First time using my Fuji gear for a wedding

[James23p]

Some general thoughts on using my Fuji gear for a wedding for the first time.

Over the years I have done weddings with my D50/200/700 and 600 Nikons not to mention in my film days N80 and F100 and once my FM3a.  So when I was asked to do a wedding after taking a few years off from doing them I was a bit hesitant because having used Nikon gear for everyone before I was a bit nervous how my XE2 and XM1 and Neewer NW320 flash would perform.  I know lots of pros use Fuji gear but one I am not a Pro and two I tend to be the type who will ask a lot of questions but until I try it myself I will always have doubts.  I think I am going to do this by listing my fears and then how my final thoughts/results turned out.

 

A bit of a background on the wedding it was at 1730(530) in the afternoon with a strong sun outside except some of the bride dressing shots were done in a dark log house and the men were in a barn, the reception was after nightfall in a large tent with just a few rope lights and I had to even get a few action shots at dusk using ISO 1600. Oh did I mention it was  100°or 38° cooling to only 92° or 33° Celsius. 

Battery Life:

Well I bought two Promaster NW126 to supplement my 2 Fuji NW126 to say the least I needed three to get thru 700 photos and 10 hours of shooting, the 4th was in my XM1 as a back up never do a wedding without a back up even if its a cheaper model. This is the one place my Nikon's were much better I usually only used one maybe part of a second for a similar wedding shoot. That said it was not a hassle to change as soon as the battery turned red I popped in another one. Side note I got similar performance from the Promaster battery as I did from the Fuji.

 

EVF use and performance:

Might get flamed here but the XE2 has an excellent EVF I had no issues it was as good as using my optical viewfinder on my Nikons yes no issues even with some of the faster moving shots.

 

Image quality:

Now the XE2 is two generations old but that gives me a direct comparison to my D600 and D700 and I can say as I go thru the photos my EX2 has taken me less yes less PP and the IQ is on par with my D600 which is FX the D600 is  a generation older than the newer FX sensors but the XE2 was every bit as good even at ISO 1600.

AF speed and low light performance.

Now I am sure the XT2 and XE3 etc are faster buy my Nikon's were faster to AF in ever situation than my XE2. That said I didn't miss any shots because in weddings I could usually anticipate the shot and even a few actions shots with high fives and a hood slide over a car(Dukes of Hazard type hood slide, a southern based show from back in the day) I still got the shot but I have to be fair the Nikon AF was better.

Flash performance:

Not sure if a Fuji flash would be better but I have to give props to the Newer NW 320 it was spot on just a tad warmer than I like but nothing that could not be changed in PP some like the warmer shots me I tend to like a slightly cooler shot. The Neewer did chew up AA batteries I used 6(it only takes two at a time and to be fair I might have changed them early each time as the batter meter on the Neewer is not the most accurate) over the evening and I had good Duracell copper top batteries, next time will try Lithiums. Off camera flash is OK not as good as Nikon since it is not TTL(if it is please help me figure it out) I had to essentially dial it in. But for on camera flash the TTL works like a charm and I did a lot of fill outside and used it for primary light in the dark evening time.

Now ease of use:

Oh my goodness now I truly know why BP talks about  mode dials and how they are not intuitive ok maybe not his words but you get the meaning. I have never had it so easy to go from aperture priority to shutter to manual. I  switched back and forth all night without ever looking. Click and I had manual with auto ISO set to 1600 so I could shoot faster objects setting my shutter speed it was like I didn't even have to think about it, then click back to aperture  priority it was so seamless I have never switch back and forth so much because I had to change a dial then scroll to P or S and then scroll to  the desired shutter speed etc. I was in aperture priotity then to go manual I just clicked to the desired shutter speed thats it nothing else. Like I said I was in auto ISO 1600 so it was an absolute dream it made this weeding one of my easier to adapt to different shooting situations. 

Ergonimics:

Now Nikons are very comfortable to hold but my D700 was a brick my D200 was a brick, my D600 was a brick with the holes in it. The Fuji XE2 was light and easy to hold its the first time after 10 hours my forearm and hand was not sore. One of the reasons I went mirrorless is I wanted to go smaller and the 18-55 f2.8 is a great size and the XE2 is also easy to hold so in this area I felt the difference at the end of the shoot I knew I made the right choice going with Fuji its the perfect middle of the road from Nikon and other smaller mirrorless cameras.

 

Final thought one thank you for listening to me ramble I am not good at this. Second I posted this here as the site I am the chief Admin is mainly a Nikon site and I do not want to appear to dump on Nikon as I have no complaints with Nikon its just I have changed on how and what I want to shoot and smaller yet top image quality was my goal and Fuji has that in spades.

So the Fuji performed flawlessly yes its not the fastest but the low light and overall IQ was fantastic.  Like I said I already can tell by the limited amount of PP I have had to do and as far as the hardware for a 4 year old camera that I bought new the XE2 is fantastic, I can not  wait until get my Xpro2 but I have to get a few lens first. Plus for those who need speed I hear the XT2 and HT1 are super fast and I am sure the soon to come XT3 is going to be a barn burner. I can not tell you how much I enjoyed using my XE2 it was really easy to use.

 

Here are few shots I can post since these are already uploaded on social media by the family the group shot is using two Newer NW 320 off camera, the car shots are the speed shots ie hood slide and father son high five and the car is from the Dukes of Hazard or a replica I am not sure but he loved it, it was his(the grooms) favorite TV show. The last one you can see how hot everyone is and it is almost completely dark but the Fuji soldiered on. When I get done going thru the photos I have only done these for their social media page I will ask if I can post others.

 

Again thank you for following me on the most likely disjointed review of my Fuji wedding.

 

Jim

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited June 25, 2018 by James23p

[Ryewolf]

They all look good to me, I remember The Dukes of Hazard, it was shown on UK TV - pretty sure last year I went to a classic car show and they had one of the originals from the show (there were quite a few apparently)....

[Ryewolf]

And here is the photo I took.... The General Lee - or at least 1 of the many used in the series and here in a field in the UK some 3000 to 4000 miles away from where it came from....

http://www.tipf.co.uk/forums/topic/20685-the-general-lee/