CAPTURE NEW HORIZONS

At the Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup test at the Circuit Paul Ricard I went onto the roof of the pit building to take some long range shots of the cars using the X-Pro2 with the 100-400mm f4.5/5.6 fitted with the 1.4x converter.   I also decided to go to the extreme with the shutter speed, shooting some of the pictures at 1/20th second handheld to test the OIS system.

When the sea gets up off the East Lothian coast the waves can be pretty spectacular and this is why this part of Scotland is good for surfing. Last week while we were out at Brans Ness we stopped to take some shots of the waves with the tops being blown back in the high winds sweeping the beach. This shot was taken on the Fujifilm X-T1 and XF100-400mm f4.5/5.6.  The exposure was 1/4000  @f5.6 ISO200.

Last weekend I posted some images from a local rugby match at North Berwick which was a test of the X-Pro2's capabilities in a sport environment, something that it acquitted itself very well.  I can now reveal that last weekend was really a test run for the camera and myself because the ultimate test was yet to come.  I was going to shoot the Six Nations Rugby showdown between Scotland and France at the home of Scottish rugby Murrayfield. This was the first time I had shot a team sport at international level and the pressure was on.  I had joined Scottish rugby photographer Rob Gray who has just moved from Nikon D4S to Fujifilm and had shot the Scotland v England game on an X-T1 and 50-140mm f2.8 with a 1.4x converter.  As well as trying the X-Pro2 and 100-400mm in this ultimate team sports challenge, I wanted to see how Rob found the same combination in a fast moving stadium environment.  This will be the subject of a separate Q&A later this week. ...