Classic Chrome and the Snow

Hey everyone, winter has finally set itself upon us and Christmas draws near.   Fuji gave us a Christmas present this week with a major firmware upgrade (not that we needed it) for the X-T1.  Something like 27 things were added or upgraded.  Pretty massive.  But one of the biggest things was the addition of Classic Chrome film simulation.  Everyone remember the old slide film chrome days?   I wasn't a huge fan of Kodachrome (but loved the song) as I love saturated colours but it does have it's place.  So had to go out and give it a try today.

My other test of the day was to check the X-T1 against snow.  One of my biggest beefs that I had with my DSLR was how terrible the metering was in the snow.  On the Nikon D200 I always had to dial in +.7 ev to get a decent white snow, otherwise all I got was blue.   I was curious to see how the Fuji metering handles bright blue skies, sunshine and white snow.

The camera was set to film simulation bracketing (Provia, Velvia and Chrome).  No editing, jpgs straight from the camera.   X-T1 with the 14mm prime.  Top image is Provia, middle is Velvia and last is chrome.

Left is Provia, middle is velvia and right is chrome.

Couldn't resist throwing in a black and white :-)  My favourite of the day.

So, my opinion (I know others will perfer the different modes, no biggie, we all have different tastes) - The chrome would be ok if I wasn't comparing it to the provia.   I think the trees, sky and snow look better in provia but the chrome isn't terrible.  I really hate the velvia on the blue sky scenes as it makes everything purple.   Provia wins the battle with Chrome finishing 2nd.

As for the cat images....well....again I like the provia better but not by much.   The chrome isn't bad and I can see where chrome may be preferred to give a more natural look.

How did the X-T1 make out with snow? It kicked ass!   I did some playing in lightroom and it's a touch better by dialing in about +.3ev but the metering did a pretty decent job.