the sardonic iconic
Veteran
So after some slight disappointment that the X-T1 STILL won't feature manual control over video mode (I'm still getting one + the 35mm 1.4, though) I realized that I've never given my X100S a fair shot at shooting video. I just assumed it would be a terrible experience, based on what I know about it. In the same spirit of what got me into the Fuji X family to begin with...trying to "push" the lowly X10 to it's limits in terms of capability and expectation with fashion portraits... I decided to see if I could "push" the X100S in the area it is arguably the weakest. While I'm primarily a stills photographer, I do occasionally get bookings for video work, and video portraits are becoming more and more commonplace with agencies. I took advantage of a booking I had earlier this afternoon with my good friend Holly, who was in need of some new headshots. We had about a solid hour of shooting time, and I would switch my X100S into video mode between looks to film.
My conclusion is that the X100S is indeed a terrible camera to do any real video work with. The controls aren't intuitive, the manual focus ring's throw is WAAAY too long, there's a complete lack of shutter speed control, ISO only goes up to a (very noisy) 1600, and the 35mm equiv fov doesn't lend itself well to my shooting style (infact, I used my teleconverter for all but one of these shots) The upsides? Built in ND filter is great for video... though this is nearly a moot point without shutter speed control. 1080p/60fps slows down nicely for some subtle slow-mo work (not appropriate for this kind of video so I didn't include any samples of it). All that being said however, I still enjoyed the experience, either despite it's limitations or because of them and I'll probably create a few more of these, perhaps using the slow-mo capabilities next time.
X100S (Make sure you select "HD" at the bottom!):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thesardoniciconic/12529289795/
My conclusion is that the X100S is indeed a terrible camera to do any real video work with. The controls aren't intuitive, the manual focus ring's throw is WAAAY too long, there's a complete lack of shutter speed control, ISO only goes up to a (very noisy) 1600, and the 35mm equiv fov doesn't lend itself well to my shooting style (infact, I used my teleconverter for all but one of these shots) The upsides? Built in ND filter is great for video... though this is nearly a moot point without shutter speed control. 1080p/60fps slows down nicely for some subtle slow-mo work (not appropriate for this kind of video so I didn't include any samples of it). All that being said however, I still enjoyed the experience, either despite it's limitations or because of them and I'll probably create a few more of these, perhaps using the slow-mo capabilities next time.
X100S (Make sure you select "HD" at the bottom!):
http://www.flickr.com/photos/thesardoniciconic/12529289795/
