we can achieve balance.

I went to see the toy cars on Sunday. While I paid for an adult entry ticket, I didn't want to be an adult - it's hard enough keeping up the pretence all week here in the shop...I did take a mirrorless camera with one lens and a speedlight with a couple of strobist accessories. And I had a whale of a time.

The camera was the Fujifilm X-Pro1 and the flash was the EF 42 from Fujifilm. It is a speed light that has an easy manual program you can change with two push buttons. The right lens for he job was the Fujinon 35mm f:1.4.

The strobist accessories were a wireless trigger set that allowed me to shoot with the camera in one hand and the flash in the other, and a bounce panel above flash tube. This was one of the nylon/cloth panels that attach to the speed light with a velcro strip - very lightweight and easy to pack away. In yesterday's case I used a 5" size.

Note that these sorts of reflectors were made by Honl and are still available from Rogue.

Exhibitions and shows can be crowded places and you don't have much room to set up tripods or light stands. The ability to have one good diffused flash that you can shift around on the end of your arm is priceless.

f:11 was no problem with this setup - and you need all the depth of field you can get for tabletop subjects at close range. It worked so well, and with such a light weight to carry, that I experimented with it here in the shop's mini studio set. I am quite impressed with what it can do in one shot. Even simple shelf shots are better with the diffuser.

Wanna know more? Come in and see me.

Uncle Dick