Using An X-T1 As A Primary Camera Would Cause Me To Make Changes In How I Photograph

A 5 hour old human being! My new granddaughter Adelynn (click to enlarge)
Fuji X-T1, 18-55mm f/2.8-4 lens @ 32.9mm; 1/25th sec. @ f/5.6; ISO 1600

I've always used a variety of cameras (different tools for different jobs) and, over the past several years, pretty much settled on a way of photographing and editing my images.  One of my cameras I enjoy using is my Fujifilm X-T1.  However, it has not been my primary camera for a couple of reasons.  If I were to use my Fujifilm X-T1 as my only or even primary camera, I believe I would have to change the way I have been photographing digitally over the past several years.  Let me explain.  

First some background and personal history to put things into perspective.

For all of the years I had used film, for the most part, I felt I was always very measured in my photography.  Most of the time, I did not use a motor drive on my cameras but made one careful exposure at a time.  There were a few reasons for this.

First, for most of my film photography years, I used either a medium format camera (120 film had either 10 or 12 exposures depending upon the camera) or a 4”X5” field camera.  My use of a 35mm camera was mainly for color work—mainly Kodachrome.  

Second, film, processing, chemicals and paper were expensive (I built a darkroom and I processed my own black and white film as well as made black and white prints up to 16”X20”).  

Third, there was much bulk in carrying many, many rolls of film.  It is not like carrying a few SD or CF cards today.  

Fourth, I had extensively studied the Zone System and practiced its methodology of placing certain image tonalities at certain levels of exposure and subsequent development.  This required one to be engaged in a conscious thought process and the use of a spot meter (a light meter that measured only 1 degree of a scene and not the overall scene).  One made spot meter readings of the brightest area where detail was desired and the darkest area where detail was desired (or a specific area one wanted at a specific brightness), then calculated the exposure and subsequent development times to ensure those areas were placed in the correct “Zones” to maintain appropriate tonalities. (zones went from I, pure black to X, pure white; Zone V was 18 percent reflectance, if my memory serves me well)
  

The result was that my normal way of photographing, usually with black and white film, was typically on a tripod, slow, measured and thoughtful.

However, I did use a motor drive on my 35mm SLRs on occasion when I was photographing something such as a moving steam locomotives or other trains.  Typically, a group of us would regularly get together on weekends and photograph trains and other railroad related subjects but that was as much about camaraderie, getting together with good friends and sharing experiences as it was about the trains themselves.  

What often occurred was that after assessing my several images I would make as a steam locomotive would pass (remember I was using film and it may be a week before I saw my images), I changed the way I photographed and decided that instead of rapid fire photography, I would pick my moment and take my one best image.  Again, an attempt to be more thoughtful rather than let technology take over.  Additionally, I found that the exact place I wanted to photograph the locomotive may have been in between the shots the camera made (back then 3 fps was pretty "fast"!)

Skip to the digital era.  I have found myself, for a couple of different reasons, returning to the rapid fire technique of making images.  Why?  Well, I’m in my mid-60s now and my hands are not quite as steady as they were 30 years ago and I find that when I make three rapid fire images of a handheld subject, many times the second image is a tad sharper than the first.  I have determined that to be my fault in that my shutter pressing technique has lost some of its sophistication and lack of steadiness with getting older.  But the important part is that I realize this issue and compensate for it, this time taking advantage of the technology. That is basically how I have been photographing with digital over the past few years.  Lots and lots of exposures.

 The down side is the generation of many more imaging files to import, edit and store (I very rarely delete anything as technology may be developed in the future to overcome any technical issues I find in image files today).  Up until my acquisition of a Fujifilm X-T1, this has never been an important issue for me.

With my use of the X-T1, I have found, as many others around the world have also noted, the RAF file conversions in Lightroom (the most widely used image editor to my knowledge) have been less than optimum.  I suspect it is because Lightroom was fundamentally developed to convert Bayer-type sensors and not Fuji’s X-Trans sensor, which utilizes slightly different patterns of color pixels and technology.  But it is what it is.

I have augmented my editing of my X-Trans files by trying Photo Ninja as well as Capture One Pro.  Both do a much better job in converting Fuji RAW files than does Lightroom.  The problem then becomes integrating more steps into the process.  I import image files from the card into a desktop folder, then into one of those programs, converting the files, then importing the converted files (as well as the original RAW files) into my Lightroom catalog for tweaking and long term storage.  Just too much time and hassle. 

The second issue is having hundreds of TIFF files, which are huge, along with my RAW files.

Thinking about this conundrum over time, and still refusing to sell my X-T1 (I do really like using it and the lenses are terrific), I think I have come up with a way to accomplish my purposes.

Using the X-T1 as my primary camera would require me to go back to the way I shot film, which really isn’t a bad idea.  Instead of taking, say, 150 images a day of a few different subjects as I normally do with digital gear, I would revert back to the contemplative, slow and measured way of making only one or two of each subject.  One shot at a time.  This method is conducive to my types of photographic subjects but may not be for yours.  

I then could easily integrate Capture One Pro into the process as I may only have to convert 10-20 images to TIFFs for a day's shoot, versus several hundred.  This would not slow me down since I would be converting only a few images and not hundreds.

I’m not yet sure I’m going to do this, but it is a solution to a problem I had identified.  Of course, this is not a huge issue, but one I want to solve for my own photographic purposes.

Thanks for looking. Enjoy!

Dennis A. Mook

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