first weekend with X-Pro1

[fordy]

Here are a few thoughts on my first weekend with my X-Pro 1 with the XF35mm/f1.4 lens.

Firstly on unboxing it you can feel the quality right away and it immediately feels special. It’s a lovely thing to behold and a properly nice purchase. Build quality appears excellent.

In terms of handling I like it. I’m used to the Fuji way of doing things now coming from an X10 so the software is very familiar and my investment in time on the X10 is not wasted. The aperture ring on the lens and the shutter dial on the body is completely wonderful and a reason in itself to own this system. It’s exactly what I need to encourage me to take more creative control of the camera. I had begun to successfully get out of the fully auto modes on the X10 but this XP1 is much more intuitive to use. The camera has a nice weight to it in the hand and isn’t heavy at all. I carried it around pretty much all weekend slung over my shoulder and it was just fine.

The OVF/EVF combination is really great and the more I got used to the EVF, the more I started to rely on it. My first thoughts on the EVF were that it presented an unnatural view of the world and always preferred to finally look through the OVF to get the shot but when previewing, and especially when using manual focusing modes, the EVF comes into its own and I grew comfortable with the EVF throughout the weekend. It will be interesting to see how this goes.

Now let’s get the AF performance out of the way. I’d read all the forums and reviews about how poor it was in the beginning and how it’s hugely improved with each software update, to the point with the latest software that it’s now completely fine. It’s not really. Its bloody awful. This is on the very latest 3.01 software too. With static well lit scenes it’s fine but give it some tricky light and it hunts around. An example was my son playing the piano and there was strong backlight from a window. No chance to get it to focus in this situation. Very disappointing and you miss shots. The other huge fail is with moving subjects. Simply, if there is movement in the scene, forget it. We spotted a small fun fair in a park en route to a museum so we took the kids in for half an hour and I came away with just a couple of useable shots, mostly out of blind luck. The AF-C mode is barely different from AF-S. What a waste of time. My wife wasn’t very impressed at this point. She didn’t see the point of a camera that repeatedly misses shots! Maybe she has a point… Maybe I need to read the instructions or learn how to manually zone focus.

The 35mm prime is taking a bit of getting used to. It’s my first time shooting with a prime and it’s forcing me to think about my pictures in new ways. I’ve long been used to compact zooms on the my cameras and spend a lot of time at the wide end shoe-horning buildings and scenes into the viewfinder but I have to say, 35mm already feels a bit long for me. I know you need to move your feet but I was having to take long walks! Sometimes it’s good because you find a new perspective by walking around the scene more but other times it’s a pain when you really don’t have the time, Sometimes you point your camera at a building, look behind you to see how much "zoom out using feet" space you have and you quickly start walking away from things that would have made a nice shot. Of course thats no revelation, I just need the right lens for the job. I’m usually out and about with my family though and zooms help you to frame a shot quickly without the family hanging around all the time waiting for you. I think I’ll be having the 18-55 before too long or maybe just the 18mm/f2 wide angle. I can understand why there is such impatience on the X-forums for the forthcoming 23mm/f1.4 prime as it’ll probably be the ideal all day walkabout compact lens, as it is on the X100.

The 35mm did come into its own though when getting portraits and candid’s of the kids. It’s lovely when shooting it at wide apertures. Subject isolation is really nice and I’ve wanted to be able to do this for ages. Shots of the kids in playgrounds and cafes where a revelation. Wife was impressed with the output on these types of shot and declared it the portrait camera. I’m very much looking forward to the forthcoming 56mm/f1.2 for this purpose.

The low light performance came into its own wandering about a dimly lit museum. No need for a flash here to annoy people (indeed flash not always allowed anyway) and the quiet mode of the camera was nice and discreet. I just set it to Auto ISO 1600 and merrily snapped away handheld at wide aperture. Excellent. The manual focus peaking function was cool too. Taking shots of exhibits behind glass meant having to wrestle the camera into manual mode to focus beyond the glass and the focus peaking worked like a dream.

So over all I like it. It’s going to do to my photography what I need it to do, slow me down and make me think more about what I need the camera to do and it will deliver me great pictures, commensurate with my effort. For candid’s, street, portraits, buildings and landscapes it’s going to be a lovely system to get to know and there’s a nice lens collection to build. For pictures of the kids? I’ll be getting my Nikon back out.

I’ll stick some snaps from the weekend up when I get time this week.

 

[rockmeister]

very very interesting. Many thanks for that Fordy. The autofocus issue maybe the death knell for me. I am happy to try manual focus IF the viewfinder allows me the eye relief needed to wear my glasses, but I read that this isn't good either, so I may have to throw the whole fuji idea out the window!. I'll still go try one, but that's a pain. I wonder why it's so bad?

Anyway if you can adapt, the rest of it sounds lovely, and v much looking forward to seeing some pics (post some blurs too maybe, to see the focus probs first hand, in this thread??

 

[paulf-2007]

The X-E1 is much the same, af is hit and miss. I have the 18mm and 60mm macro, most peeps selling these lenses are doing so 'cause they bought the 18-55 zoom, lazy buggers. If you want to take snaps buy a Nikon compact or similar.

Rocky you can adjust the diopter on the evf to use without specs depending on how bad your eyes are of course. I also use 28mm and 50mm contax lenses on manual focus, but all this takes time, so once again if you want to take snaps..............

What I really want when I find one at sensible money is the 14mm. I find just focusing on the subject with shallow depth of field is also hit and miss on AF, so I sometimes use the manual focus. What I like most about the X-E1 is most people think I am using a film camera and comment on it, " oh that's an old camera "

 

[fordy]

I've a few things to try having read up a bit again. I think I was running the cam in silent mode which actually switches off the focus assist light. Probably be why it was struggling in low light on the piano shot. I will have another go at this shot.

I may also have been using AF-C mode incorrectly as you need to keep off the half press and let the camera get on with it. Half pressing locks the focus. Probably my bad and needs more experimentation. That said, reviewers of the latest software say it's not good for moving subjects. Allegedly AF performance is better in EVF mode too so something else to look out for.

Also on reading a bit more about AF performance in general, the XP1 after v3.01 software is now basically up there with most of the other MILC's nowadays so maybe it's just my expectations and I would be equally disapointed with with an OM-D or somesuch. They are mostly all using contrast detect AF and are all similar in performance apparently. Possibly my problem was playing around too much in the shop with the latest big CaNikons with their phase detect AF systems which are in another league in terms of AF performance. Either way I need to learn how to optimise what I have. The Fuji way involves many pitfalls it seems.

Anyway my enthusiasm for the system is not diminished as the point for me is to understand the act of photographing much more and this camera will mostly aid me doing that. The learning curve seems steep initially though.

 

[unclepuncle]

The X-E1 is much the same, af is hit and miss. I have the 18mm and 60mm macro, most peeps selling these lenses are doing so 'cause they bought the 18-55 zoom, lazy buggers. If you want to take snaps buy a Nikon compact or similar.

I must be a lazy bugger then. :x

I bought the X-E1 with 18-55mm off the Fuji refurb site together with a money off code that someone posted on PFM.

Everything I have read says that the zoom lens is as good or better at 18mm than the prime - the trade-off is size and weight.

 

[fordy]

I've been dicking about with the AF tonight and found something surprising that explains one of my poor performance issues. With the camera in EVF or the rear LCD screen modes, pointing the camera randomly at things, near and far about the room, with the room lights turned well down. It's pretty fast. No issues.

In OVF at far focus in the room, same conditions, no problem. Pretty sweet actually.

At near focus, say 0.5m away, it wouldn't lock focus on a black lens cap on a light maple coloured wooden table. Just couldn't do it, even in good light. Then I remembered something from the DP review, that in OVF mode you really need to have the corrected AF frame option switched on to account for the parallax error between the OVF and the sensor (since its the sensor doing the AF leg work). Since the centre AF square (in area focus mode) is in the centre of the OVF, it's not actually precisely what the sensor is pointing at though because of the parallax error. Focussing in the far field it doesn't matter because the parallax error is small so the AF points overlap almost completely. Nearby the difference is significant. In this case, the sensor was actually focussing on a lightly coloured featureless table top to the bottom right of where I wanted it to focus. Buried in the menus is the corrected AF frame feature to account for this in the OVF which now gives you 2 squares, the centre of the OVF and where the sensor is actually pointing. Point the 'other' square at the lens cap and bingo, rapid AF lock every time. A quirk of engineering good AF on RF style cameras it seems. Mad that this option is not on by default!

I think I should be happy at it's static AF performance now.

 

[f1eng]

I thought the OVF parallax correction was default. Certainly the frame moves relative to the focus rectangle as focus gets closer on mine, and I haven't changed defaults.

I must say the AF rectangle is quite big, and I have had experience where I was sure the rectangle was over the item I wished to be in focus and the background came out in focus rather than the subject.

OTOH if you frequently use fast primes wide open rather than slow zooms you will find AF often doesn't quite get what you actually want in focus, eg tip of nose rather than eyes. Most of the Motor Racing pros I know don't use autofocus for a couple of reasons.

Phase detect AF is faster than contrast detect. There is nowhere in the optical path for phase detect sensors in cameras with always on sensors.

OTOH it -should- be more accurate. Contrast detect uses the actual image on the sensor to detect focus. Phase detect uses devices which detect focus where the focus plane is supposed to be, but due to manufacturing errors never will be, nowadays most DSLRs allow this to be adjusted lens by lens, before, you were either lucky or not...

It is mostly near enough since the depth of field of zoom lenses usually was a get out, but with the best primes it was/is very evident.

If I get my Nikon DSLR out I am always impressed by how much faster the AF is than my Fuji, but it is so big and heavy it only comes out for super telephoto stuff, where the lens weighs a ton anyway.

 

[paulf-2007]

I think I read somewhere on http://fujixfiles.blogspot.co.uk/ that the writer tilts the camera off horizontal presses the shutter button half way to focus then back to horizontal and takes the shot. I believe this has something to do with where it focuses and overcomes the issue. Sorry to be so vague but I haven't the time to read through all the reviews to verify it. An interesting site for Fuji owners non the less.

 

[Jason P]

Yes the focus point via OVF on the X100 is subject to some debate - people have had success using the bottom RH corner of the square on nearer subjects, and it certainly seems to work.

'Shutter mash' also works well too; just push the button all the way and let the camera do it's thing. I get a lot more keepers trying it this way, especially for street stuff. Don't forget it's looking for contrast, and all too often if I haven't got a lock it's been where I've been pointing it being too flat - move it a tad to get some contrast in and it's fine.

Overall I'm pretty pleased with the AF on the X100 with latest firmware. I can't say my friend's X-Pro 1 is any worse...

 

[paulf-2007]

This is the link with what I was trying dismally to explain http://fujixfiles.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/fuji-x-pro-1-af-autofocus-speed-and.html

 

[fordy]

thanks Paul, brilliant link. I shall be absorbing that one fully. Didn't know I could reduce the size of the focus point in the EVF for instance. It had struck me as a bit large.

 

[fordy]

yep, smaller focus points help you to help the contrast based AF system. If you understand how it all works and therefore work with it, results improve markedly! Shutter mashing works very well too.

 

[fordy]

Focus on the 18mm/f2 is very snappy indeed. Oddly the EVF and LCD will work to a closer focussing distance than the OVF.

I'm liking the wider viewpoint, more what I am used to so I'll take it along as a backup to the 35mm initially. It's just a bit of a crutch really while I get used to shooting more with a normal focal length.

The 18mm is very compact too and looks great on the camera.

18mm

35mm

 

[f1eng]

Before digital I used a Leica M6, so I am (very) used to focusing and reframing.

Generally my X-Pro-1 has been a delight and it has been my most used camera since I got it. I am happy with manual focus cameras normally, but with grandchildren I find autofocus gives me more keepers...

 

[BD Audio]

Kids move fast in my experience!