Impressions of the Fuji X100S after (Very) brief hands on.

Readers of this blog will know I have been keenly awaiting the Fuji X100S, wondering if the revised offering was going to be a significant improvement.

I only had limited time to play with the camera on the Fuji stand at 'Focus on Imaging' but I did get an impression of what the company has achieved.

Firstly, when you pick it up it feels exactly the same as the outgoing X100, and is none the worse for that.

A very quick run through with the camera reveals a massively improved(if a little long) intuitive menu.

Shooting random objects on the stand the camera felt very 'snappy' and fast, a noticeable improvement on the X100, and I did enjoy the selectable autofocus points too.

Another department of improvement is the manual focus.

The super low geared 'focus-by-wire' manual focus on the outgoing X100 was about as useful as a chocolate tea pot.

Fuji have listened.

The manual focus gearing on the X100S is vey good indeed, in fact I nearly forgot it was 'focus-by-wire'....

What about the manual focus aids?

I found the split image was excellent and I was able to accurately manual focus.

Focus peaking? I'm not quite so sure.

It does work, but I found it difficult to read at times, particularly when I used it on people's faces.

I think though that the user will work out which manual focus assist works best for them in particular circumstances.

The X100S does also use the same battery as the outgoing X100, the good news being they are as cheap as chips, but with a question mark hanging over battery life for some users, though a Fuji spokesperson told me the new sensor uses less power.

From my fleeting time with the camera I would say the camera is a massive improvement.

Some existing X100 owners will see little point in upgrading their cameras, others, myself included, will covet this promising camera.

I will leave the final word to David Hobby of Strobist who owns one of the very first X100S.

'This camera is pretty close to perfect for the type of camera it purports to be'

You can read his overview of the camera over at petapixel.com

Zack Arias - Another Phase One Convert

2012 looks like it could be a very interesting year- in terms of what some of the more notable names on the web are shooting with.

Firstly, David Hobby announced that he had bought a Phase One, and rather eloquently put his case forward as to why he made this choice.

Now, another big name on the web Zack Arias has chosen a Phase One, this time in the shape of the cutting edge IQ140.

Why?

Well, if you read his blog you will see he shares many of the reasons that David Hobby does.

Image Quality, Sync Speed, Slowing Down and 'That Look', amongst others.

Image quality is on a higher plane from anything else, without doubt in my mind and you can reach the heady heights of 1/1600 Sec sync speed with big flash which is unparalleled but I want to take a closer look at the two later points, Slowing Down and 'That Look'

'That Look' is rather difficult to put ones finger on but it is a massive factor for me. I believe that it is a culmination of sheer physical sensor size, dynamic range, 16 bit capture, optics.

There are other factors too, Zack does allude to it but I believe sitters sometimes do behave differently when in front of a medium format camera, even the most non camera aware sitter is often aware that this camera is different.

So, a sense of occasion and the formats sheer difference should be overlooked as in my opinion they are a factor.

Slowing down is such a big deal.

When you slow down you think, when I slow down my attention to detail is greatly enhanced, which makes a massive difference to the final shot.

Great photography happens in the brain.

At the end of this month I have a major exhibition (more details very soon.....), and not one of the prints are  smaller than a meter along the longest edge.

I would not consider anything else other than a Phase One for this.

The photograph of Shala at the top of this blog, taken at the excellent 'Nordlandsdagarna' in Sweden where I was invited to speak at last year, is shot on a (Borrowed) Phase One IQ 180 (and other than downsized is untouched)

The excellent IQ180 is not cheap, by any stretch of the imagination.

But take a look at David Hobby's approach, he bought a Phase One P25+, he wanted the big sensor and 16bit capture to give his photographs 'That Look'

I shot my 'Alice' series entirely on the Phase One P25.

These backs are available secondhand at very modest prices, if you want a foot on the ladder you could do much, much worse.......

David Hobby joins the Phase One 'Club'

I see that David has finally taken the plunge and bought a Phase One camera and P25+ back.

I'm not really surprised.

Though I must admit I'm a little surprised and disappointed by some of the harsh comments on his blog.

But whatever your views it is after all just a camera, albeit a very good one.

But what I always say to anyone who is considering taking the plunge into the Phase One world, this camera system is not like so many others that seek to flatter and turn the average shooter into a talented photographer.

I refer to it as the ultimate blank canvas.

Yes, thats right.

A blank canvas.

The sweet spot of the big sensor removing some of the constraints that a DSLR user faces.

A really good pen was not the making of William Shakespeare.

Living life, loving, losing and struggling had more to do with it than the pen.

And so it is with photography.

You may have the best camera in the world but no amount of megapixels, gigabytes and frames per second are going to MAKE the photograph.

Do they help? Well they can but I sometimes think we forget about the end result and focus way too much on how we get there...

To this end I believe Nikon with the D4 and Canon with the 1DX have created two totally brilliant camera's which are aimed at a diminishing end of the market.

The sports and news shooters who need a trazillion frames a second, and autofocus which knows where the subject is going before the subject does.

How much R&D budget has been expended on these giants of the high speed world heaven only knows.

I'm not sure how much they will recoup either.

One can only speculate how much the timing of the release of these camera's has to do with the Olympics this summer.

Make no mistake, this camera is made for AP, Getty and the like, along with the wedding shooters who enslave themselves to an age of post production with 30,000 images from a single wedding...yes my friends they DO exist.

It is all about the right tool for the job.

David decided he did not need a digital chain gun, look at his photography.

In the same breath any sports shooter who sat on the touch line of a ball game with a Phase One might well be asking for trouble.

Very interested to hear he likes Capture One, it is a great piece of software which has matured into a real gem.

And all I was going to blog about was 'Turning Pro'

Next on my list.