My thoughts about the “older” X-T1

Now it’s been a while using X-T1 in my work for 100% of time. I have shot lot of different things and most are in challenging for every camera – low light, hard sun light, fast moving objects and catching decisive moment on wedding day.

What’s in my bag?
I try to keep my gear small and versatile as possible. So I use one (rarely two) X-T1 with battery grip, XF16-55 F/2.8 and XF50-140 F/2.8 lenses and XF1.4TC teleconverter. According to job I do, I add or remove from my bag flash – Youngnuo 586 (Nikon). Four batteries in total and charger if needed.

Battery life
This is topic I was most anxious about. But it’s not topic to worry about. From one battery I get near 800-900 shots in all situations. In last couple week I have shot street basketball event for FIBA, wedding and Rallycross race. For example shooting sequences in basketball game I got little over 4300 shots from 4 full batteries. So I don’t see reason to be worried about battery life at all.

Camera ergonomics
Switching from Nikon system first it was hard to get used to X-T1, as i had used to back button focusing, which is not possible on X-T1 body, because button placement for this is very uncomfortable. Dials are easy to use, except ISO dial. It’s hard to make fast changed on a go without removing camera from my eye, because for lock button on top of it.

Aperture dial on lens is best thing to use ever! In bright light shooting midday it’s very easy to change exposure when light changes and showing from sunny area to shadow. Seeing changes in EVF is great and saves lot of time and most importantly allows me to get shot I need correctly exposed.

Autofocus
There is not much to say. It’s great. It locks on subject fast and accurately, tracks well. However it has some down sides which must be considered when shooting. After camera is turned on it must be prefocused to are where action will happen, if not it’s 99% possibility shot will be missed or out of focus.

Dynamic range
I don’t care about numbers and stops it has, but from real life usage I see it’s same or even little better then Nikon D750. I can pull out much more details on Lightroom from shadows then I could from D750 files. Highlights as on any another digital camera – if blown out, nothing is there.

Low light performance
Good. ISO 6400 is totally usable for most situation. As we all know that most pictures will be published somewhere on web and seen on screen, that amount of noise we get is not a problem. Ofcourse these pictures we will not print and any data recovery from shadows is not possible, as image quality is terrible and unusable.

JPEG vs RAW
I still prefer to shoot in raw, but only for one reason – in post I have a flexibility to choose any of Fuji film simulations I want. So I can change this value to suit best for every image time and look I want. And by far it’s only adjustment I make in post for 90% of time.

WiFi
Very, very cool fica. I use it on all real estate shoots, landscape shoots etc. All situations when I need stabile and untouched camera. This is great as I don’t need any extra gear to trigger my camera, change my setting and see my image on larger screen. Also possibility to download images to my iPhone on iPad and post online, send to client, etc. is great.

Overall
Fujifilm has done great job in creating these cameras and system. I’m happy to have this system because of fujinon lenses and cameras that are producing great quality files and high image quality pictures. I’m can’t wait to get my X-T2.