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Fuji X-H1. IBIS, Phase Detect 4K beast?


Dave Maze
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5 hours ago, Castorp said:

He doesn’t know anything about making photographs either. He knows gear and buying gear. I’d argue that you should be a good picture maker if you’re claiming authority on picture making tools. Otherwise you’re a technician. You understand mechanics but you don’t understand how design and making process should mesh together.

edit: Mattias beat me to it 

well familiar with his antics.. i don't think anybody listens to him for photography tips/advice. or any advice period. same thing for ken rockwell's site. more like a colorful view on gear. although both do have in common a vast knowledge and appreciation of vintage glass.. which i respect despite the over-zealous attitude & borderline fanboy talk. i'm in the Fuji/Nikon camp though so i guess i don't mind it too much, lotta stuff he says makes me giggle too (in small doses, dude posts like 5 videos a day!?)

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On 02/03/2018 at 5:47 PM, KitaCam said:

Have to say I agree more with this train of thought than video autofocus being poor. I'm pretty (easily?) impressed. Well going on X-T2 performance that is. Particularly impressed by 90mm F2, 50-140mm F2.8 and 18-55mm. In fact even the 35mm F1.4 can be great for short clips (if noisy of course).

Ok, rapid backtracking (apologies AR), autofocus performance seems to have deteriorated on X-H1 vs X-T2, worryingly so in fact. There's me pre-purchase thinking it couldn't have been worse than the X-T2 implementation. Hmm. This is based on hands-on initial testing (out of box settings as well as with some tweaking) by myself with three recent/modern (linear motor) fuji lenses as well as the 35mm 1.4 which is expected to be a poor performer comparatively. Oh dear, though I still have faith in FW updates to solve, though I am certainly currently disappointed.

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2 hours ago, KitaCam said:

Ok, rapid backtracking (apologies AR), autofocus performance seems to have deteriorated on X-H1 vs X-T2, worryingly so in fact. There's me pre-purchase thinking it couldn't have been worse than the X-T2 implementation. Hmm. This is based on hands-on initial testing (out of box settings as well as with some tweaking) by myself with three recent/modern (linear motor) fuji lenses as well as the 35mm 1.4 which is expected to be a poor performer comparatively. Oh dear, though I still have faith in FW updates to solve, though I am certainly currently disappointed.

I told you; it is laughable that their tech got worse when it was marketed as 4k face detect lol. Even if they do fix it it is a massive cock up. I don't trust companies like that because it is pretty much misleading and wouldn't be accepted in other markets, but for some reason fuji gets away with it (probably cause the image is so good). 

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2 hours ago, KitaCam said:

Ok, rapid backtracking (apologies AR), autofocus performance seems to have deteriorated on X-H1 vs X-T2, worryingly so in fact. There's me pre-purchase thinking it couldn't have been worse than the X-T2 implementation. Hmm. This is based on hands-on initial testing (out of box settings as well as with some tweaking) by myself with three recent/modern (linear motor) fuji lenses as well as the 35mm 1.4 which is expected to be a poor performer comparatively. Oh dear, though I still have faith in FW updates to solve, though I am certainly currently disappointed.

Everything you say I can confirm - hope it is quickly changed by a firmware update

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20 hours ago, mkabi said:

There is a lot of those types... And, I get it... I know Engineers (Civil, Mechanical, Electrical, etc.) who take up photography as a 'hobby', but instead of practicing photography they practice comparing spec sheets. Zooming in to pixel peep and complaining about DR... isn't really an art form (but thats just my opinion).

Yes, this a x1000 over.

It is an affliction and lots of ppl on every level of proficiency and skill get caught up in it one way or another.

It never fails on any set I've been on. Someone in the crew is going to start talking shop and I'm guilty of getting caught up in those conversations, even though I consciously try to aviod it, because the "mojo" is not there.

I honestly care only to the degree of whether or not I'm happy with the shot and the massaging is on point. Obviously, most ppl are not okay with a crap image unless that is the narrative. 

My highschool photography teacher was a huge technical shooter. I spent so much time making sure I was exploring my creativity in every assignment and all he could do was comment and grade me on nitpicking my "exposure". (Celluloid) He was awful to me and would shame me quite often. I would hate having to bring up my contact sheet or review. The bastard would call out my last name and then freaking let out a loud sigh. ?

My second year I took 1st place in a statewide competition, for the category of "creativity". (Not that my exposure had issues) My teacher had to eat his lunch. I was happier about that than winning the prize. ?

Not to put ppl in a box, but I learned a long time ago that there are technical shooters, let's call them craftsmen, and then there are creative/narrative shooters we deem as artists.

Both could learn a lot from eachother. That being said, creativity is hard to teach. I actually think to tap into creativity you have to be a little clinically insane, which is a mental state a technical person would find very uncomfortable, because it involves intuition and a bit of chaos, rather than hard-concrete controlled facts.

This very thread got really unhealthy really quick. People were attacking one another's preferences, which arent really debatable. You like what you like. And what you might like today, you might hate tomorrow. It just doesn't matter, and everyone here is worth more than the sum of their preferences.

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XT-2 vs XH-1 continuous autofocus in video mode. Identical settings under dark florescent lights to mimic terrible shooting conditions. I now know what camera I'll be reaching for next time I need CAF. Shown is the best out of three attempts. I also want to add that I found no noticeable difference in the XH-1 when using face detect. It detected the faces and put a green box around them but did not focus and no noticeable difference using the touch focus feature on the screen.

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For those pro video users out there, here's all my settings/workarounds to use the XH-1 for video. I call it the Command + T method and with it your shutter speed remains constant switching from photo to video. You can also use the command dials to change aperture and ISO one handed instead of using Fuji's poorly designed Silent Movie Mode. If you have any other tips or suggestions for shooting video please comment below.

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One particularly interesting snippet from that video that caught my attention was the reference to Fuji having an ETERNA LUT for F-LOG.

This peaked my interest and it does indeed turn out that they have updated their LUT pack to V1.1 to include ETERNA.

http://www.fujifilm.com/support/digital_cameras/software/lut/

Apologies if this is already a well known fact but it certainly sneaked under my radar.

This makes recording externally with the X-T2 suddenly a lot more interesting....

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2 hours ago, BTM_Pix said:

One particularly interesting snippet from that video that caught my attention was the reference to Fuji having an ETERNA LUT for F-LOG.

This peaked my interest and it does indeed turn out that they have updated their LUT pack to V1.1 to include ETERNA.

http://www.fujifilm.com/support/digital_cameras/software/lut/

Apologies if this is already a well known fact but it certainly sneaked under my radar.

This makes recording externally with the X-T2 suddenly a lot more interesting....

Speaking of external recorders...

If you're using one of those, what does the X-H1 bring to the equation over a cheap, 2nd hand X-T2 (other than IBIS and maybe ETERNA.)

Any 'gotchas' when using the X-T2 and and external recorder?

 

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5 minutes ago, KrisAK said:

Any 'gotchas' when using the X-T2 and and external recorder?

 

I use a Blackmagic Video Assist 4K with the X-T2, and I have to start recording on both the camera and the recorder. If I don't press record on the camera, it sends out a worse quality signal. This step is easy to forget, I'm not sure if they fixed this on the X-H1. Also, when recording for a longer period, you will have thermal noise in your F-Log footage. It was not visible with the built in film simulations, only with F-Log. It basicly looks like a lot of hot pixels, but it's only visible in dark shots. Since the X-H1 manages heat better, I believe you won't have this issue there. The biggest problem with X-T2 is that F-Log is kinda broken, the red channel is very problematic, it breaks very easily, which rendered some my footage almost unusable. I tested F-Log coming from the X-H1 and it is WAY cleaner. This is something noone seems to talk about, I had to find this out myself. Oh and if you use film-simulations, the in-camera recordings will be full range, but when you send it over HDMI, it will be video range, so you'll have slightly less precision, if that matters to you. I can't really recommend an external recorder for the X-T2, but a smaller monitor like the SmallHD Focus can be very useful.

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@Attila Bakos Great insight, a lot of people could find your post very useful.

I was considering the monitor/recorder solution for a while now, finally I went with the SmallHD, Focus. The difference in size, and especially weight is making a huge difference for me and the cameras I use most (I never transcode), I do not need the external recording much, while I need monitoring almost always.

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I have had the camera for over a week now and even though I promised myself, not to post in this forum again, I will give my opinion about a few things, maybe they help someone.

These are mainly about handling, the image quality seems to be very good and I don't want to start the discussion about 8bit vs 10bit again. 

The video options are set up nicely, the addition of DCI 4K is very welcome.

You can start the recording with the touchscreen, if you set it to Shot. I also like the silent controls, even if they are a little bit small. I just touch it once to start it and then use the joystick to navigate and set the different options. Not only is it much faster but it doesn't close the menu after setting up one item either.

the new linear manual focus option for focus by wire lenses is great. That Fuji implemented this before Panasonic or Sony does is interesting too. Talking about manual focus, you can punch in either with a key you set up (per default the back wheel) or by double tapping the screen. There are two magnifications, between which you switch by circling the back wheel. You can move the magnified field during recording either with the joystick or by pressing the corners of the touchscreen. Resolution of the magnification is very good.

The same two magnifications are available in the viewfinder, but you probably won't need it, because the resolution of the EVF is very high. There is an Auto-magnification too, which starts when you turn the focus ring, but you have to activate it in the menu. 

 

I only did a few quick tests on autofocus. It worked fine 90% of the time. Nothing to write home about, but acceptable. There are some AF options which I haven't played with too much yet, handling tracking speed and focus speed. 

slow motion has to be activated separately, either through the menu or a function button. I did program a swipe gesture on the touch screen to open the slow motion menu. 

 

Overall you notice, that this camera wasn't designed for video as it's main selling point. But coming from Fujifilm cameras, this is a huge step up. There are a lot of new options and you get the Fujifilm colors, which compensate for some drawbacks, at least for me. Overall I am impressed by the camera, especially for people shooting stills too, this is a very nice option. The new shutter is extremely quiet, you can probably shoot at a set and have no one noticing the sound. 

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