I’ve followed camera industry expert and Imaging Resource founder Dave Etchells for his deeply insightful interviews with camera company imaging division executives for Imaging Resource for many years and now he seems to have followed DPReview’s TV review team over to PetaPixel with this in-depth interview with the Fujifilm team responsible for some of our favourite hybrid cameras and lenses.
“While attending the CP+ 2023 show in Yokohama earlier this year, I met with representatives of Fujifilm and had a chance to ask them about the reasons behind some camera features, the details of a recent firmware update, specifics about some of their future plans, and some more philosophical questions about 8K video and whether there’s still a place for “entry-level” models in the industry these days.
In the meeting, I spoke with Yujiro “Yuji” Igarashi (Divisional Manager, Professional Imaging Group, Imaging Solutions Division), Makoto Oishi (Manager, Product Planning Group, Professional Imaging Group, Imaging Solutions Division) and Jun Watanabe (Product Planning Manager, Product Planning Group, Professional Imaging Group, Imaging Solutions Division)….”
Fujifilm X-H2S, X-H2 & X-T5
Fujifilm X-H2S with VG-XH vertical battery grip and Fujinon XF 16-80mm f/4.0 R OIS WR zoom lens Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Fujifilm X-H2 with VG-XH vertical battery grip and Fujinon XF 16-55mm f/2.8 R LM WR zoom lens. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Fujifilm X-T5 with Fujinon XF 56mm f/1.2 R WR prime lens. Image courtesy of B&H.
Links
B&H Affiliate Link – Click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
Last Saturday I was in the Sydney CBD on a series of errands, had some time to spare so dropped into the Fujifilm House of Photography, borrowed a Fujifilm X-S20 and Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4.0 LM PZ WR with their kind permission, stepped out the door accompanied by a staff member who was keeping a keen eye on camera and lens, then rapidly snapped a short series of pictures of which these were the least awful!
Of course it helps if you are a little familiar with the myriad possibilities for setting up any given digital camera but time was of the essence and I wanted get a quick and effective feel of how both items might work when the files are processed in DxO PhotoLab Elite 6 and its plug-ins, all of which were updated to support the X-S20 the week before.
I processed the X-S20’s files to quick-and-dirty proof (not exhibition print) quality to reflect the strange light and weather that day, choosing my default colour transparency film simulation, Digital Films/Fujifilm Astia, for its excellent rendering of natural variations in skin colour.
Although this article is not a review of either camera or lens, the brief time I spent with both was enough to show that Fujifilm really is onto something special and I hope to be able to try them out in combination again in future.
In-depth reviews of the X-S20 are beginning to appear online now and I’ll be publishing some of them here after watching them.
Meanwhile the Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4.0 has been out for a while having been announced alongside Fujifilm’s X-H2S over a year ago in 2022 and despite some initial scepticism from first-look reviewers, still photographers and videographers who’ve spent time with it to understand its uniqueness have come away impressed.
I’ve long been waiting for a zoom lens like this one with its very decent 27-183mm focal range, lightweight plastic body, optical and mechanical design by Fujifilm’s legendary Fujinon cinema lens division and affordable pricing and it is top of my lens wishlist now for documentary photography and video production.
Fujifilm X-S20 with Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4 LM PZ WR, Fujinon X-H2S with MKX 18-55mm T2.9 and MKX 50-135mm T2.9, Image courtesy of Compact Camera Meter.
The Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4.0 balanced very well with the X-S20’s small and lightweight body and I’ve previously handled this lens while attached to a Fujifilm X-H2 and an X-H2S gripped and ungripped.
Although I prefer using heavier, battery-gripped hybrid cameras for handheld video production such as the X-H2S with Fujifilm VG-XH Vertical Battery Grip, cage and accessories as needed, the X-S20 gave the impression it would work well as a small, light and discrete video camera with the non-OIS Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4.0 or either of its two OIS kit lens options, the Fujinon XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 R LM OIS and the Fujinon XC 15-45mm f/3.5-5.6 OIS PZ.
I’ve rarely used telephoto lenses over 105mm (35mm sensor equivalent) except for the odd times I’ve had to cover packed press conferences with a borrowed 70-200mm or 80-200mm zoom, and I couldn’t find a personal use for the university art school’s Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8 when I was studying then teaching there.
Fujifilm X-S20, x-Pro3, X-T5 and X-H2S with Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4 LM PZ WR lens. Image courtesy of Compact Camera Meter.
Normally I cover events like those at Fujifilm House of Photography with three Fujinon XF prime lenses and swap them about as needed but I’ve often wondered if I’d achieve more keepers and greater variety with a zoom lens like the Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4.0 LM PZ WR.
A crucial lesson I learned years ago from the late, great filmmaker and photographer William Klein was that one must constantly jump out of one’s comfort zone and a great way to do that is to use lenses and therefore ways of seeing that one normally would not.
Two legendary Nikon Nikkor manual focus lenses, 28mm and 180mm (18mm and 120mm in APS-C)
Nikon Nikkor Ai-S 28mm f/2.0 Nikon F-mount prime lens with “Hollywood 28” optical design licensed from Zeiss. Image found on ebay.
Nikon NIKKOR✱ED 180mm f/2.8 AI-s telephoto lens, manual focusing, made from 1981 through to 2006. Image found on ebay.
Accordingly I chose to bounce between the two extremes of the XF 18-120mm f/4.0 LM PZ WR’s focal range, 18mm and 120mm, or in their 35mm sensor equivalents 27mm and 183mm, during this brief lens and camera tryout.
I don’t recall the art school owning a Nikon 28mm wide-angle or 180mm telephoto lens though there was a 24mm lens in the store-room: it wasn’t my favourite focal length then or now, being too long for some things and too wide for others.
Leica Elmarit-M 28mm f/2.8 manual prime lens for Leica M-Series. This was my automatic go-to lens for documentary photography and photojournalism. Photograph courtesy of Japan Camera Hunter.
After switching from Nikon SLRs to Leica rangefinder cameras I bought an Elmarit-M 28mm f2.8 and felt right at home with it to the point where it permanently lived on one of my Leica M-4Ps, the one I carried all the time in a waist-pack.
If Fujifilm offered a Fujicron-style Fujinon XF 18mm f/2.0 or even f/2.8 compact lens sized to fit its X-Pro series cameras and smaller, then I’d be ecstatic and snap one up immediately.
The Fujinon XF 18mm f/1.4 R LM WR seemed like an excellent lens from my tryout of it at an event in 2021 but it may be better suited to DSLR-style and size cameras like the X-H2S, X-H2 and X-T5 and I don’t really need an f/1.4 maximum aperture as I use wide-angle lenses for their deep depth-of-focus and not their bokeh capabilities.
If bokeh is what you need and in abundance, however, consider the longer end of the XF 18-120mm f/4.0 when set at f/5.6 or f/8.0.
Using the XF 18-120mm f/4.0 at the opening of Sydney’s Fujifilm House of Photography in 2022
‘List of Fujinon XF Lenses that Get Maximum Benefit from Fujifilm X-H2 (and X-T5) with 40 Megapixel Resolution’ published by Fuji Rumors in September 2022.
I made both of these photographs with the XF 18-120mm f/4.0 attached to our X-Pro2 and despite this camera not supporting the lens’ extra features via firmware I found the lens easy and fast to use and the results excellent for the focal length range.
Although many reviewers have commented that they miss having more on the wide end, preferring 16mm to 18mm, I have no such desire and would simply carry our Fujinon XF 14mm f/2.8 R alongside the zoom lens.
The only downside to that is that Fujifilm rates the XF 18-120mm f/4.0 LM PZ WR as more suitable for 40 megapixel sensor cameras while the XF 14mm f/2.8 R is not on that list.
Time to update the 14mm lens, Fujifilm?
Links
B&H Affiliate Link – Click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
DxO – website – PhotoLab, FilmPack, ViewPoint, PureRAW, Nik Collection – Our #1 choice in raw image processing and editing software.
FastRawViewer – website – “Is your RAW converter slow while building 1:1 previews or culling RAW files? Use FastRawViewer – a great time-saver and an ideal RAW workflow helper.“
Fujifilm X Global – XF18-120mmF4 LM PZ WR, Make Moving Memories – “With a 35mm zoom range equivalent to 27-183mm, a close focusing distance of 60cm (23.6in) throughout, and near-silent zoom and focusing controls, XF18-120mmF4 LM PZ WR is perfect for a broad range of motion production applications. These extend even further when considering the lens’s minimal focus breathing, stepless aperture control, and constant F4 aperture. Pull focus, make precise adjustments to iris, or change focal length without causing any noticeable distractions to the recorded footage.”
The Fujifilm House of Photography in Park Street, Sydney, is becoming a defacto friendly regular gathering place for photographers and videographers with its (mostly) twice-monthly free workshops on a wide range of aspects of photography and videography.
Attendees don’t even have to own or use Fujifilm cameras and lenses and there’s always plenty to learn regardless of which manufacturers’ gear you love and use or which genre of subject matter you favour.
I attended Fujifilm Australia’s X-H2S and X-H2 hybrid APS-C X-mount camera touch-and-try event and documented it with our Fujifilm X-Pro2 and a Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro “Fujicron”-style prime lens kindly loaned by the Fujifilm House of Photography, the lens equivalent in 35mm sensor terms to 45mm.
One of my ambitions for the photographic documentation of these events is to do them in a slightly different way each time whether via different cameras, different lenses or different choices in raw image processing software and film simulations or other colour grading treatments.
I’ve been intrigued by the 45mm-equivalent Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro since its release in late 2022 and the X-H2 and X-H2S touch-and-try event presented the perfect opportunity given the Fujifilm House of Photography wasn’t filled with as many attendees as usual.
That meant I could physically get a little closer and my usual medium-wide and super-wide lenses were less necessary in order to document the look and feel of the proceedings.
Using our Fujifilm X-Pro2 with a borrowed Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro lens
I’ve loved and relied upon “perfect normal” focal length lenses for many years now since acquiring one for my 4″x5″ sheet film cameras and equip new cameras with perfect normal lenses whenever possible.
Perfect normal is slightly wider than standard normal and it produces the most naturalistic perspective, the relationship between near and far that’s closest to human vision, of the two.
Despite the common assumption that “normal” is standard normal – 50mm for 35mm sensors, 33mm or 35mm for APS-C and 25mm for Micro Four Thirds – for me at least perfect normal is, well, more normal – 40mm to 45mm for 35mm sensors, 27mm to 28mm for APS-C and 20mm for M43.
That may be why some cameras and lens makers have chosen perfect normal focal lengths in the past, from Ernest Barnack when making the first three Ur-Leica cameras to Leica and Minolta for their CL and CLE compact 35mm rangefinder film cameras, by Zeiss and Yashica for the G1 and G2 35mm t film cameras, and before that by Minolta for its 35mm single lens reflex cameras.
Arithmetically 30mm in APS-C is a little longer than 40mm and a little shorter than 50mm but in practice its look and feel is closer to perfect normal than standard normal and the ease with which I used it for the images above is testimony to that.
Some APS-C & 35mm sensor perfect normal lenses or near enough to it
The legendary 28mm prime lens for moviemaking is the so-called Hollywood 28 and I’ve written about it at length here:
Given that available Hollywood 28-style lenses are almost always vintage, and are now unsupported by their manufacturers if repairs or maintenance are needed, is there a new equivalent or even near-equivalent?
Perhaps Cosina’s Voigtländer brand may provide an answer with the company’s Voigtländer 28mm f/2.0 Ultron Vintage Aspherical VM Lens Type II in combination with its Voigtländer VM-X Close Focus Adapter II for FUJIFILM X?
Vintage and vintage-style lens expert Phillip Reeve has an in-depth review of the Voigtländer 28mm f/2.0 Ultron and its variations:
Optics like the Voigtländer 28mm f/2.0 Ultron Vintage Aspherical VM Lens Type II are best described as “character lenses” as opposed to the more optically correct Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro and thus may be more suitable for narrative moviemaking than for documentary stills photography.
Some perfect normal lenses for APS-C & 35 sensor format cameras including 3 “Hollywood 28” primes
Fujifilm Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro prime lens. Image courtesy of B&H.
Fujifilm Fujinon XF 27mm f/2.8 R WR with Fujifilm LH-XF27 lens hood. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Australia.
Cosina Voigtländer Ultron 27mm f/2.0 for Fujifilm X Mount. Image courtesy of B&H.
Irix 30mm T1.5 cinema prime lens. Image courtesy of B&H.
Leica Summicron-C 40mm f/2.0 lens for Leica CL 35mm film camera. Image found on ebay.
Voigtlaender Nokton Classic 40mm f/1.4 MC for Leica M-Mount. Image courtesy of B&H.
The three legendary Minolta M-Rokkor prime lenses for the Minolta CLE: Minolta M-Rokkor 28mm f/2.8, M-Rokkor 40mm f/2.0 and M-Rokkor 90mm f/4.0. Image found on ebay.
Bundled lens set for Contax G1 & G2 analog film rangefinder cameras: Biogon 28mm f/2.8, Planar 45mm f/2.0, Sonnar 90mm f/2.8. Designed & made by Zeiss & Yashica.
Minolta MD Rokkor 45mm f/2.0 prime lens. Image found on ebay.
Minolta Chiyoko Super Rokkor 45mm f/2.8 prime lens. Image found on ebay.
Ernst Leitz Wetzlar Mikro-Summar 42mm f/4.5 brass-barrel triplet three-element perfect normal lens as used by Oskar Barnack in one or more of his three Ur-Leica cameras.
The Ur-Leica, invented by Oskar Barnack of Ernst Leitz Optische Werke in 1913, the first Leica 35mm rangefinder camera. Image courtesy of Leica.
Voigtlaender 28mm f/2.0 Ultron Vintage Aspherical VM Lens Type II. Image courtesy of B&H.
Voigtlaender VM-X Close Focus Adapter II for FUJIFILM X. Image courtesy of B&H.
Optical diagram, Voigtlaender 28mm f/2.0 Ultron Vintage Aspherical VM Lens Type I.
The legendary Hollywood 28: comparing the optical design and MTF curves of the Zeiss Distagon ZF 28mm f/2.0 ZF.2 with the Contax Distagon 28mm f/2.0.
Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 28mm f/2.0 “Hollywood 28” Nikon ZF.2 F-Mount. Image found on ebay.
Nikon Nikkor Ai-S 28mm f/2.0 Nikon F-mount prime lens with “Hollywood 28” optical design licensed from Zeiss. Image found on ebay.
Contax Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 28mm f/2.0 AEG “Hollywood 28” Contax-Yashica C/Y-mount. Image found on ebay.
The Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro’s field of view is close to that of the XF 27mm f/2.8 R WR “pancake” lens and our Panagor PMC 28mm f/2.8 Auto vintage lens, so much so that I visualized images, framed them then made the exposures quickly.
Usually when using an unfamiliar focal length it takes a little time to learn to visualize, frame then expose quickly but that wasn’t the case this time.
Compared to the other two lenses as well as our now non-functioning XF 27mm f/2.8, the XF 30mm f/2.8 was fast and sure in autofocus and manual focus modes and the focusing ring was easy to use with just a fingertip.
Fujifilm’s choice of a linear motor hence LM in the name was a wise one for the Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro and the company should extend that to all new lenses, especially those that’ll be used for documentary stills and video as well as photojournalism.
I concentrated on stills this time but am sure that the lens would be just as sure, fast and easy to use when making videos.
The XF 30mm f/2.8 is the first “Fujicron” lens to feature a lockable aperture ring allowing you to set it to A for auto and stay there without drifting off.
I’d like to see this as a standard feature for all of Fujifilm’s Fujinon lenses from now onwards.
Other features I appreciated while using the lens are its sturdy construction and tapered front but 43mm filter diameter that can be stepped up to 52mm for neural density filters.
I used it without its cylindrical plastic lens hood as that didn’t seem to be available at the time but its optics and coatings very effectively guarded against flares from in-frame light sources.
Fujifilm USA’s tech expert Michael Bulbenko recommends the Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro as “best choice for your first Fujifilm X-Mount prime lens” and I couldn’t agree more.
Although I didn’t use it in full macro mode at 1:1, just the fact that I had that option was comforting.
As the photographs above attest, it performed admirably whatever distance I was from the subject and I’d feel very comfortable carrying it day after day as my default prime lens especially on an X-Pro camera or the coming X-S20, for stills and video.
It wouldn’t be out of place on an X-H2S or an X-H2 flagship DSLR-style camera given its 40 megapixel sensor readiness.
Fujifilm X-H2S with Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro prime lens. Image courtesy of B&H.
Fujifilm X-H2s with Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro prime lens. Image courtesy of B&H.
Fujifilm Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro prime lens with bundled lens hood. Image courtesy of B&H.
Fujifilm Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro prime lens. Image courtesy of B&H.
Fujifilm Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro prime lens. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Japan.
Fujifilm’s flagship APS-C/Super 35 hybrid cameras, the X-H2 & X-H2S
Fujifilm X-H2S. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Fujifilm X-H2. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Fujifilm X-H2S with VG-XH vertical battery grip and Fujinon XF 16-80mm f/4.0 R OIS WR zoom lens Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Fujifilm X-H2S with VG-XH vertical battery grip and Fujinon XF 16-80mm f/4.0 R OIS WR zoom lens Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Fujifilm X-H2S with VG-XH vertical battery grip and Fujinon XF 16-80mm f/4.0 R OIS WR zoom lens Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Fujifilm X-H2 with VG-XH vertical battery grip. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Stephen Pierce makes photographs and videos for a range of prestige clients mostly located overseas in Europe and the United Kingdom with subjects ranging from architecture through travel to live performance and he relies on a number of Fujifilm cameras and lenses in the company’s APS-C/Super 35 X and medium format/large format GFX ranges.
He has often shared his appreciation for the large sensor size and high megapixels count of Fujifilm’s GFX cameras and the 40 megapixel sensor in the X-H2 and X-T5, allowing his clients the option of heavy cropping to suit a range of layouts and usages.
He also expounds the virtues of recording video in 8K and 6.2K when the option to crop is useful in post-production.
I’m yet to have the opportunity of using the X-H2S and X-H2 for video cannot comment on their capabilities there but have borrowed an X-H2 to document the first Fujifilm House of Photography workshop in January 2023:
As usual Stephen Pierce presented an in-depth run-through of both X-H series cameras’ capabilities and benefits, and if we had the means we’d have plunked the cash down for one of each.
I’m not currently working on commission from Australian or foreign clients as I used to, on stills or videos, but if I were then my core kit would comprise an X-H2S and an X-H2 for stills and video and two X-Pro cameras for immersive documentary stills photography as I find rangefinder-style cameras work best for me there.
I’d add vertical battery grips for both X-H series cameras for ease in shooting in portrait aka vertical orientation and for long battery life from all three NP-W235 batteries in this combination.
The form factor of Fujifilm’s compact aka “Fujicron” lenses works well with the X-Pro series’ optical viewfinder – which I rely upon for most of my documentary work – but Fujifilm needs to radically extend the range of focal lengths in this range and upgrade some existing compact lenses to Fujicron optical quality and mechanical functionality.
Given Fujifilm is now taking video production seriously the company needs to upgrade its Fujinon XF prime and variable focal length lens range to parity in stills and video performance, taking full advantage of the company’s legendary Fujinon Cinema lens design expertise.
Let’s see what Fujifilm has to announce in its coming X Summit in Bangkok!
FUJIFILM X Series – X Summit BKK 2023 / FUJIFILM – “May 24th at 9 AM GMT is the day of X Summit! This time X Summit will be held in Bangkok.”
Image notes
I made the photographs with a Fujifilm X-Pro2 digital rangefinder camera and Fujifilm’s Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro prime lens.
The X-Trans raw files were processed in DxO PhotoLab Elite with DxO FilmPack Elite and DxO ViewPoint as plug-ins, all using DxO’s DeepPRIME XD – for extra detail – denoising and demosaicing feature as well as the Kodak Portra 160VC – for vivid colour – film simulation.
Links
B&H Affiliate Link –Click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
Breakthrough Photography – Brass Step-Up Ring – We use and recommend this San Francisco company’s filters, accessories and especially its knurled brass framed step-up rings. Attaching wider filters to lenses with small filter diameters may require stacking two step-up rings but the coated brass rings do not bind like aluminium rings do, and the Traction frame knurling gives you plenty of solid grip.
DxO – website – PhotoLab, FilmPack, ViewPoint, PureRAW, Nik Collection – Our #1 choice in raw image processing and editing software.
Fujifilm X Global – Fujifilm launches FUJINON XF30mmF2.8 R LM WR Macro – “Its standard 30mm focal length provides the angle of view perfect for portraiture and snapshots that take advantage of natural perspectives…. It is designed compact and equipped with fast, accurate and quiet AF for high mobility.“
Fujifilm X Global – XF30mmF2.8 R LM WR Macro, Setting a New Standard – “Photography is constantly evolving. The modern creative requires a lens suitable for both stills and video across a broad range of applications. XF30mmF2.8 R LM WR Macro responds to these needs by offering a versatile focal length, 1:1 macro capability, fast inner focusing and minimal focus breathing, all in a compact optic suitable for daily use. This is the standard lens for a new generation.”
Fujifilm X Global – X-H2 – “Fifth generation imaging technology brings high resolution and speed to the next evolution of X Series. Equipped with a new 40.2-megapixel sensor, X-H2 offers unrivaled image quality for both stills and video, unlocking a world of creative possibilities far beyond what any previous APS-C format camera has ever done before.“
Fujifilm X Global – X-H2S – “Never miss a decisive moment. Featuring a stunning 5th generation X-Trans CMOS 5 HS sensor and X-Processor 5 in a beautifully designed body, photographers and filmmakers alike can now create at the pace of life and the speed of their imaginations.”
Mark Wieczorek – What I think about when I think about Focal Lengths – “Now that we know that 43mm is the true normal lens, perhaps we can re-think why we like the 50mm field of view so much — it’s ever so slightly telephoto.”
Mark Wieczorek – What is a Normal Lens — 35mm, 50mm, 43mm. – “The diagonal of a “full frame” sensor is 43mm. The diagonal of an APS-C sensor is 27mm (though APS-C sensor sizes vary). The diagonal of a Micro Four Thirds sensor is 22mm. The diagonal of a Fuji GFX sensor is 55mm. The diagonal of a larger Hasselblad sensor (there are several) is 67mm. Therefore the “normal” lens on each of these sensors would be about that focal length — 27mm for APS-C and 22mm for m43 and so on.“
Urth – We use and recommend Australian Urth brand filters, especially those in the company’s Plus+ range for professional work. We use their fixed and variable neutral density filters and circular polarizing filters which come in a wide range of filter diameters. Stephen Pierce uses a low-value fixed ND filter alone or in combination with a circular polarizing filter rather than variable ND filters.
Wikipedia – Normal lens – “In photography and cinematography, a normal lens is a lens that reproduces a field of view that appears “natural” to a human observer. In contrast, depth compression and expansion with shorter or longer focal lengths introduces noticeable, and sometimes disturbing, distortion…. ” – This entry used to define perfect normal versus standard normal but seems to have undergone heavy re-editing unsupported by citations lately.
There was a saying going around some years ago amongst documentary photographers that the most interesting images are to be made before and after an event and not so much during it.
That was the case to some degree during this Fujifilm Australia workshop presented by Stephen Pierce on how to best look after your cameras, their sensors and your lenses with a free sensor clean for each participant thrown in for free when they’d normally cost around AU$100 depending on the condition of your gear.
As usual Mr Pierce shared much of his hard-won in-depth knowledge and if I’d had a free cameraless hand I’d have been taking copious notes as some audience members were doing, but I did my best to commit as much as I could to memory.
I’ve been thinking about video production quite a bit lately while researching the late, great and forgotten Australian feature film cinematographer Robert Krasker in preparation for writing up a treatment for a documentary or a series of short movies about him and his many achievements.
That may explain why I felt compelled to photograph this event in more of a cinematic way or was it the presence at the event of some terrific Fujifilm hybrid cameras such as the X-H2S and the X-H2 and more video-oriented lenses like the Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4.0 LM PZ WR, Fujinon MKX 18-55mm T2.9 and Fujinon MKX 50-135mm T2.9.
Add a Fujinon XF 14mm f/2.8 R to the 18-120mm f/4.0 and the X-H2S along with a Tascam CA-XLR2d-F audio adapter and you’d have the core of a powerful, versatile documentary stills and video production kit.
Fujifilm X-H2S. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Fujifilm X-H2. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Fujifilm VG-XH Vertical Battery Grip. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Fujifilm FT-XH File Transmitter Grip. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
The control interface. Tascam CA-XLR2d-F XLR Microphone Adapter for Fujifilm cameras. Image courtesy of Tascam.
Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4.0 LM PZ WR stills + video zoom lens with lens hood. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Fujinon XF 14mm f/2.8 R ultra wideangle prime lens. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Australia.
Fujifilm Australia’s series of free ‘Discover Fujifilm’ workshops is a good demonstration of free being better than fee.
They may be motivated by the need to get feet in the door of the Fujifilm House of Photography in Sydney and to get Fujifilm cameras, lenses and accessories into the hands of customers for try-before-buy, but they’re also an example of sharing the benefits by conveying knowledge that isn’t available all in one place and for the price of just showing up.
No other camera and lens brand does that here in Sydney.
The quality and volume of the knowledge that Fujifilm Australia has been sharing, thanks to presenter Stephen Pierce and his decades of professional experience in photography and videography, is beyond anything I experienced at university art school and TAFE colleges where what was taught was not worth the cost.
Free sensor clean and more
This workshop went one step further with free sensor cleaning for one camera from each participant and it looks like every one of them brought a camera.
The sensor cleaning was done by Fujifilm Australia camera and lens technician Zaffer and he went further than the sensor, cleaning the rest of the cameras and attached lenses.
Here is Zaffer cleaning our Fujifilm X-Pro2 and Fujinon XF 14mm f/2.8 R:
Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4.0 LM PZ WR stills + video zoom lens on Fujifilm X-H2S. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
I made these photographs with our venerable Fujifilm X-Pro2 digital rangefinder camera with a Fujinon XF 14mm f/2.8 R and XF 23mm f/1.4 R then processed the X-Trans raw image files with DxO PhotoLab Elite, DxO FilmPack Elite and DxO ViewPoint using the Kodak Portra 160VC colour negative film simulation and DeepPRIME XD.
I rarely if ever used colour negative films during my analog photography days preferring to give my corporate and magazine clients colour transparencies to eliminate the extra step of printing from negatives and to keep more control over the result.
The wide and ever-growing range of accurate film simulations in DxO’s software tempts me to try out films I have never used and it’s fun to apply various film simulations to a series of short projects made in the same place under similar lighting to see what they have to offer.
Fujinon XF 14mm f/2.8 R ultra wideangle prime lens. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Australia.
My default film simulation is Fujifilm Astia for its subtly accurate skin tones but lately I’ve been enjoying trying out some Kodak and Fujifilm colour negative simulations that have more pronounced ways of rendering colour and particularly skin tones.
Another variation I’d like to try in these projects soon is in focal lengths.
I love Fujifilm’s Fujinon XF 14mm f/2.8 R and 23mm f/1.4 R for their manual clutch focus rings and their speed and ease for manual focusing given the age of our X-Pro2’s autofocusing capability.
A variable focal lens may help produce a very different way of documenting these events especially if it offers a reasonably long focal length range, with my ideal being from 14mm through to 180mm, the range I’m most used to for documentary stills and video as well as portraiture ai the longer end.
Fujinon XF 18mm f/1.4 R LM WR “Fujilux” prime lens. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Australia.
That’s why I’m keen to put the Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4.0 LM PZ WR to the test with a Fujifilm X-H2S.
Its f/4.0 maximum aperture should not be a problem as I usually follow the old news photographer’s rule of “set f/5.6 and be there”, stopping down to f/8.0 for deeper focus in crowds.
Supplement the 18-120mm f/4.0 with the 14mm f/2.8 and you have all the focal lengths you could wish for, the first on the X-H2S and the second on the X-Pro2.
If required to photograph in available darkness, say during an in-studio lighting demonstration, then the best choice might be the Fujinon XF 18mm f/1.4 R LM WR Fujilux prime lens.
Fujinon XF 50mm f/2.0 R WR “Fujicron” prime lens. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Australia.
I’m hoping that Fujifilm will see fit, though, to create a worthy successor to the old pancake-style XF 18mm f/2.0 R in the form of a Fujicron XF 18mm f/2.0 R WR, a focal length perfectly suited to the coming X-Pro4 so long as it offers 18mm bright-lines in its optical viewfinder and X-Pro2-style OVF dual magnification.
For a classic two-camera, two-lens documentary combination I can’t think of a better companion to a Fujicron XF 18mm f/2.0 R WR than the Fujicron XF 50mm f/2.0 R WR, an incredible lens too-often overshadowed by its larger, flashier sibling the XF 50mm f/1.0 R WR.
Links
B&H Affiliate Link –Click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
After processing a set of colour photographs made in Sydney after the Fujifilm House of Photography workshop on manual photography, it seemed like a good idea to find some similar monochrome photographs to run through DxO PhotoLab Elite 6.4 with DeepPRIME XD to see what benefits its advanced denoising and demosaicing might bestow.
Rather than searching the archives for some old monochrome photographs, I took our X-Pro2 and Fujinon XF 56mm f/1.2 R prime lens into a local high street for some quick and dirty grab shots outdoors and inside a café.
The original XF 56mm f/1.2 R has slow autofocus and its manual focus is even slower while its optics are often described as “quirky” or “characterful” making it more suitable for slow-paced portraiture than fast-moving documentary work like this.
Processed in DxO PhotoLab Elite 6.4 with DeepPRIME XD, 2048px JPEGs
Fujifilm has not rated the XF 56mm f/1.2 R as suitable for getting the best results from its new generation of 40 megapixels cameras but I’m keen to see if DxO PhotoLab Elite 6.4’s DeepPRIME XD for Fujifilm X-Trans raw files can at least reveal extra detail in lower megapixels cameras like our X-Pro2 and the X-H2S as well as the X-Pro3, X-T3 and X-T4.
On the other hand the Fujinon XF 56mm f/1.2 R WR that Fujifilm released alongside the Fujifilm X-H2 in 2022 would have been a better choice than our old XF 56mm f/1.2 R as the flaws of that lens are evident in the snapshot of an ever-present queue for train replacement buses.
I focused on the youth wearing Calvin Klein shorts while hoping the shoppers in the middle of the frame might be sharp enough despite the lens’ rather long focal length.
I prefer our 40MP-rated Fujinon XF 50mm f/2.0 R WR “Fujicron” lens for this sort of work as its autofocus is fast and accurate even though its manual focusing is slow.
The lens’ 75mm equivalence in the 35mm sensor format is often a better choice for documentary work such as singling out individuals at protests and rallies.
Processed in DxO PhotoLab Elite 6.4 with DeepPRIME XD, full-size JPEGs at 90%, 4.0MB & 3.0MB
The full-size photograph of the couple in the café shows how much extra detail can be revealed by DxO PhotoLab Elite 6.4 with DeepPRIME XD.
Look at the finely rendered type in the middle ‘All Day Menu’.
Pity the woman just happened to blink as I made the exposure but I had no choice as I wanted to capture the younger woman and the man framed well in the mirror behind them.
I’ll probably be carrying the XF 50mm f/2.o R WR and XF 14mm f/2.8 R lenses when we go into the city later this week though I might also pop the XF 56mm f/1.2 R into the bag as well.
If the days are as gloomy as today then mushy bokeh behind limited XD-sharpened details might make the images a little more interesting despite probable dim lighting, grey skies and rain.
Links
B&H Affiliate Link – click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
DxO, French image processing software and camera and lens testing company under the DXOMARK brand name, recently released version 6.4 of its flagship raw image processing application DxO PhotoLab and its premium version DxO PhotoLab Elite including DeepPRIME XD support for Fujifilm X-trans sensor cameras.
We’re so impressed with what DxO has achieved in its X-Trans raw image support that we held off on processing these images until we installed DxO PhotoLab 6.4.
Our aged pre-Apple M1 and M2 production computer doesn’t process these images rapidly when DeepPRIME XD is applied but the quality of the results are so worth it and we can’t help but recommend DxO PhotoLab Elite and it’s smaller and more affordable sibling DxO PureRAW 3 which also supports DeepPRIME XD for Fujifilm X-Trans raw files.
Processed in DxO PhotoLab Elite 6.4 with DeepPRIME XD, 2048px JPEGs
Fujifilm Fujichrome Astia 100F Professional (RAP 100F 120) in 120 rollfilm format. Image courtesy of B&H.
I made these photographs in record time while walking rapidly from Fujifilm House of Photography in Sydney to Town Hall Station via a couple of stores to check if they were still there after the predations of the pandemic.
I was carrying our Fujifilm X-Pro2 and Fujinon XF 14mm f/2.8 R superwide lens and minimally processed the X-Trans raw files using DxO’s Astia film simulation and the new DeepPRIME XD denoising and demosaicing algorithms.
Documentary photography is about the right visual information recorded well with enough detail to reveal the essentials and to intrigue viewers enough to look deeper within the image and themselves.
The latest DxO software has done a marvellous job at supporting those needs and we’ll be using DeepPRIME XD as our default from now on.
Processed in DxO PhotoLab 6.4 with DeepPRIME XD, full-size JPEG at 90%, 5.8MB
Mamiya 7 II interchangeable lens 120 rollfilm rangefinder camera. Photograph courtesy of Japan Camera Hunter.
We’re due to visit Sydney again at least twice this week and weekend and hope to make plenty more photographs to explore the expressive possibilities of DeepPRIME XD when applied to Fujifilm X-Trans raw files.
Our way of seeing has already been transformed for the better by having this capability now and the difference reminds me of when I bought my first Mamiya 120 roll-film rangefinder camera and wide-angle lens.
The Mamiya 6 was a 6x6cm 120 roll film interchangeable lens rangefinder camera while the Mamiya 7 and 7 II were 6x7cm 120 roll film cameras with the option of loading 35mm film into a panoramic adapter.
A more apt comparison would be Fujifilm’s long series of 120 roll-film analog under the Fujica brand, few of which ever found their way outside Japan and none to where I lived.
The Fujica GW690 II and its siblings are often referred to as Texas Leicas and they’re the cameras I would have preferred to Mamiya’s analog rangefinders with their superb lenses but less than incredible mechanical construction.
Fujifilm’s Fujica 6x9cm Texas Leicas for 120 roll-film
Fujifilm Fujica GW690 I 6×9 Professional 120 roll film camera. Image found on ebay.
Fujifilm Fujica GW690 III 6×9 Professional 120 roll film camera. Image found on ebay.
Fujifilm GSW690III Professional 6×9 120 roll-film camera with Fujinon 65mm f/5.6 lens. Image found on ebay.
Fujica GW690 120 roll film rangefinder camera, image kindly released into the public domain by Jfriedl.
Fujifilm GFX 50R with Fujinon GF 45mm f/2.8 R LM WR lens, equivalent to 35mm in 35mm format. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Australia.
Fujifilm’s Fujica cameras look to be sturdier than the Mamiya 6 or 7 and are part of a long lineup of 120 roll-film cameras made by the company in formats from 6×4.5cm through 6x6cm, 6x7cm, 6x8cm, 6x9cm and 6x17cm.
With its heritage of reportedly excellent analog medium format rangefinder cameras, it’s a shame that Fujifilm discontinued the GFX 50R digital medium format rangefinder camera.
Imagine applying DxO’s DeepPRIME XD to Bayer raw files of similar photographs in the gallery above but made with GFX 50R or GFX 100R cameras instead of my much smaller-sensored X-Pro2 APS-C camera.
Fujifilm GFX100S with Fujinon GF 20-35mm f/1.4 R WR. Image courtesy of B&H.
Until then, if and when Fujifilm revives its GFX R – R for rangefinder-style? – large sensor cameras, I’d also like to see what DxO PhotoLab Elite 6.4 with DeepPRIME can do for Bayer raw files from the GFX 100S camera.
Another question, too, concerns Fujifilm’s 40MP-rated Fujinon XF lenses versus its older 20+MP-rated optics.
DxO is unique in analyzing a vast number of sensor and lens combinations to create downloadable profiles for use with its raw processing software to obtain optimum results instead of simply going with whatever camera-makers may have written into raw file metadata.
The big question is how does an older lens compare to a newer version of that lens when raw files are processed with DxO PhotoLab Elite and DeepPRIME XD?
For example, the Fujinon XF 23mm f/1.4 R compared to the the XF 23mm f/1.4 R LM WR.
A secondary question is how does the same lens on a 40 megapixel Fujifilm camera compare with a 20+ megapixel camera when their raw files are processed with DxO PhotoLab Elite and DeepPRIME XD?
Speculation is one thing but the real proof is in the photographs.
Links
B&H Affiliate Link – click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
After a series of misadventures with Sydney’s ever-challenging public transport system I finally arrived at the Fujifilm House of Photography in Park Street well after the Shooting Manually workshop began, enervated and exhausted but ready to document the event.
I have a longtime saying, that the before and after is usually more informative and more visually interesting than the during, so it was disappointing to miss out on the before but I did my best with the during and the after.
Stephen Pierce’s presentation was packed full of detail and more females attended than in any of the previous two that I’ve been though I can’t comment on the Landscape workshop that I couldn’t attend due to illness.
Normally I’d cover events with a two-camera, two-lens kit with more gear in a backpack but in a pinch it’s possible to stick with one camera and one lens throughout so long as you vary the nature of your shots and the distance from your subjects.
I don’t have a variable focal length aka zoom lens for our Fujifilm camera, yet, and lenses that cover the entire desirable range from 14mm in APS-C through to 70mm or a little longer are rarely made due to the challenges of creating good enough optics.
Last year’s Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4.0 LM PZ WR is almost there but needs to be supplemented with the XF 14mm f/2.8 R on the wide end or one of Fujifilm’s superwide zooms, the XF 10-24mm f/4.0 R OIS WR or the XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR Red Badge lens.
We’re believers in exactly the right lenses, not too many and not too few, as funds are limited due to being self-funded independent documentary makers.
Is Fujifilm planning on updating the XF 14mm f/2.8 R to 40 megapixel rating just like the XF 18-120mm LM PZ WR?
We certainly hope so as those two lenses would make for an affordable, lightweight and optically high-quality kit suitable for documentary video and stills photography compared to the traditional trio of Red Badge zooms, the XF 8-16mm f/2.8, XF 16-55mm f/2.8 and XF 50-140mm f/2.8.
We’re leaning on the side of the Fujifilm X-H2 as best camera to go with the XF 18-120mm when covering events like this for its good balance with the lens and due to the likelihood that Fujifilm may not be releasing an updated X-Pro series digital rangefinder, the X-Pro4, any time soon.
Meanwhile I covered this event with one prime lens, the Fujinon XF 23mm f/1.4 R with its excellent manual clutch focus, though I found myself wishing for a XF 18mm lens with manual clutch focus for a little extra width to enhance the feeling of being right in the centre of the action.
I hope that Fujifilm will seriously consider such a lens for release alongside the X-Pro4 later this year or early 2024 as 18mm is the perfect focal length for the immersive documentary and photojournalism work to which digital rangefinder cameras are so well suited.
A fast 18mm lens allows opening its aperture right up to place emphasis on a crucial foreground element while still keeping secondary elements in the picture, and closing the aperture down to f/8 or f/11 brings almost everything into focus, these variations compensating to some degree for using just one focal length instead of several.
Links
B&H Affiliate Link – click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
Some time in the northern hemisphere’s spring 2023 Frame.io Camera to Cloud with Fujifilm’s X-H2S and X-H2 will be launched and we’ll learn more about it then.
But what information is currently available about it?
I asked myself exactly that when researching for an article about Fujifilm Australia’s free Discover Fujifilm Video workshop to be held in Sydney on Saturday March 25, 2023 and below is what I’ve discovered so far.
Fujifilm USA: Understanding Fujifilm X-H2S and Adobe Frame.IO
“Fujifilm and Adobe jointly announced that X-H2S, with the FT-HG attached, will be the first stills camera to directly incorporate Camera to Cloud file uploads into Frame.IO collaboration. Find out what that means for you.”
Tascam CA-XLR2d-F XLR Microphone Adapter for Fujifilm cameras. Image courtesy of Tascam.
Fujifilm USA: Frame.io Camera to Cloud Integration.
Fujifilm USA: Frame.io Camera to Cloud Integration.
Links
B&H Affiliate Link – click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
Fujifilm X USA – File transmitter FT-XH – Contains File Transmitter FT-XH Tutorial movies.
Fujifilm X USA – Join the Cloud Revolution this Spring – “The World’s First Native Digital Stills Camera Integration for Frame.io Camera to Cloud Is Coming to FUJIFILM X Series. Native integration for Frame.io Camera to Cloud with X-H2S and X-H2 is planned for release in early spring 2023*. It will be available as a firmware update developed to enable automatic delivery of stills or video directly from the camera to the cloud.” – Sign up for updates.
Fujifilm X USA – Take the Work Out of Workflow – “The world of workflow is changing. In October 2022, Fujifilm announced a development collaboration for native Camera to Cloud (C2C) integration with Adobe via Frame.io – a world-first for stills cameras. Initially, a direct connection to Frame.io via Adobe C2C was only possible with FUJIFILM X-H2S and FT-XH File Transmitter, but it has now been confirmed that a spring 2023 firmware upgrade will see FUJIFILM X-H2 added to the list of compatible models.”
Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4.0 LM PZ WR stills + video zoom lens optical cross-section. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Fujifilm Fujinon MK 18-55mm T2.9 cinema standard zoom lens optical cross-section. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Tascam CA-XLR2d-F XLR Microphone Adapter for Fujifilm cameras. Image courtesy of Tascam.
Commentary
All hybrid mirrorless cameras released during the last decade or so are capable of recording good quality video and recent mirrorless hybrid cameras have been approaching ever closer the video quality of dedicated cinema cameras.
Since the hybrid stills and movie revolution was accidentally kicked off by Canon with its EOS 5D Mark II and the 2008 release of Reverie, the short movie co-directed by Vince Laforet and Yoni Brook, many former stills-only photographers have also become videographers if not cinematographers.
Fujifilm has come relatively late to supporting video and is still in the throes of catching up with the likes of Canon, Panasonic and Sony, but its APS-C/Super 35 cameras are more affordable than 35mm sensor aka “full frame” cameras by the latter manufacturers while offering excellent stills quality that competes with 35mm sensor cameras.
This free workshop should provide an excellent and in-depth introduction into videography using Fujifilm cameras and lenses and Sydney’s Fujifilm House of Photography provides the opportunity to touch and try cameras and lenses well-suited to video work.
Links
B&H Affiliate Link – click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
Fujifilm X | GFX USA Creators – web page – “Our Collective of Creatives, Mentors, and Educators: A group as broad as it is diverse, our Creators represent the best we have to offer the image making community. Thanks for getting to know them.”
Fujifilm X USA Exposure Center – Filmmaking – “Feed your creativity with education, inspiration, and insight from the world of photography.”
Fujifilm X USA Exposure Center – Your Creative Video Toolkit – “Every current X Series camera is capable of recording high-quality 4K footage that’s sure to dazzle, so if you’re looking to explore the world of moving images, then you’ve made an excellent start. Creating a great video is all about how you use the camera to tell the story, and there are countless techniques from the cinema world that videographers and cinematographers use to do this. In this article, we introduce a few cinematography techniques and explain how they help to bring your story to life.“
Leeming LUT Pro – website – “Leeming LUT Pro™ is the world’s first unified, corrective Look Up Table ( LUT ) system for supported cameras, designed to maximise dynamic range, fix skin tones, remove unwanted colour casts and provide an accurate Rec.709 starting point for further creative colour grading….” – We strongly recommend investing in Leeming LUT combos for all cameras you use for video production in order to get the very best starting point for deadly accurate colour and easier colour grading.
Unititled.Net – Film and Digital Times: SIGMA fp and fp L cameras get EL Zone – Commentary – Fujifilm must add the incredible EL Zone System formulated by Director of Photography Ed Lachman, ASC, to the firmware of its X-H2 and X-H2S cameras. With EL Zone System, traditional video assist tools like scopes and waveforms are rendered redundant.
The other day I was asked which camera and lens I’d choose for some documentary photography and video projects if funds suddenly appeared.
Our production and postproduction hardware set-up needs updating to current generation cameras, lenses, computers, monitors, memory cards and storage so there’s more to it than just picking the latest and yet most affordable, best bang for the buck cameras and lenses.
So which current generation camera and lens would I choose?
Fujifilm’s X-H2S and X-H2 have plenty going for them and both would benefit from being used in conjunction with the Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4.0 LM PZ WR lens co-developed with Fujifilm’s legendary Fujinon cinema lens division.
Right now we’ve just one 40 megapixel-suitable lens and processing raw files from the X-H2 puts quite a strain on our main production computer.
Might a 26.1 megapixel X-H2S be a better proposition given that or should we hope to acquire a current-generation Apple M2 computer and aim at radically boosting our video production capabilities for 8K and 40 megapixels?
CineD: Our Recap of the FUJIFILM Day at the ASC Clubhouse
“FUJIFILM recently hosted an event at the ASC Clubhouse to showcase their latest imaging technologies, ranging from prosumer cameras and lenses to high-end cinema products. During the day, we talked to Stosh Durbacz and Michael Bulbenko from FUJIFILM and asked them a few questions about their state-of-the-art systems.”
Questions like that are why I stopped by CineD’s YouTube channel to see if they’ve shared results from their investment in the X-H2 as a documentary video camera.
Instead I came across their video of the American Cinematographers Society Fujifilm day where the documentary-background interviewer shared his high opinions of Fujifilm colour science and Fujinon lenses, and of power zoom lenses in general.
Learning from experienced professional users certainly helps.
Fujifilm X-H2S with Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4.0 R LM PZ WR stills + video zoom lens. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Fujifilm X-H2 with VG-XH vertical battery grip and Fujinon XF 16-55mm f/2.8 R LM WR zoom lens. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Fujifilm X-H2 with VG-XH vertical battery grip. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Fujifilm FT-XH File Transmitter Grip. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4.0 LM PZ WR. Fujifilm X Summit Omiya 2022, May 31 2022.
Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4.0 LM PZ WR. Fujifilm X Summit Omiya 2022, May 31 2022.
Controls, Fujifilm Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4.0 LM PZ WR cinema and stills zoom lens. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Japan.
Optics, Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4.0 LM PZ WR stills + video zoom lens. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Fujifilm with X-H2S, Tascam XLR audio adapter and vertical battery grip. Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4.0 LM PZ WR. Fujifilm X Summit Omiya 2022, May 31 2022.
In that regard I’m looking forward to the cinematography workshop that Fujifilm House of Photography presenter Stephen Pierce mentioned would be coming so I can get hands-on time with the video side of Fujifilm’s latest cameras and lenses.
There are questions still to be answered.
Is the X-H2 or X-H2S the better choice for our sort of documentary stills and video?
Will the XF 18-120mm f/4.0 fill most of our needs for both or should we supplement it with some 40MP-rated primes like the XF 18mm f/1.4 R LM WR and the XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro?
Will a VG-XH Vertical Battery Grip be as useful for video production as it will be for portrait photography?
Then there are questions only Fujifilm can answer.
Are more lenses like the XF 18-120mm “movie+stills” on the drawing board?
Will it lead to a true hybrid lens line including a set of size-matched primes?
Postscript 1
Oh, before I forget, Fujifilm is a major sponsor of our very own Australian version of the American Society of Cinematographers aka ASC, the Australian Cinematographers Society aka ACS.
Wouldn’t it be terrific if the ACS and Fujifilm collaborate on a cinematography workshop at the Fujifilm House of Photography in Sydney?
Postscript 2
Fujifilm, please add the EL Zone System by Director of Cinematography Edward Lachman, ASC to the next firmware updates for the X-H2 and X-H2S at the very least.
Sigma recently added it to their fp and fp L cameras and Panasonic was first to add it to their VariCam cinema cameras.
EL Zone System has already come to other hardware, firmware and software in the video production ecosphere such as SmallHD monitors and Colorlab AI and more developers are currently working on integrating it into their own products.
Fujifilm, give us EL Zone System and you won’t need to bother with waveforms, vectorscopes, parades and other ancient voodoo forms of video exposure aids.
Links
B&H Affiliate Link – click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
UNITITLED.NET 