Fuji X100S; The Street Edition

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I never liked “Street Photography.” I mean, I always enjoyed looking at others’ street photography and often wondered how they were able to capture what they had, but I’ve never really enjoyed doing it much myself. I think I’m starting to get it now and that’s down to me getting a Fuji X100S.

I bought my first Fuji largely because I wanted to get something smaller in a 35 mm focal length, but if you do more than 18 seconds of research on it, it’s impossible not to read time and again (and again) how great a camera the X100(S) is for street photography. So I was cautiously eager to try my hand at street shooting again.

I didn’t fully appreciate how much easier shooting strangers with pretty much anything aside from a DSLR really is. I figured being quick and covert ought to be enough, and yet I never felt comfortable with it. But people are really wary of random dudes with DSLRs—especially when they’ve got something like a 24-70 hanging off the front of it. In reality, shooting with something like a rangefinder truly does put people at ease much more than a paparazzi-looking DSLR does.

In addition to that, it’s also much easier to take photos without anybody knowing a thing. I’ve been sitting beside my wife and taken photos that she has no idea I’ve taken until she sees them on my Mac days later.

I do have a few gripes though:

1. I wouldn’t mind another Fn button. Maybe near the lens where the fingers on my right hand rest similar to my D700.
2. I’d love to be able to set the D-pad to change the focus points by default instead of having to hit the AF button first. I haven’t spent any time thinking through how you’d get to the other functions.
3. To that end, I also wish I could reduce the number of focus points to choose from for faster selection. 
4. I kind of feel like I need a half case with a grip or maybe a Thumbs Up from Match Technical. I’ve avoided it so far ’cause I’m trying to stay stock if possible. Adding the Thumbs up will make it ever-so-slightly less easy to slide into my bag. The X100S just barely slides in a pocket along with my iPad currently. But I think the thumb support would make a huge difference with quick one-handed operation.
5. $100 for a hood and filter attachment is a bit much. Fuji are clearly trying to make their money back on accessories. I’ve come close to ordering a JJC hood and filter attachment, but there are stories of the fit being not quite right. That would drive me nuts. 
6. I wish it was available in black. I actually preferred the look of the silver at first, but the black is definitely less conspicuous and the longer I have it, the more I wish it was black.

Gripes aside, they’re all outweighed by the positives—quick to focus once you learn it, easy one-handed operation as compared to the X-E1 and X-Pro1, outstanding picture quality, etc.—and I’ve taken way more photos since I bought the X100S than I had in the last year. That’s gotta be what matters most.

I hope to have a Landscape Edition posted in less time than it took me to get this online, but sadly, I actually broke my precious Fuji, rendering it unusable just a week into our vacation/honeymoon when I really hoped to put it through its paces. More on that in the next post.

The Genius of Marketers

Solving problems nobody has.

This happened in a brief recently:

“Our consumers choose our main competitor because they solve Problem A and Problem B. Our plan is to win them over by telling them how amazing we are at solving Problem C.”

Of course I wasn’t the only one who saw the issue with this thinking. The sad thing is how many agencies are in a position where they can’t (or won’t) challenge this sort of nonsense.

Retina Retention

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Apple’s Image Retention test running on my rMBP.

The Retina MacBook Pro Apple gave me as a replacement for my 17 inch MacBook Pro exhibited some minor image retention pretty much out of the box. It was so mild and faded so quickly that I didn’t worry too much about it. After 8 months the image retention had become more pronounced and remained on the screen for longer so it was time for a visit to the Genius Bar. 

The Genius ran the official image retention test. It’s a 4 minute test; they leave a checkerboard pattern on screen for 3 minutes, then the screen goes black for 1 minute. If at the end of the fourth minute the pattern is still visible, the display fails the test and is eligible for replacement.

They didn’t have the display in stock so I had to wait a few days for it to come in and then another few days for a Genius Bar appointment just to drop the computer off which was disappointing. When I dropped my MacBook off this morning, the Genius figured the repair would take closer to 3 days to fix vs. 7. It seems that was the case since they called me a couple hours ago to let me know it was ready for pickup today. Pretty awesome.

UPDATE: After Apple’s lightning-fast repair, I went to pick up my MacBook. A Genius brought it out and booted it up and, wow, the screen was yellow. It looked like it had been calibrated to about 5,000K. He took it to the back for a minute, but it looked the same when he came back out. So, it’s back in for repair. Apparently they get displays made in batches so the Genius mentioned that another display from the same batch could look just as bad. I will be astounded if that’s the case. If I bought a new machine that looked like that, I’d return it. 

35 via 24

My Fuji X100s with my Dad’s genuine 70s camera strap.

I’ve been using Nikon gear exclusively for 7 years now. When I upgraded my D300 to a full frame D700, I had my eye on Nikon’s newly released 24mm ƒ/1.4, mostly for its shallow depth of field capabilities. It’s a pretty great lens and I managed to get some decent shots with it, but after the novelty wore off, I found it wasn’t a very good everyday lens. The focal length was too wide and it wasn’t particularly compact.

I decided it was time to unload it and move to a 35mm lens. After considering Nikon’s 35/1.4, I started lusting after Sigma’s 35mm ƒ/1.4 which, by most accounts, betters the Nikon in almost every way that matters.

Then a pro photographer buddy of mine asked me if I’d seen the new Fuji yet. “The X100?” I asked. “Yeah,” he said, “all the landscape pros are using it as their travel camera.” Of course it wasn’t the X100 he meant, it was the shiny new X100s. I hadn’t heard of the update yet. It seems that an ‘s’ moniker in Fuji’s parlance is as meaningful as it is in Apple’s and, since the X100s is fixed at 23mm on APS-C sensors which makes 35mm equivalent, I figured why not get a whole new camera to play with at the focal-length I want? 

After a little research, I phoned every local camera shop in the area. The first was sold out and had 100 people with orders ahead of me. The second and third had no idea when they would get more in. I called the fourth shop saying “I guess you don’t have any X100s’ in stock?” Turns out they had a couple. I walked over at lunch and had a look at the X100s and the Fuji X-E1. Having interchangeable lenses was appealing to me and the Fujinon lenses are very nicely made, but I decided to stick with the X100s since it was sure to sell out again and mull it over for a couple days before I opened the box.

In some ways it is really tempting to unload my entire DSLR kit—the bulk and weight are not things I enjoy—but the speed and weather sealing are still really valuable to me given how much I enjoy travelling in the UK. So for now, I’ve decided not to get into building up a full mirrorless system. I’ll keep my Nikon gear as my heavy duty workhorse setup and the Fuji will be my walk-around, taking-pictures-for-the-heck-of-it camera. Plus I finally get to use my Dad’s camera strap again.

As luck would have it, my wife, Melissa, took one look at the Fuji and decided she had to have one of her very own. Guess who’s getting an X-E1 soon? We may just end up becoming a Fuji family before we know it.

I plan to post some photos and impressions on the X100s soon.