Full lunar eclipse

Fuji X-E1 & XF55-200mm, f4.8, iso 6400, exposure compensation -1.67 EV, hand-held at 1/15 sec, 200mm. Heavy crop. 

Before switching to Fuji I rarely used anything above iso200...

Replacement for Fuji X10

Flowers of Burdekin Plum. Fuji X10, Supermacro mode

I've got Fuji X10 long time ago, shortly after it  became available in Australia. The camera was used fairly extensively, and it started to show some signs of wear and tear. It lost a rubber thingy at the back, which is not surprising considering the local climate with temperature over 40 C. It freezes occasionally, which is again, not surprising considering the local humidity. But it seems that our 'orb generator' will not survive for very long. I hope it would last till release of rumored X30....

I often use Fuji X10 in supermacro mode, or macro at long end. The quality is good enough for my needs. The XF60mm macro lens can produce a stunning images but the autofocus (speed) on early versions of the X-E1 firmware was not very impressive. The latest firmware adds a very nice manual focus assist option but I don't have the macro lens. On other hand, it turned out that XF55-200mm is very handy for modest close-up shots. The magnification is ok, and 200mm is not very obtrusive for various bugs.  Obviously, 200mm provide some extra reach, which is handy for shooting distant objects such as flowers on trees etc.

Blue Triangle Butterfly. Fuji X-E1 & XF55-200mm (crop)

Fuji X10 and X-E1

Bahnamboola falls, Lamington national park. Fuji X10, panorama mode

On the recent walk at the Lamington national park I used two cameras, Fuji X10 and X-E1. Most pictures were taken with the X-E1, but the X10 was more fun to use. The X10 is better for macro (compared to XF18-55mm), and the panorama mode works better for me in X10 (with X-E1 I usually get a lot of vertical banding). Obviously, image quality is better on X-E1, especially in shady or low contrast areas.

Bahnamboola falls, Lamington national park. Fuji X-E1, polarizer

Gold Coast, Australia

Walk near the Ocean. Gold Coast, SE Queensland

Pandanus trees, casuarinas, blue sky, serf, yellow shelters of lifesavers, tourists with cameras - it is Gold Coast. The place is extremely popular as a holiday destination for anyone enjoying a mass socializing or shopping.

Fuji X-E1 & XF18-55mm. Shot as JPEG, with minor tweaking in GIMP. More hi-res pictures on my fickr pag.

Hotel at Gold Coast

Fuji X-E1 at iso 1600

Common Brown | Fuji X-E1 & XF60mm Macro

Some time ago I've rented Fujinon XF60mm Macro lens. The XF18-55mm is not the best lens for macro, and I miss the close-up ability, especially after being used to the supermacro option on Fuji X10. I can swap X-E1 and X10 cameras every second day, but I prefer the image quality from the X-E1 for all other situations, especially for landscapes. It is in a different league compared to the X10.

Shooting macro can be challenging. I am talking about bugs and flowers, not studio type macro. For this type of macro a big depth of field is very important, so the good light is essential. Bright light creates a lot of problems, especially highlights clipping. And sometimes there is just not enough light. So, the iso goes up very often, especially on cameras with big sensors.

Here is a picture of Common Brown, one of the local butterfly, taken with Fuji X-E1 and XF60mm Macro at iso 1,600 at f/5.0 and 1/105 sec exposure. I believe the exposure compensation was set up to -0.7 but I need to check the original file (Exif on flickr does not show any exposure compensation for the cropped image). The lens is not stabilised, hence the exposure has to be relatively short. The image is cropped in GIMP and saved at ~77% JPEG quality. The bigger version is available on flickr including the original resolution.

Autofocus accuracy on Fuji X-E1

Goanna | Fuji X-E1 & XF18-55mm

Just an opportunistic snapshot of a fairly big goanna on the picnic ground in dry eucalypt forest, either in a State forest or Springbrook national park, along the road leading to the Natural Bridge national park. Goannas are frequent visitors to picnic ground where they can steal some food or just get some leftovers. The image was cropped and the JPEG quality was reduced in GIPM. The image is available at the original resolution on my flickr page. 

Ongoing Fuji X-E1 review on SoundImagePlus

David Taylor-Hughes, the author of SoundImagePlus blog, got Fuji X-E1 zoom kit with XF18-55mm lens. His "reviews" generally consist of many posts linked by common labels. I like his writings and his photos from the UK. Obviously, the camera got reviewed many times but it is still worth to follow his writings on the camera. 

Review of Fuji X-E1 on DPReview

DPReview just published a review of Fuji X-E1. While the conclusion is very much in line with a "common knowledge" about the camera, it is very solid block of information from people who handle and test essentially every current camera except for low end point-and-shoot models. The test shorts and sample photos are also available. I am a bit surprised with the described "camera/button freeze" 'cause my X-E1 behaves just fine. Maybe it is just faulty camera.

I am agree with their opinion on panorama and movie mode. I like panorama on Fuji X10 but cannot get the same smoothness with the X-E1. The banding in skies is quite strong in panoramas from X-E1. The movie… Let's say, I do not shoot movie much.

Some ambiguous rumors are floating around the web regarding a new X camera with interchangeable from Fuji in April this year. It can be just an echo of predictions for 2013 published in Japan. It is a wild web :) It would be logical for Fujifilm to add a more affordable body in class of E-P3 or NEX-5, with the zoom kit priced around $1000 or slightly below.

Walking in Lamington and image editing

Australian rainforest with Nothofagus moorei | Fuji X-E1 & XF18-55mm

On my last trip to Lamington national park the weather was nearly perfect. It was misty in some places but no rains or wind. We did one of my favourite walks at Green Mountains (O'Reilly's), 17 km Toolona creek circuit. It was unusually dry for this part of the year. It supposed to be a muddy walk but the track was dry. Not much water in the creek either, so we cross it in dry boots. I've never seen such so many tripods on one day in this area: we were not the only people with "big" cameras over there :) My Fuji X-E1 was the smallest and lightest camera, and I had a small Manfrotto digital tripod. The total weight of my photo gear including filters and batteries was under 2 kg.

Later during this week I saw my friend's photos from this trip properly processed in Photoshop. I was very impressed by what can be done with image by a skilled person. Obviously, the starting images were good: my friend shoot mainly RAW on D700 and he has couple nice lenses. Anyway, I was convinced to do something with my images and played with GIMP yesterday night.

The image on the top got the red color muted resulting in reduction of color intensity on the walking track. The dead leaves on the track now look brownish instead of reddish as on the original image. The color shift was done through reduction of saturation of for some colors (red in this case) in additional layer only for the track. The image below gives an idea about the original track color.

Border track | Fuji X-E1 & XF18-55mm

Fuji X-E1 & XF18-55mm: one month after

I

Lamington Spiny Crayfish | Fuji X-E1 & XF18-55mm, iso 3200 f/5.6 1/60 sec

I've got the Fuji X-E1 zoom kit at the very end of November 2012. It took me some time to get used to the camera layout. For example, the aperture ring is close to camera body while the ring at the edge of the lens is responsible for manual focus. Some external controls are not active in certain mode. I already wrote about "dead" dial in Aperture priority mode some time ago.

It took me about one month to adapt to the new camera. The use interface is working OK for me. I created a couple Custom setting for different iso and dynamic range because it is faster to change iso this way. It is a Fujifilm camera, so it has very good user interface.

I travelled around SE Queensland and northern part of New South Wales during holiday season with Fuji X-E1 and XF18-55mm lens. I used Olympus E-30, too, but with the Fuji I took over 2000 images, probably ten times more than with the Oly. While some pictures were taken as JPEG and RAW, I have not touched RAW yet.

So, the impressions.

Usability. The UI is very good. I like Q menu and aperture control ring. It can be improved, that's for sure. The only thing I hate is a mediocre battery life. The spare battery is "must to have" even for single day shooting. For longer trips I need more, plus option to recharge. I'm looking at solar panels and car chargers.

The viewfinder. I love it. While I do not use it much, it is very handy at sunny weather. Very comfortable to my eyes. It is oversaturated to my taste, but it does the job.

Autofocus. I am very satisfied with it. It is not a speed demon but I found it very accurate and reliable in most situations (check the kangaroo picture). My blog has several posts on Fuji X-E1 autofocus.

Video. It sucks. The autofocus hunts all the time on any moving subject. Link to video clip on flickr. I do not have much experience with video, maybe it is just me.

Image quality. It is my best camera regarding to image quality. There might be some color bleeding in certain images but in my "real life" it is not an issue. It is my first camera with usable high iso. Images taken at iso 1600-3200 on Fuji X-E1 are amazingly good compared to my older cameras. This is the positive side of non-frequent upgrades: you do see the difference :)

Image stabilization. It does work. The crayfish photo was taken at arm length, with the camera near the ground, and it turned to be very sharp. On static objects I can go with really low shutter speed which can be useful in dim light.

For me  Fuji X-E1 is "a serious camera". It takes very good photos but it is less fun to use than Fuji X10. I don't have Fuji X10 with me right now, and I miss it a lot. I guess for me it is all about the winning combination of relatively small size, manual zoom, supermacro option and acceptable image quality. With current price Fuji X10 represents a viable alternative to a macro lens on Fuji X-E1 :)

Eastern grey kangaroo | Fuji X-E1 & XF18-55mm, iso 800, f/7.1, 1/600 sec

High iso nature shots with Fuji X-E1

Toolona creek circuit |  Fuji X-E1 & XF18-55mm, handheld at iso 1600, exposure compensation -1.0.

I am pleasantly surprised with high iso shots from Fuji X-E1. In both photos the exposure was about 1/60. It is a huge leap from my Olympus E-30. I mean noise, of cause. I've use the lowest noise reduction option, with high iso noise reduction on.

Both pictures were taken on one of my favourite walks in the Lamington national park, Toolona creek circuit.

Toolona creek circuit |  Fuji X-E1 & XF18-55mm, handheld at iso 1600, exposure compensation -1.0.

Blame a hammer for a bent nail

This is a misanthropic post provoked by several "autofocus" threads on DPReview forum dedicated to Fujifilm X system / DSLR cameras. It is know fact that current mirrorless cameras do not focus with the same speed as DSLRs. None. Nikon 1 cameras come close but with 1" sensor and deep DoF. Big APS-C sensors require better precision in focussing. The autofocus speed on CSC is generally acceptable for static subjects. If the snappy focus is required, get a DSLR. Want to have sharp pictures of running dogs or jumping kids - get a  DSLR. A good DSLR. Olympus OM-D EM-5 might be slightly better than Fuji in autofocus but it does not match a good DSLR for continuos autofocus.

I have higher rate of in focus pictures with both Fuji X10 and X-E1 than with my Olympus E-30. It does not mean that the Oly is a bad camera. I just don't use it much anymore. My shooting style is now adapted to compact (x10) and mirrorless (X-E1) cameras. With both Fujifilm cameras I can get sharp pictures at lower shutter speed compared to Olympus E-30. In-lens OIS works great, and probably lack of mirror slap also helps a lot. In addition, my ZUIKO 50-200mm SWD has some focus issue at close distance at 200mm which can be really frustrating. I think my "keepers" rate with the E-30 was higher before acquisition of Fuji X10. More practice with the camera, nothing else.

Fuji X-E1 & XF18-55mm autofocus is not perfect but it is perfectly usable for me. The camera struggles with low contrast subjects at horizon or clouds but this can be easily resolved by "focus and recompose". After using the X-E1 for a month I start to "feel" the camera autofocus.  It is not instant but generally it takes a fraction of second to focus on static subjects. It does not mean that all my pictures are in focus. Occasionally the camera would focus on a grass in background, not on the flower, or wind might be too strong. But even I got fairly sharp pictures of jumping kangaroos with X-E1 and XF18-55mm (I am not in an action photography by any means).

I guess my expectations for cameras are pretty low, and I do not change the cameras very often. As a result I am generally very impressed and satisfied with my cameras. I learned that every camera has certain limitations and also requires some experience for better results. But on camera forums people generally blame cameras, not themselves.

Fuji X-E1: lack of weather sealing

Toolona creek circuit, Lamington national park | Fuji X-E1 & XF18-55mm

Yesterday I went to Toolona creek at the Green Mountains section of Lamington national park. The place got some rains recently but it was not as muddy as expected. The leeches were already numerous and active, and I ended up walking in boots soaked in my blood. The famous Lamington Spiny Crayfish were also active and wandered along the track.

The remote part of the Toolona creek track is at relatively high elevation, about 1000 meters, and in this time it is not uncommon to walk in clouds. This time it was foggy with occasional drizzling, so the camera mainly stayed in the plastic bag. I wish Fuji X-E1 would have some kind of weather sealing as Olympus OM-D E-M5. Or maybe I just should take an umbrella with me next time. I managed to take a couple pictures before the rain but walked though Antarctic beech forest without taking a single photo.

Toolona creek circuit, Lamington national park | Fuji X-E1 & XF18-55mm

Review of Fuji X-E1 by Thom Hogan

Thom Hogan had published his review of Fuji X-E1. Interestingly, his traditional basketball shot shows significant amount of color bleeding, more than I see in occasional road signs in my photos (white on red combination is prone to color smearing in images from X-Trans sensor). Maybe it is due to high iso used for indoor shots.

As usual, it is a good and fair review, with pluses and minuses of the camera and the whole system. Also, Thom apparently has some "insider" info on forthcoming Fuji "X-Pro2". He indicated that the successor of X-Pro1 may have non-fixed screen. The replacement of X-Pro1 is also expected to be available in 2013. Hopefully, Fujifilm will improve a continuous autofocus on the new model. The technology is there, as demonstrated by Nikon 1 V1.

I am surprised to see that Thom gets 300 pictures on X-E1 on single battery. While I have not done careful counting, 200-ish is more realistic expectation for my "real world" shooting.

St Lucia campus, the University of Queensland | Fuji X-E1 & XF18-55mm

Just random picture taken at the campus during my traditional lunch walk. It is graduation time, and the campus is full of happy graduates, their friends and parents.

I am still learning the Fuji X-E1. I am tempted to try custom setting (the camera has several). The Q button gives an access to the Custom settings, so I may put some frequent parameters in C1, C2 etc. But even without Custom settings the parameters can be changed very fast, thanks to the camera layout.

Mt Warning

Track to the Mt Warning summit | Fuji X-E1 & XF18-55mm

Mt Warning is located in Nothern-East part of NSW, close to the border with Queensland, in about in two hours drive from Brisbane. The mount is an remnant of the huge volcano, sitting in centre of big caldera. I have a picture with the view of the Mt Warning from the rim of the caldera, in Lamington national park.  Mt Warning is on the left, with it's top covered by clouds. It is over one thousand meters high, and the walk is steep near the top (the photo above). I was happy to have a light mirrorless camera and small tripod instead of DSLR gear.

It was very sunny day, so many pictures on the top were taken through the viewfinder on Fuji X-E1. It seems that the viewfinder is quite comfortable to use for my eyes. The viewfinder on Fuji X-E1 is more useful than on Fuji X10. It is hard to compare the EVF on Fuji X-E1 to OVF on my DSLR, Olympus E-30. With the Oly E-30 I shoot only through the viewfinder because the live view is nearly absolute except for tripod work, and my eyes cannot handle a small viewfinder for long time. Fuji X-E1 is much better in this respect but I use it a lot with the rear screen. However, with polarizer, as on the photo below, I prefer the EVF. I have more images on my flickr page from this walk including a picture of a baby carpet python resting on the track. After all, it was weekend :~)

Previous time I went to Mt Warning several years ago. It was cloudy and rainy day, and the top was covered with clouds. Yesterday it was sunny but hazy. While it is short walk, less than 5 km, it takes about a couple hours to go to the summit, so I was there around midday.

View from Mt Warning | Fuji X-E1 & XF18-55mm

Color bleeding in Fuji X-E1

400% crop from the unedited image (click to see a bigger version)

In sharp contrast with the rest of unhappy people, all unhappy owners of Fuji cameras with X-Trans sensor are all alike. Their unhappiness arises from three major sources: absence of decent third party RAW processing software, color bleeding or smearing, and slow autofocus.

I am a lucky guy because I mainly shoot JPEGs with Fuji, and after couple weeks I found that the autofocus on Fuji X-E1 with XF18-55mm lens is more than adequate for me. Obviously, I was tempted to see the famous color bleeding. Who wouldn't?

Just a brief intro: the color bleeding in images from X-Trans sensor depends on processing, and in mild form causes a color cast (white stripes in red background may have red tint) while severe color bleeding looks like a smear. Severe bleeding appeared in early versions on third-party RAW development software. A very good example of color smearing is present in Thom Hogan's review of Fuji X-Pro1.

The most obvious target for color bleeding test would be a STOP sign. I was so desperate to see the smearing that I walked through local street in search for a STOP sign. I even made a couple shots of these signs. I didn't like the pictures. Than I found NO SMOKING sign plus some white writing on blue background in one picture taken at the University campus. This is _not_ a test shot. Call it real life image. The blown-out fragments of unedited image are posted here, and the edited image (levels, unsharpen mask) is here.

Frankly, if all other cases of the color smearing are similar, I would not worry much. At that level the photo has other visible problems. Look on letter "m" in the "blue" image in buish writing on white background. To me it is more unpleasant and obvious that the reddish letter of NO SMOKING sign. The X-Trans sensor struggles on regular patterns, nothing new here.

If the fidelity of the reproduction of color image is important, than Sigma SD1M probably is the best choice for someone who don't mind to shoot and process RAW. My preference for Fuji X-E1 over Sigma DP2M is due to good JPEGs. I just don't have time and skills to process RAW.

400% crop from the unedited image (click to see a bigger version)

Puzzling features of the Fuji X-E1 UI

Eastern Water Dragon | Fuji X10 & XF18-55mm, GIMP

I have Fuji X-E1 for couple weeks now. While I am generally happy with the photos, some aspects of camera controls are really puzzling. The user interface is similar to Fuji X10, another Fuji camera in our household, so it is not completely new to me. Actually, the UI of Fuji X10 was one of the factors influenced my decision to buy the X-E1. As a whole, I like the UI of Fuji X-E1 but I have impression that the available controls are under-utilised in this camera.
 
I wrote about "dead" rear dial in Aperture priority mode in the previous post but it is not the only situation where the command dial is inactive. For example, it is impossible to change the exposure mode (average / spot / multi) by dial, only by four-way controller. The true for for ISO (through Fn button) and DRIVE mode.

Another amazing thing: in the Preview (View?) mode the high magnification of the photo can be achieved by pressing the rear dial. This is very clever option. But it is impossible delete zoomed-in image! You need to press the dial again, and only at that stage the photo can be deleted. ???? The same true for Fuji X10: I cannot delete zoomed-in photos on the camera.

Maybe it is just me being a bit slow with learning :~) After all, it took some time for me to figure out how to display the histogram in the viewfinder: pressing the DISP / BACK button _with_active_ EVF changes the view option. It is logical (once you figure it out :~)).

As for things like autofocus… It is quite windy here in Brisbane. Sometimes the flowers I am trying to focus move out of frame completely because of wind. The camera can focus in such conditions. Obviously, not every time it focuses on the right object but frankly, the conditions are tough. It is not a problem for me to take several images. But I don't need a continuous autofocus and do not shoot birds in flight. For static objects the autofocus on Fuji X-E1 is OK for me.

Citycat | Fuji X10 & XF18-55mm, GIMP

How to improve X-E1

View from Cominan lookout | Fuji X-E1 & XF18-55mm

Both pictures were taken at Green Mountain section of Lamington national park. In such conditions any modern camera will produce acceptable results. In some sense, the camera does not matter much unless someone has specific requirements. Taking pictures of birds in flight is a challenging task with certain requirements for an equipment. But if I put the camera on tripod the only thing I need to worry is a presence of the mirror lock-up in a DSLR because virtually all cameras have timers.

If the camera does not matter, why I bought the X-E1 instead of let say Olympus PEN E-PL5? Oly E-PL5 is smaller, with more lenses available right now. Even with an external viewfinder it costs less than the Fuji. The Oly will take the same pictures, maybe slightly shifted to warmer tones but this can be easily corrected. Also m4/3 has slightly bigger depth of field, which is good for landscapes.  Or why I not even considered Sony NEX6? It is very capable camera with APS-C sensor. It got a very positive response from photographers.

Probably I just like the X-E1. So far I am not disappointed. However, I still cannot get used to the aperture ring near the camera body and very often I try to change the aperture with the rear dial. After all, it is my first digital camera with the "proper" aperture ring. Maybe in the future Fujifilm will copy Samsung NX cameras or Olympus XZ-2 and change the "aperture" ring into multifunctional device. Right now the camera has some inactive controls, e.g. rear dial in the Aperture priority mode apparently does nothing. [Not exactly: when I dial it, it drives me nuts because nothing happens.] My ideal combination would be the following: use the rear dial to change aperture and assign iso to the "aperture" ring. Image: set up the aperture with the thumb, if the shutter speed is low, rotate the "aperture" ring and change iso to get the  desired speed. No need to press Fn button to activate iso menu. What the point to have "non assigned" buttons or dials on a camera?

Unfortunately, I don't have a chance to try different cameras for a week or two, and I am not sure if couple weeks would be sufficient to make a choice. It is possible to read reviews but reviews do not tell how I would handle the camera or whether I can adapt to it.

Bird's Nest fern, Asplenium australasicum | Fuji X-E1 & XF18-55mm

Another day out with Fuji X-E1

Border track near Green Mountains covered with the red flowers of Illawarra Flame tree | Fuji X-E1 & XF18-55mm

I went to Green Mountains section of Lamington national park on Saturday. I decided to go by inland route through the Mt Lindesey highway, took a wrong turn at roundabout on Tamborine St / Mundoolin Rd after I was confused by big residential development along Mundoolin Rd but eventually made it to O'Reilly's (another name for Green Mountains).

As during the previous walk, I had the Fuji X-E1 with XF18-55mm lens and a small Manfrotto digital tripod. The weather was really good, cloudy but not rainy, and it was quiet, so many photos were taken with the camera mounted on tripod. Most of such shots were done at iso 200 through a polarizer.

As during my first outing with the camera I found the autofocus adequate for my needs. It may not autofocus from first attempt on clouds or very low contrast landscapes but it can be done. The tricky part are scenes as twigs in front of branches but reducing the focusing area does help in such situations.

The battery was flat when the tripod plate was mounted on camera. Maybe in the future it would be possible to have either tripod socked in the middle of the camera, or put the battery compartment door on the side, not at the bottom. When camera goes to sleep, it cancels the timer. I ended up to use 2 minutes "sleeping time" instead of 30 seconds because 30 seconds sometimes is not enough for a tripod work. This obviously, drain the battery. BTW, it seem that the camera clean the sensor avery times it goes to sleep, so I switched off an automatic sensor cleaning. I got about 200 shots per battery, not really great. For long trips I will need several spare batteries. Next time I will take either lens hood or big hat: even indirect light going into the lens washes out upper part of the image. I have the same issue with DSLR. Couple times the camera ended up in a plastic bag because of light rain. Olympus lenses are weather-sealed, so I would not even bother with a few raindrops. Some switches can be turned accidentally, so it is good idea to keep an eye on aperture setting and OIS status.

Some other images from this walk are posted on flickr. I did a minor editing in GIMP, (levels, unsharpen mask etc). Everything was shot as JPEG.

Gondwana relict, Nothofagus moorei, Antarctic Beech   | Fuji X-E1 & XF18-55mm