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| Grizzled Tree, Jamestown Island, Virginia (click to enlarge) |
If you want to save time in reading the entire post, I will say up front I like using this camera for several reasons. I have a lot more likes than dislikes. I haven't listed them all. Most of the dislikes are just minor things, personal to me and the way I work, that don't mean more than an annoyance.
The way it handles, the quality of the lenses, for the most part, the controls, etc., are immediately likeable. With one caveat, I wouldn't hesitate to use the X-T1 as my primary camera system. That one caveat is the nagging issue of raw conversions in Lightroom. If you are willing to do some extra work and employ a third party raw converter, then that issue is also solved.
LIKES
How the camera fits in my hand
The feeling of a high quality tool; metal "bones", so to speak
The types and placement of controls available for the user, specifically the rotating dials
The "overall" appearance of the images in terms of color, contrast and saturation
Robust image files; the ability to recover highlight and shadow detail when necessary (I've successfully recovered an image over 3 1/2 stops underexposed)
The ability, when using JPEG, to mimic the color palate of Fuji films as desired
The Menu layout and ease of use
The ease in finding and changing settings, even obscure ones
The programmable Q-Menu and ease of access
The electronic viewfinder's size and brightness
Focus peaking and the other focusing aids available
Continuous focusing ability at 8 fps
Speed of autofocus
Face detection that works well
Good image quality at high ISOs
The sound of the shutter and the ability to completely silence the camera
The availability of an electronic shutter which will give the user up to 1/32,000 sec., even though I would seldom if ever need it
I even like that the SD card's label faces me when I insert it into the camera
Fujifilm's commitment to update/upgrade/improve/fix/add to existing cameras
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| Dead Trees, Jamestown Island, VA (click to enlarge) |
THINGS THAT COULD BE BETTER (not to be nit picky...)
Only 3 exposures available for bracketing
Position of the shutter button on top of the body; makes me have to change my normal grip
No ability for continuous focus when "back button" focusing
No "focus tracking" in the sense that the focus point would follow the subject around the EVF, jumping from one focus point to the next as the subject moves across the EVF
"Jiggling" of the screen and uncertainty when using continuous focus mode; weird!
Histogram in EVF on the smallish side
Exposure compensation dial is a bit too hard to turn with just my thumb unless I really push on it with my thumb. Normally, I have to take my eye away from the camera and grasp the dial with my thumb and index finger to move it; I'm hoping it will loosen a bit with use
The strange sequence of options (BKT, CH, CL, S, Pano, etc.) of the dial beneath the ISO dial; backwards to most other cameras
Can't program the "video record" button, which is in "prime" real estate on the camera top
Can't re-center the focus point with "one touch;" I have manually move it back to center each time I change its position; it would be nice to program a function button (or maybe even quickly "double-click a D-Pad button) to re-center focus point as I can in other cameras I own
The so-called "D-Pad" buttons are woeful; I added Sugru to raise them up to better find them by feel; did that also to the AF-L and AE-L buttons; now much easier to find with thumb
Turning the aperture ring and exposure compensation ring in opposite directions to either give more or less exposure; We should be able to program aperture ring to go the opposite way so its direction coincides with the exposure compensation button in changing EV values
There may be a "formatting" bug; several times I have reformatted my memory card, then later picked the camera up to use it and it tells me the card is not at all formatted. I then have to format it again before I can use it
Battery level indicator goes "red" quickly and without much warning
Number of images per battery charge is aggravating, but understandable
Trying to get used to and judge the brightness of a final image in relation to the brightness of the EVF; I'm still trying to learn that correlation
In these "need to improve" section, I'm not looking to nit pick. I'm just listing things of which I became aware as I used the camera. Some of these issues are moderate in nature, most are very minor and may not even be an issue to many, many others. It is a matter or personal taste and how you have become accustomed to working with your camera. This is just me talking for me.
Overall, I very much like the camera. I will keep it. When I re-bought this camera (I owned it and sold it a year ago then bought this copy the beginning of January) I promised myself to give it 90-120 days to determine whether or not I would keep it. I've already decided to keep it. However, I want to love this camera, but I know I won't get there as it is configured. With the extra work required in converting raw images, it becomes somewhat burdensome at times. I'm hoping Adobe will solve the RAW conversion issue with their upcoming release of Lightroom 6.
Thanks for looking. Enjoy!
Dennis Mook
Many of my images can be found at www.dennismook.com. Please pay it a visit. I add new images regularly. Thank you.
All content on this blog is © 2013-2015 Dennis A. Mook. All Rights Reserved. Feel free to point to this blog from your website with full attribution. Permission may be granted for commercial use. Please contact Mr. Mook to discuss permission to reproduce the blog posts and/or images.
Dennis, one caveat in the way of Fuji X-T1 being Your primary camera system.
ReplyDeleteHow about Olympus E-M1 now after comparisons with Fuji? Could Olympus be Your primary system?
And, if You should choose between Fuji or Olympus? You couldn't have both, which one would it be?
Thank You and best regards,
Matti Mäkijärvi
Matti, check back tomorrow. I have written a post on exactly that topic.
DeleteI'll be back ..... (:-)
DeleteDennis, I had the very same problem with the XT-1. I purchased that camera and then sold it once I ran into a few problems while trying to get use to using it. Close to a year later, I repurchased it along with a XE-2 and am loving using them both.
DeleteCan you elaborate on the RAW issue you mentioned in the post?
DeleteThank you for the question. I have already extensively written about the issues I see. Go to my blog's homepage and search on Fujifilm, X-T1 or X-Trans and all of the posts will come back. You should get quite a bit of feedback from those posts. In short, I have two issues. Most of the time fine detail in green foliage is rendered as mush instead of showing the detail. Second, finely detailed objects, such as gravel, for example, or small tree branches quite often appear as though they are outlined with black. This occurs in Lightroom as opposed to other RAW converters. As I said, I have written extensively with illustrating images in many of my posts over the past year.
DeleteNo formatting issues and I used three different cards ;)
ReplyDeleteThat's good to hear. My issue was only with my Lexar SDXC cards.
ReplyDeleteDennis, I am back!
ReplyDeleteAnd I read a lot of reviews and opinions about Fuji X-T1 and Olympus E-M1. I have had a Fuji XE-1 with 18-55 before this and never got as good greens/details as I got from the same footsteps with a Nikon D7100.
Buying good primes or zooms for DX-Nikon means also a lot of cash, so:
I "blame" You, as Your writings had a strong influence to my purchasing a E-M1, 12-40/2.8 and 45/1.8 Zuikos plus 100-300 Panasonic some days ago!
To start with.....
In the old film era (and the beginning of digital), I made my living with cameras, I had many of them from 4x5 inch Toyo's to 6x6 Hasselblad's to 35 mm gear. Among them several OM-cameras. Fond memories of OM-4 Ti bodies and lenses!
So far, I am more than pleased with this new Olympus. It it just loveable.
I do miss some focus speed I got with pro-Nikons.
But on the other hand, I do remember photographing Ski Jumping World Cup many, many years ago. I worked for a picture agency and they needed pictures of jumpers in perfect position, face showing and tightly cropped. So I was standing at the landing zone side, around the 70 meter mark, prefocused 300 mm lens to about 11 metres, not seeing anything of the jumper as they came down from the tower, listening carefully when they jumped in their air flight, and as they appeared from behind the hill curve I had less than one second to get the jumper in viewfinder, follow and the take one shot when he flew where my focusing was. No time to refocus - manual focusing only in those days - no time to take two or more shots, as he would be past the focus anyway....
Basically, I had one extra chance, as there are two rounds in the competition.
So compared with manual exposure, manual focusing, slide film with no exposure leeway, today many things are easier!
And cheaper too, our company bought some of the first Kodak pro digital cameras (based on Nikon technology) and they cost at that time more than 10 times the price of a film-Nikon F2 body with motor!
But truth to be told, Thank You for Your precious experiences and opinions, they helped me a lot!
Best regards and great photos,
Matti
Matti, welcome back! Nice to hear from you. That is a good story. When I was young, I was the photographer for the city in which I worked. Like most general assignment photographers, I had to cover all events, including festivals, sports, portraits, groundbreakings, etc. Like you, I prefocused whenever I could and tried to hit that shutter at the split-second time that would give me the best image. Lots of times, I used the hyperfocal distance if I was photographing an even and was walking around the crowd. You bring back those old memories.
DeleteI used everything from a 4" X 5" Crown Graphic, to Pentax 6X7s to Nikons, Canons and Leicas. I loved them all! Different tools for different needs.
Sorry about convincing you to spend money. I hope you are happy with what you bought and it serves you well. You sound as though you really know photography and would buy exactly what you would need.
Enjoy!
I'm reading through your blogs with interest as I am considering the x-T1 for street photography (so it would need to focus fast.) I bought the X-M1 with 3 'kit' lenses (27, 16-55, 50-230) with the intention of dipping my toe in the Fuji waters and seeing if I liked it enough to upgrade.
ReplyDeleteWhat I DO like in the X-M1, a LOT , is the IQ from the sensor. RAW or jags, fantastic. Also the camera size and weight. Great.
What I DON"T like is just about everything else. I'm forever pressing buttons I didn't mean to, the menu's a maze, etc but the one thing that rises above these disgruntles is the focussing. Occasionally it's ok-ish but often I might as well put the camera down and have a cup of tea while it decides whether it wants to stop mucking about.
Ok maybe I exaggerate a bit , but whilst the 27 focusses more or less useably (it's never going to catch a precise 'decisive moment' with the same speed my DSLR does), the long zoom will often, and in good light,run the whole gamut of it s focus travel two or three times and that's when I have pointed it at an edge of other point of contrast. I guess manual only is the answer, a bit like Matt's comments above
Sooo, my question is: is the X-T1, with something other than the low end kit lenses, a LOT faster at focussing? Let me have your thoughts?
thanks for a very enjoyable blog
Simon
Simon, thank you for the comment.
DeleteIn my experience, I don't think the X-T1 focuses as fast as it should. I've tried it with the 23mm f/1.4 lens, the 14mm f/2.8 lens as well as the 18-55 and the 55-200. I have tested it directly to the focusing speed of my E-M1 and a couple of those lenses, and the E-M1 focuses quickly than the Fuji camera. The average was just under a quarter of a second faster in my tests.
Subjectively, and that is why I tested the two systems, the E-M1 seems as though it focuses and locks on instantly while the X-T1 has a bit of lag. Tests bore out that subjective assessment.
I have heard, but don't know first hand, that the Fujifilm X100T, with its fixed lens and leaf shutter is an excellent street photography camera.
If I were a street photographer and had to choose between the two systems based upon speed and surety of focus, I would choose the E-M1. However, there are many other considerations one must make when choosing, with focus speed only one.
Dennis Mook
Thanks
ReplyDeleteyes other systems (including tiny DSLRs) are tempting, but the fuji sensor keeps me wishing they'd sort focussing out
;)
Simon, I know what you mean. Next generation will only be better!
Deleteyes, that is surely one thing they are working hard on so fingers crossed in keen anticipation....
ReplyDelete;)