Fuji First Thoughts On XT1 After Change From Canon

JuSlaughter

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Julian Slaughter
Hi

Its been nearly a week since I chopped in my Canon 5D MkIII for the Fuji XT1, and I have to say, I am impressed so far.

Its a joy not to have to lug around loads of heavy kit. I only have the 18-55mm so the bag will get heavier but nowhere near as heavy as before. Even with the battery grip on, the XT1 is so light. On the subject of batteries, as suspected, they don't last very long ;o) I will definitely need some more for when doing long exposures.

Image quality is very good but I am still undecided about JPEG vs RAW. I always shot in RAW with my Canons for flexibility. I have tried it once this week but I just can't seem to get good results, even following the rafts of advice on converting in Lightroom, so I have mainly been shooting JPEG.

I'm still getting used to where all the controls are, the menu system isn't that good but then the Q Menu helps out a lot. I keep pressing the Fn1 button on the front with my chubby fingers! I love being able to change settings on the camera without having to have the camera switched on. I did read somewhere, someone had an issue with the exposure comp dial and not being able to turn it with one digit, I manage it quite easily, which is useful when using the EVF, which I have to say is a dream to use.

Is there a way of zooming in the Focus Assist screen? In Live View on the Canon, I could go x5 or x10 for ultra-fine focusing, just wondered if this was possible on the XT1.

Its a steep learning curve but its going to be fun. Below are some long exposures I took yesterday, enjoy.

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Shadows.jpg
by Julian Slaughter, on Flickr

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Sgwd Gwladus-2.jpg
by Julian Slaughter, on Flickr

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Sgws Gwladus 3.jpg
by Julian Slaughter, on Flickr
 
There's a Focus Assist button on the back plate, near the top right corner of the LCD, which will show you 100% crop of wherever the AF point is. So if you've got the AF point at center-right, for example, that's the spot that will be magnified.

As for battery use, I've found that by switching it off when I'm not shooting (even for 30 seconds), and by using mostly the EVF Sensor (which is to say that NOTHING is lit up until I raise my eye to the cup, and then the EVF is turned on), I get at least 400 shots in jpg-only. I've got 3 batteries, and I can go on vacation, use only those 3, and come home with 1200 shots at least, if not 1500. I also don't do a lot of futzing, since I've been with the camera for awhile now, and I tend to know what I want quickly.
 
Hi, thanks for the response.

I probably didn't make myself clear so apologies. I am aware of the Focus Assist button but I was curious as the whether once in focus assist whether you could zoom in. 10x on the Canon was extremely useful, 100% isn't so much.

I took 9,000 images on my last holiday so I may need some more batteries ;o). I will certainly try changing the EVF settings though, thanks for the tip.
 
Hi, thanks for the response.

I probably didn't make myself clear so apologies. I am aware of the Focus Assist button but I was curious as the whether once in focus assist whether you could zoom in. 10x on the Canon was extremely useful, 100% isn't so much.

I took 9,000 images on my last holiday so I may need some more batteries ;o). I will certainly try changing the EVF settings though, thanks for the tip.

I have the intuition that the 10x magnification is actually starting from the whole image on the LCD magnified 10 times. I didn't go into calculations but that probably is below what fuji labels as 100% (as in every pixel of the LCD maps one pixel of the image). I can't remember if the 5D allow greater magnification than 1:1. Fuji doesn't though and I find magnifications over 1:1 not so useful.
 
I have never been happy with RAW conversions from the X-Trans sensored cameras using Adobe Lightroom. As I'm sure you know, many photographers turn to other RAW converters such as Iridient for RAF files. I've been pretty happy with Fuji JPEGs and find that they have a lot more malleability in post processing than other JPEGs before they start to break down. As such, I tend to shoot in RAW and then use the in-camera RAW converter to make JPEGs of the files I want to keep, then post process those JPEGs as necessary (which usually isn't much). That said, I don't use my Fuji camera for professional work so I'm not typically sifting through large numbers of files or looking to do any batch processing.
 
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OK, so just did a quick test, excuse the quality, taken with my iPhone. The image on the left is the XT1 with Focus Assist ON. The image on the right is my 7D MkII, zoomed in on live view x10. Both cameras have an 18-55mm lens and shot at the same distance and focal length. The difference is obvious. Whenever I am out doing landscape work, I quite often zoom in to 10x to ensure the focus is spot on, exactly where I want it. Looks like I will have to get used to not being able to do that.

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Zoom Comparison
by Julian Slaughter, on Flickr

Thinking JPEGs if definitely the way to go. I may try using the RAW converter on the camera and see what happens.
 
Dumb question alert: I see you're in Manual Focus on the Fuji there. So you're saying that when you press that Focus Assist button on the back, it does zoom in on the focus point, but it's NOT going to a full 100% view? Because that shot up there on the left does NOT look like it's zoomed to 100%. I think something's off, here. That's not what ought to happen.
 
...and bear this in mind, if you're double checking: in Manual Focus, the rear black dial controls How Far it will zoom in on the focus point when you hit Focus Assist. So if you're in MF, and you hit Focus Assist, then try to thumb that black dial up or down until it zooms in all the way to 100%.
 
OK, so just did a quick test, excuse the quality, taken with my iPhone. The image on the left is the XT1 with Focus Assist ON. The image on the right is my 7D MkII, zoomed in on live view x10. Both cameras have an 18-55mm lens and shot at the same distance and focal length. The difference is obvious. Whenever I am out doing landscape work, I quite often zoom in to 10x to ensure the focus is spot on, exactly where I want it. Looks like I will have to get used to not being able to do that.

25210167933_123a3c335e_b.jpg
Zoom Comparison
by Julian Slaughter, on Flickr

Thinking JPEGs if definitely the way to go. I may try using the RAW converter on the camera and see what happens.
Is this in review mode or in live view?
If in review mode, I think the X-T1 remembers the level of zoom you set previoulsy. If you want to change that level, use the rear wheel.
If it's in live view you were definitely VERY far from that street :)
 
Is this in review mode or in live view?
If in review mode, I think the X-T1 remembers the level of zoom you set previoulsy. If you want to change that level, use the rear wheel.
If it's in live view you were definitely VERY far from that street :)

Its in Live View, and its a canvas that is on my wall ;o)
 
...and bear this in mind, if you're double checking: in Manual Focus, the rear black dial controls How Far it will zoom in on the focus point when you hit Focus Assist. So if you're in MF, and you hit Focus Assist, then try to thumb that black dial up or down until it zooms in all the way to 100%.

Sorry, didn't see the other messages you posted. But you have answered my original question. So you can zoom in, using the rear dial. Thats all I wanted to know.
 
I like the waterfall shots especially the first with reflection / shadow
Been meaning to take a trip to Pontneddfechan
 
Have had the X100T and X-T1, but have not had the courage to let my 5DIII's go. I shoot sports on occasion and even though AF has improved on the X-T1 it cannot compete with the 5D Mark III... But I realize, it was not meant to. It has become my lightweight dream. A series of cameras and lenses I will take with me anywhere and the image quality is amazing. I post process raw on a Mac with Iridient Developer, then I bring them into LR.
 
The problem IMHO with any of the alternate raw software apps I've tried is that they usually excel at one or 2 things compared to LR/ACR, but are worse somewhere else. I personally feel the "watercolor effect" thing is way overstated wrt LR, and LR still has the best highlight/shadow recovery processing, which is a big reason for shooting in raw to begin with. The raw files are a bit flatter and less contrasty than most of the jpg simulations, but that shouldn't be a surprise. My biggest problem with jpg's is they are 8 bit files, so they don't stand up to processing nearly as well as the 14 bit raw files.
 
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