Who says the Fuji X cameras can't take action shots?!

Mikey

Veteran
Location
Louisville, KY
Redeemed an Amazon Local (similar to Groupon) voucher for an NYC cruise except instead of a lunch cruise, we ended up on a belly dancing cruise. :p It was the 3rd Annual NYC Bellydance Boat Show. My wife and I grinned at the fact that a photo op just landed on our laps. ;)

There was good ambient light coming from the surrounding windows and after cranking up the ISO to 3200-4000, I was able to shoot at shutter speeds of 500-1000 with the kit zoom wide open. Yes, the AF wouldn't (or would be slow to) lock 25% of the time but guess what, when the AF locked, it rarely missed. One of my big concerns when I still used the OM-D was the AF missing its target; I always had to wait till I got home and loaded my images up to my computer to find out. I also do like how when reviewing continuous shots in the LCD (I have an X-E1), the camera lumps the burst shots together -- makes it easy to delete a series of bursts together while chimping. I think I shot around 12-15 frames of 2-3 (mostly 2) bursts each (approximately 35 shots) and ended up with 10 keepers (~15 good ones except some images were too similar-looking to really keep).

As always, C&Cs are welcome...

A couple of front acts...
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Shahrzad, the most junior of the 3 main acts...
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Valerick Molinary, a Puerto Rican dancer who recently moved to Miami...
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Soraia Zaied from Cairo is apparently a beloved Egyptian superstar bellydancer...
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I know that in horrible lighting conditions that the current generation of Fuji X ILCs will perform poorly (unlike the awesome OM-D) but my recent shooting experience makes me highly optimistic that this issue will be fixed when the X-P2 and X-E2 come out.
 
It's definitely a lot more challenging! You really have to think about the space you're shooting in and plan ahead with what you want to get. I was assigned as a street shooter for a lantern festival and wanted to get the dragon dance. I was lucky enough to get a spot front and center. The first few shots I took were a bit out of focus but after I started thinking about where the action was going to be and setting my focus point accordingly I was able to get a few more usable shots.

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2013 Lantern Festival by dacalac, on Flickr

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2013 Lantern Festival by dacalac, on Flickr
 
It's definitely a lot more challenging! You really have to think about the space you're shooting in and plan ahead with what you want to get. I was assigned as a street shooter for a lantern festival and wanted to get the dragon dance. I was lucky enough to get a spot front and center. The first few shots I took were a bit out of focus but after I started thinking about where the action was going to be and setting my focus point accordingly I was able to get a few more usable shots.

8585371890_853678c835_z.jpg

2013 Lantern Festival by dacalac, on Flickr

I like this 1st one. :) May I know what lens and settings did you use? Thanks!
 
I was using the 35mm and shot it at 1/140th @ f9 and 200ISO. Gave me a wide enough DOF that I was able to cover a large dance area. I think this was as low as I could go with the available light without camera shake being a huge issue. =)

I like how you captured the dancer's joy in the shots. You can tell she's really into it! It's also amusing to see some of the audience reactions. :p
 
I was using the 35mm and shot it at 1/140th @ f9 and 200ISO. Gave me a wide enough DOF that I was able to cover a large dance area. I think this was as low as I could go with the available light without camera shake being a huge issue. =)
:p

Thanks for the info!! May I ask -- any reason why you didn't want to bump up the ISO any higher to get faster shutter speeds? Having been previously pampered by IBIS, I myself also struggle with avoiding camera shake with my 35/1.4.
 
Thanks for the info!! May I ask -- any reason why you didn't want to bump up the ISO any higher to get faster shutter speeds? Having been previously pampered by IBIS, I myself also struggle with avoiding camera shake with my 35/1.4.

Truthfully I may have forgotten in this case. I had it set to auto400 and forgot to switch out. :p
 
Truthfully I may have forgotten in this case. I had it set to auto400 and forgot to switch out. :p

What's your experience with using auto ISO? I only tried it once and it didn't work for me (ended up underexposed) but then again I had a backlit subject (though I could've sworn I pressed the AEL button).
 
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