It was a wonderful summer… but just “almost” perfect.
I packed my backpack, squeezed in my tent, my gear, and decided to discover Eastern Europe all alone.
The wild cliffs in the North of Bulgaria, the fascinating beauty of the Albanian Alps (Albania must be the most underrated country in Europe… run to visit it!), the deep forests of Montenegro, the stunning Croatian Coast.
I won’t bother you will all the wonderful memories I have from that summer, from waking up in my tent and all alone enjoy sunrise at the top of the Popluks, or the old Albanian shepherds offering me a water on the way to Montenegro, or even the people, living in the natural caves on the cliffs of Yaylata, who offered me to stay overnight and we ended up getting seriously drunk with Rakia brandy… and so many more precious moments.
At this point of the story, all you need to know, is that everything made me happy… everything but one: carrying too much gear around.
On the ferry that brought me from Croatia back to my home, Italy, I took a decision: I will travel lighter from now on!
Long story short:
I was one of the first to jump on the mirrorless train, and I did it with an Olympus EP-1.
I tried the Panasonic mirrorless system, but I simply loved Olympus more.
And just when I was sure I’d switch back to Olympus, a brand called “Fujifilm” started releasing mirrorless cameras. Well, I guess you know how the story ended in this case ;).
But you know… you never forget your first love, which is why I will be forever grateful to Olympus and for what it meant in my photographic journey.
Olympus brought back lightness into my photography… Fujifilm just added a bit more fun to it.
And it fills me with sadness, to see Olympus announcing today that they will pull out from the digital camera market.
Sure, I’ve followed all the struggles, but I was hoping Olympus could somehow turn it around… but evidently they couldn’t.
So what now?
Many Olympus shooter will probably just stick for many years to come with the gear they have, and that’s fantastic. But there will be also many others, who probably feel that this might be the time to look around for some other system.
To those Olympus shooters, looking around for other options now, I can say that I was one of you in the past, and I found a new home in Fujifilm.
I know compactness is one of the main reasons why you rightfully stayed with Olympus so far, but I can tell you, that APS-C still allows for fairly small cameras and lenses (my X-E3 with my XF27mm is a wonderful combo). Many of you value also the retro look (see Olympus Pen-F), and Fuji has plenty of that to pick from.
It’s of course a free world, and only you know what is best for you.
But if some of you will join the X system, it will be a bit like getting my old family back.
With that said, I think we all owe Olympus a big thanks for what they did in their camera business, pushing innovations like class leading IBIS or Live-ND feature and more. There is a lot other companies, Fujifilm included, can learn, if they look at Olympus.
It’s done, I made it. An unreal school year is over.
It was A LOT of work for me, to teach online, but I took it also as an opportunity to explore new creative ways of teaching.
And surely it came to my help, that I can use Final Cut Pro X, I have several tripods and cameras etc, as this allowed me to have the tools and skills to translate into video my creative ideas.
But in a part of Italy, where a German minority lives (video of my province). This is why I speak both languages, Italian and German, fluently.
Also, I am a primary school teacher, so I teach German to kids that belong to the Italian language group. Hence German is their second language.
And since my “customers” are kids, I’ve tried to always throw something fun into my lessons, just to put some lightness into a situation that was very hard for them.
For example, in one video, I triplicated myself and made up a fun conversation between three Patrick’s during Grammar lesson, as you can see from the screenshot here.
That’s something I could have never done in the classroom, and only the online teaching allowed me to do.
I started by filming everything with my X-E3, but once I got the X-T4, I switched to it as my main camera, and it has surely served me better than my X-E3, because:
the selfie screen was useful and practical
ETERNA was glorious
longer recording times
better video quality
more creative tools (like super-slow motion)
IBIS for when my wife had to film me handheld for stable footage
solid battery life
So, my first impact with the X-T4 was pure love! Everything I needed, it did it better than my X-E3.
But life is not only video…
X-T4 for my Passion
Last weekend I drove down to Tuscany with my wife (it’s a 4 hours drive only from my home), as a little reward for a frankly extremely busy time.
On that trip, I used the Fujifilm X-T4 only for photography.
Here is what I liked, and what not.
Loves
overall performance… it’s a beast
shutter sound is so buttery smooth
battery life: it just kept running, and running, and running… awesome!
I have my ISO dial back
oh… a D-Pad, how nice is that
Hates
no more one handed operation (on my X-E3 every button and dial is on the right side of the camera and can easily be operated with the right hand only)
bigger and heavier (although with some lenses this is actually better)
for reviewing images on LCD, I always have to flip screen out. On the other hand this helps to review images less, like with the hidden X-Pro3 LCD
And the Selfie Screen?
Well, the selfie screen deserves a special chapter.
I found some unexpected love for it, as well as one hate.
Loves
keep it tilt inwards protects the screen
keep it tilt inwards makes the camera look so wonderful vintage
keep it tilt inwards and you’ll review images way less, like on X-Pro3
keep it tilt inwards and you won’t accidentally activate the touch screen, which happens to me now and then on the X-E3 (I keep the touch LCD always deactivated on my X-E3, but it activates if I accidentally touch the upper right part of the screen)
for my video lessons, I just loved it
unlike the X-T100 screen, the X-T4 can tilt also in portrait mode
Hates
I use the Peak Design Leash camera strap, and when I tilted out the screen, sometimes the strap covered the screen, so I had to move the strap behind the screen. Hence, not only it takes a bit more time to tilt out the screen (as opposed to only flip it out on X-T3), but then also fiddle around with the strap. This was probably the most annoying aspect of the selfie screen. So much so, that I think I am considering to get Peak Design Cuff camera wrist strap and solve the “problem”
Conclusion?
Well, if it wasn’t for the selfie videos I had to do, I’d still consider the X-T3 and X-H1 screen design superior for my needs. But on the other hand the selfie screen has some advantages, that you can’t get with X-T3 screen, especially if you use mostly the EVF and want to keep the LCD tilted inwards.
Hence, I am happy with the X-T4 screen.
Images Anyone?
So, how was my Tuscany mini-trip?
Awesome!
And although we had only one day of good weather, and the other two were rainy and misty, I had lots of fun to be simply out and photograph again.
I shared one image on my Instagram page already, where I tested Classic Negative.
Classic Negative is great. Sometimes it doesn’t work at all, but when it works, it’s just awesome. In street photography it will surely shine, but also in landscape photography, as you can see below, it can give lovely results.
Now I have to get some paperwork done for the end of the school, and after that, I might share more images of my trip on Instagram… and bring you with me on my summer holidays, where so far I have planed nothing actually, except to climb my beloved Dolomites.
take care and have fun with your photography,
Patrick
And trust me, everything else they said, you know already (smaller IBIS, longer shutter life etc).
I don’t want to waste your precious time, so let’s get to the point of the only thing, that was new.
In fact, there was one thing said, 1+ hours into the talk, that I thought deserves a separate article. And it’s the only really new thing of all the event.
When the Fujifilm India product team was asked about the use of Fujifilm cameras as a webcam, one Fuji guy answered (I quote):
Live streaming is getting very popular and of course important during the COVID-19 situation. We all need a camera which you can just plug-and-play.
I can not say about it definitely, but I have heard from the developing team that we are developing something and they are soon going to release a firmware. There will be plug-and-play, and the X series camera will become like a webcam.
Yes, I have heard they are working on it, but I have no confirmation at this moment. But definitely they are doing something. Something is cooking.
Much more vague the answer if there will be Pro Res RAW for video via ATOMOS. Basically a “we know about this demand but we don’t know if it will come“.
Let’s hope that’s correct and more accurate than what another Fuji guy said during the same event, claiming that the X-T4 processor is improved over X-T3, so X-T4 is faster than X-T3.
How to run a Fujifilm camera as a webcam at this point in time?
Fujifilm manager Toshihisa Iida introduced the Fujifilm X-T4 and teased the Fujinon XF50mm f/1.0 at a recent online 1 hour and 36 minutes event for Fujifilm India. Here is what he says:
X-T4 has new and more accurate IBIS, bigger battery and new shutter mechanism
