Fuji X Series

Raymond Lin said:
Oooh cheers, will get that one. There are some 3rd party ones but all the user reviews comment on a bad fit, even when it is 4/5 stars. There are some leather ones on Aliexpress but they all have a button to close the battery door on the side which gets in the way.
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I have used smallrig for nearly everything since I moved to Fuji. I wouldn’t particularly say it’s down to any sort of brand loyalty - just purely the fact that I’ve found their stuff to be excellent and it doesn’t cost a bomb like some other brands.
 
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Raymond Lin said:
Got the smallrig for the X-S10 from eBay yesterday. Almost perfect...the only niggly thing is that you can't flip out the screen if the side frame thing is on but no biggy, I can just take that off as I never use them anyway on a tripod.
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Yeah it can be fiddly. The opening in that plate is supposed to help but I rarely found it did. I never used the end plate anyway, I bought it purely for the base plate which was worth the investment alone. Unless you’re planning a lot of portrait orientation tripod work that side plate isn’t needed anyway.
 
I liked having the choice. If I was doing a long(ish) shoot and wanted the tactile feel of a larger body to prevent finger fatigue etc then I would use the plate. Then when I wanted something small for a walkabout or to sling in a small carry bag then take the plate off - best of both worlds.
 
Raymond Lin said:
My local LCE has a X100v in black in like new condition....except...£1499.

I went into the Fuji store in London couple of weeks ago and the rep told me the waiting list is only 2 months now for a new one....Fuji need to release the 6th one already to bring the price of these down.
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Wex told me last week it's 6-8 months wait with them :o
 
Raymond Lin said:
My local LCE has a X100v in black in like new condition....except...£1499.

I went into the Fuji store in London couple of weeks ago and the rep told me the waiting list is only 2 months now for a new one....Fuji need to release the 6th one already to bring the price of these down.
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I was in Hereford the other day. I'd already picked up the XT-5 by then though.
Crazy they can't punch these out fast enough though.
 
Shadowness said:
I was in Hereford the other day. I'd already picked up the XT-5 by then though.
Crazy they can't punch these out fast enough though.
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The Hereford store doesn't have much Fuji stuff in stock, the Worcester one has more. But now and again, I'd say once like 3 months they would have something I want. Should have got the X-100F for £799.

I generally love LCE, I was once too late to get a IR converted XA1 with a lens for £99. Also missed out on a X-Pro2 with half case included (so it looks mint) for £599 from Bristol. Now days a X-Pro2 goes for like £799.
 
Okay, I am now home for a couple of days before heading off again to Croatia next week. I used it for a couple of days in Italy this week, only taken a couple of hundred pics and here are my initial impressions after actually using it.

First, the bad.

I still find moving the focus point around the frame really clunky, if I didn’t have the focus point at the right place, it takes forever and an age to move it to where I want with the stick. And I also noticed sometimes it would move itself to the bottom corner for some reason. I have since activated 50% of the screen as a focus trackpad when using EVF….it might take some getting used to so we’ll see.

Articulated screen is not for me, when shooting hip height I can’t just flip it out and look down. I need to flip it to the side and then twist and half the time I twist the wrong direction….again, it slows me down.

Battery life is not good on the old-style batteries, I’d say it lasts like 1 quarter of the time my Sony lasts.

The On/Off switch is not good, why did they change it from the XT series….weird. Even after a week I struggle to tell when it is on or off by feel. Also, when it goes to sleep, it isn’t so much as sleep but it’s proper off. It takes just as long if not longer to wake than turning the dial.

Geolocation keeps dropping off, even though I haven’t closed the app.

Now the good.

It’s small, I can fit the X-S10, with my 23/14, 35/1.4 and 56/1.2 in my Ryker with room to fit a battery bank, mini retro handheld and even a bottle of water for the flight.

AF is relatively fast and accurate.

I love the mode dials for the film simulation, I think I will leave that dial for this, it is very nice to be able to go between Velvia to Classic Neg with a turn. Which brings me to the biggest strength to this camera (or the newer bodies especially with all the newer film simulation). It basically make processing kinda redundant for non-critical work. I am pretty happy with the colours of Velvia for the bold colour look that I like and then Classic Neg for a more moody look. I still shoot RAW if I want to process it but with a 256G card in there it fits over 5,000 shots (RAW+FINE JPEG) and that is plenty, even for a wedding.

The app is really easy to use and transfer, I was able to transfer it to my phone with a couple of clicks, makes sharing photos very easy this way.

The IQ is great, overall the quality of the images are good, the results are good, the size is good but my biggest gripe is how slow it is to move the focus point around the frame. Not sure how they can fix it without a thumb wheel and unable to re-center the focus point by double pressing the stick.

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Nice that you can assign the film sims to a dial - I wonder if I can do that on my cameras... I'll have a look!

Interestingly, I discovered the other week that the Fujifilm X Raw Studio software is both enormously better at processing Fuji raws compared to LR but also you can change the film sim stuff on the fly there as you convert the raw files to either JPEG or TIFFs - so if you choose Acros in camera for a JPEG you'll still be able to also retrieve the image as Provia or whatever instead of having to muck around trying to get that look from the raw in LR. Nifty, although you have to have your camera plugged into the PC/Mac in a special mode to do it.

That combined with the Fuji X Weekly app and its a whole new level unlocked that I had no idea about previously.
 
DRZ said:
Nice that you can assign the film sims to a dial - I wonder if I can do that on my cameras... I'll have a look!

Interestingly, I discovered the other week that the Fujifilm X Raw Studio software is both enormously better at processing Fuji raws compared to LR but also you can change the film sim stuff on the fly there as you convert the raw files to either JPEG or TIFFs - so if you choose Acros in camera for a JPEG you'll still be able to also retrieve the image as Provia or whatever instead of having to muck around trying to get that look from the raw in LR. Nifty, although you have to have your camera plugged into the PC/Mac in a special mode to do it.

That combined with the Fuji X Weekly app and its a whole new level unlocked that I had no idea about previously.
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The XS10 and XS20 has unmarked dials, at default the left one is a film simulation selector.

On the other Fuji bodies i have, i need to set a film simulation to one of the memory slots in the menu. You can also save it to the C1 or C2 etc. I think XH2 can have 7 custom settings?
 
DRZ said:
Nice that you can assign the film sims to a dial - I wonder if I can do that on my cameras... I'll have a look!

Interestingly, I discovered the other week that the Fujifilm X Raw Studio software is both enormously better at processing Fuji raws compared to LR but also you can change the film sim stuff on the fly there as you convert the raw files to either JPEG or TIFFs - so if you choose Acros in camera for a JPEG you'll still be able to also retrieve the image as Provia or whatever instead of having to muck around trying to get that look from the raw in LR. Nifty, although you have to have your camera plugged into the PC/Mac in a special mode to do it.

That combined with the Fuji X Weekly app and its a whole new level unlocked that I had no idea about previously.
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In the grand scheme of things it doesn't achieve anything that can't be done within LR (or indeed Capture One for that matter).
I did use X Raw Studio for a while but I ultimately reached a better workflow within Capture One that I stopped using it. Admittedly, for "free" software it's pretty decent but it's ultimately just a user interface for the processing unit within the camera body.
It's essentially a couple of clicks within LR and C1 to apply film simulations after the fact and you still need a raw file regardless of which software you use - even X Raw Studio.
 
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C1 has always been better than LR for X-Trans sensor RAW processing. Applying film simulation presets in C1/LR after the fact is of course possible but a bit of a faff if you want it to look right and look the same across different Fuji cameras - Fuji know exactly how each of their sensors renders colours and exactly how the film stock they made behaves and marry the two up perfectly. The adjustments to make a simulation on X-Trans V is not the same as the adjustments for X-Trans IV and so on (which you can verify for yourself with the Fuji X Weekly app by looking at the profiles per camera/sensor). For me, that's superior to making or downloading a guesswork/trial-and-error preset and having to tinker with it to be accurate.

I've been doing this in camera for as long as I've been shooting with Fuji but now being able to do it in software at my desk after the fact is pretty liberating. This might not matter to you one bit and that's fine with me :)
 
The demosaicing process has been (and will be) talked to death and I admit certain programmes achieve that better (or easier) than others - it's one of the reasons I moved to C1.
You've likely been shooting Fuji much longer than I have so I am happy to be corrected, but in the case of C1 in particular (I'm not overly familiar with LR) the film sims are not downloaded/installed presets, they are "Base Characteristics" (to quote C1) and are actually applied as an ICC profile based on the specific camera.
I will also admit that, in my use, I've never seen a marked difference between the OOC Film Sim/X Raw Studio and the one applied by C1 - but as I say, my eye may not be as critical as yours when it comes to that.
 
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I haven't used Capture One enough to be certain to be honest with you. My last attempt to switch to Capture One was in 2019 and as usual I gave up as I couldn't get on with the workflow... I should revisit that really. If it takes the sensor etc into account and the colour science is right (which you'd hope is a Capture One strength!) then it will probably be bang on or at least too small a difference to be discernible. I'll have a play with it all when I get a chance and I'll report back. I wouldn't mind being wrong on this one as it is definitely preferable to simplify things wherever possible.

I used to shoot on the actual film that this stuff is simulating (my first cameras were film, my parents had a darkroom etc) so maybe I'm chasing some nostalgia that isn't real.
 
Does anyone use their Fuji for video? I’m having issues with AF breathing in and out during recording with and without eye tracking enabled. I tried to fix it by switching to MF but it’s difficult to get the focus accurate on the small screen. Any tips?
 
MF Zoom? You can enable this in a number of ways or you can have the back screen in dual display mode which will show you both the full image and a zoomed in image where your focus point is.

Obviously, if you or your subject are moving around while shooting, manual focus might not be any good to you and wouldn't solve the problem anyway. If the lens focus breathes, it will focus breathe no matter how you focus it.
 
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DRZ said:
MF Zoom? You can enable this in a number of ways or you can have the back screen in dual display mode which will show you both the full image and a zoomed in image where your focus point is.

Obviously, if you or your subject are moving around while shooting, manual focus might not be any good to you and wouldn't solve the problem anyway. If the lens focus breathes, it will focus breathe no matter how you focus it.
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I find the MF zoom helps but it’s still quite fiddly. I found it looking fine in the camera screen but just off focus on the big screen. Maybe it just requires more practice?

Here’s an example. It should be obvious at the beginning of this video:

If I was in a brighter environment I’d just stop the lens down for a greater DOF and lock the focus somewhere in the middle, but the lighting here was poor and required a wide aperture.
 
That's focus breathing alright and there's sadly nothing you can do to stop it. All internally-focussing lenses do this to some degree although it can be minimised with some hefty consequences, which is why cine lenses are so expensive.

So your choices are to buy a cine lens or manual focus. Can you bump the ISO up a bit to give you more latitude on the aperture? De-noise in post is as amazing for video as it is for photography these days.
 
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