The Fuji X Files

Last post detailed my trip to the Stockton Opencast Mine, and eluded to the incredible vistas that you can see from the top of the Stockton plateau. These are some amazing views - too grand to simply capture with one image. So naturally, with my DSLR hat on, I immediately thought 'panorama'. Shoot a series of images, stitch them together in photoshop and bingo, you got yourself a pano. But, of course, I didn't have my DSLR with me. I had the Fuji X10. Which just happens to have a 'Panorama' mode in the 'Advanced' dial on the camera. Stockton Opencast Mine, Stockton Plateau Switching to the advanced mode and choosing 'Panorama', gives you several options. You can choose to shoot a 120, 180 or 360 degree panorama (by default it will start at 360). You can also choose to sweep the camera from left to right or right to left, up to down or down to up (for vertical panoramas). I started with the 360 degree panorama, but it was a bit 'too...

Last weekend I had the opportunity to play the 'tourist', when my stepfather invited the family along on a tour of the Stockton Open Cast Mine. I was excited not only by the prospect of seeing the mine in operation, but also of taking the X10 out on its first big adventure, to see how it would perform. Stockton Aerial Coal Bins. We started the day at the end of the process, at the Stockton Incline where the coal is delivered off the plateau in coal bins. These bins run 24/7, delivering coal down to the township where it is then sent by train off to Lyttleton for export. I kept the X10 in 'A' (Aperture) mode for most of the day, shooting at a safe 5.6 to f8 aperture, on my standard RAW + Jpeg at DR400. I also very quickly settled in to 'tourist' mode, composing in live view from the back of the camera (much to my surprise). Work gear drying after a shift. We started up at the Stockton Mine itself by getting a quick tour of the facilities - starting ...

As well as delving into the technical aspects of shooting with the X10,  I also want this blog to be a visual feast. Photography is, after all, about the images we take (isn't it?). "The Duke" 250th @ f7 Above is an example of the kind of image I can make when I always have the camera with me. Part of the reasoning behind switching from a full DLSR kit, to a compact like the X10, is so that I would actually carry the camera with me more often, and be ready for a photographic opportunity that I would normally pass by. This is an example of just that kind of shot. It's a building I pass almost every day on my way to work, and I knew that around noon on a sunny day there would be some interesting shadows move cross the side of the building. Plus it's a really cool colour and I knew it would make a great photo. "Keep Calm" 320th @ f5.6 And this is an image I shot today, during my lunch break at work. I saw this all morning, literally outside my...

As a wedding/portrait photographer, I spend a lot of time shooting at wide open apertures. My favorite two lenses for the APS-C digital cameras are the 50mm f1.8 and the 85mm f1.8 - generally shot either wide open or at around f2.8. Even with a 'fast' lens that goes from f2 to f2.8, I know that the Fuji X10 isn't going to give me the creamy smooth 'bokeh' I'm used to from my prime lenses on the D90. But can it get close? I took my ever-patient model/daughter Emily out to the Brunner Mine Site to test the X10's portrait abilities. Bokeh at 112mm @ f2.8 ISO 100 To help the Fuji X10 focus, I switched to 'Face Detection' and checked the lcd on the back for the first few minutes just to make sure the focus was tracking on Emily's face correctly. It was, so I then switched to my normal 'info' mode on the lcd and let the camera do all the work. With the camera at f2.8, zoomed all the way out to 112mm, the resulting 'bokeh' ca...

I suspect, like a lot of X10 shooters, I am not alone in having already shot with its 'bigger' brother - the Fuji X100. It has, after all, been out for a couple of years now, and is (not surprisingly) a very popular camera for those looking for a solid performer in a retro compact(ish) body. I had the opportunity to shoot with one about 6 months ago - albeit very briefly - just long enough to enjoy the experience and spark my interest in actually owning my own Fuji compact camera. Just not the X100. And why not? Fuji X100 shot in jpeg, Velvia film simulation I'm not going to beat around the bush - it's the lens. No, there's nothing wrong with the lens - it's a beautiful, sharp, fast 35mm optic. But for me, that's just the problem. It's only a fixed 35mm optic. And I'm not a fixed 35mm kind of guy. When Fuji first talked about the X100, they set up a website to get customer feedback (yeah, I know, on a camera they hadn't even released ye...

Weekends are busy around the Lorimer household, with chores, gardens and lawns to keep up with. We've had an amazingly long, dry, hot summer here in New Zealand, and the warm weather continues - but I've been itching to get out with the Fuji X10 and have a 'play'.  I finally got my chance late yesterday (Sunday) afternoon, so I headed to a local mining site to start to get to grips with my new camera. Brunner was the site of a major mining disaster on the Coast last century, and is well worth the visit. Lots of old relics and cool industrial objects to photograph. What I really wanted to test at the start was the X10's sharpness as a landscape camera, because I'd taken a few quick photos earlier and had been slightly disappointed with the results. The whole middle section seemed slightly 'unsharp' to me, surprisingly given that is where the focus point should be at its sharpest? So first off, a few landscape shots.... The new bridge at the Brunner ...

I had a chance over the weekend to download the trial version of Lightroom 4.3 from Adobe's website. I'm looking at RAW Conversion software for the tricky X10 RAW files (Fuji call them RAF files), and had hit a brick wall with all of the options I personally owned (see last post). Except for a very brief stint several years ago, I've never been a Lightroom user - choosing Aperture instead. Hindsight is a wonderful thing, and maybe Apple wasn't the way to go, but they were the first to come out with a 'Pro' RAW conversion application, and I was an early adopter. So I've stayed with them all the way through. But now it seems that they have lagged too far behind, offering no RAW support for the X10 (and an apparently inferior RAW processing engine, depending on who you listen to)? So I downloaded Lightoom, to see if it offers better support for the X10. Lightroom and Fuji RAF files - a beautiful thing. The above image speaks volumes! Finally, RAW suc...

One of the things 'real' photographers (as opposed to fake plastic ones?) look for in a compact camera is the ability to shoot in RAW. All top-end compact cameras now have this ability, and the Fuji X10 is no exception. However, as anyone who has owned a few different cameras from a few different systems will tell you - RAW is not created equal. In fact, no two RAW codes are the same. So, the RAW image from a Nikon D90 is different from the RAW image in a Nikon D80, which is different from the RAW code in a Nikon D200, which is different from.... you get the idea. This is why software like Lightroom and Aperture get frequent updates - to include all the new RAW coding for all the new cameras. This often means a 'lag' period before the new RAW code is reverse engineered and sent out to everyone, so early adopters of new cameras beware - you may not be able to process that RAW file in your preferred software for a few weeks (months) while the software engineers figure i...

Without wanting to tell you all how to 'suck eggs' (as the saying goes), what follows is a brief description of how I have initially set up the Fuji X10 for shooting. Of course the usual caveats apply - this is my shooting style, my output decisions, my workflow... blah, blah, blah. You get the idea. So what follows, for what it's worth, should be taken with a grain of salt. But it might help some who are setting their camera up for the first time, at least as a starting point into developing their own shooting style? Shooting info on the back on the X10 First, I always shoot in 'A' - Aperture priority. Why? It's a throwback from shooting on film and with DSLR's I suppose - but I think in apertures (specifically for control over depth of field - 'dof'). Now I'm aware that due to the smaller sensor in the X10 (which, although large for a 'point-and-shoot', is still relatively small compared to the APS-C sized sensors in a DSL...

In another month I will have shot my last wedding (yeah)! Don't get me wrong, I've really enjoyed shooting weddings over the last five years. But it's also fairly stressful, time consuming, and not always what it's cracked up to be. So I've made the decision to end this season. That in and of itself is momentous enough. But I've also decided to retire my DSLR kit, in favor of the Fuji X10. After the last wedding is done, I'm selling off my wedding gear, so there's no chance of me 'coming out of retirement' to shoot one last wedding for a friend of a friend (which I was asked about just this week). My new Fuji X10. Sexy Why the Fuji X10? Well, I wanted something un-DSLR like - but still with DSLR controls (if that makes sense). I wanted something small and retro, but with a decent sensor, and a good zoom range. And something that looked cool as well - let's not deny the 'cool' factor in a camera :-) Finally, it had to fit ...