The New Bike On The Block - the X-T2

The new Fujifilm X-T2 is dazzling the mirrorless crowd right now, but the last two weblog columns showing the results of a studio shoot may have given the impression that it is no better than previous models. Here's where I reveal the truth - I was only looking at a small part of the picture before. There was some wiggle room there in the writing.

You remember I showed little 1200 x 960 pixel images and they all looked about the same. Well have a look what happens when I go back to the main image and zero in on the motorcycle headlights.

Yep. The extra division of the X-T2 sensor makes more pixels available for enlargement and the image is much, much smoother. So the advice here is to get the newer camera if you intend to blow your images up past A4 or if you need to extract small portions of them.

You will also get the option of an additional film simulation setting over and above what the X-E2 or X-T1 can provide and even more compared to the X-Pro1 or the X-100. If one of them is your preferred look, you need look no further.

The computer experts will argue that there are any number of film simulations available as extra plug-ins for image editing programs - and so there are. But how much neater to have them applied as the image rolls out of the camera - in many, many cases the JPEGs that come out of the Fujifilm X-Trans sensors can be used for reproduction straight away without further managing...as a number of weblog columns and newspaper advertisements will attest. No, I won't tell you how easy it is to do, in case it affects my pay...

The lens in use on the X-T2 today was a Tokina macro 35mm f:3.5 and was totally manual in operation. Had it been an AF lens I would have steered the AF single point marker to the exact centre of the headlights using the little rubber joystick under the right thumb. It is a vast improvement on the menu wheel as a selector. You are less inclined to twist the camera about trying to get the green square on the subject...or worse, to just blaze away hoping that whatever is in focus when it beeps and fires is really what you wanted. Far better to actually command your vision rather than be commanded.

What a didn't turn on in the studio was the wide field of focus points that this camera is capable of using - the field shooter may well opt for this as the best way of operating the AF. I also did not need to instruct the camera about predictive tracking and the persistence that I might want with the AF in case something intervenes between me and the subject. It's all there in the menu.

Perhaps it is time to take a couple of the cameras out to see some real automotive action and give these features a test as well...Stay tuned.

See the full Fujifilm range at Camera Electronic here