CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

I was packing my camera bag for a workshop I was conducting on Wednesday and I placed my X100 alongside my new X-Pro2 on the desk and it suddenly struck me how far Fujifilm have come in the development of the X-Series range in a relatively short space of time.   It also hit home how in 2011 when the X100 was launched all the interest that surrounded the launch then is being repeated now as photographers around the world start to receive their greatly anticipated cameras.   So what is it about Fujifilm that people want to own and use a rangefinder and retro style camera? I think it is a combination of the beautifully engineered aesthetics of the cameras - the tactile dials and that wonderful unique hybrid viewfinder - the super sharp XF lenses and the images that have that 'Fujifilm' look to them. Comparing the X100 to the X-Pro2 is like comparing a 1960s F4 Phantom jet with the latest F22 Raptor stealth fighter. The principles are the same but the technology has mov...

UPDATE 22 January 2016: When I wrote this blog I had been testing the new X-Pro2 since the end of November 2015.  I stand by my arguments in this article that newer doesn't always mean better.  Yes the X-Pro2 is a step up from the X-Pro1 in almost every department but this doesn't make the X-Pro1 obsolete or second best, it remains a great photographic tool and one well worth having. I have been watching with interest the internet photography forums all talking about the rumours surrounding the specifications of the new camera and lenses that Fujifilm are going to be announcing.  As an X-Photographer any new piece of kit from Fujifilm is of immense interest to me.   It is actually quite entertaining reading some of the wishes and wants and some of the responses, with  the chatter on the forums usually about AF speeds, sensors megapixels and weather proofing - i.e. what's bigger and better than the previous incarnation or what the rivals are doing. ...

As a Fujifilm X-Photographer I use the X-Series cameras and lenses exclusively for my photographic work and as such I demand a lot from the equipment I use.  I expect the cameras and lenses to perform faultlessly when I use them but inevitably things do go wrong and technical issues can occur. This is when a professional support service is vital and I am happy to report that this is what I receive from Fujifilm. The Fujinon XF10-24mm f4 is one of my most used lenses as it covers a field of view that is perfect for landscapes but is also very useful for motorsport and travel.   On Thursday I travelled along the East Lothian coast to record the final chapter in the demolition of the Cockenzie Power Station .  I reached into my bag to take some wide angle shots of the beach where I was shooting from and the LCD on the X-T1 flashed 'Lens Control Error'.  I did all the usual things - took the lens off and put it back on again, cleaned the terminals and even tried ...

The X-Pro1 received the AF-MF function during the Firmware upgrade last December. On December 18 2014 Fujifilm released a wave of updates for the X-T1 (firmware V3.0) that improved the camera in several key areas.  Some of the upgrades are very nice to have but hardly earth shattering and will probably be used by me on the odd occassion if at all during my ownership of the camera.   However there as some upgrades, like the electronic shutter (which I reviewed HERE ) that are very useful in my everyday use of the camera. While the X-T1 upgrades hit all the headlines, the older X-Pro1 also got a firmware upgrade (V3.4), a single update that seems to have been overlooked in all the X-T1 plaudits but, in my opinion, improves the operation of the camera immensely.  The upgrade I am talking about is the inclusion of manual focus override when using AF-S - this mode is AF+MF.  Now the X-T1 also got this upgrade and the functionality is also slightly better ...

I recently got involved in a conversation after a member of a Facebook group I belong to asked a question asking what was the largest size print he could obtain from the 16 megapixel X-Trans sensor.  This is a question I see quite a lot from photographers of all abilities.  I have been printed A2 images from 12mp sensor cameras since 2010 and still have several images the walls of my house taken on Nikon D90, D300S and Fujifilm X100.   All of these cameras have a 12mp sensor and the images I have printed range from A3 (42cm x 29.7cm), A2 (59.4cm x 42cm) up to 70cm x 50cm, all with no loss of quality when compared with the original image.  I also used a Nikon D800 and this camera boasts a massive 36mp sensor which certainly produces some impressive results but unless you print to billboard size you are not going to see any significant difference between the images produced by the D800 and the D300S, the main difference in quality is going to come from the lens...

A lot has been written about the V3.0 Firmware update for the X-T1 that was made available for free by Fujifilm on the 18th December, so much so I am not going to do a blow by blow report on each change that Fujifilm introduced for the camera that was launched at the start of 2014.  I will say that the update has introduced some interesting additions and some that are actually useful. The one change that I was very interested in was the electronic shutter that allows shutter speeds up to 1/32000th second, a lot faster than the existing 1/4000th second using the mechanical shutter.  Because I love using the fast prime lenses (35mm f1.4 and 56mm f1.2) I, like many other Fuji photographers either had to step the aperture down in bright conditions (negating the main reason for owning these lenses) or fit an ND filter, which I do have for both these fast lenses.  Allowing the camera to shoot at 1/32000 means that I don't have to do either of these things in the futur...

In April 2014 I decided that the new £1100 Fujifilm X-T1 was going to be added to my camera bag alongside the X-Pro1 and X100.  Fast forward to September 2014 and imagine my horror when Fujifilm announced a new 'Graphite' edition of the X-T1 with a raft of important updates including an electronic shutter up to 1/32000s, improvements to the video function and other such items I have talked about on this blog.   Was I going to have to fork out another £1100 if I wanted these improvements?   Well I needn't of worried (not that I was really) because Fujifilm have also announced that the improvements seen on the new camera will be available as a Firmware update in December, one month after the new 'Graphite' version hits the shops. Last year Fujifilm replaced the X100 with the X100S and then provided existing owners with a firmware update that brought a lot of the improvements over to the older model.  As an X100 owner I was very happy by this state of aff...