Wyatt Ryan 12/30/19 Wyatt Ryan 12/30/19

A Year (almost) With the Fujifilm X-Pro 2

This is going to be my first foray into reviewing a digital camera, as I’ve mostly shot film for the last two years. Specs will come first, because anybody can simply look them up their own, so I’ll keep it quick and easy.

I will be drawing comparisons between the Fuji and my old Canon 5D Mark II throughout the review since it’s the only other digital camera I have used.

Specs

24 Megapixel X-Trans III ASP-C Sensor (1.5x Crop)

Weather Sealed

Mirrorless

Hybrid Optical Viewfinder + Electronic View Finder (OVF/EVF)

Dual Card Slots - One UHS II compatible

Well, that’s enough of that nonsense.

Handling & Useability

Coming from a Canon DSLR was a weird transition. Canon is renowned for their phenomenal grips, something Fuji has only addressed in the X-H1, GFX 50S, and GFX 100S. Most of their cameras come with grips that are seriously lacking security while in the hand. I love the feeling of a solid grip, so I ended up buying a used grip from Fuji (pictured).

The grips on Fujis aren’t great by any means, but the feel of the camera in your hand is very reassuring to the build quality. It eeks quality the moment you pick it up, and people are always surprised how heavy it is.

Fuji has done a phenomenal job of putting everything you could possibly need, right on top of the camera. Aperture is controlled on the lens. Shutter speed, ISO, and exposure compensation are all on the top plate.

I do with that the aperture ring on the lenses were a tiny bit sturdier, as I’ve accidentally bumped it onto something else on numerous occasions. The shutter speed dial is solid and out of the way while taking photos, and locks when in A.

Colorado Springs, Colorado. My Harry Potter glasses are on the side of the road if anyone wants to go look for them.

The exposure compensation dial definitely needs to be more stiff, as I’m constantly bumping it and changing it. Fuji really needs to make it a locking dial, as it’s something I tend not to change while I’m shooting. It would also be advantageous for it to be recessed more into the body like the shutter speed dial. It’s a pain in the ass, but nowhere near as bad as the ISO dial.

Now, onto the infamous ISO dial. It’s supposed to be a throwback to the film cameras with a similar method of setting the ISO, though I’ve never personally had one like that. To change the ISO, you lift up on the collar around the shutter speed dial, and twist it. I shoot with my left eye in the viewfinder, so this is basically impossible to do with the camera up to my eye. I was hoping they would get rid of it on the X-Pro 3, but alas, it’s a no go.

Other than those gripes with the dials, the camera feels great in the hand, and it’s light and small enough that I can take it just about anywhere without a second thought.

The hybrid OVF/EVF is what most people are looking for when they purchase the X-Pro series. Both the OVF and EVF have their benefits and negatives, and I’ll cover the most blatantly obvious ones to me.

The Optical Viewfinder is nice and clear, provides frame lines for the associated lens, and shows whatever information (you pick it out in the menu) you want along the sides of the frame. That information is displayed pretty small, and not always the easiest to see in brighter conditions. You are able to see outside the frame lines, so capturing a moment should be easier since you can see things lining up. Manual focus isn’t possible with the OVF, as it’s the first thing I tried to do when I held the camera in store, though it’s super easy with the EVF and the focus assist turned on.

The Electronic Viewfinder is of decent quality. EVF’s benefit from the fact that you’re seeing exactly what the photo is going to look like when you click the shutter. Change any setting on your camera, and your EVF will show you how that changes the photo. The EVF inside the X-Pro 2 tends to have a lot of trouble with high contrast scenes, and doesn’t always show you the most true representation of what the sensor is capturing. I tend to either use the OVF or live view on the back of the camera. Newer mirrorless cameras apparently have phenomenal EVF’s, showing better contrast, detail, and with faster refresh rates.

Switching between the EVF and OVF is simple enough, just flick the switch on the front of the camera with your right trigger finger. A huge issue I have with the X-Pro 2 in general concerning the EVF/OVF, is the mode button next to it. It gets accidentally pressed, changing how the viewfinder works. Sometimes it blacks out the LCD screen. Sometimes it blocks off usage of the viewfinders. It would be a million times better to have that buried in the settings (which they did on the X-Pro 3) instead of having it’s own button. If you ever turn your camera on and the LCD doesn’t pop up, try cycling through the modes and it’ll probably come up.

Image Quality

It’s good. It’s super good. The Fuji files in combination with Capture One blow me away every time. Bringing up the shadows reveals good detail, with little noise at most ISO’s. Images are easily useable up to 6,400, something that can’t be said for the Canon. The Canon’s limit is right around 1,600, and anything higher than that starts to degrade quickly.

Unprocessed files have a lot of potential if needed, but I’ve found the colors and contrast just need a tiny boost to be at a level I like. Reds seem to pop the most, but the sensor gives a really good baseline for editing. This next photo, I barely had to change anything, partially do to the fact that the light was damn near perfect.

I like contrasty images, so I left the road darker. I could have pulled up the shadows a bit and therefore showed more details in the road, but I didn’t feel it added to the photo at all. Like I mentioned above, I typically just boost the contrast and saturation a bit, and leave everything else as is.

The more I shoot with this camera, the more comfortable I get shooting with the optical viewfinder. I typically shoot in Aperture Priority (set the aperture, let the camera choose shutter speed) and set the exposure compensation to -1 or -1.5 to preserve the highlights. I know I can draw the shadows up easily if need be while not blowing out the highlights. This next photo is a great example, as Miah was just a dark shadow before I started processing the file.

The shadows tend to have a lot of information in them even when underexposed by 2 to 3 stops, which I can’t say for the highlights. I’ve found that I can recover a bit of information in the highlights, up to 1 stop over exposed, but beyond that, you’ll blow them.

Early Fall. Root River Park outside of Rochester, Minnesota.

I was able to pull back the highlights in the sky to reveal more a bit more blue on the right side of the image. If I pulled them back too far, the sun stopped looking like a sun, and more like a random orb in the sky. Pulling back the highlights in the sky too much will give it a fake look (which some people like). If the sun is going to be in the photo, you should try and make it actually look like the sun.

Pahrump, Nevada. Martin the Old Man Manual Mazda. Death Valley off in the distance.

Overall, I really do love using this camera, though I still much prefer my film cameras for more serious work. It is great for everything from snapshots to more serious work, though I don’t think you’ll see anybody shooting with it in a professional studio environment. I actually bought a flash and some studio equipment to learn more about lighting, taking some interesting self portraits in the process.

Now about four years old, it’s definitely still a very capable camera. Though I have my issues with it (like anyone will with any camera) I do enjoy using it and I’m glad I picked it up to become my new main digital camera. I’ll probably trade it for a Fuji X-H1 eventually, as that camera has a much larger grip, which is something I would prefer over the measly grip of the X-Pro 2. Until then, I’ll keep shooting with it and enjoying it while I can.

NOW, onto more photos.

Monterey, California. Just north of Big Sur.

Chloe, Eye Autofocus - On. Twin Cities, Minnesota.

Cedar Cultural Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota.

Also somewhere in the middle of California.

Miah’s Birthday, Interstate State Park, Minnesota.

Wyatt Ryan 6/27/19 Wyatt Ryan 6/27/19

Olympus XA2 Review

Let me start out this review by saying this; I never thought I would own a point and shoot camera. I went to an estate sale on my day off, looking for film cameras, and ended up leaving with two point and shoots, both from the same era.

The Olympus XA2 and all of its plasticky goodness.

DISCLAIMER: This post contains affiliate links. If you make a purchase through these links, I may earn a small commission at no extra cost to you. I only recommend products I personally use and trust.

The XA2 is not nearly as popular as its predecessor, the original XA. The XA put a little bit more of the exposure equation in the hands of the photographer, allowing them to choose focus distance, ISO, AND the aperture. The XA also had a slightly faster lens, with an f/2.8 instead of the XA2’s f/3.5 lens. While there are slight differences between the original XA and all its subsequent siblings, they all revolve around a 35mm lens in a very pocketable body. Most came new with some sort of flash unit attachment, which adds a little bit of length as it attaches to the side. The XA2 came with the A-11 flash unit, which I have, for the most part, left at home. The flash is like a bomb going off, usually providing a wonderful ‘deer in the headlights’ look.

The Body

Now that I’ve said my part about the flash, I’ll start with the body itself. It’s basically a plastic brick that fits in the palm of your hand, slides easily into any pocket, and does not draw any attention to the one holding it. The slider conveniently covers the lens, viewfinder, and light meter when closed, and also deactivates the shutter so you can’t accidentally take any shots. This small plastic brick houses a 35mm f/3.5 lens which is surprisingly sharp for it’s age. To keep the body as small as possible, they used a leaf shutter instead of a focal plane shutter. For those don’t know what either of those terms mean, just know that a leaf shutter is massively quieter than a focal plane shutter. The leaf shutter in this camera is one of the few things that isn’t plastic. Pressing the shutter button provides a quick click sound. Maybe the sound of a pen clicking, but much quieter? I’m not sure honestly, but it’s quiet.

The loudest thing about this camera is advancing the film to the next frame. Think disposable camera wind on noisy, and that’s exactly what this sounds and feels like. My particular copy doesn’t have the most consistent framing, but I have not had any shots overlap, yet. Besides pressing the shutter and selecting ISO sensitivity for the lighter meter, you can also shoot the focus range! The options are located to the left of the lens and show pictures interpreting the distance that the lens should about focus to.

Bottom - Head & Shoulders - 4 feet
Center - Full Body - 9 feet
Top - Mountain - 40 feet

This method is called zone focusing, and is essentially a guess as to where your subject is. If it’s bright enough out, it doesn’t really matter if you set it in the right place, though I usually leave mine in the default center position. Which reminds me, the tab for the focus resets to the center when you close the slider, handy, but also annoying at times.

So there are three different things you can control, focus, ISO, the flash (if you have it on), and firing of the shutter. There are a few things about this camera that I don’t quite understand. There is the red light on the front of the camera, and I have no idea what it does. I haven’t seen it light up at any point in time since I’ve had it. There is a red light on the inside of the viewfinder that lights up if the shutter will be too slow, but the front light does not light up with it? Superfluous red light cover to make it look better? Another thing I don’t quite understand was the addition of a tripod socket on the bottom. I can’t imagine any person, ever, mounting this on a tripod. The socket itself is plastic, so I’m not sure how many uses it could take before it breaks. Also on the bottom of the camera is a little switch for a self-timer (which would explain the need for a tripod socket), and the battery check. I have no idea if it’s just my camera, but when I turn the switch to battery check, it makes a horrendously high-pitched whining noise. It doesn’t sound right, but the camera works so I haven’t worried about it. I haven’t tested the self-timer, but I’m sure it’s something like two or ten seconds before it goes off. I’ll try it one of these days.

Shooting Experience

Now that I’ve covered most of the body, I’ll dive into what I like and don’t like about shooting with it.

First off, sometimes it’s nice not to have to think about what you’re doing. See something cool? Point, and shoot. These cameras are great for a quick capture, a moment. If that sounds like your perfect shooting scenario, go ahead and get one of these, because they’re perfect for it! Most of the time I am very methodical about what and how I shoot. This camera is simply fun to use, so it’s an appreciated deviation from my normal style. I wish I had a little bit more control like I could with the original XA, but I’m not sure it would be quite as enjoyable of an experience.

So far, the camera is quiet, fun, and easy to use. The thing I absolutely love about this camera is how incredibly portable it is. Back pocket, front pocket, fanny pack; you name it, and it’ll fit. I haven’t tested the durability of it, but you could take this camera along with you just about anywhere, and it wouldn’t add more than half a pound of weight.

Fuji Superia 400. My therapists building is incredibly photogenic in the morning light.

Portable, quiet, fun, and easy to use. It’s honestly a great camera, one of the only major complaints I have is the rewind crank. Remember when I said the camera is a plastic brick? So is the rewind crank. It feels like it is going to break the entire time I’m rolling up a finished canister of film. 36 frames feels monstrously worse than 24 as you have 12 more frames of resistance to fight back into the film canister. I’m honestly surprised it hasn’t broken yet. Another thing I despise about the rewind crank is how it’s engaged. There is a tiny little button on the bottom of the camera, it unlocks the gears in the camera that advances the frame. If you don’t press this little button in, you can still get the film rewound, but each and every sprocket will rip and tear, and your entire roll of film with essentially be destroyed. Any guesses as to how I figured this out?

Kodak Portra 400, wine tour in Wisconsin.

If this does happen to you, I wish you the best of luck in cleaning out the tiny little squares of broken film sprockets, and I hope developing it goes as smoothly as possible. I’m surprised I even wasted time developing that roll of film after how fucked it got. I ended up throwing the entire roll of film away, just glad that the camera could take pictures.

If it weren’t for the rewind crank, and the rewind crank button, I think this would be an almost perfect camera. But since I can’t get over the rewind crank, I’ll probably keep looking for a better point and shoot that will work for me better. My next review will be on the Canon Sure Shot, which is another point and shoot that I’ve enjoyed using these past couple of months. The review for the Canon Sure Shot/Autoboy can be found here! If point and shoot cameras aren’t really your thing, I have a review on the classic Leica M3 here.

TLDR: It’s fun and easy to use, get it, but be careful rewinding the film.

And if you purchase an Olympus XA2 (Affiliate link to eBay) through that link, I get a little bit of a kickback so I can keep making reviews like this! And please feel free to let me know other cameras you’d like to see reviewed in the future.

Now onto more pictures!

Fuji Superia 400, taken 5 minutes from my house.

Kodak Portra 400, parking lot of the place above after a lot of rain.

Kodak Portra 400, lake after the rain. Featuring Miah in her constant state of movement.

Wyatt Ryan 12/5/18 Wyatt Ryan 12/5/18

5 Frames With the Mamiya M645 1000s and Mamiya-Sekor C 55mm f/2.8

My dive into medium format film was hard and fast. Less than two months after I started shooting film again, and after buying a Leica M3, I found this beauty of a Mamiya M645 set up on eBay.

My dive into medium format film was hard and fast. Less than two months after I started shooting film again, and after buying a Leica M3, I found this beauty of a Mamiya M645 set up on eBay. It originally came with the 80mm f/2.8 but I wanted to go a little wider. The 55 f/2.8 offers a full frame equivalent of about 36mm. This lens has barely left the camera, and allows me to hand hold most shots at 1/60th of a second with ease.

The lens itself is small and decently light for being mostly metal and glass, where as the body weighs at least two and a half pounds with the metered prism attached. It's a honker, that's for sure. The body is solidly built, the mirror is massive and claps loudly when either of the shutters is pressed. The 1000s has a mirror up lever (highly suggested for slower speeds) and a multi-exposure opposite of the mirror up. I haven't experimented with how many exposures are possible, but I imagine it could go on endlessly if necessary. Shutter speeds range from 1/1000th of a second to 8 seconds. The multi-exposure lever could be utilized for astrophotography if need be. It's not my favorite camera to lug around, but it certainly gets used the most.

It produces 15 images when 120 film is used, 30 with 220. Each negative is 56mm by 42mm, so not quite 6x4.5. Since the shutter button located on the front of the body is rather touchy, I would highly recommend locking it after each carefully curated shot. Film in general slows you down, but medium format does so even more.

Here's to making those 15 shots count.

Wyatt Ryan 11/7/18 Wyatt Ryan 11/7/18

6 Frames with the Canon Rebel G and 50mm f/1.8

The Canon Rebel G is not a sought-after film camera, but it’s what I was gifted for a film photography class I accidentally took in college. It was my moms’, and either well taken care of, or rarely used. It’s rather simple, with one dial to control shutter speed and aperture, a shutter button, a self-timer, different exposure modes ranging from A to M, an ISO mode to change the automatic reading of the film, exposure lock, and TTL center weighted metering. The “Nifty Fifty” paired with the G is one of the lightest set-ups I’ve come to hold in my hands. All together it weighs less than a pound (.45 kg), fits easily in a sweat shirt pocket, and is very inconspicuous when it comes to street photography with its small form.

Metering is accurate, and looking through the viewfinder, it is incredibly easy to see your aperture, shutter speed, and exposure reading. Shutter speeds go up to 1/2000th of a second, and down to 30 seconds.

When popping open the back, the film goes on the left, rolls to the right, and automatically spools up on the right. As you are shooting, the film automatically rolls back into the film canister, preventing any shots taken from being ruined. I have come to love this feature, as winding up film is a pain in the ass with my Leica M3 and Mamiya 645 1000s. All and all, I’d recommend this set up to anyone looking to get into film, as the whole set up won’t cost more than $150 (less if you buy a used nifty fifty). This camera is entirely responsible for my expensive dive into film, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.