“In this video I give you a quick walkthrough of Capture One Express for Fujifilm (Also for Sony) to get you up to speed, starting with importing, then some basic editing, and finally how to export….”
Commentary
Now that Phase One has released its free Capture One Express raw processing software for Fujifilm, I can wholeheartedly recommend it.
I learned how to use Capture One Pro, the full version that supports hundreds of different cameras and lenses, some years ago by watching free training videos on the Web, and can highly recommend Thomas Fitzgerald as a Capture One teacher as well.
Links
1Styles.pro – two collections of excellent film simulations styles for use in Capture One in its various versions.
All raw processing and image editing software is not created equal although all such products I have used in recent years, whether open source and free or purchased, are very capable of achieving great results even if some products’ interfaces could do with a little modernizing.
One of my favourite raw image processors and image editors is Phase One’s Capture One Pro, and it is especially good for processing photographs containing skin tones.
Hardly surprising given Capture One is primarily aimed at fashion, portrait and wedding photographers and also has a large user base amongst architectural and landscape photographs, especially those working with large sensor cameras and who often need to print their images large, really large.
Phase One Capture One Express Fujifilm, professional image editor and raw processor application for Fujifilm GFX and X camera users.
Capture One Pro has ably though partially supported Fujifilm X Series cameras for some time now but according to statements made by Phase One staff members and reported in the specialist online press, supporting Fujifilm’s GFX Series medium format cameras would not be on the cards due to a perceived conflict of interest.
Phase One has long been a major player in the medium format camera and sensor world with its own ranges of excellent though expensive cameras and digital backs.
The release of two versions aimed directly at Fujifilm camera users, the free Capture One Express Fujifilm and the licensed Capture One Pro Fujifilm, comes as a pleasant surprise.
The latest version of Capture One Pro 11 supports Fujifilm X-T3 raw files, as indicated by the test I did this afternoon with the three X-T3 images above, and I will look for a GFX raw file to try out soon.
This has been a great day for Fujifilm product announcements and now this unexpected bonus comes too.
Raw files from Fujifilm X-T3, processed in Capture One Pro 11.3.0.26 with 1Styles.pro styles
Fujifilm’s support for Super 35 video in the X-T2 flagship DSLR-style mirrorless camera appears partially complete. Looks like we may need to wait for the Fujifilm X-H1 for the arrival of a full set of top-end professional video features some time in 2018.
Of the three Fujifilm cameras in question, I am most familiar with the X-T2 having been lucky enough to have borrowed a review loaner, so will confine my comments here to that but readers interested in the X-T20 and GFX 50S may wish to read up on their firmware updates in my list of links below.
I am currently the proud owner of an X-Pro2 rangefinder camera and am looking forward to late December’s release of the Fujifilm X-Pro2 Version 4.00 firmware for 4K video mode, tethered shooting, new autofocus algorithm and support for Fujifilm Raw Studio and Fujifilm X Acquire.
How to access RGB histograms and overexposed areas blinkies, from page 1 of the X-T2 New Features Guide Version 3.00. But is this the whole story?
Version 3.00 of the X-T2’s firmware does not include the much-requested exposure zebras persistent in shooting mode, one of the two most essential firmware features needed for professional-quality work, along with focus peaking which previous firmware did have.
Instead, Fujifilm has included “overexposed areas blink” aka “blinkies” which is activated by pressing “the function button to which Histogram has been assigned” as per Fujifilm’s X-T2 New Features Guide Version 3.00.
The Guide does not specify whether the RGB histogram and overexposure blinkies can be viewed and remain persistent while shooting photographs or video thus allowing exposure adjustment as the light changes.
Having both the blinkies and the RGB histogram on-screen while shooting as illustrated in the Guide would be distracting to say the least, and blinkies alone while shooting would have been preferable.
Fujifilm’s blindness to zebras persists
Percentage-adjustable exposure zebras as featured on numerous contemporary and recent digital cameras and camcorders would have been even better again, but Fujifilm seems to have a persistent blindness to zebras as I have mentioned in many articles on this website, most recently Fujifilm… I’m Cross Over Your Aversion to Zebras.
This zebra blindness is surprising given Fujifilm’s legendary willingness to listen to its user base as well as its famous Kaizen – “improvement” or “change for the better” – philosophy.
Is there something Fujifilm knows that thousands of professional and enthusiast moviemakers do not?
Is Fujifilm really serious about fully supporting professional-quality video functionality in its cameras?
Will exposure zebras and other essential pro video features like internal F-Log recording, on-camera headphone ports and many more hardware and firmware functions eventually find their way into a future, more video-worthy version of the X-T2 or one of its descendants?
Or is Fujifilm having a cunning laugh at video functionality while continuing to aim its cameras more at photographers than videographers?
I would love Fujifilm to take some hints out of Panasonic’s and Samsung’s books, and their cameras’ many cutting-edge video achievements, to produce a truly remarkable, market-leading Super 35/APS-C hybrid video/stills camera.
For immersive fly-on-the-wall documentary stills photography on the other hand, nothing beats a real digital rangefinder camera and Fujifilm’s X-Pro2 hits the spot in combination with Fujifilm’s Fujinon aperture-ring-equipped manual clutch focus prime lenses like the Fujinon XF 23mm f/1.4 R, my current favourite documentary photography lens.
More power to Fujifilm’s advanced hybrid rangefinder and fast manual clutch focus prime lens arm, as it were, and I am looking forward to December’s firmware update for the X-Pro2.
I am relishing being able to shoot great 4K video on this wonderful rangefinder camera at long last.
Postscript
FujiRumors has shared a video showing how focus peaking and overexposure blinkies flash when both are switched on.
I hope there is an option to at least turn the flashing off as I would find this irritating when shooting, just as I did when viewing this video.
Although I am not fond of DLSR-style cameras for stills photography, preferring the DSLR form factor for video cameras so long as they are equipped with fully articulating monitors, I find the Panasonic Lumix DC-G9 intriguing for its feature set and its promise as a smallish, fast-to-use camera for news, events and magazine feature photography.
For the urban documentary stills photography which I also practise, I still vastly prefer rangefinder and rangefinder-style cameras with tilting electronic viewfinders and hope that we can expect a Panasonic Lumix DC-GX9 tilting EVF camera in the near future.
It is early days insofar as hands-on professional user reviews of the Panasonic Lumix DC-G9 go, and I am looking forward to learning about how its many new features work out in practice.
I can visualize how the G9’s wildlife and sports photography-oriented features will make the job of those photographers lighter, faster and easier.
As a former magazine and daily newspaper photographer I can extrapolate how photographers in those fields will benefit especially given the tight deadlines of the newspaper business.
The G9’s 80-megapixel high resolution mode has piqued my interest, even more so now that I have been asked if I want to take up architectural photography again.
Food for thought.
Digital medium format photography costs far more to get into than large format analog photography ever did, in my experience.
Unless shot strictly for magazine, print or web publication, architectural photographs need to be usable at high reproduction sizes for displays and posters.
I love Micro Four Thirds and APS-C mirrorless, and medium format digital hardware suitable for architectural photography is well beyond my current means.
Medium format image quality, micro four thirds sensor size?
The Panasonic Lumix DC-G9’s 80-megapixel high resolution mode used for landscape photography. Not the best way to demonstrate its effectiveness. I would like to see the 80-megapixel mode well demonstrated for use in architectural and environmental portrait photography, in HDR multiple bracketing for architecture and a single shot for portraits.The incredible Linhof Master Technika Classic 4″x5″ hand-and-stand sheet film camera with universal viewfinder, rangefinder and shift, swing and tilt camera movements. Perfect for architectural photography and portraiture. I learned photography with one of these and taught photography with it at the same university art school.
Is the G9’s 80-megapixel high resolution mode the way to go when needing to go large?
Combine the G9 with a super wide-angle Olympus or Panasonic zoom lens, or a Laowa M43 or adapted prime lens, choose the ones offering the best optical correction, and select an easily portable tripod that extends high enough to shoot above eye level as needed.
Above all buy lenses with the very least optical distortions to avoid nasty curved parallels when shooting video.
The legendary medium format Rolleiflex 4.0 FT telephoto twin lens reflex camera, brilliant for portrait and documentary photography along with its siblings the Rolleiflex 2.8 FX-N with standard lens and Rolleiflex 4.0 FW TLR with wide lens, last in a long line of such instruments. I had a couple of Rolleiflex TLRs and used them for documentary and portrait photography until they were stolen.
Shoot HDR brackets when the light and subject dynamic range demand it, then process in Skylum (formerly Macphun) Aurora HDR 2018.
I made a living in magazine editorial portraiture as a result of my fine art portrait photography, relying on large and medium format analog cameras for the most part, supplemented with Leica analog rangefinders when portability and speed were of the essence.
The Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 tilting viewfinder camera. I found that using TLR cameras’ waist-level viewfinders allowed me to be right in the middle of the action when shooting documentary photographs, effectively almost invisible. Shooting portraits the same way had a similar effect in that looking downwards with the top of my head to my subjects helped them relax far more than if I had been pointing an SLR at them at eye level. The GX8 gives me a similar experience to that of my Rolleiflexes and it is unique amongst contemporary digital cameras.
Photographic prints shown in galleries gain authority and power when printed large, traits often lost when reproduced small.
Should I consider getting back into creating larger format photographs for exhibition?
My question is, then, does the G9’s 80-megapixel high resolution mode permit applying it to the sort of portrait photography I love to this day?
One thing I know for sure is that Panasonic’s Micro Four Thirds sensors have close to the perfect aspect ratio for environmental, full-face, head-and-shoulders and full-figure portrait photography, whether in landscape (horizontal) or portrait (vertical) orientation – 4:3 or 3:4.
If the Panasonic Lumix G9’s 80 megapixel high res mode proves usable for my type of portrait photography, then that nudges it well into medium format territory for me, but at a far more affordable price than the other current contender, the Fujifilm GFX 50S.
Panasonic Lumix GH5, G9 and GX8 and then some, compared at Compact Camera Meter
Until the unexpected appearance of the G9, the GX9 was the Lumix stills-oriented camera most expected to be announced late this year or early the next.
Until now, the GX8 has been Panasonic’s flagship stills photography camera.
The rangefinder-style GX8 is very different in size and weight to the DSLR-style G9 so I compared it with the G9 and GH5 at the Camera Size website, with two lenses in which I am interested, the Panasonic Leica DG Vario-Elmarit 8-18mm f/2.8-4.0 Aspheric zoom and the Panasonic Leica DG Elmarit 200m f/2.8 Power OIS telephoto.
Laowa – low and zero distortion super wide-angle and long lenses for macrophotography and other applications including architecture, cityscapes and landscapes.
“Fujifilm just released new firmware that fixes the following issues:
The phenomenon is fixed that in the MF mode, repeated halfway shutter pressing can shift the focus point under a specific exposure condition.
The phenomenon is fixed that in the AF-S mode, repeated halfway shutter pressing can shift the focus point with SHUTTER AF setting OFF….”
Commentary:
Whenever possible I wait until a number of reports are in from other users on new firmware updates before applying the update to my own cameras. Websites like FujiRumors and their social media channels are invaluable in that regard.
I have held off on applying the version 3.11 firmware update to my X-Pro2 until more user reports are in. So far there have been reports that, post-update, “the EVF is laggy, even in High Performance mode, and the image ‘sticks’ in the screen while shooting. Also the pop-up screen for the hybrid OVF sticks up while the EVF is active, and performance slows considerably.”
Another user has reported slower face detection and focus confirmation beeps even when the lens in not in focus after installing the firmware update on his X-Pro2 and X-T2.
“FUJIFILM Australia announced today that a cashback offer of $900 will be available to photography enthusiasts with the purchase of a new GFX 50S medium format camera and the trade in of a qualifying camera from participating retailers during a limited promotion period that will run from 7 August 2017 to 30 September 2017.
By trading in a qualifying camera and purchasing a new FUJIFILM GFX 50S from a participating Australian retailer during the promotion period, purchasers will be eligible to claim $900 cashback via redemption.
The qualifying trade in camera must be in working order as validated by the participating retailer at the time of purchasing the FUJIFILM GFX 50S. Purchasers will then be issued a unique serial number. To take advantage of the limited special offer, purchasers then need to visit http://www.fujifilm.com.au and click on the link to the cashback website page where they can complete the online registration form. All cashback claims must be received by midnight AEDST on 15 October 2017. The cashback will be paid by electronic fund transfer or cheque within 28 days….”
“FUJIFILM Corporation (President: Kenji Sukeno) is delighted to announce five of its products received the 2017 TIPA awards. Widely recognized as the most coveted photo and imaging awards worldwide, “FUJIFILM GFX 50S” medium format mirrorless digital camera, “FUJIFILM X-T2” mirrorless digital camera, “FUJIFILM X-T20” mirrorless digital camera, “FUJINON XF 23mm F2 WR Lens” and “FUIFILM X100F” compact camera were winners in the categories of “BEST MEDIUM FORMAT CAMERA”, “BEST MIRRORLESS CSC EXPERT”, “BEST MIRRORLESS CSC ENTRY LEVEL”, “BEST CSC PRIME LENS” and “BEST PROFESSIONAL COMPACT CAMERA” respectively at the 2017 Technical Image Press Association awards (TIPA)*….”
Phase One has released its first major update of the year for raw processing powerhouse application Capture One Pro, making its latest version 10.1, and it brings a slew of new and improved features. My two favourites of the list are a major enhancement to CP1’s styles workflow and greatly improved, speed-boosted support for Fujifilm’s X-Trans sensor cameras such as the X-Pro2 and X-T2. But wait, there’s more, including improvements to CP1’s support for Photoshop .PSD files for those who finish their images in Adobe’s image editing software, a before/after function via a temporary adjustment’s reset, tokenized image watermarking and new Applescript support. Lastly, C1P adds support for a range of cameras including the Sony A9, Fujifilm X-T20 and the Panasonic Lumix GH5, and lenses from a range of camera and lens makers.
Snapshot made on my X-Pro2 from a walk along the sunny ridge road near our former home across the valley. I chose the Provia Sternfeld film simulation by Peter Dareth Evans for the JPEG and in-camera preview then processed the raw file in Capture One Pro 10.1 using presets by Image Alchemist and the 012 Kodak Portra 160 film simulation style from Alexander Svet’s Capture One Film Styles Extended.
One of those newly-supported lenses is the Panasonic Lumix G 25mm f/1.7 Aspheric standard lens that came with my Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 in a Panasonic Australia marketing promotion. The 25mm f/1.7 is an underestimated lens that I have come to appreciate especially attached to the GX8 when I use it to simulate shooting with a Rolleiflex twin lens reflex camera, the GX8’s EVF tilted upwards for discrete waist level shots in city crowds. I look forward to seeing C1P’s support for it in action soon.
The GX8 and its tilting EVF may be the closest we will come to the Rolleiflex waist level shooting style in the digital era, though the Fujifilm GFX 50s’ optional EVF tilt adapter may be a good simulation in combination with the camera’s 1:1 aspect ratio setting and its GF63mmF2.8 R WR standard lens.
Capture One Pro 10.1’s much improved Styles and Presets functionality
Capture One Pro 10.1 in action. If you were a fan of the way previous CP1 versions handled the styles and presets dropdown menus, occluding the image like this, then you can use it in a similar way via the Adjustments/Styles menu item.
In my humble opinion the new Styles and Presets tool is a far better and much faster solution. I am a big fan of having plenty of styes and presets to radically speed up the process of editing raw images in CP1. Sliders can slow the process down considerably.
In this screenshot I am quickly trying out the look of various film simulation styles from Alexander Svet’s excellent Capture One Film Styles and Capture One Film Styles Extended collections. I finally chose 012 Kodak Portra 160 as the basis for the colour and tone rendering of this image.
Trying out Alexander Svet’s 006 Fuji Astia 100F v5 Winter film simulation style from his Capture One Film Styles Extended collection. I love shooting in Australia’s low winter sunlight.
For me the most impressive improvement in Capture One Pro 10.1 is its handling of styles and presets. In previous versions, whipping through and previewing the effect of presets and styles on your images was a messy affair with the image covered with dropdown menu items to the point where the image was barely visible. Version 10.1 locates all your styles and presets, built-in, custom and third-party, in its own Styles and Presets tool, neatly arranged to find them more easily without occluding the image upon which you are working.
Image Alchemist – Capture One Pro 10.1 Review – by Paul Steunebrink, creator of a range of excellent Capture One Pro tutorials, training and must-have presets.
Image Alchemist – Stacking Capture One Presets – explains how presets work when stacked, invaluable for users of Image Alchemist’s preset collections.
“FUJIFILM Corporation (President: Kenji Sukeno) has today announced that it will release the FUJINON GF110mmF2 R LM WR Lens and FUJINON GF23mmF4 R LM WR Lens in June 2017. Both products are professional interchangeable lenses for GFX 50S 43.8×32.9mm format digital camera. Fujifilm has also unveiled new accessories to complement the GFX system….
… The FUJINON GF110mmF2 R LM WR Lens is a medium telephoto lens for portraits. With a focal length equivalent to 87mm in the 35mm format, it achieves a brightness of F2.0 when used wide open to deliver beautiful bokeh. The high resolving power of the area in focus and the rich bokeh unique to medium-format fast-diameter lenses depicts portraits with a realistic three-dimensional feel.
The FUJINON GF23mmF4 R LM WR Lens has a focal length equivalent to 18mm in the 35mm format and is perfectly suited for landscape and architectural applications. Despite the super-wide angle of view, distortion is kept to a minimum, and with the high-resolution performance extending all the way to the edges, the resulting image is outstandingly sharp….”
UNITITLED.NET 