portrait – Photographic Musings……… Or

Just over two years ago, I started to move over to the Fuji camera system. At the time, it was with regret that I sold my beloved Canon 1D MK4, and some lens. I bought the Fuji X-T2, and a 23mm f2 lens, and promptly went on holiday with it.

I could not believe the results from such a small camera – I’d done my research, and quizzed people who already used the Fuji system, and trusted those whom I had asked. They had assured me I would be happy.

I’ve been a Canon girl my entire photographic life. The first one I bought was the 350D, and after that a range of their cameras, and lens. So a switch to a completely new system was a bit of a culture shock.

Once you get over the problem of sorting your way through a completely alien menu though – and realise that everything the Canon did, this does (and in some cases does it better), then you’re away.

Last year, Fuji brought out the X-T3 – and whilst I’m not one for upgrading for the sake of it – I decided that I’d go for it. I had Canon stuff still to sell, and it sold really easily. So with an upgrade trade in price from Fuji, and a great price for the X-T2 from the local camera shop, and cashback on a new lens, also from Fuji – the deal was done.

So, how am I getting on?

Well, it’s about image quality, and to be honest it is stunning. I’ve worked this camera much harder than the X-T2, shooting sport and wildlife. I’ve also had it in the studio, and shot some portraits.

There’s a massive amount of detail.

With the X-T3 there are even larger files (the downside is I need more storage), and you do need a fair amount of processing power to move these through quickly. Detail and quality are excellent, and the ever increasing range of Fuji Lens, gives the shooter more and more options.

This hare was on the other side of a field. Taken with the 100-400 lens, and cropped in. I’ve not lost any detail, and the image is still tack sharp.

Catching small birds means getting the shutter speed up, but using the electronic shutter means I can access a much faster frame rate, and get exactly the shot I want. Plus it’s a silent shutter. No more spooking the birds.

I’ve read a lot about ‘worms’ within the xTrans sensor that the Fuji has. I’ve also read that Adobe Lightroom makes the problem worse. To be honest I just can’t see it. I have sharpened the Fuji files in Lightroom, in the same way I did with the Canon. There’s no difference. They sharpen up just great – and a bit is always needed as I shoot in RAW.

The end result is what matters, and it seems to me that whatever I do with this camera, the results are going to be brilliant.

So to those who are ‘sitting on the fence’, don’t wait any longer. I can thoroughly recommend the Fuji system – and in case you’re wondering – no, I’m not getting paid for this – it’s just my thoughts and my impressions of a system.

Enjoy your photography, whatever you use………

After my purchase recently of the Fuji X-T2 – I bought a new lens this last week – the 16-55 F2.8. My first zoom. It’s stunning.

I had a studio shoot, and although I took along my Canon Camera, it wasn’t long before I switched over to the lightweight Fuji.

It performed beautifully, with only one menu item that had to be changed. Shooting in manual mode, with studio lights being fired from a trigger on top of the camera, I had to turn the preview exp/WB in Manual Mode off. This is under Tools, and Screen set up. Other than that – it was good to go right out of the box. (Thanks to Richard Egan for giving me that information).

With the camera’s 24M pixel count, the image sizes are much larger than I’m used to – 6000×4000, leaves plenty of room to crop if you need to with no loss of image quality.

The viewfinder is different too. Mirrorless means electronic, but there’s no lag to notice, and I found I quickly got used to the look. 325 focus points means no searching for the right place to lock on to, and it’s easy to move the focus point around with the control stick.

I’ve never had a tilting display either – the Canon DSLR’s that I own don’t have it – The X-T2 display rotates up, down and pulls out sideways too for ease of use, and has a great resolution of 1.04 million dots.

I did the firmware update this week. This allowed more options on ISO, and a very pleasing addition was the ability to record information onto files. Useful when I have to remember how to spell names, and refer back to locations. It’s something I used a lot with the Canon DX.

So far, I have not used their 4K video, but I’m looking forward to giving it a go.

There’s another firmware update scheduled for May! Two inside 3 months – I think Canon had one update over a 4 year period. Maybe they think they’ve nothing to prove, and nothing to improve on.

Ultimately the conversion so far, to Fuji has been a seamless one. All I need now is a long lens….. and I’m set to go……

Oh, and if anyone is interested. I’ve got a Canon 1D MK4 body for sale…….. Message me on here if you are interested, or see my Facebook page for more information and a price.

Thank you for reading…… more on this topic to follow