The Perfect Camera Bag for the Pickiest Person

October 24, 2016 in Photography

I'm sure every photographer has gone on a bag quest at some point during their career, many probably haven't completed this quest, and I've been at it myself for a while.

I have several backpacks and sling bags, actually, let me count real quick. 4 Backpacks, 4 sling bags, and they all fit their purpose for certain types of jobs our outings. I've always wanted the perfect day bag, something I could carry a small photo kit inside with room to spare for personal items. My current backpack nearly fits the bill, but it's got a few annoying tidbits that I'm getting tired of. Zipper on the top gets stuck, no built in waterproof cover, it opens weird, would like to have more targeted camera gear space, not a whole lot of ways to attach things to the outside of the pack. the tripod strap is secured via velcro?!

https://www.amazon.com/Case-Logic-FLXB-102-Reflexion-Anthracite/dp/B00BVQXFZY/ref=sr_1_29?ie=UTF8&qid=1477351236&sr=8-29&keywords=case+logic+photo+backpack

That's the bag that I'm currently using, I really enjoy it, but as stated above, the tiny little gripes I have with this thing have kept me searching for the perfect day pack. I got that bag for $40 "used", since then it's been discontinued and now retails for over $100, crazy.

When I checked my email a few days ago, I saw that LowePro had a new bag line coming out, I was immediately intrigued.

Flipside TREK? I still have the original flipside bag, I really like how you access the camera section from the back, and how you don't have to set it down, it's grey, with olive (my favorite colors!) It's got a rain fly inside it, it's got plenty of room for what I'm carrying now with room to spare! Shoulder and waist straps are an added plus. I could see myself using this bag for a majority of my day hikes in the mountains. straps on the back that can be reconfigured, loops to attach more gear, the size looks perfect, and it's got a dedicated tablet sleeve as well. There's nothing about this bag I do not like.

A majority of the bags I own are made by LowePro, they come out with some of the best products when it comes to camera bags. LowePro, It would appear you have designed the bag that I've always wanted, the one I've been searching for, now I'm just waiting for my shipment confirmation.

-Dave

Welcome to the Family - Panasonic GX8

September 19, 2016 in Photography

I honestly had no intention of buying a new camera until the day I was looking around B&H Photo's website. Work was slow and I was curious what was out there since I've been content with my Fuji XT1 for a while now.

I'd purchased a Micro 4/3 camera years ago, a Panasonic GF1, one of the first that helped spark the M43 revolution. A compact system, retro styling, cheaper smaller lenses that didn't sacrifice on quality. I was sold. Having been raised on Canon and having owned an XT1, 30D, 7D, L series lenses etc, I know how heavy and expensive that can get making your way downtown for a day of shooting.

I bought my GF1 looking for something new, something smaller, something I could take anywhere with minimal weight and pack size and it fit the bill for non professional work at the time. it was a great camera and I still have my 14mm and 20mm pancake lenses which I now use on my GX8. I later sold all my canon gear and switched to Fuji, a camera with a similar sized sensor as my old 7D, and picked up 2 lenses that covered the range I needed for motorsports and event photography.

Fast forward a few years and here I am sitting at work staring at a Panasonic Micro 4/3 camera I had never heard of. Hey, it was released a few months ago, looks pretty sweet, especially in SILVER. I was already sold on the looks, I really dig the styling and aesthetics taken from old rangefinder cameras. Feature wise this thing is jammed packed and it had everything and more that I wanted.

I'll take a second here to express my annoyance with Canon, they seem to be turning into the Apple of the camera world. Each new camera they bring out MIGHT have a "new" feature that everyone else has already included in previous camera models. In camera time lapse? my GX8 has that, but when I was rocking my 7D, Canon would rather have you purchase a $130 plus intervalometer which Chinese companies already cloned for less than $20. And that's just one example.

I spent several hours checking reviews of the camera, and then I went back to B&H Photo and did a double take on the price. It was:

Not as expensive as I thought it should be.

Came with a free 12-60mm lens.

Came with a free $150 gift card to B&H Photo

Came with a free extended 3 year warranty on both the lens and camera body.

Free Shipping

Interest free payments for 6 months through paypal. ($0 down and I would have a camera to use for 30 days and if I didn't like it, whatever)

At this point I kinda knew I was going to be buying this thing in the near future until I realized after talking with B&H Photo customer service that this sweet deal ended that night. (never mind the fact I saw the same deal 2 weeks later... but hey. At the time It was a deal you don't see very often, at least for me.

So I clicked Buy Now.

A few days later and I had myself one damn fine looking camera arrive from the man in the brown truck. I now had a camera that I felt comfortable taking with me everywhere, and I do. My Fuji workhorse stays at home and now I have a second body in case something goes amiss during event coverage. Only thing that is a bit unfortunate is having to build a lens collection for 2 different formats, but I digress.

I'm going to use this thing for a bit and come back with my initial impressions, which so far, have been great.

Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 95mm - 1/125th - f10 - ISO200

Mirrorless and Motorsports? Formula Drift Seattle

August 23, 2014 in Cars, Photography

This year I had the privilege of shooting Formula Drift again for Drifted.com. Things went in a whole new direction photography wise, I had access to a 5D MkIII this year, and didn't use it. I used to own a 7D and L lenses, and that's what I used last year to cover the event, but I sold it all recently.

Click the images to view full size.

Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 99.8mm - 1/180th - F7.1 - ISO 200

Probably ~90% of media at the event were using Canon or Nikon, and the small percentage of people using Sony, RED, etc, I was probably the only photographer using a mirrorless camera as a main body. Many factors played into a decision I made a couple of months ago, and my main camera now is a Fuji XT1. All the photos in this post were taken with this amazing camera, and 2 Fuji lenses. I also had a large battery grip attached to give it some more stability, as it's is a pretty small camera without it.

Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 55mm - 1/500th - f4 - ISO 100 — Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 55mm - 1/500th - f4 - ISO 100

The camera game is changing, large cameras needing to house a mirror system are slowly being creeped up upon by the mirrorless tech. The Fuji XT1 is part of Fuji's new line of semi-Pro level cameras. There are plenty of professionals making their living on the FUji X system, and their cameras and lenses deliver more than I had hoped for.

Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 67.1mm - 1/500th - f8 - ISO 200 — Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 67.1mm - 1/500th - f8 - ISO 200

Compared to my old Canon 7D and 70-200L system I was using heavily in the past to my new Fuji XT1 and 55-200 I was impressed. There's even the joke that their kit 18-55 lens was accidently made "too good" and It shines just like the rest of their lens lineup.

Fuji XT1 - XF18-55 - 55mm - 1/450th - f4 - ISO 100

Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 121.8mm - 1/160th - f4.2 - ISO 100 — Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 121.8mm - 1/160th - f4.2 - ISO 100

Image quality is, in short, incredible. Fuji's X-Trans sensor packs the quality, and while 16 megapixels its not something totally impressive, I have no problem cropping and printing large. I still crop every photo I take to some extent, whether it's rotating a single degree or my usual 16:9 crop I've become fond of. The retro styling and the abundance of dials on the camera makes you slow down your shooting a bit so I find I'm not cropping in too much in post. At least that's what I've found.

Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 164mm - 1/250th - f9 - ISO 250 — Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 164mm - 1/250th - f9 - ISO 250

Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 74.1mm - 1/250th - f9 - ISO 200 — Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 74.1mm - 1/250th - f9 - ISO 200

The camera itself packs a APSC sized sensor, and with a crop factor of 1.5, it's actually slightly larger than my former Canon 7D. I've actually shot a local drift event on a Panasonic GF1, which uses a smaller micro 4/3 sized sensor, which came out years ago. Managed some great photos with that M43 camera, and I knew the Fuji would blow it away. It's all about that large sensor size, and the XT1 delivers.

Fuji XT1 - XF18-55 - 46.3mm - 1/250th - f8 - ISO 200

The first area of the track I went to when I arrived at the event was the 5/8th bank. Shots were a breeze, on both manual and automatic focus, as long as you've a steady hand. My only gripe is when panning whilst shooting and rapid fire, the slight delay in the viewfinder sometimes messes with your left to right rotation.

Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 57.8mm - 1/180th - f14 - ISO 200 — Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 57.8mm - 1/180th - f14 - ISO 200

Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 172.4mm - 1/125th - f16 - ISO 200 — Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 172.4mm - 1/125th - f16 - ISO 200

I got used to it after a while and learned to anticipate shots I wanted and adjusted accordingly. It's kinda hard to describe without seeing it first hand, but since you're looking through the sensor and not the lens like you would with an SLR, it throws you off a bit with the slightest delay and black viewfinder. That in turn will lower your keeper rate of sharp photos, but memory cards and batteries were of little issue that day.

I was using continuous focus for a majority of the shots that had movement, there were a few times where I would manualy set my focus and pan to get a specific shot. The continuous focus is very good, better than I expected.

Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 115.9mm - 1/60th - f22  - ISO 200 — Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 115.9mm - 1/60th - f22 - ISO 200

Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 81.9mm 1/60th - f22 - ISO 200 — Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 81.9mm 1/60th - f22 - ISO 200

As far as shutter speed goes, I was playing it safe for the most part, 1/125th is where I usually keep it at for bank shots when I want the blur, but also want a guaranteed sharp photo. A couple of my photo friends were playing the shutter speed game, I went down to 1/60th and got a few good shots. I was switching between manual focus and continous focus, with good results from both. Both photos above were shot at 1/60th.

Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 200mm - 1/180th - f4.8 ISO 200 — Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 200mm - 1/180th - f4.8 ISO 200

I'm definitely shooting a lot more to attain a sharp photo and throwing away a lot more blurry photos, but the shots that come out sharp blew me away at first. Comparing to last year when I was still shooting Canon, the shots that ARE sharp and in focus are sharper and more in focus than some of my favorite shots done on my 7D.

Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 55mm - 1/500th - f3.5 - ISO 100

Focusing in the infield when cars are coming at you really shows the power of the autofocus, I was able to get shots I wasn't able to in previous years using Sigma/Canon lenses. Could be technique or lens choice, but the autofocus on the XT1 is impressively fast on moving subjects! I'll mention again how impressed I was with the continuous focus, specially for shots like below where the car is basically coming straight toward you.

Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 55mm - 1/500th - f8 - ISO 250 — Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 55mm - 1/500th - f8 - ISO 250

The camera does kill batteries pretty quickly, I shot around 4,000 images total, and went through about 8-10 batteries. 300-350 shots per battery is what I was expecting based on reviews of the camera I had read.

Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 99.8mm - 1/160th - f7.1 - ISO 200 — Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 99.8mm - 1/160th - f7.1 - ISO 200

So, is the Fuji XT-1 a sports camera? No, not really. Could it be considered an entry level sports shooter? I'd be hesitant, and definitely say no to an entry level shooter. Get a Canon SLR. But for someone like myself who's been photographing for a while and knows the ins and outs of what to do and what not to do, and when, it works fantastic. The size factor doesn't take much away from the camera, and still packs more useful features than Canon ever put in their SLRs. Just be prepared to stock up on batteries. I shot around 4K images and went through about 10 or so over the course of the 3 days I was covering Formula Drift.

Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 128mm - 1/180th - f6.4 - ISO 200 — Fuji XT1 - XF55-200 - 128mm - 1/180th - f6.4 - ISO 200

In closing, The Fuji takes everything you love about digital and film photography and combines it in a small compact package that doesn't compromise on image quality or functionality. It's got its quirks, but I don't miss Canon one bit, nor did I ever expect I would leave and be so happy with Fuji and mirrorless. the pros far outweigh the cons, which amount to little.

Read more about the Fuji XT1 - http://www.fujifilm.com/products/digital_cameras/x/fujifilm_x_t1

Drifted.com Blog Post: http://www.drifted.com/event-formula-drift-round-5-a-photo-story

DPReview: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilm-x-t1

Fuji XT-1: A Considerable Test

July 16, 2014 in Photography

It's been a couple weeks since I first recieved my Fuji XT-1, and I've been enjoying photography more than I have in quite a while. I relish the fact I can carry an entire camera system without feeling weighed down, in a small shoulder bag with room to spare for daily carry items.

My camera is now becoming an essential item wherever I go, and that's something I couldn't do very well with my heavy, large Canon system. That's one of the reasons I bought a Panasonic GF1 when I first came out, and it was a great camera for it's time. My 7D put it's quality to shame, but now I have a small camera who's quality has been compared to full frame cameras.

The real test comes this weekend, when I attend round 5 of Formula Drift at Evergreen Speedway in Monroe, WA. I've been an avid drift photographer in the past and evergreen is very familiar turf. This will be the first time I've shot drifting without a Canon SLR in tow.

Panning will be a piece of cake with this camera, I'm curious to see if the autofocus can keep up in the infield, when you have cars coming at you sideways at 60+ mph. It will be a fun and informative weekend and I can't wait to share. I'll be writing an article for drifted.com and you'll be able to check out my select photographs there.