Fuji X-Ploits; Shooting With Everything On Automatic; Photography For Dummies! How Well Does It Work With The X-T1?

Original Image was made with the Fujifilm X-T1 with every that can be put on automatic done so (see below).  This version
is how I would crop and edit the final image. (click to enlarge)

I suspect most of the owners of Fujifilm X-T1, X-Pro 1, XE-2 and X-E1 cameras are enthusiasts or professional photographers.  As such, we appreciate the way Fujifilm designed our cameras so we have maximum control over every aspect of our photography. But what happens if we hand our camera to a family member, friend or even a stranger to use to take photographs or take photographs of us?  What happens if none of them know anything about photography?  Maybe we decide to get lazy one day and just put everything on "automatic."  How will the images turn out?  Here is what I found.

That is exactly what I did for a few days.  I set white balance to auto, ISO to auto, aperture to auto, shutter speed to auto, dynamic range to auto, focus to "multi" to allow the camera to select the focus point instead of me, face detect on, light meter on evaluative and single frame advance.  Also, I set the file type as RAW + JPEG. Then I just went out and took photographs. I didn't even use exposure compensation.  I just grabbed the camera and went out and did some "snapshooting," so to speak.  One frame per subject.  Just bring the camera to the eye, compose and press the shutter.  No more and no less.

How did the camera perform?  In a nutshell, the X-T1 did a pretty good job.  Although many of the exposures are not exactly what I would have chosen, based upon what I would want for the final look for any particular image, but all were able to easily optimized just as I would do with all my images. The only thing I found to which you need to pay attention is where the camera picks to focus and shutter speeds picked by the camera for moving objects.  Other than that, the X-T1 did a very good job.  Are you surprised?  I'm not.

Below are some of my results and some of my comments about my findings.

General findings:  

Exposure.  I used RAW + JPEG for the randomly "snapped" images for a couple of reasons. Along with identifying exposure characteristics of the X-T1 on fully automatic, I also wanted to use this little experiment for a dual purpose—compare the RAW files against the JPEG files as well.  I found my overall base settings for JPEGs could match RAW for dynamic range, sharpness, color, etc., with some slight tweaks of the RAW files in Lightroom CC.  Personally, I was amazed at how well the JPEGs matched the RAW images and in some cases, despite my best efforts, the JPEG files brought out more image detail than what I could extract from the RAW files!  Additionally, in my judgement, the JPEG files render green foliage and fine detail, such as small branches, better than I can in Lightroom with a RAW image. I have not taken the extra step, at this point, to compare JPEG with RAW converted in Photo Ninja.  That will be for another day.

Generally speaking, my copy of the X-T1 camera will overexpose most scenes by about 1/2 to 2/3 stop. Luckily, it is easy enough to adjust the files later in the editing process. There is plenty of "meat" in the files to allow compensation for quite a bit over and underexposure. I was able to reduce the camera's slight overexposure as necessary, bring out any highlights and shadows that needed to be adjusted and produce a very satisfactory images.  

I don't think there is anything wrong with the automatic exposures as the camera's light meter, set on evaluative setting, will tend to look at the overall scene then adjust exposure to put everything in the middle—as meters are supposed to do.  Light meters are calibrated to make everything middle gray in luminance values.

White balance.  In almost all of my images, both the RAW and JPEG renderings, the auto white balance produced a Kelvin temperature that was a bit too low for my liking, i.e., a bit too cool or bluish.  For example, in bright summer daylight, the camera picked a Kelvin temperature of 5150, with a bias of +5 toward magenta, but when I actually white balanced the image using an X-Rite Colorchecker Passport, the better and more accurate setting was determined to be 5450K with a +19 toward magenta on the green/magenta slider.  Easy enough to change, however.  Nothing drastic, just a bit off, in my judgement.

Of course, color is very personal and you may like your images a bit on the cool side.  In general, I like how well the X-T1 handles auto white balance, but I think I will adjust my white balance settings in the camera's menu to warm it up just a bit.

Focusing.  For the most part, the camera picked a satisfactory focusing point (this test was done before v4 of the firmware was available with its focusing improvements). Remember, I just lifted the camera to my eye, composed and pushed the shutter button. However, in general, what I take away is that the camera will pretty much focus on something closer rather than farther away.  When I was photographing a group flowers in a garden, and I composed an image with a flower right in the middle, the camera chose a flower that was closer and in the lower right of the frame instead of one in the middle of the frame.  I would have chosen a different point.

ISO.  The camera chose the lowest ISO available most of the time.  I had the auto ISO settings in my menu for no lower than ISO 400 and a shutter speed no less than 1/125th second.  In shady areas, I noticed the ISO bumped automatically up to ISO 500 or even 1000, not really dropping the shutter speeds and apertures to base settings.  Not the biases I would have picked, but it worked.

Shutter Speed/Aperture.  The camera is definitely biased toward higher shutter speeds. In most images, the camera chose a shutter speed of 1/450th second.  Not sure why.  Sometimes, it dropped shutter speed down to less than that, but that was in deeper shade. Additionally, it kept the apertures closed down as well.  It seems the camera is biased to smaller apertures and faster shutter speeds at the expense of higher ISOs–to a point.

In one example, I made an image each of some yellow flowers and some pink/darker magenta flowers in a garden, side by side, same lighting.  In one image, the camera chose ISO 400, 1/450th sec. @ f/8 and the other ISO 400 1/300th sec. @ f/5.6.  Same luminance in both images with the only difference being the color of the flower blossoms.  I suspect the lightmeter, even on evaluative, was reading the light differently.

In another example, I was photographing an Amtrak passenger train coming almost directly at me at about 79 mph.  The camera chose ISO 400 (base), 1/350th sec. @ f/14. The bright sun was at my back and it was an average scene.  Why such a small aperture when on the same sunny day it picked f/5.6 for a group of flowers?  

Sharpness.  I found in many cases, the JPEGs looked better than the RAW files.  You read that right.  The JPEG engine produced subtle details in the shadows and highlights that were hard to extract in the RAW files as well as provided just the right amount of sharpening as I would in processing RAW files.  In fact, the +1 sharpening setting in the X-T1 matched almost precisely the input sharpening I apply in Lightroom.  

My base JPEG settings are: Std. Low Tone -1, Hi Tone 0, Color 0, Sharpness +1, Noise Reduction -2, Dynamic Range Auto.  These seem to work as general settings for me. I am pleased with the images produced with these settings.  Of course, for specific scenes, I have the other 6 settings programmed for black and white, Velvia, simulate RAW files, etc.

Here are a few of the images I made, the top or left as directly out of the camera, then after I would adjust them to my liking which are to the right or below.  These are all from JPEG files.

All in all, I'm pretty pleased.  I don't see anything that I would not anticipate a good camera on full automatic would do, such as trying to keep exposures in the middle. However, when faced with multiple objects like flowers, the camera did pick a different focus point than would have I so that is the one area to which you would need to pay attention.  

I believe I could hand this camera to my wife, with everything on automatic, and she wouldn't miss any images.  Great job, Fujifilm!


Many of my images can be found at www.dennismook.com.  Please pay it a visit.  I add new images regularly. I've just added a gallery featuring all M4/3 images.  Soon, I will be adding a gallery of all Fuji X-Trans images. Thank you.

Thanks for looking.  Enjoy!

Dennis Mook

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.