Part two my adventure with a mirrorless camera
I took the X-T1 on a job with me. To compare it with the 6D, it would have been easier to take it out into the street or the countryside and test it against the 6D and the TG4 by shooting the same things at similar settings and checking the results. However, this is not a comparison test, I want to see how easy it is to use the Fuji when I’m working because when I’m on a job is when the camera needs to perform.
I normally shoot with the strap wrapped around my right wrist, which allows me to relax my grip on the camera when I’m not shooting (I haven’t had a camera round my neck since I stopped using my Canon FP with its 50 mm lens). This caused a problem because if I had my right hand occupied with my camera how could I use the X-T1? I hung it around my neck and I was able to shoot using only my left hand, and I was able to shoot very comfortably indeed. The fact that Fuji is light means that it wasn’t a problem around my neck, nor was it a problem shooting one-handed – the zoom is satisfyingly firm, unlike Canon zooms which tend to move when you point the camera down.
As I mentioned before there is no flash so I had to use 4000 ISO and I switched between using aperture priority, normally f8, and shutter speed priority, normally 1/180 or 1/250. Due to my ignorance and stupidity I wasn’t able to take a lot of photos with the X-T1, although I think I was able to take more than enough, because I ran out of battery and I had to charge it up. I charged it for about 40 minutes and took some more photos, then some more on the way home (a total of around 100 for the night), and just as I got home it was running out of battery again, it was also cold out and that won’t help battery life in a metal camera with a metal lens.
So, my stupid ignorance. When I first plugged in the battery charger and inserted the battery it showed a constant green light and I assumed the battery that came with the camera was old and not working well showing a charge when it was low. In the hairdresser, after 40 minutes it seemed to be fully charged (three bars in the viewfinder) and I carried on. It wasn’t until Monday when I read manual I discovered that the green light means it’s charging okay and when the green light goes out the battery is fully charged. Not particularly logical to me, but it’s there in the manual (when I bothered to read it)!
I’ve managed to have a look at some of the images I took on Saturday and there is noise with the Fuji when you look close up but it’s not noticeable under what I would call normal circumstances, thinking about images to be viewed on a computer or to be printed at 40x30cm. This is to be expected. If I decide to go for the Fuji then the 6D will be there for the professional work – night work and things that suit a full sensor better. When it’s possible, I’d like to try the X-T1 with a sharp prime lens which should show the minimum amount of noise that I can expect.I think that for street photography, and other things that are not so demanding (relatively speaking), it will be more than adequate, and, as I have mentioned many times already, I think a lot of the doubt with the quality is down to me and my expectations and not the camera.
All things considered, I think I will probably bite the bullet and take the Fuji. I’m still undecided whether I will finally choose to go for Fuji, Olympus or Panasonic, I’d say I’m between Fuji and Olympus, especially the five axis stabilisation in the Olympus body which is just something else, however, the Fuji has a larger sensor and delivers better quality images (have you noticed my obsession yet?).
I can’t afford to buy a new mirrorless camera, so it will be secondhand, and at the moment, the only second hand camera I can see of any quality is the Fuji X-T1. The Olympus OM-D 5 would be an alternative but there are no secondhand ones at the moment.
(part 3)
