Over the past few weeks, I’ve had lots of opportunities to do a wide variety of photography, from scenic landscapes to family shots around the house to a cousin’s wedding. I got some shots of quad riding as well as some firearms. Next up will hopefully be a long hike to capture some Autumn color.
This past weekend, I broke my cardinal rule of photography, which is not to shoot weddings. There is something about knowing that you get a single chance to get everything right that adds just a little bit of pressure to an already exciting day. My cousin-in-law and his bride-to-be asked me to be their photographer and even after I warned them about my skill level (lack thereof) and general inexperience with weddings, they still wanted me to shoot it. I couldn’t say no, and I’m glad that my own insecurities were shoved aside for that day. What did make it a bit more interesting was using my new camera system, the Fujifilm X-E1 and trying to adapt to its personality. I ended up using all 3 of the lenses I own, the 18-55mm (reception), 55-200mm (ceremony) and the 35mm f/1.4 (detail and reception) and overall, they all performed their job with little fault. I also had a Fuji EF-42 TTL flash on the camera for some of the shots as well as a messenger bag stocked with extra batteries, memory cards, cleaning cloths, gels, diffusers, etc. The day was perfect, as it was an outdoor ceremony starting at 2pm. Everything fell into place and I enjoyed a good day of picture taking.
Shooting with the Fuji X-E1 was both great and challenging at the same time. The AF speed was adequate, but going from an OMD E-M5 was certainly noticeable and made me think more about focus instead of just pushing the button and it locking immediately. On the plus side of the Fuji was the controls, which made setting everything up so easy and effortless. It really felt great to be able to set my controls and keep them locked in and even view them with the camera turned off. The smaller size of the Fuji system (compared to my old full frame Nikon D700 and the f/2.8 glass I had) made shooting with it all day easy. I was able to pack everything I needed (and then some) into a ThinkTank CityWalker 20 messenger bag and carry it for most of the day without any fatigue. I also brought another Kata bag that contained a few lightstands, umbrella’s, reflectors, triggers, etc for use when doing the large family portraits. That gear was used only for a short time and wasn’t carried around much.
Overall, I am very pleased with the results. For it being my only 2nd wedding, I’ll give myself a passing grade.
For over a year and a half now, I’ve only used the micro 4/3 camera system. The anchor of this has been the Olympus OMD E-M5 and a few of the top notch prime lenses from Olympus and Panasonic. The system fit my need for a lightweight and compact set up that still delivered on image quality. The system is great, but it was starting to wear on me. The bodies felt comprised because of their size (GH3 excepted), the EVF’s on the Panasonic’s didn’t win me over, the small buttons and fiddly grip of the E-M5 made it harder to handle than I would have preferred. Nothing major, but just enough to keep me from loving the system.
Then along came Fuji with the their X-Pro 1 and later on the X-E1. On paper, the X system was everything I had wanted. Bodies that were compact, but still large enough to be able to handle comfortably. The lenses at launch were all primes and all of them appeared to be excellent. Once the reviews for those camera’s came out though, the one constant among them was about the camera’s generally sluggish response and very poor autofocus performance.
In the recent months though, Fuji has been updating firmware for both the camera’s and their lenses, and reports have shown that they have been busy fixing many of the outstanding issues. Besides speeding up the AF speed, they have added in new features that users have been requesting and generally trying to make the camera’s better. This may seem like common sense, but I’m not familiar with it happening too much in the photography world. I know my E-M5 has had a few firmware updates, but I can’t recall Olympus adding in anywhere near the updated functionality that Fuji has. This speaks volumes to me in that Fuji seems like they are listening and being active in making their products better, even after they are purchased.
Which brings me to the long overdue point of this post, my wholesale system change. Reading about the X system for months and reviewing image quality and generally trying to learn as much as I can about it came to a head when I saw a ‘Like New’ X-E1 kit with 18-55mm zoom from Amazon Warehouse Deals for a great price. I couldn’t pass it up, and my ever patient wife told me to just buy it and see if it’s as good as I think it is.
It is. Every bit of it. Most of it to be truthful. The autofocus isn’t up to OMD speeds, but it’s certainly usable for most things. The speed of operation isn’t up to OMD speeds, but it’s close. The EVF is laggier than the OMD, but it’s much more detailed. The controls, handling and the sensor are what set this camera apart though. It just feels right in the hand and makes me want to get out and shoot. I only have a few days experience with it, but so far, it’s love. Here are a few examples so far.
My family and I are at Myrtle Beach for a week of beach fun. Early in the day, we went over to Ripley’s Aquarium to check out all the fish, sharks, rays and other assorted sea creatures they keep. While there, we saw a big sea turtle swimming gracefully through the tank and talked about how cool it would be to see one on the beach laying eggs, as this is the time of year for it. We figured it wouldn’t happen because they are supposed to come ashore only late at night and be gone well before dawn.
Later that night, we were just walking up from the pool when another member of the family came down saying that there was a turtle 50 yards from our house laying eggs. We all ran out to check it out. Sure enough, there was a large Loggerhead Sea Turtle digging a hole against the sand dune. A small crowd was gathering, but it thankfully didn’t disturb her too much, as she stayed there for a few hours digging and laying. The people were mostly pretty respectful of her and kept their distance. A few fired camera flashes (which you aren’t supposed to do) since it the sun was setting. I was happy to have my E-M5 with me, as I just bumped up the ISO to 1600 for the first shots, and then switched to even higher ISOs once the sun was gone and it was dark. The one picture of the turtle right as she’s about to get back in the water was shot at 45mm, 1/10 sec, f/1.8, ISO 25600. A bit blurry and noisy, but without an ISO that high, I never would have gotten the shot. Also, since I had the AF illuminator off, I had to manual focus in the dark, which was very difficult. Anyway, below are some of the pictures of the egg laying as well as the next morning a local turtle group came down to mark the nest.
