Moving Light Artillery Into Battery - With The Fuji X-T1

It has often been said that putting a battery grip onto your digital camera will make you look like a professional photographer*. Perhaps, but that is not the best reason for using one.

Think in terms of the ergonomics of the machine. If you want to take a picture in vertical or portrait mode you are going to have to throw your right wrist over the top of the camera and the weight will depend upon your hand. The grip you need to hold the camera against gravity means more muscle pressure and stiffer muscles. Your hand and arm get very tired over an hour of doing this.

If you use a battery grip your hand remains upright and your muscles are more relaxed. You have the other hand free to operate a zoom lens and the whole rig can be held safely all day.

Plus some camera grips accommodate a second battery in there - you get twice as long to shoot before recharging.

This is evident with the new Fuji X-T1 battery grip - we've just gotten them into stock for the Fuji X-T1 cameras and can particularly recommend them to the users of the large 56mm f:1.2 lens. You can pick one up for $ 329.

* You can look like a professional photographer just by getting a bad haircut...much cheaper.

Elegance As Part Of the Equation

I have been looking at the pile of cameras in the corner of the studio - from the newest digital ones on top down to the old daguerreotype ones mouldering into mulch at the bottom - and have decided that there is very little beauty in the business when it comes to equipment. For all we go on about the magnificent L..... or the classic design of the N.... or the C.... they are either utilitarian or overblown.

There are space-age constructions from the late 90's, Soviet optical tractors, and a few Disney characters with lenses in their stomachs, but few that could be described as elegant.

Contrast it with the Fuji X-M1 we have been stocking recently. This is a fully-equipped APSC-sensor digital camera with a 16mm-50mm zoom lens, articulated LCD screen, and all the associated bells and whistles incorporated inside it...but have a look at how nicely the Fujifilm designers have encased it.

Leather is always elegant. If it wasn't, cows wouldn't wear it all the time. Cows and French people are elegant and they wear leather a lot. The Fuji you see here has a wonderful body covering like tan leather. It combines perfectly with the silver finish on the rest of the body.

Now some professionals think that they can only use black cameras to create their art...but then some professionals think that they need to dress in dreadful old ratty clothing to express their individuality. I could show you albums of identical ragged professionals...

Wouldn't it be great if some of them got a shave and a new suit of clothes and a good looking camera? You can beat them to it - buy a Fuji X-M1 now.

Like Peas In A Pod - With Fuji

Are all mirror-less cameras the same? Are the systems really identical - like peas in a pod? Can you buy one camera and use other lenses? Should you get a body here and the accessories there? How many forums should you read at any one time before your brain explodes?

To give you a quick series of answers; no, no, yes, no, none.

There are at least 6 mirror-less systems that I can think of and only two of them share similar lens mounts. With a bit of a fiddle and two trombones you can adapt some of the other maker's lenses to some of the other maker's bodies but you always drop some of the maker's automatic features...and you frequently pick up optical distortions that make the whole thing an exercise in futility.

While I love to hook up unlikely combinations of optics and sensors - after all I work in a camera shop - I have come to the conclusion that in general you really should stick to the lenses on offer from the particular manufacturer of bodies you have chosen. The exception to this rule would be if  Zeiss offers a lens for your chosen lens mount. These are likely to be very good lenses indeed and you will be asked to trade many potatoes for them.

All the above leads to the subject of this post: the new Fujinon 10-20 lens for their X-mount cameras. Fujifilm are forging ahead with the APS-C sensor cameras - the new X-T1 being hot at present - and they needed to supply a wide angle zoom for the landscapers and interior shooters. The 10-24 will give the same angle of view as a 15-36 would on a full-frame camera, but with a fast autofocus or focus peaking on suitable bodies.

Note: The focus peaking really does work well for manual focus in a studio situation - it makes it easy to see in dim conditions when you are dead on for focus. It also costs a few potatoes but is well worth it.