#X-Pro2

X-H1? Get One! ... If You Still Can

Don’t argue, just get one. Period. Fuji X-H1’s THE best interchangeable-lens APS-C camera Fuji made. Ever. And there ain’t many left, coz production stopped end of last year. But some shops still got some X-H1’s costing less than a grand, new! Y’all never gonna get such a bargain ever again! And I ain’t just talkin’, I got 3 of ‘em, crazy huh? Yeah, but the internet’s saying the X-H1’s no good … nonsense, I tell ya. Total BS, all that what you’re reading online, please take a look to find out why!

Two of a kind, captured on X-H1 with XF 90mm F/2 R WR @F/5.6, 1/240, ISO 400, developed in Capture 1

Thing is, at the moment Fuji’s going down the wrong rabbit hole. Their new X-T4 may be a fantastic featured camera but that damn selfie/vlogger fold-out LCD screen don’t cut it for me. And their new “pure photography” X-Pro3? That one’s got 2 new, useless features in one go: A crippled OVF and a “hidden” LCD screen. Jeezus … Done. I’m just NOT interested. Don’t get me wrong, I’m definitively not in a position to tell Fuji what to do (and I ain’t got no illusions whatsoever that they’d listen to me anyway …) hell, for all I know they may have found out that their future success & prosperity lies in offering:

  • Selfie/vlogger style video-centric cameras to the masses, and

  • Leica-esque fashion editions to a niche hipster crowd, made financially viable by compromising more mundane features only important to real photographers …

No problem. Go for it Fuji, but then you’re gonna lose me as a loyal customer - not that they’d care about that anyway, mind you … but they’d probably also lose a whole bunch of honest, serious still photographers in the process and that could cause a dent in their business! It would be such a shame, though. Creating no-nonsense cameras for serious photographers, with focus on still imagery was always Fuji’s heritage (“DNA” in business-speak). For me they were until today the only brand left, which was creating real photography tools, combining modern digital imaging technology with a traditional ‘exposure triangle’ user interface (aperture, shutter, ISO) based on tangible mechanical dials with always visible settings (even if the camera’s turned off). All the others have turned to churning out “computers”, where key settings pertaining to creating the photographic image are buried in multi-layered menus. Sometimes it seems that for some modern cameras taking the picture is more of a kinda afterthought, like “and oh, by the way it does take a picture too, at least now and then …”

After only just having launched their latest 2 flagship cameras (X-Pro3 & X-T4), which IMO both have veered off from the traditional path by inconsistent featuring, it’s gonna be at least 2-3 years until they come up with the next gen. X-Pro4 or X-T5, or whatever. Then it’s gonna be anybody’s guess whether they’ll wake up & come to their collective senses in using that opportunity to reconnect to their heritage, or just hatch out another crazy un-photographic “innovation”. So, y’all now got enough time to cure yourselves of GAS (Gear Acquisition Syndrome) and just enjoy the good stuff Fuji’s blessed us with up to now (eg. X-Pro2, X-T3, X-H1 and X100V … ;-) and you don’t need to worry about your kit becoming obsolete any time soon!

All this seems kinda like a Déjà vu of my experience a long times ago with Nikon: I was running around in the 80’s as a journalist with 2 battered, fully mechanical Nikon F2’s and 4-5 primes. Man I loved that gear (weather resistant? Hell no, it was bomb-resistant! ;-) And then Nikon went along and launched the electronic F3. Oh man, was I pissed - in that era I sure didn’t trust no electronics (like many of my pro photographer buddies of the time, btw!) - they always seemed to run out of juice when you had no fresh button battery cells on you, forcing you to “limp” along with the 1/60 sec emergency mechanical shutter speed. For me Nikon just went downhill after the mighty F2 …

Façade in shadows, X-H1 with XF 90mm F/2 R WR @F/8, 1/600 sec, ISO 400, developed in Capture 1

Meanwhile, since the end of the last century the advent of mass produced highly integrated digital circuitry, including microprocessor based functions, has made electronic cameras extremely reliable (no moving parts, no wear & less production faults due to fully automated wafer fab’s). Way more reliable than their mechanical counterparts of yesteryear ever had been, in fact. You just gotta make sure you always got enough charged batteries on you (and that there’s somewhere an electrical outlet at hand to charge ‘em). An electronic camera w/o batteries = dead in the water! No juice, no pictures (and your fancy camera just became an expensive paperweight! ;-)

Back to the X-H1: For me it is simply the best interchangeable-lens APS-C camera in the market. Like my Nikon F2 was so long ago, the X-H1 seems to be the last of a golden age, with all that coming after her being under par in my opinion. Now, what is it specifically that puts the X-H1 above the others? For me it’s the balanced combination of 5 (not more, not less) key features:

  1. Best visual interface: Fluid 0.75x mag. EVF with high eye-point & lightning fast tilt-able LCD
    - ideal for flexible, fast subject viewing & composition, making image pre-visualization a joy!

  2. Perfectly positioned ‘feather touch‘ shutter with zero time-lag & traditional exposure dials
    - allowing me to capture the decisive moment instantaneously, discretely and intuitively!

  3. Slightly increased body size (vs. other APS-C cameras), with a larger highly ergonomic grip
    - perfectly fits my medium sized hands & the pronounced grip makes for totally safe holding!

  4. IBIS (in-body-image-stabilization), allows 3-4 stops slower shutter speed than 1/focal length
    - perfect for street & scenic twilight photography w/o tripod, when the light is most beautiful!

  5. Super robust, weather resistant body (25% thicker chassis compared to eg. X-T3)
    - tight, ‘bomb-proof’ perception, infusing confidence & liberating me to focus on my images!

Feels like I’ve been re-united with my legendary Nikon F2 (albeit with a modern heart!). See below image: I could capture the moment immediately when I saw it, framing it by quickly folding out the LCD screen (lifting the camera up to my eye would’ve ruined the spontaneity & lost the image), and having IBIS on board meant I could still capture a sharp image despite the bad lighting conditions!

Evening coffee, seen with X-H1 and XF 35mm F/1.4 R @F/2, 1/45 sec, ISO 800, developed in Capture 1

At first when I got my first X-H1 begin 2019 I thought it’s not really a pretty camera. But meanwhile I’ve come to appreciate its rugged, no-nonsense design & grown to love its intuitive & fast operation. And the sound of the mechanical shutter. Just gorgeous. It’s heaven! (Yeah, I know that don’t get you better images, but it sure makes the process of creating ‘em more enjoyable & satisfying!) In fact, I’ve grown so happy with my X-H1 that I now got 3 of ‘em (yes, three! The last 2 acquired recently for less than 800 bucks a pop - my favorite dealer seems to have built a secret stash of them somewhere when Fuji’d announced the phasing out of the X-H1 ;-)

OK OK, I hear some of youse out there sounding off about what kinda nutcase I must be buying ‘borderline obsolete’ cameras, where production’s already stopped … Let me me say this to that: I don’t give a rat’s ass! I don’t need the latest and the greatest, I need a photographer’s camera. A no-nonsense image taking tool w/o aspirational, fancy (video-centric) features that get in my way. That’s the X-H1 right there for me. You don’t like my advice? No problem, I’m not forcing you, it’s a free world after all. Do what you want, go somewhere else & be happy! Why having several of the same cameras? Think that’s an old habit from my analogue film days: I needed 2 cameras to allow me to use high & low sensitivity film in parallel to adjust to changing lighting conditions (and have a backup in case of some mechanical malfunction). In the digital age it’s more because I hate changing lenses to prevent dust entering the camera and ending up on the sensor. Those of youse know me know I’m kinda paranoid about that. The shrinks even got a name for it: “amathophobia”, derived from the greek words “amathos” = sand, and its diminutive form as dust & “phobos” = fear, i.e. “fear of dust” (and with me that psycho condition’s highly specialized: I just get it in relation to a camera sensor. Any other kind of dust, I couldn’t care … ;-)

So I keep 2 of my favorite primes, the XF 23mm F/1.4 and the XF 56mm F/1.2 like permanently glued to my X-H1’s. All fits in a compact Lowe Pro Inverse 200 AW belt pack weighing in at just about 3 kg (including spare batteries, cards, etc.). Not too bad!

Ok, I think that those of you patient enough to follow my ramblings up to here might fancy a small reward now! So, below I’ll share my preferred X-H1 function button allocations, optimized after many hours of trial & error playing around with the camera ;-). Note that the X-H1 has the highest number of customizable function buttons of all Fuji cameras (13), coz it’s got a D-Pad AND a touch screen LCD (both with 4 function slots)! This setup is also aligned with the setups of my X-Pro2’s and my X100V, allowing me to have an as much as possible standardized user interface across all my camera types (X-H. X-Pro, X100 and GFX):

See here the function button allocations more in detail:

  • Fn1: EXPOSURE COMPENSATION. toggles the exposure compensation via the front dial on/off

  • Fn2: FACE/EYE DETECTION SETTING. brings up face/eye detection menu (joystick to select)

  • Fn3: IS MODE. cycle IS (image stabilisation) mode from continuous to shooting only to off

  • Fn4: PLAYBACK. playback button on the right-hand side of the camera (like X-Pro2 & X100V)

  • Fn5: AF MODE. select AF-mode (SINGLE POINT > ZONE > WIDE/TRACKING > ALL)

  • Fn6: ELECTRONIC LEVEL. for quick check if camera’s level to prevent needing to crop in post

  • T-Fn1: SHUTTER TYPE. quick change of shutter type, eg. from electronic ES to mechanical MS

  • T-Fn2: ISO AUTO SETTING. quick change between 3 auto ISO settings (also via rear dial)

  • T-Fn3: D RANGE PRIORITY. don’t often need this but good to have

  • T-Fn4: NATURAL LIVE VIEW. I use ACROS-R film simulation, this is good to see the shadows

  • AE-L: AE LOCK ONLY. used to lock the auto exposure when needed

  • AF-ON: AF-ON. to activate back-button autofocus

  • R-DIAL: FOCUS CHECK. quick zoom in to check the focus

With these function button allocations I have an intuitive & fast user interface fully aligned with my way of making images. Please try it out & let me know if & how this works for you!

Summarizing, the X-H1 is IMO the best interchangeable lens APS-C camera Fuji ever made. It has no-nonsense ergonomics perfectly optimized for pro level still photography. The larger grip facilitates a cramp-free & safe holding even for longer photo sessions. The highly customisable intuitive user interface allows you to set the camera up so it gets outta your way when crafting your images. Last but not least its robust design will ensure you’ll always have a reliable photo companion with you for many years of photographic fun! Get one … If you still can, you won’t regret it!

Please be invited to join the discussion in the comments section below or leave me a PM on my about page, many thanks for visiting & supporting my blog. I hope y’all had an enjoyable read!

Take care & be safe!

Cheers

Hendrik

If you like you can support me by sending me a small donation via PayPal.me/hendriximages ! Helps me run this site & keeps the information coming, many thanks in advance!

Fuji ... Quo Vadis?

Today I’d like to share some thoughts and concerns on the direction Fuji, my camera brand of choice seems to be taking lately … Despite all the hype & dust kicked up over recently launched models I am absolutely NOT interested in 2 of the latest offerings (and consequently I will not “upgrade”. Ever. No sir). So, dear Fuji, in case you should one day happen to stumble on to my blog and read this, I hope you will appreciate my humble feedback and take note! For all others, please read on before you pull the trigger to maybe prevent being disappointed!

On the bike, captured by X-H1 with XF 56mm F/1.2 @F/8, 1/220 sec, ISO 200, developed in Capture 1

“Quo vadis?” is a classic Latin phrase meaning “Whither goest thou?” (or in contemporary English: “Where are you going?”). So, with this open letter I wanted to address precisely that question to Fuji … After trading in one of my X-H1 bodies around half a years ago to help finance a medium format GFX50R with a couple lenses, instead of getting one of Fuji’s brand new exchangeable lens bodies (X-Pro3, X-T4), I last week actually went out and got m’self another X-H1! Again (and it was a helluva bargain at 800 bucks too, if you bear in mind that one initially used to sell for more than twice as much!)

I mainly use my X-H1’s with my 23mm/1.4 and 56mm/1.2 lenses bolted on ‘em (as you might know I’m a paranoid about changing lenses … ;-). With these large aperture lenses coupled to the X-H1’s great in body image stabilisation feature, I can really enjoy my twilight & night photography w/o needing to lug a heavy tripod around … Now, there for sure gonna be some of youse out there sayin’ “Jeezus, how stupid can he be? With the fan-tas-tic X-T4 just launching as we speak, including image stabilisation and latest sensor and what not … WTF?” (remember Fuji saying some time ago the IBIS feature ain’t never gonna be possible in the more compact footprint of the X-T line?). With all the “ambassadors” & “influencers” parroting all over the net that the X-T4’s the next best thing after sliced bread, the very best of, THE one and only, yada, yada … Hey, that “hendriximages” guy must be totally nuts. Crazy. Must’ve just gone off the reservation by sticking to his antique X-Pro2’s and buying that miscarriage of an X-H1, despite all these shiny new “pure photography tools” (X-Pro3) and “Jack of all trades” (X-T4) being available … Might wanna go out and get some professional help right there, he should!

Yeah, well I actually use my X-H1’s. A lot. And I really like them, they’re very comfortable in hand & they got a great user interface. Sadly the internet don’t seem to agree - also the X-H1 seems to be a ‘www hate magnet’, just like the XF18 F/2 R is …

Town house triangle, seen by X-H1 with XF 23mm F/1.4 @F/8, 1/1300 sec, ISO 200, developed in Capture 1

Anywayz … For me just about the only thing Fuji did right with their latest new APS-C camera launches was the X100V. With a significantly improved lens, added weather resistance and a subtle, visible fold-out LCD, carefully evolving its design as to not lose the X100 line’s heritage, this one solved the main misgivings of the previous models & ticked all the boxes for me. For me it’s an absolute winner, finally delivering on the initial promise of a street photographer’s dream. I love my X100V and she’s always with me (especially when I’m not on a planned photo op, and then some!). Thanks God they didn’t put that crummy hidden LCD on there …

But the X-Pro3 or the X-T4? No. Those ain’t gonna be for me. Sorry Fuji, I’m just ain’t interested. Not at all!

So, if you’ve somehow managed to continue reading up to here w/o heading straight over to my comments section below to shoot me down in flames, please gimme a chance to explain! I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for rangefinder style cameras, because of their optical viewfinder (OVF) allowing for an unobstructed, realistic view of the subject, including the world “outside the frame” (great for environmental, documentary & street photography). I use that OVF for composing around 30% of my images and its existence is one of my main reasons for being faithful to the Fuji brand (no other mirrorless camera maker has this feature …)

Now let’s start with the X-Pro3. I really can’t imagine what demon took possession of product management over at Fuji when they decided to cripple the X-Pro3’s OVF (Optical ViewFinder) by restricting it to only one magnification level (0.52x). The consequence of this renders the X-Pro3’s OVF completely unusable for me. Useless. Like totally! If they were doing this to save costs they might as well could’ve better gotten rid of the OVF all together. That would’ve saved ‘em even more cost and a lot of trouble too … So, why’s the X-Pro3’s OVF crippled? Well, it kinda only really works with the 23mm lens. With the the shorter focal length of the 18mm the frame lines are outside the viewfinder’s boundaries (Ok, seems nobody ‘cept me and a couple other crazies likes that 18mm lens anywayz …). And with the 35mm (THE documentary lens, the one you might use most often) the frame lines are so small & lost in the middle of the viewfinder you kinda need a microscope to see what’s going on in there. Hell the area outside the frame shows more than the actual picture you’re trying to frame (and btw you can just forget about the 56mm or anything beyond). On the other hand my X-Pro2’s OVF with variable magnification allows 3-4 lenses to live happily in it (18mm, 23mm, 35mm, and even the 56mm in a pinch). Whereas the X-Pro3’s crippled OVF only works with 1-2 lenses, the 23mm & the 35mm (kinda)

I probably could somehow learn to live with the other 2 “upgrades” of the X-Pro3: The missing D-pad and that weird “hidden” LCD (meaning you can’t even compensate the lost custom function slots due to the missing D-pad via touch screen gestures when the LCD is hidden). OK, OK I get it, y’all can’t do no “pure” or “serious” photography if the LCD’s not hidden … But IMO all that ain’t ever gonna justify the X-Pro3’s approx. 2 grand price point. No way. Note, you can still get a new X-Pro2 (w/o the crippled OVF & w/o that dorky “hidden” LCD gimmick) for half that price, and then you even get slightly better high ISO & shadows noise behaviour to boot. And I promise, you will not not notice any difference between the 26 and 24 MP sensors either (actually I even prefer the rendering of the X-Pro2’s / X-H1’s X-Trans III sensor over the X-Pro3’s one). So, it’s kinda a “no-brainer”, if you ask me! Take a look at the beautiful shades of white below:

White in white street, X-H1 with XF 56mm F/1.2 @F/8, 1/800 sec, ISO 400, developed in Capture 1

Ok, so what about the upcoming X-T4?. Feature-wize it’s quite amazing what Fuji has packed into a still very compact body for a reasonable price (approx. 150$ less than X-Pro3): The X-T4 includes all the goodies contemporary camera tech can offer, so it’s quite impressive from a business proposition point of view. The single reason why I ain’t gonna put down my money for this one is ergonomics (or better lack thereof …): The X-T4’s shutter button is placed at a larger distance rearwards vs. the grip, and w/o forward inclination compared to the X-H1, see below image:

x-t4 vs x-h1 shutter button position.png

So, pressing the shutter requires an awkward contortion of your index finger respective to your hand holding the grip. Furthermore for my (medium sized) hands the X-T line’s body size is too small for a camera with a central viewfinder (DSLR style) layout. My X-H1’s grip is more comfortable and due to the increased width of the camera the viewfinder is in a better position. These at the end were the reasons why I never really could get used to my X-T2, subsequently selling it and never ending up buying an X-T3 (compared to which the X-T4 is even worse, because its grip is protruding even more out from the front of the body)

A more critical issue for me is the X-T4’s new “multi-angle, reversible LCD screen”. While this may be great for the vlogger- & selfie crowd it is a downright hinderance to serious stills photography. Why? Firstly it takes far longer time to fold out the LCD 180° from the right all the way to the left and then rotating it upwards if you want to look down while shooting from waist level (ideal for street photography). It can’t be slanted up- or downwards while on the back of the camera! And when folded out the whole LCD screen is sticking out to the left side of the camera like a sore thumb, making handling the camera quite a fiddly & awkward affair compounded by the complicated manipulation of the LCD screen. On my X100V I can switch between viewfinder and using the LCD at waist level in a split second - I just quickly need to pull out the bottom of the LCD a few cm in one fluid movement to slant it and can immediately look down to enable unobtrusive shots in the streets, without having to lift the camera to my eye (do that & people will immediately notice you. forget any spontaneity right there …). Apart from this you might get worried that the X-T4’s LCD’s hinge could easily break off by leveraging the exposed LCD screen against the body, while moving around to get a good perspective. To be fair I haven’t yet been able to physically try an X-T4 out, but I know all about this problem coz I had such a folding / twisting LCD in Nikon & Panasonic point and shoots a long time ago & and it freaked the heck outta me …

Summarizing, while I commend Fuji for having the courage to try out new things, for me the development direction of Fuji’s 2 new top-of-the-line ‘Flagship’ cameras has taken a completely wrong turn. On the:

  • X-Pro3 by crippling precisely THE key feature inherent to a rangefinder style camera (the OVF!)

  • X-T4 by an awkwardly placed shutter button and a cumbersome 3-D articulating LCD screen needing a time consuming manipulation and with the risk of damage due it’s exposed position when in use

These user interface & ergonomics misgivings may just be my subjective perception, but for me they’re a major blocking point to purchasing these cameras because they are a hinderance to a fluent & unobtrusive photographic process. Furthermore in my point of view the other “improvements” of these new models are not a sufficient upgrade vs. my current cameras to justify the requested price premium

Fuji PLEASE get this right on your next generation cameras, then they most probably will become unbeatable photographic tools! One of Fuji’s core strengths is listening to its consumer base. If they want to continue getting my hard earned cash they will have to quit playing around and go back to focus on core usability and ergonomic aspects of their cameras for serious photographers! All this trying to create a one-size-fits-all concept which attempts to suit everybody (photographers, videographers, vloggers and selfie aspirants) - kinda “Jack of all trades, master of none” approach will require major compromises from everyone and satisfy no one (because the requirements and processes of all these applications are so different). For me there are 3 distinct target groups, for which Fuji would do better to create dedicated solutions for and focus in fulfilling their key needs:

  • Serious still photographers

  • Videographers & film makers

  • Vloggers & instagrammers / selfie aspirants

If Fuji don’t respect these user groups’ diverse requirements they for sure risk losing their consumer centric heritage and added value vs. other brands, risking to drive loyal customers to jump ship. However I do think that the first two groups can be combined by a using a separate dedicated (stills/video) menu system, like the X-T4 has. Only, at least PLEASE go back to the X-H1, X-T2/3 type articulating LCD screen! Fuji you listening?

Sun pavillon, observed by X-H1 with XF 23mmm F/1.4 @F/8, 1/100 sec, ISO 400, developed in Capture 1

I hope this has been helpful to solve your own personal dilemmas as to what to do. I strongly advise y’all to think it over very carefully before you trade in your X-Pro2’s or X-H1’s (or X-T3’s for that matter) for the new X-Pro3’s and/or X-T4’s. There’s no way back and you might regret it, so, maybe you get a chance to try them out thoroughly side-by-side (rental or borrow a demo kit from your AD), before deciding! For me they are in no way worth their price premium!

Please leave me any questions and/or remarks in the comment section below or on my “about” page, Have a great Sunday, stay heathy and be safe!

Thanks for your interest & support, cheers

Hendrik

If you like you can support me by sending me a small donation via PayPal.me/hendriximages ! Helps me run this site & keeps the information coming, many thanks in advance!

It's All Just a Matter of Perspective - XF18mm F/2 R

Wish y’all happy Easter, folks. Today I want to share some thoughts on another “oldie but goldie” Fuji lens, the unjustly unliked XF 18mm F/2 R. A somewhat difficult focal length (roughly comparing to a 28mm wide angle on full frame), but if you come to terms with it’s field of view you will be rewarded with amazing images displaying a wider natural perspective without distortion and that obvious (yawn) “wide angle” effect. Please take a look:

Look up & Go close! Looking up with X-Pro2 and XF 18mm F/2 R @F/16, 1/120 sec, ISO 200

The Fujinon XF 18mm F/2R lens is a compact “pancake” design & was the second of 3 original lenses Fuji launched back in March 2012 together with their first exchangeable-lens rangefinder-esque X-Pro1. Like the XF 35mm F/1.4 R it features an “old fashioned” All Lens Group (ALG) focussing system, meaning the lens barrel extends at closer focussing distances (see additional information here). Unjustly unliked? Search for this one on the net and it’s amazing how much hate & negativity this little lens gets. Completely unjustified IMO - maybe people don’t know how to use it properly and then blame their own incompetence on the lens … Whatever, with this lens you just need to adapt your approach to photography and then you will just love the results! Trick is to look for new, unusual viewpoints and … GO. CLOSER! Remember Robert Capa’s famous quote?: “If your images ain’t no good, you weren’t close enough!” Just check out the image above: had to look up nearly vertically & really suck up to that wall to get that dynamic perspective!

Compare this to a similar image on the right, shot with the slightly longer 23mm “normal wide angle” lens on my Fuji X100V (corresponds to a 35mm full frame equivalent field of view): I just don’t seem to like this image as much as the one above, what do you think? So, the XF 18mm is great if you want to do a bit more than “just” document something, but without making your images look distorted, or like they were taken just for the “wide angle effect”. Images from the XF 18mm (if used properly) have a distinct dynamic perspective to them!

X100V’s 23mm F/2 @F/8, 1/350 sec, ISO 320, -0.7 EV

Doorway in contre jour, captured on X-Pro2 with XF 18mm F/2 R @F/8, 1/800 sec, ISO 200

Now above image technically does not specifically require the slightly wider field of view of the XF 18mm. I could’ve just as well used my X100V on this but I would have had to take a few steps back to include the whole doorway and the wrought iron ornament into the frame. Again being able to come closer steeps up the perspective & creates a more dynamic image, but it’s only when you go even closer and tilt the camera upwards that you get a really interesting perspective, see below image! I tried the same with my X100V but its narrower field of view forced me to back up several steps, which meant the camera was less tilted upwards. At the end I didn’t take the shot on my X100V. coz it lacked the dynamics I was looking for! This perspective also better portrays the ornament and its shadow, creating several layers of diagonal lines, which I liked much more:

Doorway with wrought iron ornament, seen with X-Pro2 and XF 18mm F/2 R @F/8, 1/640 sec, ISO 200

So there you have it, if you want to create images with dynamic “pop” you might wanna give the XF 18mm a spin. I can highly recommend this little lens. Mind you, you’ll need to “learn” how to use this “prima donna” lens. But if you are persistent she will reward you with exciting images!

Hope y’all liked the post, please leave me your comments and any questions you may have in the comments section, or on. my “about” page. Wish youse a nice Easter weekend, take care & be safe

Yours,

Hendrik

If you like you can support me by sending me a small donation via PayPal.me/hendriximages ! Helps me run this site & keeps the information coming, many thanks in advance!

A Lens with Character, the XF 35mm F/1.4 R

With this post I wanted to share with y’all my love for the “oldest but goldest” of Fuji lenses: The XF 35mm F/1.4R. Despite all the great stuff which Fuji brought out after it, this first lens is the one which IMO has the most character, please read on to find out more & enjoy!

Chairs in the sun intertwined with their shadows, X-Pro2 with XF35mm F/1.4 @F/8, 1/420 sec, ISO 200

“Character” … so, whassat mean now? OK, I headed over to Merriam Webster, but they got like 10-15 meanings for it. So I guess I gotta be more specific! Basically the character of something or someone describes specific distinctive qualities and/or conspicuous traits which differentiate that individual from others and drive its personal behaviour and style. What differentiates Fuji’s XF 35mm F/1.4R lens from others is the way its rendering transitions from the sharp part of the image in the focus plane to the unsharp areas in the image to the front & the rear of the focus plane

On modern lenses with internal focussing only a few elements inside the lens are shifted to achieve focus. The advantage of this is that the lens can be more compact, its length does not change & nothing moves on the outside of the lens. However as the distances between the lens groups inside the lens change when adjusting focus, optical designers need to apply stronger correction to compensate aberrations. This (over)correction tends to generate harsher foreground bokeh and restless, more nervous (obvious) background bokeh. This can be observed in the “bokeh balls” having a defined circumference (“onion rings” in photography jargon). This occurs especially at closer focus distances and is exacerbated in case the lens employs additional aspherical lens elements to achieve that higher degree of correction. Older lens designs (to which I count Fuji’s XF35mm F/1.4R) use what Fuji calls “All-Lens-Group (ALG) Focussing”, meaning that distances between lens groups do not change. Therefore these can do with fewer aspherical elements (the XF35 mm F/1.4R has only 1 aspherical lens element):

“All-Lens-Group (ALG) Focussing” technology, courtesy of Fujifilm Corporation’s X-System Guide ©2019

“All-Lens-Group (ALG) Focussing” technology, courtesy of Fujifilm Corporation’s X-System Guide ©2019

Here the whole lens system is shifted to achieve focus, without changing the distance between the lens groups. While this tends to increase the size of the lens, reduce the focussing speed and results in the front lens barrel moving in an out of the lens body during focussing, the lens requires less correction and can deliver smoother bokeh: Case in point, Fuji’s newer XF 35mm F/2R WR lens requires 2 aspherical lens elements to achieve sufficient correction of aberrations, even it is one stop slower than the older, single aspherical lens element design of the XF 35mm F/1.4R. Please see below the beautiful, subtle rendering of out of focus areas, the blurred structures in them are much less apparent compared to internal focused lenses with several aspherical elements:

Spontaneous pic of my pretty wife, captured on X-Pro2 with XF 35mm F/1.4R @F/2, 1/2000 sec, ISO 200

Like for so many Fuji’s X100 line (it was the “S” for me) was the entry drug into a more spontaneous, carefree kind of photography, uninhibited by tons of heavy gear “ballast” and continuous choices on what lenses to take with you. “The best camera is the one you always have with you”, and the X100S played that role for me. However, while being in principle happy with its “standard” wide angle (35mm full frame equivalent) field of view I’ve always preferred the slightly tighter perspective of a “normal” (50mm full frame equivalent) lens. Soon I was a proud owner of Fuji’s exchangeable lens version of the X100S, the X-Pro1, together with the XF35mm F/1.4R. I don’t know what magic sauce they dipped this one into - the way this lens renders is just incredibly beautiful, especially at apertures of F/2.8 and larger, see also the image below:

Orchids contre jour, exposed with X-Pro2 with XF 35mm F/1.4R @F/2.8, 1/2700 sec, ISO 400, EV +1

I immediately loved this lens’s “normal” undistorted field of view, ideal for documentary type photography. Since then, “lured” by the image quality promise of Nikon’s new D850 I sold my Fuji kit and went thru a short phase of full frame photography. After a short honeymoon I ruefully returned to the Fuji fold, when I (re)discovered that full frame, even delivering amazing quality, again meant lugging a major piece of heavy kit around. Result: My photographic activity wound down, I just couldn’t be bothered & my camera often stayed at home. No camera, no images, please read also this story! I tell you, after this you learnt to appreciate the compactness of APS-C. A Fuji X100V and even an X-Pro2 with a compact XF 35mm are sufficiently small that you can always have them with you, resulting in spontaneous, lively images. See below an image of this sceptical little guy I met during a recent Sunday afternoon walk (yes, even I sometimes do cat photos …):

Little tiger in the sun, seen with X-Pro2 and XF 35mm F/1.4R @F/5.6, 1/200 sec, ISO 400

Here you can see it again, even at F/5.6 the background dissolves in a gentle blur without any disturbing artefacts, resulting in a 3 dimensional rendering of the the little tiger! Although I love the XF 35mm F/1.4R’s image quality the AF noise is quite loud (in this case quite helpful as it caught kitty’s attention 😉)

In case you enjoyed reading this article, I would like to welcome you at my website hendriximages.com for more information on my style of Black & White photography. Looking forward to seeing y’all there!

Please take care & stay healthy, OK?

Many thanks & cheers,

Hendrik

If you like you can support me by sending me a small donation via PayPal.me/hendriximages ! Helps me run this site & keeps the information coming, many thanks in advance!

PS: If you’re interested in inspirational photography please also be sure to head over to Fuji X Passion, they got loads of interesting articles with great images to enjoy & learn from!

Format Battle: Fuji APS-C vs. Medium Format

First off I wish all of you a very happy & successful new year! My start into the new year was characterised by going “Full Fuji”: I traded in all my full frame kit (Nikon D850 / Z7) to get a Fuji medium format camera with a couple lenses. This means that next to my APS-C format gear (X-Pro2 / X-H1) for journalistic & documentary work I now also have a larger than full frame camera (GFX 50R) for more thoughtful, higher image quality photography. Really? How much more do you need than the already impressive image quality Fuji’s APS-C sensors provide? And be aware, the larger sensor also introduces several challenges & some disadvantages, to coin a phrase: “It’s one small step in format, but one giant leap in adapting your photography” (compared to full frame). Please read on to find out more!

Vertical shadows play on the wall, X-Pro2 with XF 23mm F/1.4R @F/5.6, 1/2700 sec, 400 ISO

Stepping up from an APS-C X-Pro2 with the XF 27mm F/2.8 R to a medium format GFX 50R with the GF 50mm F/3.5 R LM WR (both rangefinder style mirrorless cameras with their most compact “pancake” lens mounted) is quite a “leap” actually … It will increase your kit size by approx. 15%, the weight by approx. 85% and nearly double your cost (and the lenses will cost approx. 3x of what you’re used to with APS-C … 😅). Woah! To add insult to injury y’all should be aware that to get a similar depth of field on medium format compared to APS-C you’ll need to stop your lens down by nearly 2 (two!) stops more. So a F/5.6 on your X-Pro2 will need a dim F/11 on your GFX. OK, you can partly compensate this by allowing a 1 stop higher ISO (w/o seeing any negative effects), but still. Low light photography w/o tripod becomes a bit of a challenge. The next thing you gonna notice is the different aspect ratio. The above image was taken on my X-Pro2 on 3.2 aspect ratio (quite a “long” format 😉), with the veritable XF 23mm F/1.4 R attached. Based on the relation between length of sensor diagonal and focal length I’d need a 45mm lens on my GFX 50R to achieve the same (diagonal) field of view as with the XF 23mm on my X-Pro2 (both corresponding to a 35mm full frame equivalent field of view)

Now, Fuji is so kind to offer us a GF 45mm F/2.8 R WR which would perfectly fit the bill, but that one’ll set you back by another approx. 1800$ … So on account of that eye-watering price I unfortunately don’t (yet) have such a lens (Jeez, with those kinda prices you don’t just “go out and buy a lens” … 🙃). So, I tried it with my compact GF 50mm F/3.5 R LM WR instead (corresponds to a 40mm full frame equivalent field of view), see the resulting image below:

The same shadow play, on the GFX 50R with the GF 50mm F/3.5 R LM WR @F/11, 1/340 sec, ISO 200

Interesting, even Fuji was telling me the correct medium format lens to compare to the XF 23 would’ve been the GF 45mm, the width of the images appear to be very similar: Compared to the X-Pro2’s APS-C sensor with its quite “long” 😉 3:2 aspect ratio, the GFX 50R’s medium format sensor has a more balanced “shorter” 4:3 aspect ratio. But if you frame to the same width and crop (shorten) the APS-C image to the same aspect ratio as the medium format sensor you get nearly an identical image, see the direct comparison below (OK, the position of the shadow on the right side is shifted between the 2 images, but that’s due to the change in the sun’s position - I took the second image a few minutes later):

X-Pro2 image, now cropped to 4:3 aspect ratio

GFX 50R image, same as above

So how did this all play out? We wrote the year 2016, fall 2016. @Photokina Fujifilm effectively turned the world of photography upside down by launching a larger than full frame “medium format” mirrorless camera system at a significantly lower price point (-30%!), compared to any other medium format competitor. They boldly just overstepped full frame and went straight to medium format, coming from their APS-C format X-series range. Of course I was intrigued! But at that time an 8 grand entry ticket into the medium format game was still too high for me, so instead I went full frame in April 2018 (Nikon D850, see here, here and several posts thereafter …). The definitive advantage of full frame vs. APS-C is the narrower depth of field at comparable aperture, combined with the in general higher max. aperture and less high ISO noise. But in the end I had to concede that the increase in image quality (which in some cases was even not really evident, see here) was too much offset by the significant higher size & weight compared to Fuji’s APS-C offerings. Last but not least I so much prefer Fuji's user interface to the Nikon setup!

So at the end of 2018, when Fuji announced a ‘rangefinder-esque’ version of their medium format sensor camera in form of the GFX 50R at an even lower price point (around 6 grand with the standard lens), I knew I had to get my sweaty hands on one! Weighing less and more compact than my D850 / Z7 and FTZ adapter with comparable lenses at only an approx. 10% higher price? I was sold: The GFX’s medium format files demonstrate an amazing depth, tonality & 3D pop; it has traditional dial based ergonomics (like all Fuji’s); the viewfinder is on the left of the body (rangefinder style) and it has a tilting touch screen allowing discrete photography with the camera at waist level like I did with my Hasselblad C/M long times ago … Hey, what more do you want?

Before continuing the comparison between Fuji’s APS-C and medium format I should clarify that in reality Fuji’s “medium format” is actually a cropped medium format, you could say like a “macro” four thirds ;-) see the comparison of the sensor sizes below:

Sensor size comparison, courtesy of photographylife.com

Moving from APS-C to Fuji’s medium format obviously brings a massive nearly 4x increase of sensor size, whereas you only get an increase of 1.67x vs. full frame. So you could expect that image quality-wize full frame and cropped medium format are roughly comparable and both visibly better than APS-C. But when analysing my test shots I was surprised to discover that there is actually a visible improvement from full frame (Nikon D850 with AF-S 35mm F/1.4) to Fuji medium format (GFX 50R with GF 50mm F3.5)! Check out the crops below:

Crop from APS-C test shot, with X-H1 and XF 23mm F/1.4 @F/2, 1/850 sec, ISO 200

Crop from Full Frame test shot, with Nikon D850 and AF-S 35mm F/1.4 @F/2.8, 1/250 sec, ISO 64

Crop from Fuji medium format test shot, with GFX 50R and GF 50mm F/3.5 @F/3.5, 1/125 sec, ISO 320

Coming back to my original question as to how much additional value this (cropped) medium format brings vs. full frame I think there is no clear cut answer. It depends as always on your priorities & preferences! On the plus side you get fantastic files off Fuji’s medium format sensor (btw the sensor has a Bayer layout, so no demosaicing issues in Lightroom). They sport amazing detail and clarity, with beautiful dynamic range and tonality. Vs. full frame DSLR’s you get the benefit of a hi-quality EVF (electronic viewfinder), and not needing to bother with AF micro adjustment, all at a visible higher image quality level while in a comparable size package vs. full frame (and all that at a very reasonable price!). The compactness of the Fuji GFX 50R, especially if coupled with the smaller lenses (like the aforementioned GF 50mm F/3.5 R LM WR) even allows you to do some street photography (provided you have the time to get the focus right) …

On the down side, If you do chose to go the medium format route (vs. full frame) you need to accept that you will not get the creamy bokeh full frame sensors with large aperture lenses are capable of. Fuji’s medium format lenses, while delivering amazing image quality all just don’t have very large max. apertures. These modest max. apertures mean you already lose approx. 1-2 stops vs. full frame lenses of comparable focal lengths. To this you’ll need to add nearly another stop (vs. full frame) to achieve a comparable depth of field. So be aware you are looking at 2-3 stops less light gathering capability! However, due to the better high ISO performance of the medium format sensor (see also interesting comparison here) you can recover around 1-2 stops by dialling in a higher ISO value. Another challenge is depth of field. When using medium format you have to select your focal plane very carefully as the sharpness fall-off from sharp to unsharp zones is much more pronounced than the smaller formats (no worries with APS-C btw!). Also note that focus speed is quite a bit slower than you were used to on full frame …

With this 1st post of the new year I hope I could give you some food for thought and help y’all in your personal decision process! Please leave me a message in the comments section below or on my ‘about’ page if you have any questions or there’s anything I could help to clarify for you. Many thanks joining the discussion and for visiting! And once more all the best for your photographic new year!

Best regards,

Hendrik

If you like you can support me by sending me a small donation via PayPal.me/hendriximages ! Helps me run this site & keeps the information coming, many thanks in advance!

Where Shadows Fall ... There’s Light, Merry Xmas!

First off, with this post I’d like to wish a merry Xmas to my faithful followers, and to any of youse who’ve visited my site thank you for looking by! Also a special thanks to all of youse who’ve left positive and critical comments here over the last year, by that giving me the opportunity to learn & improve my photography! For today I wanted to share some thoughts on how the fall of shadows manifests the existence of light, and how that’s also a good analogy for life (… a fitting topic for the season, don’t you think?). Anyways if interested please read on!

Deck chairs sparkling in the sun, captured on X-Pro2 with XF18mm F/2 @F/8, 1/150 sec, ISO 200

I discovered the above motif while enjoying a few days vacation with my wife in our beloved Italy (isola d’Elba to be precise): It was early in the morning and the first rays of the sun were just coming over the mountains, lighting up these old deck chairs around our B&B’s pool and casting their first light into the dark shadows with the promise of a lovely day to come. Of course you never know if that day’ll really turn out nice but it don’t harm to think it will & look forward to a great day with a smile on your face regardless! I wanted to animate people looking at my image to always think positive & look eagerly forward to what’s to come … To create that analogy my exposure was based on the bright reflections of the sun on the metal bars, thereby plunging the shadows into deep blackness (i.e. I was actually underexposing by about 1.5 stops vs. a ‘correct’ exposure). Trust Fuji X-Trans! The impressive dynamic range of that sensor ensured I didn’t loose all detail in the dark areas of the image and I could easily recover sufficient detail in post by upping the shadows slider!

Bicycle wheel shadowcast, seen on X-Pro2 with XF18mm F/2 @F/8, 1/550 sec, ISO 200

For me the above image goes the opposite route. Whereas in the deck chairs image the first sunlight was carving details out from the darkness, the shadows in the above image are actually covering them: Look at the pavement - the low angled sun’s rays are revealing every detail of the cobblestones. Only where the shadows of the bicycle’s wheel fall the details are obscured. The life analogy to this is for me that there are some dark sides to every situation. Be aware of them but don’t stress too much over them and especially don’t let them spoil your day! So in this image I actually over exposed a bit and then used the highlight slider in post to bring detail back into the highlights. Of course that works best in RAW but being an old (Fuji ACROS-R) JPEG aficionado I found that Fuji’s JPEG’s have sufficient dynamic range to pull that stunt off!

White sofa in the afternoon sun, discovered with X-H1 and XF23mm F/1.4 @F/5.6, 1/550 sec, ISO 200

Finally, in the above image I was confronted with quite an extreme contrast but wanted to still see details in the shadows and the highlights. So I exposed for average grey (ignoring that my histogram was freaking out on both sides) and hoped that my JPEG’s dynamic range would still cover it (knowing that I’d still have the RAW file to save my a** if it wouldn’t have been enough 😉). Luckily it was still OK (barely) and I could recover some detail in the darkest shadows and brightest highlights by maxing out Lightroom’s shadow and highlight sliders. So it’s the JPEG you see here, actually quite amazing! As I’d already said many times I just love Fuji JPEG’s in combination with the ACROS-R film simulation because of that simulation’s tonality dependent grain effect, which is very similar to what I was used to in the old days when using film (remember Tri-X? Man the images shot on that film had such beautiful grain!)

OK, with that I’d like to wish y’all a very merry Xmas (crazy how fast time’s flies, it was ‘just’ Xmas yesterday and now it’s the 25th again 🙃!) … and of course I wish youse a great start into the new year - may your photographic (and other 😉) dreams all come true and may you have all health, fun and success in 2020!

If you got any questions, or wish me to cover a specific topic in one of my next posts, please leave me a message in the comments section below or on my ‘about’ page - your email will not be disclosed & I promise to answer every single message! Thanks so much for visiting and wish y’all a wonderful holiday season,

Best regards,

Hendrik

If you like you can support me by sending me a small donation via PayPal.me/hendriximages ! Helps me run this site & keeps the information coming, many thanks in advance!

Sailing Away? A Desert Island Kit!

Planning on getting stranded on a desert island? I say “planning” coz ya normally don’t “plan” to get stranded & therefore ain’t gonna be able to prepare for it, unless you got your “desert island kit” on you like 24/7/365 … and FYI “desert” don’t mean that island’ll be arid & dry (as in a Sahara-like desert), in this context “desert” is an archaic form of the adjective “deserted” (meaning devoid of people, uninhabited). Furthermore, the phrase “desert island” isn’t a recent invention derived from some ghetto slang, it’s been in the English language since around 1200 A.D.! With all that outta the way please read on to find out what’s IMO the best Desert Island Kit!

Schooner bowsprit in contre-jour morning light, X-Pro2 & XF 18mm F/2 @F/8, 1/125 sec, ISO 200, +0.7 EV

Coming back on the “planning” bit … If I’d have to move to a desert(ed) island & could only take ONE camera & ONE lens with me, it’d be my X-Pro2 with my beloved XF 18mm F/2 stuck on it (provided I’d have a solar powered battery charger to go with it - no ‘lectricity > no photography with that one!): Anyway the XF 18mm’s ideal for any & all kind of documentary photography: Wide enough to show y’all the environment but not too wide (just) to not distort people in the image. That’s of course only in case somebody else unexpectedly turns up on your deserted island 😉!

Schooner mast and rigging just before dawn, X-Pro2 & XF 18mm F/2 @F/8, 1/60 sec, ISO 200

So, if only one lens, why then take a camera where you can exchange the lens? Well, maybe I’d encounter a camera store on that desert island and then I’d get myself an XF 35mm F/2, to photograph those people which were gonna turn up unexpectedly! And while I’m in that store I´d get m’self a second X-Pro2 to prevent having to change lenses too often with all that dust blowing around on my island (see, I’m paranoid about changing lenses since changing over to digital 😰). So there you have it: My “desert island” kit would be two X-Pro2’s, one with an XF 18mm F/2 R and the other with an XF 35mm F/2 R WR - fits easily in a small shoulder bag (dimensions - around 6” x 5” x 4”, like the Hama Monterey 130)!

Tugboat’s & dinghy’s stern (= rear end ;-) … X-Pro2 & XF 18mm F/2 @F/8, 1/100 sec, ISO 200, -0.7 EV

As you can see in the above image, the XF 18mm has an amazing depth. Especially when using it in portrait format, here the rather long 3:2 aspect ratio of the APS-C format stretches the image from near to far. Due to the greater depth of field of the smaller format everything’s in focus already at F/8!

Hope this post has given you some inspiration and will animate you to go out and take images with an unobtrusive high quality kit fitting in a small bag. A desert island kit, with which you won’t really miss anything!

If you have any questions, please put them in the comments section below or leave me a note on my “about” page. Look forward to the discussion!

Wish y’all good shooting & a very nice Sunday!

Best regards,

Hendrik

If you like you can support me by sending me a small donation via PayPal.me/hendriximages ! Helps me run this site & keeps the information coming, many thanks in advance!

Square Affair - with the X-Pro2!

Originally wanted to title this post “It’s Hip to Be Square”, like the refrain in the 1986 song “Hip to Be Square” by the American rock group Huey Lewis and the News … but it wouldna been appropriate. Any of youse know why? In that song the singer’s saying he’s starting to conform to the establishment coz he can’t stand the stress of being a rebel no more: i.e. it’s Hip (= cool, fashionable) to be Square (= conformist, following the rules). In photography most images have a rectangular aspect ratio (3:2 or 4:3). Using a square image frame (1:1) is therefore relatively rare, so you actually gotta be a bit of a rebel & break outta the rules if you wanna “go square” 😉!

Lantern and its shadow, seen with X-H1 and XF 90mm F/2 @F/8, 1/210 sec, ISO 400

Since 2010 Instagram has enjoyed a great success as online image sharing platform - until August 2015 only square images were allowed, driving somewhat of a renaissance of the square format: As Instagram is mainly viewed on smartphones, using a square image format means you aren’t required to turn your phone sideways for landscape images, allowing for a more ”smooth” user experience…

But the square format was there long before Instagram came along: Around 1930 first professional larger square format cameras appeared (Rolleiflex, Voigtländer and Hasselblad to name a few), using a reflex mirror to project the image onto a matte glass plate which could be viewed from above. This image was upright but laterally reversed. So if the camera would’ve had a rectangular image format it would have needed to be turned onto its side for portrait images, which would then have resulted in an upside-down viewfinder image! To prevent this inconvenience the manufacturers of the time stuck with a square image format

Interestingly enough there does not really seem to be much older history of the square format, eg. dating back to the times where images were still painted (at least I couldn’t find anything …)

Anyway, with the advent of the digital age came a greater flexibility regarding image aspect ratios, allowing the photographer to choose already in camera or afterwards in post production from a plethora of image formats from 16:9 to 1:1

You can apply the square format during image capture (obviously this works only for JPEG´s - the RAW image always uses the full native format of the camera) or in post production. I usually prefer to decide that when developing the image in Capture One Pro - some images only lend themselves to the square format at a second (or third) glance!

Original image, with 1:1 square crop

For example, take a look at my first image of this post. I only saw the potential for a tighter square image format when preparing it for uploading to my blog (inspiring me to create this post “Square Affair” on the square image format 😉) On the picture with the blue square frame you can see how it looked originally: Cropping it to a square shape has left out unimportant parts of the image, focusing on the main elements, lines and shadows. I imagine this has just always been a square image just waiting to be discovered! What do you think?

So, what’s behind all this “square” talk? Basically the main quality of this frame is that it creates a natural sense of balance, stability & symmetry. None of the sides is favored, preventing any distraction from the image content. The square composition allows you to eliminate negative space & superfluous elements in your image - excessive space in an image invites a viewer’s eye to wander away from the subject & makes your subject look a bit lost. The square has an inherent classic & beautiful design, which if carefully applied will make your images stand out from the crowd! Because the square lacks any horizontal or vertical bias the viewer’s eye tends to be guided in a circular motion, often converging towards the centre of the image

Wall with shadow of another lantern, captured on X-H1 with XF 90mm F/2 @F/8, 1/600 sec, ISO 400

In the above image I could leave out the right side of the rectangular frame because the shadow of the lamp already tells the story - don’t need to have the lamp itself inside the frame no more 😉)

Original image with 1:1 square crop

See here the original framing on the image with the blue square frame. In this case I was not really happy with my initial picture - should’ve gone a bit closer to leave out the white strip on the lower edge of the frame … I learnt from this that you gotta “work” the image more - instead of just one or two frames per subject it would be better to try out different perspectives, distances & framings, giving you more material to work with and increase the chance of getting that perfect image!

As you can see in the image with the lamp below the square format also circumvents the otherwise ubiquitous “rule of the thirds”: The square frame gives you more freedom to place the central element of interest - usually a slightly off-centre position of the main subject is enough to create sufficient tension in the composition!

Lantern surrounded by canvas roof, discovered with X-H1 and XF 16mm F/1.4 @F/5.6, 1/5 sec, ISO 400

Here you can see another example: The original image is nice, but includes too much empty (= “negative”) space on the left and right sides. Cropping it to a square focuses on the essential part of the image: The steps with their diagonal lines and railings. As you can see, the content of the left & right borders does not really add anything to the image & I think you will agree that the square image is much more powerful: The square frame gives the image a much more dynamic & interesting look!

Original image with 1:1 square crop

In this case I have to admit that I was planning to put this image into a square frame all along. By the way, using the full rectangular native image format and later extracting a square crop during post processing allows you to place your square off centre to create a different perspective. This can help if you are photographing a reflecting house façade or window directly from the front and want to prevent seeing your reflection in the image: You place the square all the way to one side of the rectangle, resulting in your reflection not being visible anymore!

Steps in a square frame, seen with my X-Pro2 with XF35mm F/2 @F/8, 1/180 sec, ISO 200

Now before y’all gettin’ too excited here, there’s just one caveat: When shooting square you gotta be aware (WOW, that rhymes ;-) that shooting in the square format reduces your lens’s effective angle of view. The angle of view of a lens determines how much of the image you can cover and is calculated according following formula: 𝜶 = 2arctan(d/2𝑓), where 𝜶 (alpha) is the lens’s diagonal angle of view in degrees, d represents the length of the image’s diagonal in mm (28.23mm for the uncropped Fuji APS-C sensor) and 𝑓 is the focal length of your lens in mm. For those of youse not so much into math here’s the thing: Cropping your native 3:2 aspect ratio image to a square 1:1 aspect ratio generates a field of view (FOV) which makes your lens look like the next longer lens in your system. For example Fuji’s XF 18mm / 28mm Full Frame equivalent FOV behaves like the XF 23mm / 35mm Full Frame equivalent FOV lens, the XF 23mm / 35mm Full Frame equivalent FOV like the XF 35mm / 53mm Full Frame equivalent FOV, and so on - basically you can multiply your focal length by a factor of appox. 1.2 when going square! See the below image, taken with the XF 16mm, it looks more like an image taken with the 18mm:

Dinner out with best friends, image taken on X-H1 with XF 16mm F/1.4 @F/2, 1/40 sec, ISO 2500, +0.7 EV

So I hope I’ve managed to inspire youse to experiment a bit with the beautiful, serene and classic square format, and hope you’ll “dare to be square” (again a rhyme 😉). Please share your experiences in the comments section below or leave me a note on my “about” page. Look forward to the discussion!

PS: The best thing about going square is: It don’t cost you nothin’, jeez - this accessory is completely FREE 😊!

Peace with y’all and wish a very nice weekend

Cheers,

Hendrik

If you like you can support me by sending me a small donation via PayPal.me/hendriximages ! Helps me run this site & keeps the information coming, many thanks in advance!

Fuji's 18mm F/2 - Better Than You Think!

I was quite pleasantly surprised about the amount of feedback & questions I got to my recent review of Fuji’s XF 18mm F/2R. Seems a lot of youse are quite interested in this little lens, despite the negative image it has on the net. So I thought it would be a good idea to share some more (real) images taken with it & maybe convince the one or other of you to try it out for yo’self ;-) Please read on if interested & thanks in advance for visiting and joining the discussion!

3 tables in the sun, seen with X-Pro2 and XF 18mm F/2 @F/2.8, 1/1700sec, 200 ISO

What I like about the above image is that even I’m using a wide angle lens I can limit the sharpness to quite a narrow zone, at F/2.8 nearly everything is blurred except the ashtray on the first table! Combined with letting the shadows drown into inky blackness this guides & focusses the viewer’s eye into the image! For me the 18mm (28mm equivalent field of view on full frame) is an ideal lens for documentary photography - wide enough to bring you close to the action but not too wide to distort too much or become too intrusive

But is it any good at close focus distances? For example fuji’s XF 23mm F/2R WR is plagued by soft rendering at close focus distances when using larger apertures … For documentary photography excellent short distance performance at larger apertures is key! Well, I can say that I ain’t got no reservations about my XF18mm. Sharp as a tack at close distances, already from max. aperture mine is. So, do I got a magic copy? Don’t think so - these things are manufactured according relatively tight tolerances, look at what optical limits had to say about it: “The center quality is very good at F/2 and the borders are also fine but the corners are very soft at this setting …”. I can confirm, take a look at below image, taken at max. aperture F/2. Not bad, eh? Look at the details in the bicycle wheel hub (it was less than 1m from the camera)!

Anywayz for documentary photography the extreme corners are not relevant. But of course, if you happen to specialize in brick wall or test chart photography, you may not agree. Anyhow I do think most of those “review specialists” flaming this lens on the net belong to that category of “photographers” …

Bicycle wheel, captured on my Fuji X-Pro2 with XF18mm F/2R (28mm FF equiv.) @F/2, 1/1250 sec, ISO 200

To put all this into perspective I took some comparative images on my Nikon Z7 (has a 47MP full frame sensor!) with the - in my opinion - best wide angle lens out there, the Nikon AF-S 28mm F/1.4E ED. Well I gotta say that I was shocked that I didn't see no major difference … The little Fuji wide angle is just. That. Good! OK the depth of field is of course narrower on the full frame lens but I gotta concede that the XF 18 for sure ain’t no slouch compared to below full frame image taken with the Nikkor stopped down to F/2, no sir:

The same bicycle wheel, on my Nikon Z7, with the veritable AF-S 28mm F/1.4 @F/2, 1/1000 sec, ISO 64

For all youse “pixel peepers” out there, please take a look at below crops! I shamefully have to admit I didn’t expect this. You really gotta hand it to Fuji: Quite an amazing performance!

Crop from the Fuji XF 18mm F/2 @F/2

Crop from the Nikkor AF-S 28mm F/1.4 @F/2

And the XF18mm at max. aperture is already so good that stopping it down to F/5.6 don’t really make a huge difference, please see comparison below:

Again the crop from the Fuji XF 18mm F/2 @F/2

… the XF 18mm F/2 stopped down to F/5.6

Before getting too excited, d’you wanna see what that little bit more full frame sharpness, dynamic range and shallower depth of field’s gonna cost you? You better sit down now, coz y’all gonna get really shocked! See below, I kid you not: The Nikon Z7 / FTZ / AF-S 28mm combo weighs and costs approx 2.3 times as much (in words: two point three !) as the Fuji X-Pro / XF 18mm combo (not even mentioning the size difference). Jeezus …

Nikon Z7+FTZ+AF-S 28mm F/1.4E ED = 1.4 Kg / 5250€ vs. Fuji X-Pro2+XF18mm F/2 = 615g / 2300€

Apart from that, showing up with that Nikon kit is gonna have people seriously divin’ for cover, thinking you’re planing on starting world war III ;-) At “cross-coffee-table” distances of around 1-1.2m that thing really sticks into your subject’s face (with a 77mm dia filter to boot). Good luck in getting your model eased up … Compared to that people don’t even really notice the Fuji (even the X-Pro2 ain’t really minimalistic either, but the lens is!)

Concluding & to be honest, I’d have a have a real hard time justifying the full frame kit over the Fuji. Hope you people out there learn from this & do it better than me ;-) Right, the full frame bazooka’s nominally better but you gonna need it maybe like 5% cases, if at all … Don’t worry I love my Nikon kit. Great camera & stellar lens, but not sure if I’d invest in those again!

Hope this little “real world” comparison will help some of youse to decide for yo’self what’s the best deal for your personal photographic requirements! Please let me know / leave me a comment below or on my “about” page, thanks as always for visiting & for your support!

Many thanks & best regards,

Hendrik

If you like you can support me by sending me a small donation via PayPal.me/hendriximages ! Helps me run this site & keeps the information coming, many thanks in advance!

Capture with Style!

Been some time since I posted ... Was kinda busy movin´ house & couldn't find my camera ;-) Now I´m back with Style! Capture (-ing) with Style, using Capture One Pro 10 with a modified Style (never liked the "canned" stuff, always like to do my own thing!). Please read on to find out more!

Into the Sun, with XF 35/2 WR on X-Pro2, Capture One 10 with modified BW-15 Style

In Capture One Styles are sets of presets driving several adjustments simultaneously, while presets adjust only a single parameter, eg. "grain". Means you can dramatically speed up your post processing workflow by applying such Styles during image import. By selecting a Style suiting your needs you can automatically adjust eg. gradation curve, sharpening, noise reduction, etc. of your images when importing your images into Capture One and you´re already 90% done without lifting a finger!

Bridge in the Park, with XF 35/2 on X-Pro2, Capture One 10 with modified BW-15 Style

As already mentioned here my favorite Capture One Style is the BW-15 (grain) black & white Style, which IMO comes closest to Fuji´s amazing ACROS JPEG film simulation. But the grain´s too much salt in my soup and the default sharpening settings seem a bit too aggressive. So I was trawling (not trolling, mind you ;-) the net for optimal Capture One settings in combinmation with Fuji´s 24mp X-Trans III RAW files & stumbled across Thomas Fitzgerald´s "X-Trans-Files-in-Capture-One-Guide". A great read, costing only 4€ and well worth it in my opinion!

Red Chair on Stone Patio, XF 16-55/2.8 WR @16mm, X-T2, CO 10 with modified BW-15 Style

Using Thomas´ settings for 24mp RAF files in Capture One 10 as a starting point I modified Capture One´s BW-15 (grain) Style by reducing grain level to 60 and optimizing sharpening and noise reduction settings slightly (of course you can also use your own favorite settings). The trick is to select an image, apply the style, adjust the various settings to your satisfaction and save it all as a new Style (take care to deselect those items which are image dependent):

Deselect presets which are image dependent!

This ensures the same film simulation, gradation (tonality curve) and grain are saved in your new Style but image specific parameters, like exposure, contrast, etc. are not affected!

Apply saved Style & auto adjust on import!

Then select your new Style and "auto adjust" in the import menu. This makes Capture One apply your Style and auto adjusts exposure parameters automatically during import, resulting in 90% ready images, which only need minor final tweaking (if at all)

View from Villa Sermolli over Buggiano in Tuscany, Italy, X-T2 with XF 16-55/2.8 WR @23mm

Summarizing, Fuji JPEG´s are good but RAW files just have that extra flexibility: If you want to get the best outta your images you gotta go RAW, allowing you eg. to change color sensitivity (like applying color filters during post processing) and offering that extra bit of highlight headroom. Looking forward to your comments, questions, and critique, thanks so much for looking by,

Best regards,

Hendrik

I hope this post was helpful / interesting for you - If you like you can support me by sending me a small donation via PayPal.me/hendriximages ! Helps me run this site & keeps the information coming, many thanks in advance!

Fuji ACROS: Amazing JPEG´s with Film-Like Grain !

Since Fuji appeared on the scene we have been spoilt by intuitive cameras delivering wonderful images & amazing JPEG´s - Hey, some photographers didn't´t even wanna touch RAW´s ! And now that the new 24 MP X-Trans CMOS III sensor is here (Fuji X-Pro2, X-T2 and the new X100F) we get as bonus the ACROS film simulation mode for smoothly gradated black and white JPEG´s with deep blacks and a beautiful film-like grain texture. Interested how to get the best out of ACROS ? Please read on !

Waiting at the Airport, seen with Fuji X-Pro2 and XF 16 mm f1.4 WR, SOOC ACROS JPEG

Since going digital I´d always missed that "organic" film kinda look I got from my beloved Kodak Tri-X negs (man, I loved that film ...). Now, finally I can get it in digital - just compare below crop of a RAW file, developed in Capture One Pro 10 (left image) to crop from the original SOOC JPEG, which sports a subtle but distinct grain effect:

RAW developed in Capture One Pro 10

SOOC ACROS JPEG

This grain is amazingly "organic", way better than the more "sterile" digital grain which is applied in post as a generic image overlay eg. with 3rd party software ! ACROS has some kind of magic algorithm built in which selectively applies analogue grain, depending on ISO level and tone - you get "photographic" looking images with wonderful smooth gradations and a subtle "film-like" grain, right off the bat:

50 Shades of Lighter Grey ;-) captured by Fuji X-Pro2 & XF 35 mm f2 WR, SOOC ACROS JPEG

To achieve such JPEG images SOOC and still get sufficient "punch" in the shadows I apply following settings in my X-Pro2´s Q-menu (saved as preset):

  • ACROS-R film simulation
  • GRAIN effect OFF (ACROS has its own built-in ISO dependent analogue grain effect)
  • -3 NR (noise reduction)
  • DR auto (auto dynamic range)
  • -1 H-TONE (highlights contrast)
  • +3 S-TONE (shadows contrast for sufficient "punch")
  • +1 SHARP (sharpening)

I´ve discovered that the sweet spot (detail rendering vs. micro-contrast vs. grain) for ACROS simulation is around 2000 ISO. To compensate the JPEG´s reduced highlights & shadows recovery latitude (vs. doing RAW development) I set the highlights tone to -1 (increased highlight tonal range) and my dynamic range to "Auto" (automatically adjusts dynamic range to the subject contrast), see example image below:

Casting Shadows Ahead, with Fuji X-Pro2 and XF 35 mm f2 WR, SOOC ACROS JPEG

I´ve really fallen for this ACROS film simulation, and you can't get it any other way except by shooting JPEG´s ! So I set my camera to record RAW´s & Large/Fine JPEG´s. This allows me to speed up my workflow by primarily using JPEG´s and having the RAW as a back-up in case tricky post processing is needed (only in approx. 10% of the cases). Another benefit is that the image review on the camera´s LCD uses this high quality JPEG rather than the embedded low quality one when shooting RAW only

Hope y´all enjoyed this post & there was something interesting in it for you ? Thanks for looking by and of course you´re most welcome to leave me constructive critique and/or questions in the comments section below or on my "about" page !

Best regards & have fun shooting !

Hendrik

I hope you enjoyed reading this post - If you like you can support me by sending me a small donation via PayPal.me/hendriximages ! Helps me run this site & keeps the information coming, many thanks in advance !

Capture ONE Pro 10 for Fuji - A First Look !

When I jumped ship from CaNikon to Fuji a couple years ago I didn't find ANY integrated RAW converter / image management solution able to deliver the full potential outta Fuji´s unique X-Trans sensor. Only way out was to use a standalone external RAW converter (eg. Iridient) requiring a 2 step workflow. Then, earlier this year Adobe launched a major Lightroom CC upgrade delivering results very close to the till then Best-in-Class RAW converter Iridient (see my comparison here). Finally on December ONE Phase ONE launched Capture ONE Pro, version ONE-O. Hey, with so many ONE´s popping up I thought I´d take a look and see, please read on for my initial impressions !

Street in the winter sun, captured by Fuji XF 23 mm f/2 WR on X-Pro 2, developed in CO Pro 10

I decided to try out the newest version 10 of Capture One Pro after being intrigued by Thomas Fitzgerald´s excellent blog post describing latest improvements & features, please go here to discover them ! For me the above image has a wonderful glow to it and it took me only a couple minutes to get there - impressive how fast & easy I could get a really good result ! Furthermore Capture One Pro allows me to change any parameter at any time in its logical and clear dashboard (see left side of the screen grab shown below):

Capture One Pro 10 User Interface with logically grouped intuitive setting panels

What I liked most was the fluid interaction between Exposure, Levels, Curve, High Dynamic Range and Clarity settings. In contrast Lightroom IMO has a more linear (chronological) workflow which feels less intuitive and kinda "old fashioned" ...

Concluding, the PRO´s of Capture One Pro 10:

  • Great results. At least at a first glance I couldn't detect any disadvantages vs. my previous favorite Iridient in eg. highlight/shadow recovery, color rendering, detail rendering, sharpening, noise, etc (but I´ll come back here with a more detailed comparison soon)
  • Lens optimization finally working (incl. purple de-fringing !) - this was missing in previous versions of Capture One Pro
  • Fluid, logical and intuitive user interface allowing changing of all parameters in any order
  • NO more external standalone RAW converter needed ! Capture One Pro combines RAW conversion and image management. Strictly speaking this is no advantage over Lightroom

And the CON´s:

  • Capture One Pro 10 can´t read Fuji´s compressed RAW´s (yet). Now this one is really a bummer for me coz Fuji´s uncompressed RAW´s eat up memory at twice the rate compared to the compressed RAW´s (50 vs. 25 mB a pop !). C´mon, Phase One, give us the compressed RAW reading capability, you can do it !
  • Pricey - nearly 300 US$ ain´t a bargin (even though you get a lot for it). Ok I have a CO Pro 8 license so it´ll cost me 105 US$ to upgrade. Still a lot ... but at least it ain´t a subscription rip-off like CC (if you can live without Photoshop CC that is)

Here another "glowing" Capture One Pro image:

Contre Jour in the park, seen with Fuji XF 23 mm f/2 WR on Fuji X-Pro2, developed in CO Pro 10

If you have any questions or would like any advice, please leave me a message in the comments section or on my contact page ! Many thanks for your kind support, interest, liking & sharing ! Herewith wishing y´all a lot of fun trying out Capture One Pro 10 ! Enjoy your December holiday season, all the very best & good luck !

Yours, Hendrik

I hope you enjoyed reading this post - If you like you can support me by sending me a small donation via PayPal.me/hendriximages ! Helps me run this site & keeps the information coming, many thanks in advance !

How to Get Best Image Quality Out of Fuji X-Trans III RAW´s

Hey I got something for those of youse who REALLY wanna get the very best possible image quality out of Fuji´s new X-Trans III image sensor (as currently used on Fuji´s X-Pro 2 and X-T2 mirrorless APS-C cameras). Yeah I know ... Said some posts ago that Lightroom´s all you´ll need ... Basically that still holds true but it all depends on what you expect from your photography, please read on to discover how:

Portrait of my lovely wife: Fuji X-Pro 2 with 35 mm f2 WR @f2.8 1/125 sec

Portraits seem to present quite a challenge regarding image quality (apart from the obvious challenge to capture the right facial expression reflecting persona & character of your model ;-) ! Working on a portrait series I discovered that different RAW developers produced subtle variations in the results. So I thought I´d share them here, starting off as baseline with Fuji´s very good SOOC JPEG rendering. This already delivers an overall pleasing result, however finest details are lost during in-camera conversion:

SOOC JPEG using Fuji X-Pro 2´s X-Trans III 24 mp sensor

Then I tried RAW conversion using Affinity Photo, a relatively new kid on the block (many thanks to The Lightweight Photographer for pointing me to it !). With this one I do get a very nice contrast, which I initially liked a lot (for me nearly the most pleasing off the bat). But on closer scrutiny I discovered it dissolves finer details even more than the JPEG and also produces some unwanted artefacts (see the line between the cornea and the lower eyelid):

RAW conversion using Affinity Photo

This is not the case with Adobe´s latest version of Lightroom CC. Better fine details than the JPEG´s and a fully integrated workflow to boot (no external RAW converter, so no additional exporting / importing needed). However ACR does seem to slightly exaggerate high contrast fine detail - the eyelashes seem to look a bit thicker / heavier than perceived (I learnt a lot from Thomas Fitzgerald´s excellent X-Trans guides & used one of his sharpening presets, they´re really good !). To further optimize this I may need to experiment a bit more in detail with the sharpening settings:

RAW conversion using Adobe Camera RAW in Lightroom CC

Last but not least the most balanced high quality result came out of Iridient Developer: Extremely fine details are retained and beautifully rendered (using default "Iridient Reveal" sharpening). No artefacts, no exaggeration, IMO the very best result I could achieve (with a reasonable effort - I really want to minimize the time spent in front of my Mac, of course ;-)

RAW conversion using Iridient Developer

Concluding I have to say that Fuji shooters have a lot of choices nowadays: Need a fast result w/o hassle ? You can use the SOOC JPEG´s without any problem, they´re amazing ! Want to go RAW for a really good result with an integrated workflow ? Lightroom CC ain´t gonna disappoint you ! But if you want the very best image quality & don't shy away from some extra workflow integration ? Use Lightroom CC for image management and Iridient for RAW conversion (it can be easily integrated into your workflow - excellent "how to" advice available here)

Hope y´all liked today´s post & could find some guidance & information for your own work ? If you´ve any questions, comments or ideas - please leave me a note in the comments section or on my "Contact" page ! Many thanks for reading, for your continued interest & support, and hope to see you here again soon !

Good luck & best regards,

Hendrik

I hope you enjoyed reading this post - If you like you can support me by sending me a small donation via PayPal.me/hendriximages ! Helps me run this site & keeps the information coming, many thanks in advance !

First Walk with Fuji 23 mm f2 - Mother of Lenses !

Finally Fuji did it & finally it´s here: The "mother of all lenses". The 23 mm f2 WR. How long have we been waiting for Fuji to give us a compact standard wide-angle for their interchangeable lens cameras, just like on the legendary X100 series ? Was it worth the wait ? Please read on !

Walking with the 23 mm f2 WR on my Fuji X-Pro2

Now I can ´fess up: Never really liked that 35 mm focal length (50 mm FF equiv.) - always either not long enough or too short, jack of all trades but master of none ... I loved the 23 mm (35 mm FF equiv.) on my X100T but could never get to terms with the 23 mm f1.4 on my X-Pro. Too heavy. Too big. Too obvious (and covering half of my OVF - hey, an elephant could hide behind it and you´d be in for a nasty surprize when you reviewed your image ;-)

Then when Fuji announced it was gonna give us a compact WR f2 - I ordered it right off the bat and settled in for the long wait. Now it´s here & I´m in heaven - This lens beats everything. Period. Image quality´s already stunning at f2 & gets even better on stopping down. And it don't get in your way, compact enough so youse can always take a camera just with one lens along with you. Always, anytime. No more excuses, no sir !

Late Afternoon Fence, 23 mm f2 WR on Fuji X-Pro2

Operation´s perfect, aperture ring with just the right resistance & clear clicks (although I must say there is a slight spread between samples - the first one I tried was a tick too tight). The focus ring is wide enough to justify using it now & then, in case you ever get tired of the lightning fast, spot-on autofocus ... Oh yeah, I gotta say: This one focusses real fast, like faster than all the other Fuji lenses I´ve known ! I prefer the Wide/Tracking focus mode: Don´t worry, be happy ! And the vented lens hood of the 35 mm f2 also fits, yay !

Dark Facades, captured by 23 mm f2 WR on Fuji X-Pro2

Last but not least: Field of view´s just perfect for reportage, street photography, storytelling, landscapes, environmental portraiture - just about everything, except the kitchen sink (and even that one will look good ;-) ! Yup, the images taken with this lens have a special quality for me - I discovered it´s got a slightly larger field of view (around 2° more) than what i had on the 23 mm f1.4 or the 23 mm f2 on the X100T !

So is there anything I don't like about this lens ? Normally I´m kinda critical ´bout my gear & easily find something or other to bitch about. In this case it´s a real challenge - IF I had to say something: Bokeh´s not as nice as on the 23 mm f1.4 & I sometimes miss that additional stop of light in dark corners ... but you can't have ´em all, right ?

Closed ... the deal on the new 23 mm f2 WR !

To sum it up, this IMO is THE must-have lens for every Fuji shooter - if you can only have one lens (like the "desert island lens"), this is it ! You get stellar image quality, it´s fast, silent, compact, light, water resistant & ain´t got no OVF intrusion - at a very reasonable price. OK, you need f1.4 or can't live w/o best-in-class bokeh (on a wide -angle) and don't need the WR, nor mind the size & weight ? Then go for the 23 mm f1.4, by all means - luckily Fuji gives you the choice !

Thanks for reading, hope y´all liked it. Please let me know if you got any questions or comments - you know where to find me !

Hendrik

I hope you enjoyed reading this post - If you like you can support me by sending me a small donation via PayPal.me/hendriximages ! Helps me run this site & keeps the information coming, many thanks in advance !

Good news for Fuji Fans: Lightroom is all you need !

Until recently X-Photographers were forced to either use only Fuji´s (very good) JPEG´s or 3rd party RAW converters coz Adobe´s Camera RAW didn't really cooperate with the non-Bayer demosaicing layout of Fuji´s X-Trans sensors. Now here´s the good news for Fuji shooters: With Adobe´s latest Creative Cloud update there´s no more need to stray from Lightroom & fuss with needing to export & re-import images. And no more need to split your post processing over 2 pieces of software !

I stumbled over this after viewing images in Lightroom, see previous posts here and here but just wanted to double-check if the improvement is also visible in portraiture (skin & hair), see here an image (thanks to my lovely wife !) developed in Lightroom (no external RAW converter !):

The Lady with the Umbrella, Fuji X-Pro2 with f2/35mm WR, processed in Lightroom CC

Here a 100% enlargement of this image:

Crop of above image processed in Lightroom CC

And here the same image developed in the best-of-class external RAW converter Iridient:

The Lady with the Umbrella, Fuji X-Pro2 with f2/35mm WR, processed in Iridient Developer

Here again the 100% enlargement for your reference:

Crop of above image processed with Iridient Developer

As you can see there is not much difference, from my point of view the image developed in Lightroom is even a bit more natural looking !

I hope this little post helps X-Photographers to simplify their workflow by not needing to fuss with additional bits of software, please let me know your experience or if you have any comments, I look forward to hearing from you !

Many thanks for visiting & for your interest, wish y´all a good Sunday & best regards

Hendrik

I hope you enjoyed reading this post - If you like you can support me by sending me a small donation via PayPal.me/hendriximages ! Helps me run this site & keeps the information coming, many thanks in advance !

Adobe´s got the best RAW converter for Fuji X-Trans, Part 2 & Conclusion

Last week I shared with y´all how various RAW converters render the Fuji X-Pro2´s new X-Trans III sensor´s hi-lights & shadows, see here. Now for the second (and last) part, I´m looking at details & sharpening - I must say, very interesting ! Please read on if curious - again I start with the SOOC JPEG, showing how the camera interpreted the scene:

 Park with Lake - Fuji X-Pro2, WR 35mm/f2, JPEG SOOC: not bad at all, but a bit too dark !

Here an enlarged portion of this SOOC image:

Crop of above SOOC JPEG, observe some "watercolor" artifacts in the background bushes !

Serves me right, at this extreme magnification level (300-400%) I managed to identify the famous "watercolor" effect in some areas of finest low contrast foliage detail ! Now this is a special feature of Fuji´s X-Trans sensors, developed to punish "pixel peepers" ;-)

Believe me, if you focus your photography on developing the best image content, rather than searching for artifacts at crazy magnifications you'll never need to bother about it. This effect is definitely NOT visible at normal viewing magnifications, nor in print ! As this "watercolor" effect remained visible with all RAW converters, I believe it´s caused on pixel level by interference between finest details and Fuji´s proprietary demosaicing pattern (designed to maximize sharpness by not needing an AA filter for moiré prevention). I also get the impression that it´s less evident on Fuji´s new 24 mp sensor compared to the previous 16 mp sensors (where i could make it visible already at lower magnifications)

Having said that now let´s look at how the different RAW converters perform on details & sharpness:

1. Photo Ninja:

Apart from the missing lens correction the "watercolor" effect is less prominent as it´s masked by a kind of "smearing":

Park with Lake - Fuji X-Pro2, WR 35mm/f2, RAW developed in Photo Ninja

Here the enlargement, showing quite good details & sharpening, but for my taste too harsh micro-contrast ...

Crop of the above Photo Ninja rendering, less visible "watercolor" but harsh micro-contrast

2. Iridient Developer:

From my point of view detail & sharpening are better balanced here (less "smearing") & better sharpening in contrasty details:

Park with Lake - Fuji X-Pro2, WR 35mm/f2, RAW developed in Iridient Developer

See here the enlargement:

Crop of the above Iridient rendering, excellent details & more balanced sharpening

3. Adobe Camera RAW (included in Lightroom & Photoshop):

Last but not least here the rendering of Adobe Camera Raw, with some tweaking of sharpening in Lightroom nearly as good as Iridient !

Park with Lake - Fuji X-Pro2, WR 35mm/f2, RAW developed in Adobe Camera Raw

Details, see here:

Crop of the above Adobe Camera Raw rendering, nearly as good as Iridient !

Conclusion:

From my point of view based on detail & sharpening alone Iridient wins, but with some tweaking Adobe Camera Raw can come quite close !

So, overall combing this with last week´s conclusion I´m gonna try "survive" ;-) without an external RAW developer (i.e. see if I can limit myself to just Lightroom) !

Will keep y´all posted, please feel free to visit me here soon & see how it "develops" (pun intended !)

Many thanks for looking by & for your interest, please feel free to contact me via my contact page & drop me a message, I´ll be most happy to answer your questions as good as I can !

Best regards & wish great imagin(in)g !

Hendrik

I hope you enjoyed reading this post - If you like you can support me by sending me a small donation via PayPal.me/hendriximages ! Helps me run this site & keeps the information coming, many thanks in advance !

Adobe´s got the best RAW converter for Fuji X-Trans now, or what ? Part 1

Recently I got this pop-up on my MAC informing on new Creative Cloud App updates, so I downloaded ´em & was looking at some high contrast images after import using Lightroom´s ACR (Adobe Camera RAW). Here FYI the JPEG SOOC, with totally jacked highlights & shadows:

Dogging the Fountain - Fuji X-Pro2, WR 35mm/f2, JPEG SOOC: Jacked highlights & shadows !

But when opening the RAW´s with ACR - what the ... ??? ;-) Hey, could it be that Adobe´s now finally gotten their Fuji X-Trans rendering act together ? Intrigued by this performance I decided to (again ... yawn ;-) compare Adobe´s Camera RAW (included in Lightroom & Photoshop CC) with the best external RAW converters out there (Iridient & Photo Ninja) - ya just gotta keep on your toes here ;-) please read on if interested !

I´ve been using Photo Mechanic for culling / key-wording & Lightroom for (mobile) image management / processing since way back, so obviously a built in RAW converter would have major advantages for my workflow compared to an external one (no more needing to export & copy back in, nor splitting image processing over 2 bits of software, etc.)

I´m posting this in 2 instalments: 1. Highlights & Shadows Performance (this post), and 2. Detail & Sharpening (coming up soon !)

Let´s start with Highlights & Shadows Performance. Although aesthetically the SOOC JPEG quite faithfully rendered what I´d originally visualised at time of capture the highlights & shadows are like totally blown out. So I was interested how much detail I could pull back into the image during post processing:

To do this I basically first maxed out the highlights recovery and then pushed the shadows by slightly increasing exposure until just before the highlights started blowing out again (thereby keeping an eye on not losing too much contrast). See below the comparison & results !

1. Adobe Camera RAW in Photoshop CC:

This one I liked the most:

Highlight & Shadows compression using Photoshop CC´s built in ACR RAW converter

Dunno why, but i seemed to get a slightly better rendering outta Photoshop´s built in version of ACR than LR´s (maybe the PS ACR interface is better, or I was too dumb or lazy to get 100% the same result with Lightroom´s built in ACR ...). Here a 100% crop view showing vastly improved shadows & highlights areas vs. the JPEG:

100% Crop of Photoshop´s ACR rendering

2. Adobe Canera RAW in Lightroom CC:

Nearly as good (yeah, right - both platforms use the same Adobe Camera RAW built in RAW converter):

Highlight & Shadows compression using Lightroom CC´s built in ACR RAW converter

Here a 100% crop view showing the improved shadows & highlights areas, with slightly less contrast in the shadows whereas highlights seem to have a bit more detail ...

100% Crop of Lightroom´s ACR rendering

3. Iridient Developer:

Iridient is amazing in its ability to bring out detail with a unique & careful sharpening of Fuji X-Pro2´s files, but I was quite shocked to see that its highlight & shadows detail recovery seems to be limited:

Highlight & Shadows compression using Iridient´s external RAW converter

Compared to ACR the highlight head room is quite limited, meaning I have less "foot" room available for pushing the shadows, before the highlights blow (compare the crack between the tiles on bottom right with the ACR versions):

100% Crop of Iridient´s rendering

4. Photo Ninja:

This one I liked the least - highlight head room seems a bit better than Iridient, but didn't matter what I did, i just couldn't manage to bring out more shadow detail (it always kinda remained a dark soup). Also Photo Ninja does not react on EXIF lens correction parameters, you get the total image (see the additional details at the image borders), but the image is still distorted:

Highlight & Shadows compression using Photo Ninja´s external RAW converter

And here the details - highlights OK´ish but the black dog just remains a black silhouette:

100% Crop of Photo Ninja´s rendering

Sorry, did´t have no more access to Capture One & never used Raw Therapee so those two are not covered here ...

Interim Conclusion: Adobe´s ACR wins the dynamic range battle !
(please also check out part 2 soon for details & sharpness comparison and for the final conclusion)

From a highlights & shadows recovery point of view the benefit of not needing to use external RAW converters seems to be an achievable target, Adobe´s ACR is doing an excellent job here ! OK I´d not push it that far for a fine art print to preserve the visual impression of the original situation, but good to know there is room for manoeuvring !

I hope this was an interesting read for all you Fuji fans out there - please leave me a comment in case you´ve any questions and/or suggestions ! Many thanks for looking by & wish y´all good light !

Best regards

Hendrik

I hope you enjoyed reading this post - If you like you can support me by sending me a small donation via PayPal.me/hendriximages ! Helps me run this site & keeps the information coming, many thanks in advance !

WOW ! Combining X-Pro2´s X-Trans III and Iridient

Finally I dunnit - after reading lotsa reviews and years of frustration with windows OS (jeezus, I needed to become more of an IT expert than focussing on improving my photography ...) I jumped ship to Mac. This now opened the door to using Iridient RAW developer (which unfortunately don´t exist for Win users ...). Well to put it mildly, I was completely blown away with the results !!!

Spring coming to Hofgarten in Bayreuth

Gone the issues with smearing foliage or fine details artefacts i´d experienced with various windows based RAW converters off Fuji X-Trans sensors ! Using Iridient´s R-L deconvolution setting with radius 0.5 and 30 iterations I get a clear but subtle sharpening effect w/o visible artefacts, demonstrating the amazing details Fuji´s new 24 MP X-Trans III sensor is capable of rendering. I still use Lightroom for my image management (yeah, some old habits die hard ;-) but using LR proprietary RAW converter just don´t cut it, see below:

Iridient RAW development - nice & crisp !

LR RAW development - still a bit mushy ...

To integrate Iridient RAW developer into Lightroom I set up:

  1. LR to use Iridient as external RAW editor: LR export menu > export to same folder as original, add to catalog & stack, TIFF, after export open in Iridient ...
  2. Iridient to open the original RAW image (not the TIFF copy !): Preferences > tick "Find & Load RAW for TIFF, JPEG, ... open events"

White fence in the last afternoon sun ...

When exporting an image from LR to Iridient (right click > export to Iridient) LR creates a "place-holder" TIFF from the RAW image but Iridient opens and develops the original RAW file related to it. When done in Iridient the developed RAW overwrites the TIFF "place-holder" in LR by using file > process image and overwrite option. Then back in LR just apply some finishing touches (B&W conversion, curves, exposure, contrast, highlight / shadow recovery, etc) and you´re done !

Candlelight dinner with my lovely wife (no flash !)

I hope y´all liked this post & could get some inspiration off it - my apologies to my readers & followers that I´ve neglected my blog for a several months: moving house & starting up new job and all ...

Please let me know if you got questions or need any support in how to set up the various bits of software so this works smoothly and/or which settings to apply for  best results (but on that one I´m still on a learning curve m´self, so please bear with me a little while ;-)

Many thanks for reading & look forward to hearing from you, appreciate if you´d leave your comments or constructive critique in the comments window below or drop me a mail !

Thanks in advance & warm regards

Hendrik

I hope you enjoyed reading this post - If you like you can support me by sending me a small donation via PayPal.me/hendriximages ! Helps me run this site & keeps the information coming, many thanks in advance !