I’ve had the XT-1 for a few weeks now and have used it in a variety of situations. So rather than structure this review in the standard way ( build, handling, image quality etc ) I thought I’d go through all the usage scenarios I’ve put it through and give my personal opinion on how it did.
Studio Shooting:
It does just fine in the studio. The XE-1 used to struggle a bit, it was a bit slower to use than a DSLR, especially on the 55-200, which is my favourite lens in the studio. Studios are often quite dim unless you have the modelling lights on all the time, which is often not the case. So your camera needs to be decent at low light focussing. I found that setting the AF area to its second or third setting up from the smallest was sufficient for rapid focussing and the camera did not slow me down at all. You do have to switch Preview Exp. in Manual Mode off though, which is under screen setup. The reason being, the camera has no way of knowing that you are using strobes, and you will generally be shooting at f8 and above in a studio, so if you leave this on, your EVF will display a dark pit. Other than that, I often forget I’m using a mirrorless camera in the studio when using the XT-1, much more so than with the XE-2 as the handling is more like a DSLR. Here are a few of the studio images I’ve shot on the XT-1, mostly shot in JPEG as up until now ACR was not up to converting XT-1 RAW files, also the JPEGs are so good I don’t need to shoot in RAW in general.
Location Shooting:
Well, this is where you need to turn Preview Exp. in Manual Mode back on, as I found to my cost the other week when attempting a beach shoot straight after a studio shoot and not being able to see anything! Once I remembered to actually use the EVF it all went fine. The camera does struggle with bright backlighting, especially on the 55-200. I’m generally using spot metering, and it gets the metering fine, it just struggles a little with autofocus. Luckily using manual focus is easy even for someone like me who is not at all used to it ( I only got into photography 3 years ago, so I’m an autofocus all the way noob ). As I’ve become more experienced with the camera over the past few weeks, location shoots have become even easier. Yes there is an issue with changing focus on the D-Pad on the back, it should be more tactile, but if you have fingernails, then its not that bad. Overall location shooting is even easier than a DSLR in many ways if you use the EVF to your advantage. In bright sunlight don’t use the backscreen to view your images, use the EVF.
Some images from my location shoots…
Sports/Movement:
It’s a heck of a lot better than any other X series camera, and I’d say probably better than most other mirrorless cameras. I’ve shot my sons football match on this camera quite easily, and also a few family shoots with kids running around like luncatics. For these situations I’ve used APC mode, and high speed burst mode, and gotten some amazing images even on f1.2 on the 56mm lens. Generally for sports I would use the 55-200mm lens, for the family shots I use the 56mm 1.2, which is just a thing of beauty to use and pretty fast as long as you remember to use the AF points in the middle of the screen. I remember taking the XE-2 along to a motorbike rally at the end of last year and really failing to get any keepers. It was a frustrating experience and made me wish I’d brought the DSLR. I’m confident that the XT-1 would do just fine, so much so that, this being the area I was hanging onto my DSLR for, its now been sold.
Some images from sports/family shoots with a lot of movement..
Low light shooting:
The XT-1 is pretty similar to the XE-2 for this, as long as your subject is not moving rapidly, then the low light focussing is pretty good. You will miss a few, but its more than good enough for most purposes and I’m confident it will handle 95% of the wedding work I do with no problems. For that other 5% my brother has his D800:) Even if he did not, I think with practice I could nail that last 5% as well, it just takes a little more skill than with the DSLRs. Knowing how the focussing system works helps, and the newer lenses definitely seem faster. Also, when you do get focus, you can be pretty confident you’ve nailed it..for my natural light close up portraits I’ve been using the XE-2 and 35mm 1.4 in preference to my DSLR for some time now as I’ve been more pleased with it’s accuracy when it does focus. Here are some low light images from the XT-1. There is still a bit too much noise reduction going on with the JPEGs in low light, I’d turn NR to -2 if you are shooting in JPEG. Personally, I’m going to be shooting RAW now as I have just about gotten used to PhotoNinja.
So those are my main usage scenarios..Overall I love this camera. I’ve owned and used a 5d mk3 and a D800. While I appreciated their power, I didn’t really enjoy using them the same way I do this camera. The DSLR gear has now gone, with the XT-1 I was finally able to totally make the switch to the Fuji system with confidence. There are some niggles though..
- flash system – I don’t use small flash much, for people who do and rely on ETTL, then Fuji need to step up with this and sort out a better, more robust small flash system.
- D PAD – not as good as it used to be on the XE-2, I can live with it
- The secondary dials on the top, which I love, can be a little easy to move by accident.
- Custom profiles – I’d love to be able to switch quickly between modes for studio and natural light modes
These are all small niggles, the positives far outweigh the negatives and the XT-1 has become my primary and favourite camera ( with an XE-2 as backup an X100s for everyday walking around duties ).