James23p

Thank you! Lol hey you can take credit! Thanks all for the kind words!

Well I had lost the passion of photography and really didn't take any photos for several months except the one wedding I did. Well I started get the itch and decided to upgrade my kit and boy did I upgrade. I bought the the following. Fuji XT3 with the non battery MHG-XT3 grip XF 16 f2.8 R WR XF 23 f2 R WR XC 50-230 OIS II Meike 10mm and 16mm MK-F-AF3 extension tubes Manfrotto Element Large Carbon Fiber Tripod with Manfrotto Arca Swiss ball head(My Old Manfrotto XV 055 is great but over kill and heavy) Nice Leather Wrist strap and Amazon Basic Backpack to hold my gear but I will eventually get me a Billingham or Domke F1x but first I want to add the XF 50 f2 R WR Add this to my XE2 and XF 15-55 R OIS and XF 35 f2 R WR and I have a pretty complete kit.

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

Ha I was out shooting rust yesterday and I actually have one with some paint peeling! Jim XE2 XF18-55 ISO 800 f8 1/40

I really like this one there is just something simple yet complex about it. Jim

I think I might have messed the color up a bit manually trying to remove the CA. Jim

Sorry Korky think I mixed you and Clicker up. Jim

These are Chinese made lens that are all manual they come in Sony E, Fuji X, Nikon One and M4/3 mounts. They are optically good not super good just good but since they run around $65 to 75 USD(remember you said post and I said I am a yank no clue what it costs in Pounds/Euros ) you are still getting a good bargain since they do not require an adapter and they are built like old school Nikkors and I mean the Pre AI type Nikkors, trust me no plastic they are all metal. I previously bought the 35 f1.7 very nice lens I posted about here over the summer and took some portraits of my grandson. Well now I got a 27 f2.8(42mm FoV on my Fuji) pancake and I am a real sucker for pancake lens I love them. I do tend to prefer the wide normal ie 35m to 40mm vs the straight up 50mm Normal FoV. I will eventually add their 50mm f2 as a true portrait lens but for now I am still trying to master the MF on my Fuji XE2. My only true complaint is that the focus ring is spaced funny you have a ton of turn for .25 meter to 2 meters then a very small amount from 2 meters to infinity I will have do some testing to see if its true infinity but that does make distance focusing a bit harder. Ok here are some shots inside, outside and of the lens itself. I will say tis it makes one sexy kit on my XE2 with my leather half case. Jim PS Blame Korky for this post he sent me the email I think about posting!

I had to take a deep breath since this is some of the very issues we have on the site I am the admin on. We have a corp group of about 25 with another 10 or so who pop in and out. We have had many discussions we even have a semi parallel FB page to try and boost the participation. I will try to log in at least once a week this is a very good forum and I do like it for me its mostly a matter of time since I run one site and I am a mod on a large another large Nikon site that I am having thoughts about resigning due to my lake of time on the forum. The email asked if I/other members had issues with any on the team and as far as I can see the team is friendly and out going and open to new members so I can not see any reason why someone would not post because of the team. I hope the site will grow and not go away it is nice to have a friendly site that is not brand specific its funny I run a Nikon site and yet I have mostly moved on to Fuji, I do have a large manual focus collection of Nikons and glass and a P900 and P330 so I do have Nikon gear and I do shoot the film stuff occasionally and yes I am waiting for Ektachrome to comeback this year slide film is my favorite. Kind regards Jim PS they said they want banter but remember I am a Yank so my banter well might be a very different style especially since I am retired US Navy we have an odd sense of humor!

Thanks all spent a bit of time with it today I am super excited it is what I have been looking for. Jim

Today I got a Fuji XE2 with the 18-55 f2.8-4 for $650 USD it is a refurb but it looks brand new and it only has 86 shutter clicks and I get a 1 year Fuji USA warranty. My XM-1 is a nice camera but at times I do miss the viewfinder so the XE-2 is the ticket. I am really excited to shoot tomorrow so I hope to have some photos to post. Now the kit lens with the XM-1 is very good but this 18-55 is fantastic feeling so for the price of the lens I got a XE2 and my XM-1 can be a backup and a macro camera with its tilt screen. Now to build the lens line up I kind of want the 27 f2.8 I love pancake lens but I do need a zoom too. Was wondering if anyone had an opinion on the cheaper 50-230 zoom vs the 55-200 zoom. Jim

I am not sure but it seems there has been some upgrades to the forum and I have to say they are excellent. The forum is very well done so Bravo Zulu thats well done in US Navy speak. Jim

Thanks guys! I hope Monday I will get to do some shooting I am moving at the moment so not much time to play. Jim

I fell in love with the X100s to the point I was looking at used Fuji bodies when they had a fire sale for the holiday basically trying to unload older models and I got the XM1 and kit lens for $249 USD that is dirt cheap even my wife said I couldn't pass it up. Brand spanking new XM1, yes it has no viewfinder, yes it doesn't have the Fuji controls or build of my X100s but it does have the same sensor as the Xpro1, XT1 and X100s so I am just tickled pink to get into the Fuji eco system so cheap. I also ordered a F to X mount adapter to use all my MF Nikkors but that may take a bit since I ordered it from Hong Kong for the price I can wait a few weeks. Overall its a nice little camera and the kit lens seems really sharp and its quick with no issues AF in low light. So I hope after I finish moving most of our apartment into storage since we are moving into a smaller Condo on a small pond/lake and when I say small about 3 rooms and 600 square feet less. We are going from 1400 to 800 square feet but we are now empty nesters. Jim

Thanks all for the kind words. Jim