Fuji X100: Leprechaun Sanctuary

Fuji X100: Some rock and roll pics

I've been diligently carrying the X100 around everywhere I go until I have to give it back. I'm learning to live with many of its quirks, and I'll publish a "tips" post once I'm done with it. Here are a couple things I've figured out lately:

•  There's a way around the "silent mode" flash dilemma - just turn off the operational volume and shutter sound. Voila, permanent silent mode, and you can just call up the flash whenever you want it. Who needs a fake shutter sound, anyway? (If you do, there are three to choose from.)
• ISO is weird. You can set auto ISO parameters through the setup menu (not the ISO menu), but if you set a specific ISO in the main menu, auto ISO won't go any lower than that number. I had briefly turned off the auto ISO the other day and set the X100 to ISO 400 in order to meter a shot I was taking with a 1957 Ricoh 500, which has no meter...anyhow, I assumed that auto ISO would override the manual ISO setting, not so. No big deal, really, but good to know.

A couple co-workers play in a band that played an early evening show the other day, so I got right up on the stage and snapped a few shots.

Fuji X100: lovin' and hatin' it (updated)

I jotted down my first impressions of the new Fuji X100 the other day - looking at the post now I can see it doesn't jive with most "first impressions" posts I've seen for this camera. I spent a lot of time pointing out the things the camera doesn't do well, at least in my eyes.

While I stand by all of those observations, I did figure one thing out - you can indeed wake up the camera from sleep mode, by holding down the shutter button for a second or so. Then a few seconds later, you're ready to shoot again. Everything the X100 does, it does deliberately.

However, the proof is in the pudding, and I'm loving the images I get out of this camera. It's just not snappy and responsive. Depending on what you're shooting, this is either no big deal, or a crying shame. That's what inspired the title of this post.

Here are a few more snaps - I'll keep jotting down notes as I go while I have an X100 to play with.

Update, 7/1/2011: Eolake raises a good point in his comment below. The X100 is actually plenty responsive, I was just trying to tweak too many things and dive into too many menus at the time I wrote this post. In the end, I just set the ISO, aperture, and shutter at auto and shot away most of the time. Don't make the mistake I did - just shoot away!

Repurposing gear

I took these two today using the S95 and a Sony VCL-0630 S camcorder wide-angle conversion lens. I held it by hand against the end of the lens as I shot. The top one was taken at 28mm-e at 0.6x wide, which works out to about 17mm. The conversion lens performs well at center, but gets pretty fuzzy at the edges. It reminds me of the Lensbaby.

For the bottom shot, I flipped the conversion lens over, which had a magnification effect. What I learned was, never throw anything away if it seems useful. Its true purpose will reveal itself to you in due course.

Sharp enough for you?

I was fooling around in the yard today using the T3i and my Russian Jupiter 37A 135mm f/3.5 lens. It's in Pentax Screwmount (M42), easily adapted to Canon SLRs. The Jupiter 37A was set at f/5.6. I used Live View and the T3i's sweet tiltable screen. Pretty sharp, yes? I will admit to some mild sharpening during processing, but believe me, it takes a sharp image to make a sharp image.

Shadows

I like this one, it looks like the shadow's going for the steal. Taken with the S95 I have on loan.

Digital Holga

credit: Saikat Biswas, via trendland.net

(Thanks to Martyn Kyle of Pernmoot Photography for passing this along)

Indian photo genius Saikat Biswas has mocked up a design for a truly digital Holga camera. As a Holga lover, I can say this design is truly inspired. I love the zone focus and lack of an LCD screen. In my humble opinion, it only falls short in the sensor department. It should use an inexpensive cameraphone sensor, not a full-frame DSLR sensor! No need for such a camera to be expensive. Anyway, it's just his idea for now. But if such a camera ever came to market and was priced properly, you can count on one sale from this photographer.