New Year, New Backup Strategy

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This is just a friendly nudge to remind all you fellow photo nerds out there that inexpensive, excellent online backup is available right here via Backblaze. This is the perfect time to overhaul your backup strategy and a remote backup has to be a part of it.

You can read more about my initial experience starting with Backblaze here. I’m also happy to report that after swapping out the puny SSD that came stock in my MacBook Pro for a 1TB drive from OWC1, I was able to retarget my new boot drive via “Transfer Back-up State…” in the application menu bar. I was worried that moving contents from an external drive would result in having to redo the lion’s share of my backup, but Backblaze was intelligent enough to know I had merged the files from my old external drive onto the new larger boot drive!

My opinion on Backblaze hasn’t changed. They’re great, and if you have a lot of photos you cherish, whether they’re professional, sentimental, or otherwise, you owe it to yourself to have a remote backup you can count on.

  1. This drive has caused some strange behaviour with my MacBook so I’m hesitant to recommend it whole-heartedly for now. I had to reset my NVRAM (aka PRAM), and SMC, which isn’t out of the ordinary. However just yesterday, my MacBook showed 30-something% battery, then turned off.

    Attempting to power it on showed the “I’m out of battery icon,” so I plugged it in, powered it on, then after many seconds was presented with a blinking folder icon. Perfect. That meant my computer couldn’t find an OS to boot from. Whilst that folder was blinking, I plugged my previous boot drive in via the “Envoy” (fancy name for the external enclosure that came with the drive), and the Mac immediately saw the OS on that drive and happily booted up. That was pretty impressive. I continued booting, ran Disk Utility on my new internal SSD which mounted without issue and showed no errors, selected it as my start-up drive, and booted to it without issue.

    Things seem to be running smoothly now, but I can’t say I’m not worried the same thing will happen again, and now I have to carry my backup external drive with me to work, which is something I hoped to avoid by having a larger boot volume. Ah well. How’s that for a footnote? ;-) ↩

2013 vs. 2014

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This time last year, Fuji vs. Fuji was just a month old, I had recently published my X100(S/T) vs. 23mm f/1.4 article—the comparison that was the impetus for this website—and was excited to have over 13,000 visits for the month of December. Not bad for only a month in, I thought. If I remember correctly, that was the first of many pieces that was carefully curated by the venerable Thomas Menk, and to this day remains one of the most popular articles on my site.

By March, fellow FujiTuesday cofounder, talented photographer and friend, OT Kammah and I had been approached by Fuji Canada. Our members were treated to early access to the X-T1, the 56mm f/1.2, and the 10-24mm f/4. Those reviews led to Fuji vs. Fuji cracking 10,000 views a week.

Through the spring and summer, I refined my process and published some of my most popular content like my 60mm f/2.4 Macro vs. 56mm f/1.2, 10-24mm f/4 vs. Primes, and X100 vs. 18mm f/2 and 35mm f/1.4 articles, all of which met the standard I had set for myself.

Because of this site, I’ve made a bunch of new friends. I even had the good fortune of meeting many of them in person at Photokina, including the perfect gentleman Thomas Menk, the hard-working and adorable couple Heather and Mathieu from MirrorLessons, one the best street phototraphers in Fuji’s X Photographer stable and a wonderful host to his home country, Marco Larousse, and Matt Maddock, a charming guy with quite possibly the most devilish of devilish grins. Luckily I’d purchased an accessory or two from his outstanding store, PhotoMadd.

I’m happy to say that Fuji vs. Fuji continues to grow and has become self-sustainable thanks to the support of you, my readers. I want to extend a heartfelt thanks to all my visitors, particularly those who use my affiliate links. It really does make the difference in being able to do the kind of thorough reviews you’ve come to expect from Fuji vs. Fuji. Life imposed a bit of a break from Fuji vs. Fuji the last couple of months, but I have every intention of getting back at it and producing many more comparisons and reviews.

Thanks again, and see you in 2015!

Chasing the Milky Way

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Ross Kennedy has created an outstanding guide for Fuji shooters on capturing the Milky Way, and astrophotography in general.

This type of photography appears very complex and difficult but once you actually work through the process a couple of times it becomes fairly easy…provided a few simple guidelines are followed. A successful Milky Way photo requires the right equipment, a bit of research and a sprinkle of luck from Mother Nature.

The whole post is well worth your time if you have any interest in capturing actual stars on camera, and includes links to some great tools.

Fuji X-T1 Firmware Update

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With the announcement of the Graphite Silver X-T1 and its enhanced feature-set, Fuji has once again done the honourable thing by promising existing owners of the X-T1 a firmware update that will include all these new features. The nicest thing about this announcement is when I heard about the new features, I wasn’t the least bit concerned that my X-T1 was going to be out of date. I knew Fuji would take care of me. I can’t think of another camera company with customers who can feel more at ease.

The upgrade is going to be a big one, with a combination of user-requested features, and some other added niceties. Let’s do a quick rundown with some commentary. One of the features I’m most excited for hasn’t received a lot of press that I’ve seen.

Main Features

Electronic shutter, max speed of 1/32,000 second

This is a big one for me. It’s going to be really nice to not have to worry about neutral density filters in order to shoot my faster lenses wide open, even in broad daylight. I might be even more excited by the silent shutter. I’m occasionally conflicted about whether to bring the X-T1 or X100 with me exclusively because that silent leaf shutter on the X100 is so nice. Soon we’ll be able to take ultra covert pics of unsuspecting street subjects (don’t be creepy) without any concern that the shutter will be heard.

Classic Chrome Film Simulation mode

Some people don’t care about this feature. Others are gushing and hash-tagging about it like there’s no tomorrow. One thing’s for sure, I’m looking forward to testing it out for an extended period of time. I did have some time with it in the X30, but not enough to really gauge if it will become my go-to. I’m still finding new uses for the current Film Simulations, the latest being cranking the Shadow Tone to +2 with PRO Neg. Hi. As I’ve mentioned before on this site, it’s nice that Fuji are being so selective with these Film Simulations and not spamming users with endless presets. I guess it helps when your business model isn’t based on selling presets.

Natural Live View

This would have come in really handy just the other day. I was looking to preserve the highlights in my RAFs while shooting landscapes, but I also wanted to capture a Velvia JPEG. The LCD and resulting photo/histogram would show highlight clipping based on the Velvia Film Simulation, and that resulted in me being much to conservative and underexposing a few images. Natural Live View should give us a more accurate idea of how far we can push things when exposing to the right. Great feature.

“Further Improvements”

1. Direct selection of AF Area

“The update will let users select the focus area using the 4-way controller, without pressing the Fn key.”

Lots of users will be excited for this feature. I would guess that RAF shooters in particular who need frequent fast access to their AF point will love this addition. I say RAF shooters because JPEG shooters likely need at least a couple more controls immediately accessible. This is what I was familiar with in my DSLR days, but after trying it out, I miss being able to use the D-pad for quick access to other features. Perhaps once I have more time with it, and I’m able to move the items I want access to into Q menu I’ll give it another try. For now, focus and recompose is fine for quickly grabbing a shot and when things are slower, I have time to tap the AF selection button.

2. Unlocked AE-L/AF-L buttons

“The function of the AE-L/AF-L button is currently locked, but will be interchangeable, depending on the user’s preference.”

These aren’t buttons I use a whole lot so I can’t say I’m particularly excited about being able to switch them. I probably should have learned to use the AE-L button more given my gripes about how spot metering used to work (more on that below, they fixed it!), but using the AE-L button has always felt somewhat cumbersome for me, and I’m just as happy to go full manual.

When it comes to the AF-L button, Fuji now need to add an option to decouple autofocus from the shutter release so the AF-L button can be used exclusively for acquiring focus, the shutter release button exclusively to release the shutter, without the AF-L button being held. A lot of DSLR owners use their cameras this way, particularly for fast action shooting.

UPDATE: A Fuji vs. Fuji reader wrote in to point out that this can already (mostly) be done.

Menu > Tab #4 > AE/AF-LOCK MODE > set to "AE&AF ON/OFF SWITCH" (default is "ON WHEN PRESSING")

Clearly I need to spend some more time hunting around in the menus. More good, if old news for X-T1 owners, however it still isn’t quite the same as my DSLR days. The difference is in this mode, a second press of the AF-L button doesn’t reacquire focus, rather it merely unlocks the focus, and another press is needed to refocus. It’s debateable whether or not this way of doing it is actually better as I’ve had readers write in to say it is, and others to say it’s not. I’ll leave that for you to decide. For complete decoupling of autofocus from the shutter release, X-T1 owners need to switch to manual focus. More on that in #8.

3. Variable focus area during manual focus

“When working in manual focus mode, the update will enable changing the size of the focus area during Instant AF with the AF-L button.”

A nice addition for manual focus shooters looking to ensure ultra-precise focus on an isolated part of their composition. Again, I can’t say that I struggle with how things are now.

4. Direct selection of Macro mode

“In auto focus mode, the update will enable the Macro function to be turned on or off, without accessing the pop-up menu screen.”

This one is nice. Macro mode is accessible via two quick presses of the Macro button on X-E cameras and the X100(S), but with the advent of user-configurable buttons on the X-T1 and X100T, we lose that functionality. Soon we’ll be able to turn Macro mode on and off with just one button press. This could result in accidental changes to macro mode, but it’s a worthwhile trade-off.

5. Q Menu customization

“To make the Q Menu (used for quick access of frequently-used items) even more efficient, the update will allow its items and layout to be changed to the user’s preference.”

The level of customization offered in Fuji’s cameras now is really impressive. This is something I imagine I’ll leave at the defaults for the most part, and supplement with Function buttons. I don’t want my cameras to operate too differently, and I haven’t heard of these changes reaching back to the X-E2 or X100S yet.

What I was really hoping for, and I’m actually astounded we haven’t got yet, is reversible Q Menu operation. In Western countries, turning the dial to the right should increase the settings effect, whereas turning the dial left should decrease it. As it stands, I’m still constantly having to stop and think about which way to turn the dial to get the setting to change the way I want to. It’s probably the most frustrating part about shooting Fuji cameras for me, and it seems like it would be a fairly simple change.

6. New video frame rates:

“As well as the existing 60fps and 30fps selections, 50fps, 25fps and 24fps options will be available with the update. 50fps and 25fps allow video editing in the PAL regions, such as Europe, without converting the frame rate. 24fps offers a cinema-like view.”

Videographers rejoice! Me? I don’t do video much. I rather configure the record button to behave like another Function button.

7. Manual shooting in Video mode:

“The update will enable ISO sensitivity selection prior to shooting videos, as well as the ability to adjust aperture and shutter speed during movie recording.”

Videographers rejoice! Me? I don’t do… wait. Seriously though, I can’t imagine even attempting to shoot much video without these features. It’s great they’ve been added.

8. Phase Detection AF support for Instant AF

“In Instant AF mode, which is operated by pressing the AF-L button during manual focusing, the update will enable Phase Detection AF, providing faster focusing speeds.”

Even more reason for Fuji to add an option for the shutter release to not trigger autofocus, even without the AF-L button pressed.

UPDATE: See update to item #2, but I’m a little unsure about the whole user experience of this as when a lens with a manual focus collar is mounted, the AF-L button doesn’t do a whole heck of a lot. A complete DSLR-style decoupling of AF from the shutter release button while in autofocus would address this.

9. Interlocking of metering and Focus areas

“Users will be able to interlock the AF area position with the metering area when Spot Metering mode is selected.”

Outside of the lightning fast and silent electronic shutter, this is the feature I’m most looking forward too. This is how Nikon does it and how it should be, in my opinion. Having your AF point and spot metering point independent of each other makes absolutely no sense to me.

10. Expansion of shutter speed in Program Shift mode

“In the current Program Shift mode, the slowest-speed setting is 1/4sec, but this will increase to a maximum of 4secs.”

I haven’t shot in P mode in years, but this strikes me as an odd change. P mode is typically used by novices and is great for people who are just starting out in photography. I started there too. If you’re at the stage of capturing exposures that are 4 seconds in length, you’re likely not a novice any longer and should be fairly comfortable in aperture priority, shutter priority or full manual modes. In any event, if you’re the sort of photographer who likes to set everything but ISO to “A,” you’ll now be able to override the camera-chosen shutter speed to as slow as 4 seconds.

Conclusion

This is shaping up to be a nice upgrade. December is going to feel a little like getting a new camera, and for free. This isn’t a reason why I switched to Fujifilm in the first place—I had no idea they had this firmware strategy—but it’s a big reason why I recommend them. No other camera company adds this kind of functionality to a camera. Most expect you to just buy another camera. I wrote above that I pretty much expected we’d see improvements to the X-T1 like this; that doesn’t mean I don’t appreciate it.

Thanks, Fuji.

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Photokina Day 2 – Capture One 8

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Introduction

In my recent RAW Converter for X-Trans comparison, it quickly became clear that Capture One 7 offered fairly substantial improvements to image quality for X-Trans sensors over other big all-in-one solutions, Lightroom and Aperture. Yesterday, I received an email to inform me that version 8 of Phase One’s software had been announced. Today I sat with a very knowledgeable member of the Phase One team to talk through the changes to Capture One, and what improvements have been made (or will be made) for Fuji shooters specifically.

Improved Catalogues

Catalogues have been improved, but the big deal is full catalogues can be imported from both Aperture and Lightroom. This is great news for Aperture users looking for a place to turn after Apple’s announcement support would be discontinued, and for Lightroom users looking to get more from their RAFs.

The import process is “pretty smart” according to Phase One. Not only will metadata be preserved (ratings, labels, etc.), but some basic editing will also be pulled into Capture One. This includes things like Exposure, Brightness, and Contrast. Local adjustments of course won’t be preserved, nor will adjustments like Clarity and Definition as they don’t have direct equivalents.

It will be interesting to see just how well this import process works, but it’s nice to know something like this is available.

Tethering

Tethering isn’t supported for Fuji cameras, and there are currently no plans to do so. This is a real shame, but like a lot of items not yet available to Fuji users, if the demand is there, it will happen. If you want tethering in Capture One, let Phase One know. They are listening.

Edge Selection

Edge Selection isn’t supported yet, but they are working on it. Because of the X-Trans sensor, they have to work things like edge selection a little bit differently. It’s good to know it’s in the works.

User Interface

No more crappy menu bar texture! The Phase One dev I talked to didn’t like it either. Overall the UI is much nicer. Cleaner, and without those terrible drop shadows. Very pleased.

Unfortunately full screen mode still doesn’t work the way most people would probably like, but this is another area they are working on, so hopefully we’ll be able to go wide screen and have the panels show always soon.

Shadows and Highlights

These two features have been completely rewritten. When you import a version 7 catalogue, you will be presented with the option to use the new version 8 engine, similar to Lightroom going from 2010 to 2012. Version 8 turns on new algorithms for Shadows and Highlights. The result could be considered as slightly less overall recovery, but the transition between recovered and unrecovered portions of the image are much more natural. This was demonstrated very clearly for me.

Clarity

A “Natural” clarity method joins “Neutral,”“Classic,” and “Punch.” I haven’t had an opportunity to check out the differences yet.

Local Adjustments

Capture One catches up to Lightroom a bit in this area with the addition of White Balance and Noise Reduction local adjustments, but also adds HDR as a new one. This sounds like it could come it really handy.

Aberration Correction

In previous versions of Capture One, fringing could be “over-corrected,” resulting in grey edges where the fringing was. It can now be scaled back for improved correction.

X-Trans Performance

For now, X-Trans rendering is strictly CPU bound. We won’t get to enjoy the GPU optimizations that DSLR owners will. This might not be so bad for owners of computers that lack a discrete GPU, but Phase One are looking into ways of bringing those optimizations to us. Again, the more they hear users want X-Trans support, the more likely they are to provide it, so let them know.

Fortunately, X-Trans CPU performance has increased in many areas from 1.5x all the way up to 2x.

In general there’s been a lot of recoding on the Mac in particular for optimization, and further stability improvements. So far I’ve found 7 to be really solid, but more stability is always welcome.

Image Quality and Camera Support

There have been overall improvements to image quality for X-Trans and preliminary support for the X30 has also been added.

Missing In Action

I asked about a before and after keyboard shortcut, and it’s still missing. They seem content with the creation of Varients as a history and don’t believe that seeing the image as it appeared at import compared to where the image has been taken is very important. This is a matter of opinion, but the real problem is the Browser must be explicitly selected for one to arrow back and forth between two Varients. I watched the dev search for a faster method, but none existed, so I think it may have sunk in a little that they’re still way behind Lightroom, Aperture, and even Nik in this area. Capture One needs a way to see the Before at all times with one keyboard shortcut.

Conclusion

With all these improvements, and Capture One 7’s already superior demosiacing, it’s getting really difficult to not switch over entirely. I intend to do just that once I get home and can download the update.