A Small Slice Of Reality

Well here are the next with the series of Fujifilm X-series pictures taken of the Tomahawk Cafe. The motorcycles left outside the cafe provide closer detail and the salmon and coral Chevy Nomad that belongs to Miss Marsh the schoolteacher is the final test. All JPEGS, all unsharpened - straight off the cards:

And the Nomad. Chevrolet's answer to a question that hardly anyone ever asked...

I promised you some conclusions in this posting, and they are these - if you are buying a mirrorless camera for photography of studio subjects and the final image needs to be no larger than A4, consider well whether a 50 or 60º angle of view will do most of your shots. If it will, buy the latest variant of the Fujifilm X-100. 

Currently it is the X-100T. In the future there may be a different letter at the end, but it will be a similar fixed-lens camera. It will do the job you need to do flawlessly...at that focal length. People who whoop and dance about more finely divided sensors or higher steam pressure in the flux capacitor can go hang - the Fujifilm X-100 series can really do the job. The new ones run at 16 megapixels if that is something that feels good to you.

If you need to change the angle of view with a series of fixed primes or a zoom, hold onto your hats. The camera to go for is the Fujifilm X-E2s. Same basic flavour as the X-E2 with a few sprinkles on top...and capable of doing all you need in the studio. 

Or you could get hold of an X-T1 or X-Pro1 or 2 and go to town. They do the job very well indeed.

And in the third weblog column of the series I'll tell you why you should buy the new X-T2...

See the Fujifilm range on the Camera Electronic website here

A Rewarding Experiment Tomorrow Night With Fujifilm

This is Tuesday the 9th and tomorrow is Wednesday the 10th. It is pretty much as if today was the 24th of December and tomorrow is the 25th, because we get to see the new Fujifilm toys tomorrow.

Not under a tree - in the Camera Electronic shop. There will be a Fujifilm product presentation night with some new items. I can't hint about what one of the items will be because I am officially ignorant, but I will be taking my Fujifilm X-pro1 camera body along just in case there is any new and interesting thing with which to compare it... to paraphrase Sergeant Schultz : I know nothing...officially...".

What I DO know officially because I have just been told is that the Fujifilm 100-400mm lens has already arrived and will be there tomorrow. That is why I popped into the Fujifilm cabinet today and extracted the newest of their standard focal-length lenses and took a test shot. I picked the new 35mm f:2 Fujinon and popped it on the X-T10. The heading shot of this column is the full file in JPEG at 400ISO and Provia setting. Here is a crop of the leafy bit:

I'll do the exact same thing tomorrow with the 100-400mm and post the results in a subsequent column. Then you can judge how well the lens maintains the results achievable with the standard one.

We are used to thinking of the 100-400mm focal length range in terms of zoom lenses from Canon , with a nearly similar range in Nikon or Sigma lenses. In the case of the Nikon or Canon the lenses are of a type that can be mounted on their respective APS-C or full frame camera bodies. They do duty as sports and wildlife lenses and, while they are somewhat large and somewhat heavy, the facility to change the focal length in the field without changing the lens is absolutely invaluable. Now this sort of reach and convenience will come to Fujifilm.

I have experience so far with two other longish Fujinon zooms; the 18-135 and the 55-200. I expect that the new 100-400 will be a faster focus experience, particularly with the newer X-T1 and X-T10 cameras. Heck, the recently re-firmware'd ( A tortured phrase if ever there was one - I shall invent a better one and patent it...) X-E2 will swing a focus like a shot. The zooms are light enough to hold over a long period and precise enough in resolution to do all that may be required up to the considerable capacity of the X-trans sensor.

Do you watch sports? Surf? Airplanes? Birds? Lions and elephants? Race cars? Long-range brides? This may very well be your go-to-and-get-'er-done lens.

Tell us you're coming, come along, enjoy the show, and try out the lens. After work tomorrow at the shop. Talk to me - I'll be gathering titbits for this weblog - tell me a good story I can use...

Here's Very Big News From Fujifilm

But the very big news is not in a very big package - in fact it is more compact than you'd think.

The Fujifilm company has just released their Fujifilm X-Pro2 camera - the newest component of their award-winning mirror-less camera system. It joins the other fine cameras and derives from the original Fujifilm X-Pro1.

People familiar with the Fujifilm X-Pro1 know that it has a unique X-Trans sensor that delivers extreme sharpness and very rich colours. The New Fujifilm X-Pro2 continues this performance and improves upon it with 24 Megapixels resolution. The new sensor is referred to in the literature as the Trans CMOS III. It is paired with the X-Processor Pro digital engine to put out even better images.

Looks as though the designers at Fujifilm have looked into the past of camera design to see what features people really need and appreciate, and they have placed some of the controls of the new camera right where we always wanted them to be.

For example: The ISO setting for many film cameras was found as a small window dial in the shutter speed control. Fujifilm (and I...) think this was a great idea to eliminate one more menu control. Here it is back in the right spot with great precision. Yay!

Fujifilm (and I...) thought that photographers needed more of a grip on the right hand side of the camera. They put on a bigger grip. Yay!

Then they thought whether the Fujifilm users would like a small front control wheel just under the right forefinger - and we would. Yay, again!

The shape of the X-Pro1 is there - perhaps a tad sleeker - but the functionality hasn't been compromised a bit. Full TTL hot shoe operation? PC socket on the side for studio flash? Thumb button to steer the AF points about? Don't mind if I do! And I'm guessing the battery will be the W 126 so we don't have to swap things over. Yay, indeed!

Now we'll be having a lecture/demonstration/hands-on by a very famous press and journal photographer to let us see what this new camera can do. Adam Ferguson has had numerous covers and editorial pictures accepted for Time,The National Geographic, The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and many others. He's exhibited his work in Houston, Los Angeles, Sydney and numerous other places. He's been shooting the shooting where the shooting is going on and knows how to do the photo business. When he comes to talk to us it will be well worth looking and listening.

Our Facebook and email contacts will be able to tell you when thus will be - the small press release doesn't nail it down yet. Suffice it to say this will be red-letter day for street shooters, portrait shooters, press shooters, and one old hot rod shooter.

And the wonderful thing about the Fujifilm X-System...? We don't have to get rid of any of our old gear! It all fits together seamlessly! But come in and buy a new Fujifilm X-Pro2 anyway - because Camera Electronic can do that! Yay!

* Heading Image: Delightful profile of new body and new lens.
* Tailing Image: Does the X- Trans sensor deliver the colour? Have a look. Pontiac LeMans.

90 Over 2 = 1/4 @ 600 - The New Fujifilm Mathematics Explained

Pay attention class.

You will see the illustration at the top of the post of the new Fujifilm Super EBC XF 90mm f:2 R LM WR lens. The one we have here in the shop - right now. For sale to Fujifilm users who have X-Pro1, X-E1 and 2 , X-T1 and X-T10 cameras.

The construction is superb, as we have come to expect from Fujifilm. The focusing with the X-E series and the X-T series is blisteringly fast and snaps in. The lens is not excessively weighty.

Close focus is 600mm and at that point you get a quarter of the human face - in precise detail.

I should regard this as currently the definitive Fujifilm lens for head and shoulders portraits as well as work in low light. Better it does not get.

Please note that the classic Fujifilm styling of the lens means that there is little external show - it is all buiness. Good business.