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  • Welcome to the new site. Here's a thread about the update where you can post your feedback, ask questions or spot those nasty bugs!

Fujifilm XE2 and firmware 3 w/18mm f2

Hi, my name is Leonardo Barreto,

I am a new old member -long story-. I want to talk about experience with the XE2 and 18mm and new version 3 Firmware.

best
Leonardo
ps Thanks Asher !
 
This is like a cafe racer of a camera, it is retro looking, with a large sensor and -my choice- of a good 27mm f2 prime. But it is very light weight and small. Perfect for travel and street photography.

Even for a long owner of a X10, there is a lot to get used in the XE2. At the moment I am traveling in the North of Denmark, so it is difficult to sit and compose large reports, but I will try to go bit by bits when possible.

11539587_10152823756302084_3912340032139617306_n.jpg
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
This is like a cafe racer of a camera, it is retro looking, with a large sensor and -my choice- of a good 27mm f2 prime. But it is very light weight and small. Perfect for travel and street photography.

Even for a long owner of a X10, there is a lot to get used in the XE2. At the moment I am traveling in the North of Denmark, so it is difficult to sit and compose large reports, but I will try to go bit by bits when possible.

11539587_10152823756302084_3912340032139617306_n.jpg

I've always enjoyed your work, Leo, so it's a sheer delight to have you back! This picture is another surprise in its unusual composition!

Bravo to see you again!

Asher
 
Thank you Asher, coming from you, I am honored.
Here are some more images with the XE2+18 f2

This are German bunkers that dwell on a beach in Denmark retired from the war when they defended fortress Europe.
11217594_10152826420697084_7325205788117432662_o.jpg


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11705771_10152826421197084_4370729307756273197_o.jpg
 
Hi, my name is Leonardo Barreto,

I am a new old member -long story-. I want to talk about experience with the XE2 and 18mm and new version 3 Firmware.

Hi Leonardo,

Nice to have you back at OPF. Looking forward to hearing about your experiences with the X-E2, as it could be useful feedback for others who consider it, and you have nice images to share, always welcome.

Cheers,
Bart
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
Thank you Asher, coming from you, I am honored.
Here are some more images with the XE2+18 f2

This are German bunkers that dwell on a beach in Denmark retired from the war when they defended fortress Europe.
11217594_10152826420697084_7325205788117432662_o.jpg


11705411_10152826420812084_3178936801618467646_o.jpg


11705771_10152826421197084_4370729307756273197_o.jpg

These are impressive structures, Leonardo!

Is there anywhere that they are repurposed for some practical use today?

How are you finding dynamic range when you try to bring out detail from inside these concrete caves? Also, although I'm aware that Fuji makes its own sensors, what is it about this camera that has you put aside a Sony offering, also an APS C sized sensor but one with rave reviews like the A6000?

Asher
 

Doug Kerr

Well-known member
Hi. Leonardo,

So nice to hear from you again.

Yes, it would be interesting to hear about those matters.

Best regards,

Doug
 

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
Can you explain what you might have noticed?

I notice that the top and bottom of that picture are blurred. This gives the appearance of a limited depth of field. However, the bench top is at about the same distance as the bench seat, yet it is much more strongly blurred. Therefore I think this is the effect of post processing, as explained here.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I notice that the top and bottom of that picture are blurred. This gives the appearance of a limited depth of field. However, the bench top is at about the same distance as the bench seat, yet it is much more strongly blurred. Therefore I think this is the effect of post processing, as explained here.

Jerome,

Thank you very much! I must say you're eagle-eyed. I missed that important added flair to the picture, and just savored the return of another friend! I was just distracted by the idea of an invisible man, leaning back, centered on the bench, arms outstretched, and taking in the vast open field before him. This was the view of explorers, the early humans that reached over the next set of hills to view one more living and hunting place for their next adventure. I am so absent minded sometimes, it's scary!

Now if a person walks by me in a supermarket and light reflects of a 3 mm pearly ring in the inner corner of an eye, or the tip of the nose, I will, (to my wife's constant embarrassment), ask to look up close and then refer them to get the tiny skin cancer treated promptly! So, I too have the ability to see things that are significant.

I should have noticed edits like the effect you point out as it's admirable craftsmanship! Obviously then, this photography is not merely "snapping" great pictures of well observed scenes, but also getting his fingerprints into the final result. Thanks for making us stop and think about this as, the approach is exemplary!

I never knew anything about that miniaturization effect! I use blurring routinely and rarely sharpen an entire picture or, (fully), any obvious edges, relying on more subtle sharpening of textures and select features like veins on a hand or eyes.

So did Leonardo use, "miniaturization"? Or is it that, Leonardo, "the painter", stops to "adjust" the rank of everything, as in a painting! I think it's posdible, (since he's an accomplished painter on canvas), he works "backwards", so to speak, undoing some of what camera sees too clearly.

Asher
 
I is good to get questions on the images and the camera. I am at the moment in Copenhagen and have limited free time to get on line, also I have not really examined some aspects of the cameras files on a proper computer. I ordered the body and lens at the beginning of this trip and have been working on the learn curve since it is a different beast than my Canon 5DMk2 or my X10. Let me try to answer some of the questions.
"Did you use some kind of "miniature" post processing on that image?" --- This is a filter in the FIRMWARE 3. I was familiar with this on my X10 and I became an instan fan of it --I am not really fan of filters in general--. For some reason it is a lot of fun to use it on a lot of subjects. I think that my enthusiasm will probably pass, but for now this was a good example of this effect.
 
This was all done by the camera on camera. I can only get the credit of choosing this filter on this particular subject. So far I am having fun with a new system, so no real style or concise body of work, just opportunistic recreation shooting.

But what I really want a camera like this -with the 18mm f2 permanently and exclusively attached to it-- is for street photography. Defined as shooting people without them knowing you are shooting and without asking permission to do so. For an example view plate a)


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I am a long time fan of Fujifilm, I shot a personal project with a Fujinon 135 on Velvia 4x5 transparency e6 film -ASA50- and later had a show on Fujifilm Pro Salon in Ginza, Tokyo. I also have been using the X10 for some time. They seam to be in synchronicity with the way I think as a photographer, on the other side Sony is a bit annoying at time, but it is probably just my own prejudice or something. There is one thing that sold me with the X system and it is the lens road map. A lot of primes, well made and exactly what a photographer would want. My personal wish list is the 85mm equivalent and the 70-200 2.8 equivalent but also the 15-35mm super wide zoom is good to know that exist in the mount.

After getting the camera I was surprised by how light weight it is. Some people complain about this and I understand that it is nice to pick up a camera and feel that it is a small heavy weight, but for street photography and similar duty, this XE2 body with the 18 f2 is perfect in terms of how it hangs from your neck it balances in the hand.

Controls are well placed for one hand quick action. On the not so good side: the battery goes from fully charged to red too fast for my taste, so I would recoment to not leave home with out a sencond fully charged spear.

Image Quality seams very good at first sight and so far I not shooting raw files and not really examining files systematically.

I have been shooting a lot with lens wide open a F2 and seams to perform pretty well for an almost pancake lens, but I would have to really check more carefully even if I think I would have already noticed ... so, keep asking questions and I will try to answer them ..
 
This bunkers are just ruins of the last WW, but there is a very good museum inside of a large gun and bunker not so far away. This canon closed the passage between Norway and Denmark. There was a lot of man hour to build this, but now they are just drifting in the beach and two things are happening, the structures move with storms and the ocean is also moving towards them. Exactly how and why, I don't know ...
 

Jerome Marot

Well-known member
But what I really want a camera like this -with the 18mm f2 permanently and exclusively attached to it-- is for street photography. Defined as shooting people without them knowing you are shooting and without asking permission to do so. For an example view plate a)

I see what you mean. I took the following pictures in the same manner: wide-angle, camera on its bag, back screen tilted so that I can see it from the top. If the shutter is silent enough, people will not even notice that a picture is taken:






 
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Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I see what you mean. I took the following pictures in the same manner: wide-angle, camera on its bag, back screen tilted so that I can see it from the top. If the shutter is silent enough, people will not even notice that a picture is taken:

Yes, YES, Jerome!! Real picture, covertly taken without getting some interfering reaction is the essence of great work! Bravo, Jerome. I love the idea of resting the camera on your camera bad.

Sometimes I do that purposely holding my Canon camera with a long lens pointing downwards, (that distracts the security guards), and meanwhile my diminutive Ricoh is silently taking pictures from my waist. I do not use the LCD as it's fixed. Just know how to aim "sort of well", some of the time!

Asher
 
Yes, that is the idea. If the camera has a prime lens you can learn to calculate the angle of coverage after a while, and with the XE2, you can pre focus on Manual mode and change the f.stop and/or speed the old fashion way.

I am moving with my family --my wife works for the UN-- to Bangkok and I want to document my first impressions of life in that 10M people city. Besides, my entire life I have wanted to have a Leica -I did have one for a short time and change it for a Mamiya AF 645-- and this is the modern, inexpensive version with all the goodies of the digital age.
 

Asher Kelman

OPF Owner/Editor-in-Chief
I think that we've gone terribly off topic. ;)

Yes, that's true.

The new subject springs directly from potentially surreptitious use of such hardly-noticeable brilliant little cameras. These marvels lend themselves to getting very natural pictures of what happens normally with humans. No one is smiling, posing or clowning for the shot! The camera records genuine human behavior with all its jewels, subtleties and blemishes. So this kind of picture has a special place in photography. Jerome's camera did not appear to perturb a single person in a packed table of friends sharing beers in a beer garden, having fun. But it did ignite our immediate addressing of the ethics of such liberties with other folks freedom! That part has been moved here



Cem,

What's very significant in this thread, is that Jerome's, (to me "wake up call"), recognition of a picture's alteration from that recorded, revealed a really valuable "built in" option for processing in this new Fuji camera.

That's a very practical advantage and if it works so well, we should not be afraid to use it.

Asher
 
"really valuable "built in" option for processing in this new Fuji camera."
Asher, you are correct. Of course I am one that have predicated on the use of RAW files for everything, but ... things change and now you can shoot some RAW, some with interesting filters depending of what you are doing. I just came back from Copenhagen -I am in NY for a few days until I continue to Costa Rica-- and in the long flight back I was going over the User Manual. I discovered a couple of things. First the way that the 4 programmable function buttons should --for me-- work best. And second, that one of the "virtual film" formulas is for Classic Chrome E6, transparency or slides ... I want to try that one tomorrow... The manual focusing on this camera is also interesting with a button that you can push for the camera to focus and let you shoot after and have the option of the focus-by-wire wile aided by a very effective effect of highlighting -either highlights or shadows-- with color (similar to what Phase One did with Capture 1)... Then there are 4 options for the rangefinder: a) Auto display section using eye sensor, b) LCD only, c) Viewfinder only d) EVF only with the eye sensor turning it (the EVF) on and off when you get the camera close to your face.
 
I grab the first subject instantly when I saw her doing this, but after taking the photo I had time to keep looking to try to see what was about. For a moment I thought that she had some sort of mental problem or disability, but latter I could tell that it was more like some type of yoga or oriental stretching exercise. The dog was just hanging out at a distance.

The woman sitting, I saw after I crossed the corner in the -FlatIron building district- and I pointed and shot. If she was looking at her phone I would have deleted the photo ...
 

Wolfgang Plattner

Well-known member
Hi
Very interesting for me, as I just dropped in this combination too, honestly I additionaly got the X-T10 because of the shifting screen and the faster AF-speed.
Let's see which combination will be turned out as favorite ...:)))
 

Antonio Correia

Well-known member
Thank you Leonardo for posting your way of using this camera.
Your images look very interesting.
I recently got a Panasonic GX7 which I use with a 15mm. This camera would have been an option to retain but it is too late now...

Keep them coming ! :) and ... night flight to Costa Rica !
 
Thanks. I must confess that I went for the XE because it looks like the affordable Leica-made-in-Japan that I have been waiting for 40 years. With Sony there is the matter of lenses, and more specifically --and not as unimportant as it looks-- the wood of the 18mm f2

hqdefault.jpg


The hood makes using a hood --something I like dearly-- a pleasure. The lens and camera can keep up with me in a very active day without me thinking "tomorrow it is staying in the hotel room"

The one thing that the T I surely envy is the ability to customize the Q menu..

.. but you can customize 4 buttons and this is how I did mine ..

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Fn Trying to maintain the one-hand usability of the camera I assigned the very important focus frame selection to this top button. You push it, then move the square green boxe in to position and even select its size, all with two fingers of your wright hand.

Fn2 LCD to EVF. This is important shooting option and it is difficult to find in the menues

AE Button AF mode

AF Button I put the ISO-ASA

I would love to know how others have organized this... by the way, to change the option you only have to push for a few seconds ...


Hi
Very interesting for me, as I just dropped in this combination too, honestly I additionaly got the X-T10 because of the shifting screen and the faster AF-speed.
Let's see which combination will be turned out as favorite ...:)))
 
Last friday I went to the opening at Van Der Plas Gallery in the Lower East Side -NYC-, I had two painting pieces shown in a summer collective work at this gallery that represents my painting. Of course I brought the XE and took some images.


I think that this camera with the 18mm f2 are perfect for this type of urban warfare as a close contact "assault" weapon. First of all you don't get distracted with the zooming, second, the camera is so small and one hand controllable, third, if you set it to f2 and use a 400 or 800 ISO you can handle the indoors. And finaly, when your mind learns the frame coverage of the only prime lens you use, then you pre-frame before even taking the camera to eye level or using the LCD ...



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This is my work ...


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