X100S Ramblings

Been a week or so since I've posted much but to be honest I haven't been shooting.   The days are so short, work days are so long and the constant overcast, cold and now snow have really put a damper on things.  

A shot from last week that went terribly wrong.  Had the wrong White Balance, shooting into the sun and a crap angle.   Switched to monchrome added a vignette and make it look artsy - lol.  Still sucks! :-)

15cm's of snow fell last night and today is mostly overcast with the odd blue peaking through here and there.  Terrible shooting conditions, but what better way to really learn this camera?  For those who don't live in a snow environment, let me tell you, shooting in snow is a challenge/art.  You want to screw up a camera sensor?  Shoot snow - lol.   The trick, normally, is to dial in +.7 exposure and cross your fingers.   Today was white/grey snow and grey/white overcast.   Gotta say the X100s probably did a better job then I did.  Whenever you see an image where they nailed the white snow, click like, cause it's not an easy feat.

My mode of transportation these days to walk the dog.  He follows behind in my foot trail.

White snow, white sky.

Straight jpg from the camera.  No levels, sharpening or crop.   My settings =  -1 NR, +2 Saturation, Auto DR, f5.6, Auto ISO, +1 sharpening, STD film.  These seem to be a good baseline.

JPG with just a touch of levels and sharpening.

Was seeing if I could get the big front end distortion look like you can with the 10mm lens :-)  Not quite but the image still looks good, minimal modification.

Backside of the house.   Couple of feet of snow.

Other thoughts and ramblings:

- I'm still struggling in my own brain to get away from the landscape work and get closer to things.  I have to get my mind wrapped around the 23mm lens and stop spending so much time in my comfort zone.  But damn, it does do a good job at sunsets - lol   I need to get out on the streets of Ottawa and play, just tough to do these days with the cold and living 30 minutes from downtown.

- Received the fujifilm leather case.  Still costs way to much IMO.  I had it shipped from the states and by the time I got thru taxes and exchange rates I saved about 20 bucks or so, not much.   You can buy a full size leather jacket for the price of this thing.  Bit it is nice.

PRO's

• Very nice retro look and fits like a glove
• Leather smells great, it's only going to look better as it ages
• Great protection for the body
• Strap is wider then the stock one and more comfortable
• Flap door for the battery and SD card - nice!
• Magnets on the top cover - cool

CON's

• Cost way too much
• The top cover is nice for travel and stuff but you really need to ditch it when shooting.
• I have a hard time with the back dial and my right thumb as it is (I have a partially amputated thumb and I find the edge of the case really hinders me getting at the dial when changing AF points or the flash.
• No hole for the tripod :-(   You have to remove the bottom case to use a tripod.

- After 3 weeks of shooting with the camera what are my likes and dislikes?   Lets see;

LIKES

• It really does make me think when I shoot.  With the DSLR I click click click'd, I do find myself thinking a bit more with this camera.
• It's pretty intuitive.  You can put everything to Auto and just shoot and know your going to get a good picture.  Or you can play with the various settings and get great pictures.
• The top dials - enough said - great to be back to the way things were in the 35mm days.
• Colour and images are outstanding.   There are a ton of articles on this, go look them up, nothing I can say would be new.
• The weight - this was my big thing.   Easy to carry yet I don't feel like I'm sacrificing the quality of my images.
• The EVF and OVF - wow, I still can't decide which I like better.  A bit of a like and a dislike as I do find myself switching back and forth a lot and I also find it a bit busy, but it's up to me to turn some of the options off, I just haven't decided what yet.
• The manual focus EVF - OMG the best invention ever - zooms things up and lets you fine tune.  Way cool.  I do find it a bit rough on a bright day and trying to zoom something in the far distance.  Find myself just putting it to infinity and praying.

DISLIKES

• Not really the cameras fault but I keep putting my finger on the OVF and leaving a print :-(
• The rear dial for changing settings.  I just find it way to dainty.  They could take a lesson from Nikon on this one.   I find the rear controls hard to manipulate with my right thumb, easy to hit them the wrong way.  My Nikon D200 has a dial about the same size and I don't have this problem at all.
• Related to the dial is the changing of the AF point.  I find it very clunky and a pain with the dial the way it is.   Going to see if I can remap it to the fn button and then just maneuver with the dial. (edit, you can't map the AF points to the fn - that sucks!)
• The case does get in the way of the Q button and the rear dial a bit.  
• Probably not the cameras fault, just me needing to learn to check, but nothing jumps up and down to tell me when I've left the camera in custom WB or Macro or some other stupid setting :-)   LOL - my fault not the camera.
• Ordered some step rings for some of my filters and that was when I noticed that you need an adapter as the threads are on the OUTSIDE of the lens.  You can't screw a filter or step ring straight on.  To get the adapter you need to order the hood - sigh.  I don't like the price that Fuji wants for this so I have a knockoff coming from China (check ebay), which I hate to support but come on Fuji and other camera outfits, be more realistic with your accessory prices!

Not many dislikes and most of them are my own issues.  Just wish I had better control of that rear dial.   Will I be selling my DSLR stuff?   Still not sure.  There is definitely things that I can't do with this camera.  Reaching out and touching something is a prime case. But do I do this very often?  Not really.   If I were shooting the tall ships in Bermuda again, I would suffer when the ships are offshore.  My wide angle also has it's place.  I can see myself narrowing down my selection of lenses to "what I really need" and keeping the rest. But that DSLR will probably only get taken when I know that it is the prime purpose of my visit.  For my average "walking around, looking for an image" days I will be leaving the DSLR at home.

I'm sure I'll have lots more comments but that is enough for today.  BTW, that new T1 looks pretty cool :-)