I attended the Sydney Fujifilm House of Photography free workshop event on Saturday March 2, first time for quite some time due to illnesses and a number of other commitments, and was reminded of why I have always enjoyed creating and sharing visual stories about events.
August 2023 was the last time I was at an FHoP workshop event and so I’m a little out of practice but it was good to get back in the saddle, as it were.
Who knows, but if the company doesn’t then the best and most versatile alternative camera would be a Fujifilm X-H2S.
The DSLR-styled X-H2S is not my preferred style of documentary camera, a rangefinder, but its combination of video with stills capabilities permits doing more with less, as it were.
I would miss the unique capabilities and way of seeing that the X-Pro series’ optical viewfinder aka OVF bestows, and that would be a damned tragedy if the X-Pro series no longer exists.
But, despite my X-Pro2’s lack of amazing autofocus, IBIS and smaller than 40 megapixel sensor, I am still getting great results with it in combination with DxO’s PhotoLab 6, FilmPack 4 and ViewPoint 4.
Right now I am unable to use PhotoLab 7 and FilmPack 7 due to my production computer being too old to run them and the macOS update they require but I would love to use both new versions’ Zone System implementation for refined control over the tone and colour of specific zones.
‘Discover Fujifilm’ editorial and documentary with Leslie Liu
A quick tryout with a Fujifilm X100VI
I made these snapshots with the X100VI’s Reala Ace colour negative film simulation preset then downsized the JPEGs in Adobe Photoshop to 2048px wide.
This version below has been processed from the X100VI’s raw file in Iridient Developer, then I opened the exported TIFF in Photoshop, applied the Kodak Portra 160NC film simulation preset in DxO FilmPack 7 as a plug-in then downsized and exported this JPEG at 2048px wide.
Better images to explore and show off the combined capabilities of the X100VI, DxO and Iridient Design’s software would be urban documentary photographs and portraits shot in sunlight and other unmixed light.
Image notes
I made the top set of photographs with a Fujifilm X-Pro2 and Fujinon XF 23mm f/1.4 R then processed the raw files in DxO PhotoLab 6 Elite with DxO FilmPack Elite 6 and DxO ViewPoint 4 as plug-ins using the Kodak Portra 400 film simulation preset, exporting the photographs as 2048px-wide JPEGs.
The Fujifilm X100VI was recently released and raw image processing applications have yet to be updated to support it so the most I could do was resize its straight-out-of-camera (SOOC) JPEGs to 2048px wide.
I had a very short time with the camera with Fujifilm WCL-X100 II Wide Conversion Lens attached so did not fully explore its menu and the many new options before making the above set of six snapshots using the camera’s new built-in Fujifilm Reala Ace colour negative film simulation.
With a little extra time I would have refined the camera’s settings and programmed in one of my preferred custom film simulations.
The light and colour at Fujifilm House of Photography is often challenging due to its ever-changing mix of natural light, artificial light, monitors and screens but DxO’s sophisticated applications enable fast balancing of colours and tones via sliders while it supports more intricate processing through its image area selection and masking system that has reportedly become even better in PhotoLab and FilmPack versions 7.
Fujifilm X100VI, WCL-X100 II Wide & TCL-X100 II Tele convertor lenses
Fujifilm’s X100VI plus the WCL-X100 II Wide and TCL-X100 II Tele conversion lenses should make a fine, compact documentary photography set-up especially in their black versions and with the camera’s in-body image stabilization allow you to work at slower shutter speeds and lower ISOs than I am accustomed to using on my X-Pro2.
DxO’s DeepPrime XD does a great job with high ISO raw files but its results should be even better again with low ISOs.
The aforementioned wide convertor, fixed lens and tele convertor yields 18mm, 23mm and 35mm focal lengths in the camera’s APS-C sensor format, or 28mm, 35mm and 50mm equivalent focal lengths on 35mm sensor-equipped cameras.
My preferred 3-lens documentary lens kit for APS-C comprises 14mm, 18mm, and 50mm (21mm, 28mm and 75mm equivalence), my current 2-lens kit is 14mm and 23mm and my current one-camera one-lens daily carry consists of the X-Pro2 and 23mm f/1.4 R with its excellent manual clutch focus, a feature I also love on the 14mm f/2.8 R.
My preferred one-camera one-lens daily-carry combo would actually be an X-Pro4 with compact “Fujicron” 18mm lens, the APS-C version of what I so relied upon in my magazine documentary days, a Leica M-4P with Elmarit-M 28mm f/2.8.
Can we hope that Fujifilm will bring my most-desired documentary photography camera and lens into existence any time soon?
I’m not holding my breath given recent rumours and comments but will be hoping for the best nonetheless.
Links
- B&H – Fujifilm
- DxO – Web site – DxO’s software will be updated to support Fujifilm’s X100VI sometime in May 2024.
- Fujifilm X Global – Web site
- Iridient Digital – Web site – Iridient Developer 4.2.1 was released on 21 February 2024 and Iridient Transformer 3.2 was released on 4 March 2024. Both support the Fujifilm X100VI.
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