Fuji X-Pro1

Photograph by Rinzi Ruiz (All photographs in this article provided by Rinzi Ruiz)

My good friend Nicholas Susatyo recently recommended a book to me: “Zen in the Art of Archery.” In-fact, it was the book that Henri Cartier-Bresson said had the deepest influence in his photography. I have been meaning to read it for a while, so on my flight to Philly I decided to give it a go.The book is written by Eugen Herrigel, a German philosophy teacher who went to Japan for several years and learned the art of archery (while teaching philosophy at a Japanese university). He heard about the art of archery, and was fascinated with the zen philosophy which was embedded in the art.

As we all know, archery is no longer practiced in the “real world” in battles and such. When Herrigel wrote “Zen in the Art of Archery” in the 1940′s, it was a very closed art– only reserved to local Japanese who were serious enough about it. To teach a foreigner the art of zen and archery was considered heretical. However with some good luck (a good introduction by a Japanese friend) and some persistence, Herrigel was able to go under the wing of one of the greatest archers in Japan. And with his experiences learning under him for 6 years, he wrote his brief book in “Zen in the Art of Archery.” The book was an enjoyable read to me, because he explained the zen philosophies (which are often cryptic) in a way in which westerners could understand. Being Korean-American myself, it was the perfect balance of Eastern Philosophy with Western analysis. After finishing the book, not only did I learn many insights which I plan on applying to my practical everyday life, but also to my street photography. Some of these philosophies may seem a bit cryptic, but I will share what I personally got out of reading the book. And of course, I am not an expert of zen–and one of the biggest difficulties is that there are so many branches of zen that all the practitioners have subtly different philosophies. Please feel free to share your thoughts and also corrections in the comments below......

Ultra wides are fun to use however the all encompassing field of view can make good compositions difficult to achieve, while being even slightly off true level in any plane can introduce unnatural distortions. Ok the latter can be used to good effect creating dramatic perspectives, but it can also look gimmicky if not done well. The obvious impulse is to go large and look for grand vistas. I find this is invariably a mistake. With a field of view of 21mm on the X-Pro1, the Fujinon 14mm is still a 14mm lens and its perspective reduces even the mightiest of mountains to hillocks in your images if you are not close enough. My wife took me up a mountain recently to show me the perilous route she took across the mountain on horseback. The image below was shot for fun with the X-Pro1 panorama feature and the 14mm lens. The mountains in the background are not that far away and they are over 1200m high. Where I am standing is at around 600m. The image is….well…rubbish really and gives no sense of the dramatic route that she took. A better way to take this shot would be to stitch multiple shots using a lens that is closer to the perspective of the human eye, say 50mm or so. The second impulse, at least for landscapes, is to use F11 or higher and use the hyper-focal technique. This works well in most cases, particularly if the intended display medium is the web, but my personal preference is to use an aperture of around F8 and to manually focus on the subject. Ultra wides like the 14mm at F8 have buckets of DOF without having to worry about diffraction. Manually focusing on the X-Pro1 is very straight forward. With longer lenses the 10x magnification on the view finder is a challenge, but I find it ok on this lens. If you find it tough, drop to 3x. The real bonus of this method is that if you do decide to print large you will have a better quality image in the sense that the key subject is on the plane of sharpest focus. The Fujinon XF 14mm is remarkably devoid of distortion which makes it an interesting lens to use for architecture. I tend to travel a lot on business and I always carry a camera with me. Recently I was near Tower Bridge in London heading to the Regus offices there for a meeting. It was all foggy an atmospheric first thing in the morning. The City Hall  building caught my eye but I was late for the meeting so  I took a  a quick snap to remind me to go back after work, or later in the week to take some photos......

I’m a photojournalist by profession, a documentary photographer by choice, and a street photographer in my heart, but before all of that, I just love photography, and l love to take pictures. Enter in the Fuji X-Pro 1. Very recently, less than one month ago, I sold all of my DSLRs, fast glass and long lenses and purchased two Fuji X-Pro 1 bodies, the XF 18mm f/2 (approx. 28mm equivalent), the XF 35mm f/1.4 (approx. 50mm equivalent), and the XF 18-55 zoom and I couldn’t be happier. For nearly two decades I’ve wanted a Leica film body (M6), but in my career as a newspaper photojournalist and with all of the professional sports I had to cover, I just couldn’t justify it. In the late 90s I bought the amazing Contax G2 and loved it dearly. But as film started to fade and digital started to pick up speed, the M6 dream also faded. I finally sold the Contax in 2005 while it was still had value. As Leica released the M8, and I saw that the price was significantly higher than the already pricy M6 (I was never really interested in the M7), and that it was not a full frame sensor (because I really wanted a 35mm Summicron–Leica’s 35mm f/2 lens), I lost interest. Then the Leica M9 was released which caught my attention, but I knew that as a working photographer, I could never afford nor justify the cost of one camera and one lens, let alone a complete system. I love Leica, but it simply cannot be justified in its cost (for me personally), thus out of my reach. Leica used to be the camera of the working photojournalist, and many legends of photography have made iconic photographs with them, but the world has changed, and making a living with photography is harder than ever. With new amazing technology, and steep competition, working photographers are now using new tools that get the job done. There was a time in my career that if a photographer showed up for an assignment with anything but a Nikon or a Canon, they were looked at as an amateur, but not anymore. One of the big attractions of the Leica, to me, is its simplicity; in this it’s unbeaten still today. I applaud Leica for (mostly) remaining true to its heritage with the digital M cameras, and I hope they always will. No other camera system even comes close to the workmanship and quality build and materials of a Leica. If you’ve ever held a Leica lens, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Fuji, analogously, has invented a camera system that gets back to the basics. Things like a real shutter speed dial, check, a real aperture dial, check, a real optical viewfinder, check. But Fuji also added a real exposure compensation dial that’s even better than the ones the old Nikon’s used to have on their film bodies. Also, the wondrous beauty of Fuji’s hybrid viewfinder, where the user can switch, on the fly, from optical (OVF) to electronic (EVF), is the icing on the cake to me. This camera is a breath of fresh air to photograph with. The buttons are perfectly placed and they are few (only what’s needed). Today I chose to slow down and shoot just for the sheer joy of it. While photographing with the X-Pro 1 I was able to switched from optical finder, to rear LCD, to electronic viewfinder, to changing the ISO, the aperture, etc., etc. all effortlessly and without a thought. It was so much fun. In fact, it was pure joy. I really haven’t had this much fun shooting with any camera since my Contax G2. Imagine that, a professional photographer actually enjoying shooting when not getting paid to do so. (By the slightest chance if anyone from Fuji happens to read this article, I ask you to PLEASE not change a single thing on the X-Pro 1 camera body with the future X-Pro camera body, but instead just install dual, quad-core processors (for a little more speed) and we’re good to go. This camera is that good! .....

b/w . paris . france

Fuji X-Pro1 with 35mm f1.4 and Minolta MD Rokkor 50mm 1.4 ...

Da wir auf Hochzeiten selten im Studio zu finden sind haben wir mit der Fuji x100s und der Fuji X-E1 Lutz Graichen von Windflüchter Surfboards besucht um etwas realere Bedingungen für einen Test zu haben als Schärfetafeln oder Stilleben. Der studierte Sportwissenschaftler baut seit 2008 in Rostock an der Ostseeküste Windsurfboards unter dem Namen Windflüchter. Und so wie sich die Form eines Windflüchters, eines Baumes dessen Wuchsform stark durch die Winde an der Küste beeinflusst wird, passt Lutz seine Boards nach den Wünschen seiner Kunden an. Ausgeglichenheit, Liebe zum Detail, Präzision und die Leidenschaft für das Handwerk sind allgegenwärtig wenn man bei ihm in der Werkstatt ist. Allerdings erwarten die Kameras in seiner Werkstatt auch flackernde Neonröhren und viel Staub. Nicht gerade das wir normalerweise auf Hochzeiten vorfinden, aber ein recht extremer Test für die kleinen Fujis da sie keine wirkliche Versiegelung haben. Zwar hat meine X-E1 auch schon den einen oder anderen Regen überstanden, aber wer weiß. Am meisten war ich auf den neuen Autofokus und natürlich das “digitale Schnittbild” im manuellen Fokus gespannt. Soviel sei gesagt: Ja, der Autofokus der x100s ist schneller als der, der X-E1, aber unter erschwerten Bedingungen noch nicht mit einer DSLR Vergleichbar. Vielleicht in der nächsten Generation von Fuji Kameras. Intelligent Hybrid AF nennt Fuji die neue Methode zur “Scharfstellung” und meint damit eine Mischung aus “TTL Phase detection” und “TTL contrast”. Die Bewegungen von Lutz beim Shapen des Boards einzufangen ging der kleinen Fuji dann aber doch nicht so einfach von der Hand wie erhofft. Sicher kann das den schlechten Lichtverhältnissen geschuldet sein. Ein weiterer Test mit spielenden Kindern in der Sonne wäre wohl notwendig bevor wir die kleine mit dem neuen 16.3 MP X-Trans CMOS II Sensor zu einer Hochzeit ausführen. Wenn man die Ruhe des Moments nutzt sitzt der Fokus natürlich perfekt, keine Frage. Zeit also das Fokus Peaking und das “digitale Schnittbild” im manuellen Fokus zu testen. Einer der vielen Punkte auf der Wunschliste der Fuji Nutzer ist das Fokus Peaking und siehe da, Fuji hat die Gebete erhört. Zumindest teilweise. Denn wenn wir mal ehrlich sind ist ein Fokus Peaking mit weißen Kontrastkanten dann doch im realen Leben weniger hilfreich als erhofft. Grün oder Rot wären wohl die bessere Wahl gewesen. Wer weiß, vielleicht liefert Fuji hier per Firmware noch nach. Eine neue Welt eröffnet das momentan “weltweit erste Fokussystem, das eine sensorbasierte Phasenerkennung nutzt” – Zitat Fuji. Soll heißen, wenn die Kanten der dargestellten Bildhälften aufeinander liegen, ist der entsprechende Bereich scharf. Anfangs ist es etwas ungewohnt, aber es funktioniert perfekt wenn man sich erst Mal daran gewöhnt hat. Im Direkten Vergleich der Schärfe zwischen dem 23mm f2 der x100s und dem XF-35mm f1.4 an der X-E1 verliert das fest an der x100s angebrachte Objektiv. Nichts desto trotz ist die Kombination der 35mm äquivalenten Kleinbild Brennweite am X-Trans Sensor eine Wucht bedenkt man das Kamera und Objektiv locker in die Hosentasche passen. Und darin besteht momentan auch der Vorteil gegenüber der X-E1, die vom Body her eine ähnliche Größe aufweist, aber durch die wechselbaren Objektive eben wesentlich “sperriger” daherkommt. Hier will Fuji noch dieses Jahr mit dem 27mm f2.8 Pancake eine Hosentaschen Variante anbieten. Das Rauschverhalten haben wir ja schon in anderen Blog Einträgen bis ISO 6400 gezeigt. Und wer sich über Randunschärfen unterhalten möchte kann sich auch unseren Vergleichstest ansehen. Die folgenden Bilder sind alle mit ISOs zwischen 1600 und 2500 bei Aperture Priority aufgenommen. Die Fuji x100s musste dabei bei komplett geöffneter Blende, also f2 belichten. Die X-E1 konnte mit dem XF-35mm f1.4 auf f2 abblenden. Ein Bild mit ISO6400 hat sich eingeschlichen. Wer’s findet darf es behalten. Eines muss noch zu den Farben gesagt werden. Beide Fuji Kameras haben es geschafft bei den schlechten Lichtverhältnissen, ständig wechselnden Farbtemperaturen im und automatischem Weißabgleich perfekte Farben zu generieren. Timos betagte 5DMKII hatte da sichtlich ihre Probleme und man konnte von 3 Bildern hatten alle 3 einen anderen Weißabgleich im Auto WB Modus......

There’s no doubt that Fuji has been shaking up the photography world lately. They’ve come up with some cameras that some describe as retro. I’d call them oddly wonderful. They all have a learning curve and they all have one other thing in common. They are hot commodities. Not everyone is taken with Fuji. Their first efforts in this space came up short in my opinion. And the X line is a bit polarizing. It’s like owning a Fiat 500. Some people run up and tell you it’s the coolest car they’ve ever seen. Others think it’s stupid. No matter where you fall on that spectrum, you should take another look at Fuji because their second iteration X100s is worth your consideration. I decided to buy the Fujifilm X100S camera for review. I had no idea how hard it would be to try to find one. It was no easy task. The cameras is quickly gaining a reputation as a fun little unit that can be used for serious work. All the usual big name camera stores are sold out of the X100s. But the great folks at PRO PHOTO SUPPLY in Portland were able to get their hands on the last one anywhere and shipped it to me right away. I got the camera Friday, installed the latest firmware (version 1.02), charged the battery and went to work. The basics of the X100s are simple. The camera uses a rangefinder metaphor and looks a little like the famous Leica cameras of old. (Specifically – it reminds me of the M3.) The internals are however quite different. The camera uses an APS-C 16M X-Trans CMOS sensor. (This is a very innovative sensor that delivers extraordinary low-light performance and super clean, sharp images.) There is no other company producing such a sensor and this is just the first place where the X100s is different. The sensor on the X100s (like the one on the Nikon D800e) doesn’t have an anti-alias filter. Instead Fuji uses what they call a color filter matrix (whatever that is) to accomplish the same thing. Unfortunately, Adobe Camera Raw doesn’t quite know what to do with it – more on that in a  minute. Fuji has also developed a new hybrid viewfinder. Most cameras in this class use an electronic view finder, but Fuji figured out a way to make a cross-over viewfinder that gives you both an optical viewfinder and an electronic viewfinder. It’s not only different, it’s amazing. It’s quirky and takes a few days to get used to, but once I got the hang of it I found myself thinking (“Why isn’t everyone doing this?”) I prefer an optical viewfinder every time. The camera has a fixed focal length lens (23mm f/2) EFL of 35mm f/2. So in some ways it might be tempting to consider this no more than a point and shoot or pocket camera, but it is much more. And it will only fit in your pocket if you’re big like me! Regardless of how you classify it, the technology and the results it generates are both very sophisticated and professional......

Sample shots with Carl Zeiss Touit 2.8/12 and FUJIFILM X-E1

On Tuesday, May 14, 2013, Zeiss held a press event at the Standard Hotel in New York City to launch it's new line of Touit lenses for compact system cameras (CSC).  The event was well-attended by writers from various media. There was a video presentation on a big screen, followed by a talk by Richard Schleuning, Zeiss's National Sales Manager in Zeiss's Camera Lens Division.  Everyone was then invited to try out the new lenses.  A model was provided for the event, and attendees could walk and photograph along the High Line, an elevated linear park created from a former railroad line which runs along the lower west side of Manhattan.  The High Line runs right under the Standard Hotel. Zeiss Touit lenses are a new line of autofocus lenses for Fuji X and Sony NEX cameras.  Two lenses were available at the launch:  the 12mm f/2.8 and the 32mm f/1.8.  Both lenses should be in stores in early June of this year.  A third lens, a 50mm f/2.8 macro, is expected in the late Fall of this year.  Zeiss expects to add more lenses to the Touit family in the next few years. The Touit name comes from a genus of small neotropical parrots.  The name is intended to evoke compactness and agility.  The lenses also bear the names of classic Zeiss designs:  Distagon for the 12mm wide angle, and Planar for the 32m standard lenses.   

Some key facts about the new lenses: 

- They are compact and lightweight, in keeping with the size and weight of cameras they're made for.

- They have a metal exterior with rubber grips for the focus and aperture rings.  Interior mechanical parts are metal and plastic; Zeiss didn't want the lenses to be too heavy.

- The lenses have the Zeiss T-star anti-reflective coating, along with advanced stray light reduction.

- They have an almost circular 9-bladed aperture for rounded out-of-focus highlights.

- Color characteristics will be similar throughout the Touit lens family.

- The manual focus ring is electronically coupled (there is no hard stop or distance scale).

- The aperture ring has clicks at 1/3 stops. (Touit lenses for the Fuji mount have aperture rings, unlike Touit lenses for the Sony mount.)

- The lenses are sold with a 2-year warranty.  An extra year is added if the buyer registers on the Zeiss web site, thus extending the warranty to a total of 3 years.

- The next version of Lightroom and Adobe Camera Raw will have profiles for Touit lenses.

- The Touit 12mm is an aspherical design with floating elements.  It is currently the widest lens for the Fuji X mount.

- The optimal aperture on the 32mm lens is f/4.  The optimal aperture on the 12mm lens is f/5.6.  MTF charts are available (or will be soon).

- Zeiss chose the autofocus motor for robustness and reliability, not for ultimate quietness.

- A lens hood is included with each lens.

- Touit lenses are not weather-sealed, and are not planned for Micro Four Thirds cameras. 

.....

The other day I had to make a call I never wanted to have to make. At 28 I needed to see a chiropractor - some would call it the photographers curse, a curse that unfortunately goes with the territory. Lugging heavy camera gear around, usually with it hanging from the neck, waist or one shoulder eventually takes its toll. This realisation along with some other vague and equally suspicious excuses was one of the reasons I'd been interested getting myself one of Fujifilm's X-Series cameras - the thought of having a camera that was small and light and could maybe even supplement my heavy old SLR was appealing. I knew they would probably never replace my SLR for work but as everyday cameras they seemed to offer a good compromise. In 2011 I bought the Fujifilm x100, a camera I loved to hate, a camera that for me was so nearly there in terms of what I personally was after but somehow not quite. It looked fantastic (for some reason more of an appeal to me than it really should be) and contained pretty much my perfect carry around set-up; packing an equivalent of 35mm f/2 lens. It was almost too silent when it took a photo (to the point where at times I wasn't even sure it had taken) but is small size and discretion were a big plus for me, the whole thing could slip in my pocket and yet it felt good in the hand with a nice weight. The whole manual shutter and aperture operation were a total winner for me. I think Fuji had finally realised that most camera manufacturers seemed to have failed to realise, photographers are creatures of habit, we are by and large dinosaurs, and we like what we know, and what we know works. So many cameras that come on to the market aren't aimed at dinosaurs, they are aimed at the mass consumer. Manual shutter dials and aperture rings disappeared from all but 'pro' cameras because they seemed archaic. This may well be the case but equally they were a tried and tested function that had been the norm for decades, and yet within a matter of years digital cameras had consigned them to the graveyard, much to the annoyance of the dinosaurs. Fuji it seems finally cottoned onto this and their x-series cameras are evidence of that – they’re a nod to a system that is tried and tested. Nevertheless with the x100 they still managed to get a few things wrong. They may have designed the hardware well but the internals, the menu system, was a generally nonsensical and the camera had a habit of not responding particularly fast, it was sluggish, not much but just enough, and it acted at time likes a despondent child. Luckily Fuji were a company that actually listened to its customers and the firmware updates did start to tackle these problems.......

Random Pictures From The Fuji X-Pro1 - Keith Low

When Fujifilm announced the X100s I have to admit I was excited. I had grown to love the X100, I had grown used to the quirks and foibles of the original incarnation and learned to focus on the positives, as they were plenty. The X100s may look almost identical to the original X100 but in short it is a completely different animal (photographically speaking). The X100s is a phenomenal leap in performance and image quality to the original X100, the new X-Trans sensor is brilliant and especially shines in low light environments and as a result I am using it for literally everything. Although the X100s is only out a few months I have already taken it to most of the counties in Northern Ireland (and also Donegal). I’ve used in every weather condition Ireland can throw at it in this very long Winter of Spring. I have used it up mountains on the Northern Ireland coast, in City Hall and the dark Belfast pubs and the X100s has yet to let me down......

Thank you so much for your comments and kind words. We have been shooting Fuji X100s quite extensively in the last few weeks and here are some additional (full review here) thoughts about the camera and the files it produces:

- The autofocus is indeed much, much faster.

- The camera is dead quiet, unlike anything else on the market.

- JPEGs straight from the camera continue to impress us. They are the best in the industry, period!

- Velvia film simulation appears to be much improved (our initial impression was mixed). There are no more lost shadows, so we use it more often now.

- The Fuji X100s RAW files do not respond well to the Adobe Camera RAW sharpening formula (they are falling apart and getting a strange look). Instead, we use NIK Sharpener Pro and the files look great; we have no such problems.

- The Dynamic Range Auto (DRAUTO) function works great. If you are shooting JPEGs only, be sure to use it. Recently we covered a small family event and shot JPEGs exclusively with DR-Auto on. We could not believe the results – the system didn’t allow highlights to blow out. The camera did a very good job of handling mixed and challenging lighting.

- The in-camera sharpening at default settings is a little weak in our view; we set it between +1, or sometimes +2. The pictures don’t look over-sharpened at all.

- The prints from JPEGs are gorgeous (11×17) and from TIFFs they are even better (printed up to 20×30 – see here).

- The fun factor, portability, is unlike anything on the market now. 

All right, enough of this technical jumbo-mumbo. It is time for some images. Today I went for a very early morning walk around Vancouver with the Fuji X100s and here are the results.

This week was a special mix of satisfaction, surprise and anger. First I went for a walk at 23h30 and was in awe under the sky still lit, helped by some Aurora Borealis. Then the next day, I saw the Inuit version of “The Hockey Night in Canada” as young boys were playing in the streets despite the ferocious cold wind. The anger came with a letter from Getty Images wich I describe in a precedent post. After having spent most of the week-end questioning myself about the Getty Issue and decided to fight back, I went on a walk without any other goal than observing and exploring, as I often do. I stumble upon this little Inuk, who can’t wait any longer to make sand castle. A few feet away, the sea ice is still covering part of the bay, although it is shattered and flowing slowly to the Ungava. Wanting to see how much ice was left, I climb a nearby mountain and walked over to the big bay. Here’re a few pictures from the week and from this climb. Although summer seems a long way, the small boy on the beach was already in his summer play. No more time to waste. Text & Photographs © Marc-André Pauzé – all rights reserved. You can diffuse and share on your social media using the buttons on the upper left side of the window, but the use of the picture is restricted through Stipple. Make sure you link back to this site and credit the author. Please forgive if there are any grammatical errors, my main language is french. To see the pictures in maximum size, click on one of them and change using the arrows of your keyboards or by clicking on the right edge of the picture.....