Fuji test

After the Hong Kong wedding, where I carried all the heavy photography equipment on the long journey, I started to think about jumping on the Fuji train as many of my colleagues from all around the world did. Fuji is a new trend – Nordica photography, Van Middleton, Jonas Peterson. All the big names I follow started shooting with Fuji cameras. So I was wondering how it is.

The main reason why I am considering the switch is the weight and the size. As a woman, who recently had her spinal surgery, and especially as a traveling destination photographer weight and size are all that matters to me.

At the end of April I got in touch with the amazing team from Fuji.cz and asked for a camera to test. They were very generous and gave me two bodies to test. Fujifilm X-Pro 2 with XF23 mm F2 lens, XF56 mm lens and two weaks later Fujifilm X-T2 with XF16 mm F1.4 lens and XF35mm F1.4

Both of these cameras are great. And if any of you started the photography with old film cameras, your heart will be filled with a little flame. The body construction look as from the old times. Setting the aperture on lens and time/iso on one rolling rear.

Easy like Sunday morning.

Both Fujis (or as I called them familiarly in Czech Fujinky ) have dual slots for SD, so your files are backing up and you can feel safer about the pictures you are taking.

So how does it feel to be a Fuji photographer? Let’s start with X-Pro 2

tested on: weddings and engagement photography

The camera body

fits into small female hands perfectly

(and if is feels too tiny in hands of men, do not worry guys, you can add a battery grip and it’s just fine)

The electronic viewfinder

It is situated on a side. This makes the camera perfect photojournalistic tool. You can easily check whats happening around with your second eye.

You can set up the viewfinder as you wish. I didn’t like the full electronic view so most of the time I used the optical viewfinder.

What I really enjoyed was the LCD. You see how is the picture going to look like immediately. The live view opened my creativity with composing the pictures because I started to see more perspectives than just looking straight to the viewfinder.

automatic regime – the fabulous advantage of the camera.

Even though on Canon I only use manual, I felt unsure of the new system so from the beginning, I used shutter priority. And I was surprised how perfectly it works.

Thanks to the live view and a chance to see the photo before you press the button I ended up with fewer amount of pictures. And logically next step is – less work in post process. To be honest… who of us sometimes hasn’t forgotten to change the aperture? That’s what never happened to me with the Fuji. Overexposed or underexposed pictures are the past.

While shooting a wedding with Fuji I felt I could focus more on the framing and photographing and less about the camera setting. But all the advantages of the live view are causing that the battery dies faster. So you have to be ready with one or two batteries in your pocket and get ready to switch the batteries if needed. That is something I am not used to with Canon. One battery lasts at least for the first 6-7 hours of the day. Not with Fuji, but this is something you can easily forgive.

Fujifilm X-T2

tested on: travel photography and surprise proposal (on Gondola!)

This camera has a laaaarge multi-articulating screen. Oh my god, it is like to watch a TV. You see everything in there. The body is small and handy, however X-Pro2 fits into my hands better. But the LCD here is totally something what makes me consider to buy this one.

X-T2 has been tested as a travel camera and completely amazed me with its ability to photograph in a low light without a grain. The results from Venice looks like photographs taken on a real film. The colours are incredibly good and you don’t have to do much afterward in post process.

Another positive point was a precise measuring while photographing on gondola where the light was changing as we were passing in and out of shadows from surrounding houses in strong afternoon sun.

Is there something I didn’t like?

Yes. I had troubles with continuous shooting, but first of all, I have to say, it is simply because it is different than on Canon. So you have to get used to it. I felt the continuous shooting was not that fast, but there is many options how to set it up, and you have to find what works for you the best. And to get use to it, I will need more time to work with the cameras.

And one thing what still keeps me to stay with full frame camera is the depth of field. The result Fuji gave me was nice enough, but you would not be able to gain 1.2 blur as I am used to while using Canon 50 mm 1.2 lens.

I am still considering buying one of these two cameras as a second body to my Canon. When you compare colours coming out of those two brands – Fuji and Canon, they match and fit together nicely and having a Fuji with one of my Canon cameras would still help me a lot on my destination wedding journeys. It is the weight. Yes, yes, the weight matters to me a lot!

But if you ask me now what am I going to buy if X-Pro 2 or X-T2 I am not sure. Both of them are great cameras. Because I really do not like looking into the electronical viewfinder I would go for X-Pro2 because it has an optical one. But even if X-T2 does not have it, the multi-articulating screen wins it in X-T2. If I ever make the swap and go fully on Fuji, I would get both of them.

And who knows, maybe this is not that far future!

Thanks to Fuji CZ for this opportunity to get closer to mirrorless cameras. It was a great experience and definitely the mirrorless cameras are 100% product for a professional photographers even if they are not full frame.