I’m no Luddite, but . . . damn!
When it comes to photography, I’m pretty old school. Face it, I cut my teeth on black and white developing (my own), which blossomed once I started using a large format camera. Focusing my camera by hand (or a lens if the camera had an actual body), having a separate light meter from my camera, and independently setting both the lens aperture and shutter speed was how I learned things, and how I still think about the technical basics of photography. The ability to change an ISO, well . . . to me that equates to having a separate film back for a borrowed medium format camera, or different film loaded in my 4x5 film holders (duly marked of course). That’s why I’ve loved Fujifilm cameras (the X-T series and the X-Pro series - the lenses have aperture rings, there are shutter speed dials on top and even ISO dials that resemble the old ASA dials on my old Nikon FM. That’s why I love my Leica Q2MR, a camera with dials and the ability to switch the autofocus to manual focus and have the lens feel like a real manual focus lens. I manually focus the Q2MR more than I use it in autofocus (Have I ever used it in autofocus? I don’t know if I have.). I think of myself as old school. Because as tempting as memory lane is, I definitely appreciate the advantages of photographing with digital cameras, both in the ease of “developing” an image, and even printing it. Though my mind drifts in an analog direction more often than I would like to admit.
Digital photography, in all of its menu systems and gadgets and gizmos that I’ll never use, has reasons for the tools it incorporates into so many cameras. It’s just not for me. I am not a Luddite. Face it, I’m the guy who said, “What? Doesn’t everyone have 3 iPads?” to a customs officer who was giving me the “I know you’re going to sell these!” look as I was entering the country. (I didn’t.). Maybe it didn’t help that I used my stupid-American-knows-nothing-about-how-the-rest-of-the-world-lives tone of voice. But the fact was, yes, I was traveling with 3 iPads (not to mention my laptop and 2 cameras).
One of the things I’ve not quite become comfortable with (because the X-Pro 2 didn’t have it) was the idea of having in camera stabilization and what that might be able to do for hand-holding photographs. Well, yesterday I found out. See, I have a new toy - a Fujifilm X-T5. Why, I’ll chat a bit about later, but as I was fixing the settings to what I wanted (i.e. most of the options turned off!), I looked up, saw what I thought would be a good test of the camera and decided to press the shutter. Click . . . . . . . . . . . . I realized that the second click of the shutter was waiting a bit . . . . . click. Oh well, as usual, indoors early in the morning, Dan’s first image is blurry as can be.
I could not have been more wrong.
Now, is the image razor sharp? No. But the shutter was open for 2.3 seconds. SECONDS. Hand held, no tripod. Damn!
I might just find in-body stabilization a feature to use in certain circumstances!
Later that day, Ann and I decided to take a walk into Didam. Half for the walk, half to go get some bread at the bakery and some meat from the butcher. I (we) of course brought my (our) new camera(s) and I took a few . . . more normal photographs (I have to get images for future blog posts you know!).
Guess what, the camera works just fine at 1/120 of a second too!
So why are Ann and I walking around with new cameras? Well, we’ll be taking a trip back to the US in a couple of months and we want to visit some places (Oregon) we’ve missed since we’ve been gone. Oh, and Len and I are going to visit Dad and then take a road trip through the through Southern Utah. The X-Pro is getting a few years long in the tooth with sensors having advanced two full generations, so I might as well get an upgrade before the trip, because I was sure I was going get one before we started traveling Europe later this year.
So stay tuned for more posts about our new life in Didam, our trip to the US, and European adventures. It’s finally coming together (yes, that was a big, huge sigh you just heard) and it’s about time!