[Image-heavy] Travelling with the X100 (Europe & Other Places)

melonbread

Regular
Location
Melbourne, Australia
Name
Jannette
Hello! Besides my welcome & introduction this is my first post to Xtogs, so hopefully all goes well :D

I have recently gotten back from a trip to Korea and Europe. My partner and I had packed with us the X100 and a Olympus E-P3 with three lenses (Oly12mm, PL25mm, Oly45mm). Only recently have I been able to get the pictures off the cameras! I'm slowly sorting through our hundreds of photos. We shot in RAW and edited in Lightroom after. I was surely impressed with how quickly the Fuji RAWs ate up our memory cards!

The Fuji showed its worth especially in museums and galleries, where the leaf shutter was a godsend. The Fuji was recommended to me by a couple guys at Mu-43.com when I said I would be travelling Europe in winter - it got dark extremely quickly and the larger sensor didn't struggle at all. It dealt with grain much better than my m43 kit did :).

We ended up taking double the amount of photos with the X100 than compared with the Olympus. Half way through the trip we finally got past all the niggles and understood how to use the camera - there was definitely a learning curve!

These are a few pics that I was happy getting off the camera. Hopefully I can get through a few memory cards soon and will have a few more to show.

Would love your comments!

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A Foggy Canal
by Jannette Le

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Little Streets of Riomaggiore by Jannette Le

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Still Water by Jannette Le

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Sunset at Murano, Venice by Jannette Le

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Rolling Fog by Jannette Le
 
Thank you so much for your kind words - I would still say I'm a mighty beginner myself so I'm not too sure about tips haha.

One thing I did learn was it was definitely not a camera that you could give to a friendly tourist to take a photo of you and your beloved - the focus missed every single time - and everyone was surprised it wasn't a film camera!
 
They're all great images, but the first and third are my favourites.

The ethereal light in the first picture makes me think of a Turner painting - he painted some scenes in Venice I believe.

Lovely colours.

-R
 
One thing I did learn was it was definitely not a camera that you could give to a friendly tourist to take a photo of you and your beloved - the focus missed every single time - and everyone was surprised it wasn't a film camera!

I found this to be so true- even family or friends who have some general familiarity with cameras have trouble getting focused pictures when I hand my X100 over! Beautiful pics, thanks for sharing.
 
I found this to be so true- even family or friends who have some general familiarity with cameras have trouble getting focused pictures when I hand my X100 over! Beautiful pics, thanks for sharing.

Why do you suppose this happens? Is it because they need to half-press the shutter button and pause? Likely just pushing all the way in one motion..? Would "zone focus" work better in this situation?
 
Why do you suppose this happens? Is it because they need to half-press the shutter button and pause? Likely just pushing all the way in one motion..? Would "zone focus" work better in this situation?

I think it is because it is slow to focus and people arent used to it. I found operating the x100 to be difficult for even knowledgeable users.

To the OP: I LOVE the first and last. Makes me miss my x100 :)
 
Thank you for all the nice comments. Coming to Venice in winter had two advantages - firstly being that no one was there, and secondly the large amount of mist and fog allowing for a little bit of a different perspective of the city. I have to admit though sometimes I felt that I didn't have to do much work - the scene itself was beautiful (it felt like I was taking a photo of a beautiful place, and not a beautiful photo... if that makes sense. The city was stunning!)
 
One thing I did learn was it was definitely not a camera that you could give to a friendly tourist to take a photo of you and your beloved - the focus missed every single time - and everyone was surprised it wasn't a film camera!

I've even had this issue with my old DSLRs. My cameras are usually set up for centre point focus and I guess focus-and-recompose or even lining up a focus point is not a universal concept. These days, I just make sure I'm handing over a camera with face detect. Works a charm :)

Great pics, BTW!
 
Why do you suppose this happens? Is it because they need to half-press the shutter button and pause? Likely just pushing all the way in one motion..? Would "zone focus" work better in this situation?

Good question that I've asked myself often, and I think the responses so far given by you, Nic and Tollyboy are all good possible explanations. For some reason, I seem to have less issues when others use my Pen cameras, even without face detect on (though I agree that face detect can be very helpful in these situations). Your idea on zone focus may be a good alternative. To me there was more of a learning curve when I first started using the X100 than with most of my previous cameras, so I guess it shouldn't surprise me that others have trouble when they are just using it for a quick snap. Also, I have my cameras customized to my liking (such as sometimes using one of the back buttons for focus and the shutter for exposure) that on more than one occasion I forgot to undo it when handing it over someone else for a quick snap... Ugh! Of course I'm the only one to blame for those instances.

Maybe that's why I tend to be reluctant to hand the precious X100 over to anyone (that and for fear that they would drop it!) :rolleyes:
 
Jannette- thanks for sharing some outstanding photos. You have a good eye for unique light and strong composition. I have found the X-100 is really good at capturing the subtle tones in scenes like those in your photographs. 1,2 and 3 are my favorites, compositionally; number 5 has great soft light on the buildings.
 
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