An Olympic Year in photo equipment!

Who said that the traditional photo market is shrinking at an accelerated pace? It seems that the camera manufacturers didn't get the message or simply (temporarily) ignore it to invest their strong effort to reveal a plethora of new (and expensive!) camera and lens models. We know already that the next summer Olympics will attend in Tokyo and selected areas of Japan. So, there is certainly a question of nationalist pride among the Japanese camera manufacturers headquarters ***.

Bruny Surin, 1992 Canadian Olympic Trials
Photo Daniel Marchand

What is significant in that large effort from the different brand names is the concerted priority to offer new or enhanced "Pro" oriented equipment. That is may be interesting in term of technical advancement but for the "common" no-penny photographer, this represents often products beyond their reachable budget capacity. Fortunately, many manufacturers have already presented more affordable photo devices during the last year.

Another good news for the starting 2020 decade is the "rebirth" of the APS-C format with the recent contributions of Canon, Nikon, Sony and Fujifilm (who was may be the first one to acknowledge its mirrorless potential). Alongside with the still living Micro Four Third (MFT) format, the APS-C represent the real future for a compact ILC system if you consider also the physical lenses dimensions that are incorporating the latest technological advancements.

The D-SLR era is entering in its lasts glorious moments with the 2020 summer Olympics event. It will be very doubtful that Canon or Nikon will continue their development past this particular moment in time. The mirrorless technology is a lot more mature than ten years ago and its "pro" and enthusiasm acceptability have convinced a lot of potential photographers over the planet. Will it least less longer than the D-SLR/SLR successful chapter has been? We cannot say because with the electronic development, the things may change radically in a very short laps of time.

So, at least, the year 2020 is looking good into the photo equipment frontline after years of depress reports and consolidations of the industry (which are not fully completed incidentally). A kind of a break for us who would like to concentrate on the pleasure of taking picture with our beloved camera equipment.

*** I have serious doubts that, without the Olympics incentive, the camera manufacturers like Canon or Nikon would have consider to invested again on D-SLR pro models like the 1DX mark III or the D6 considering their new involvement into their brand new series (with FF sensor format) of mirorless cameras and lenses.

The Fujifilm X-E3: the "off-center" mind

I've got a long love affair with the original rangefinder cameras (Leica M4-P & M6) and the now digital rangefinder style cameras (Fujifilm X-E2, X-E2S & X-E3). I don't know if it is due to the fact that their viewfinder is located off center (meaning not in the same optical axe of the picture taking lens) but that peculiar camera body design seems to stimulate my creativity and my motivation to brought the camera in places and at moments that I will have a tendency to ignore.

The Fujifilm X-E3 is the fourth version of a popular model design (X-E1, X-E2, X-E2S, X-E3) that many photographers like to bring with them as their main camera or at least as their back up camera body that often happens to become eventually their most used. The same 24MP image sensor of the X-T2 and the X-T20 previous models is incorporated to the Fuji X-E3 and the picture quality is at par of the two first mentioned cameras. Some people may call the Fujifilm X-E3 as a compact version of the Fujifilm X-Pro 2 although there are many differences between these two models especially in regard to the viewfinder system which has been simplified to its only electronic option with the X-E3. Moreover the X-Pro 2 is a more rugged camera with a proclaimed weather resistant status.

One of the thing which most interesting when you are using a rangefinder style digital camera is the fact that they are less noticeable, less protuberant, less intrusive in front of the subject. This characteristic to be more discrete is always appreciated by the spontaneous photographer on the street, during a travel and even when you taking a candid portrait of a person (The camera seems to be less "serious").

Many people were tempted to make the comparaison with the Fujifilm X100F which is a compact APS-C digital camera doted with a focal fixed lens of 23mm. If you combine the XF23mm F2.0 lens with the Fujifilm X-E3, the two camera-lens combinations will give you the same angle of view but the Fujifilm X100F is more a kind of a (large) pocket camera while the Fujifilm X-E3 is an interchangeable lens camera (ILC) that have a more standard dimension (with the XF23mm F2 lens).

Fujifilm X-E3 w/ Fujinon XF55-200mm F3.5-4.8 R LM OIS

Reviewers will talk in length about the good or the bad regarding the handling of a camera model. It is always a very personal and intuitive impression at the end. Ergonomics are designed by technicians that are biased by their own physical and cultural differences. All this has been said, one thing that I have experimented with the Fujifilm X-E3 is its fine ergonomic in terms of the camera body and lens combination and I am surprise how good and easy it is still true even when you are using a larger zoom lens such as the Fujinon XF55-200 F3.5-4.8 R LM OIS. As a travel or street photographer I fully appreciate this ability. If you combine with the Fujifilm X-E3 a "pancake" style lens such as the Fujinon XF 27mm F2.8, you will find that it is resulting in a very small photo devise package.

About the tiny Fujifilm EF-X8 electronic flash which is included with the furnished camera accessories, I was at first skeptical of its practical use but I have found later that it very easy to bring with me and to position it on the X-E3 (You can leave the unit at rest on the Fujifilm X-E3 camera at its down off-position). Dont forget that the EF-X8 is using the battery pack power of your camera. As a fill-flash and as an emergency flash unit are, may be, the two best tasks for this EF-X8 unit. For a more extended use of an electronic flash, it would be better to select an external flash unit doted of its own power management.

Window back lightning interior ambiant light exposed

Using a fill-in flash can be one of the most rewarding thing to do with interior photography with subject that are backlighted during the daylight period. The color temperature is similar between the ambiant natural light and the electronic flash output and the only big task is to choose an interesting exposure balance between the two in preserving or not the shadows or even simply voluntarily underexposure the ambiant (effect often use in fashion photography).

Using the Fujifilm F-X8 as a fill-in flash

Small in-board camera flashes are a very handy solution but they are located usually too near the taking lens  and they  are often interfering with the lens hood (you have to remove it to prevent incomplete flash bottom coverage). The Fujifilm EF-X8 give a more elevated flash reflector position. You just have to push it in its down position if you want to power it off.





Officially the Fujifilm X-E3 is a less "sporty" camera model than, let's say, the X-T series models such as the X-T20, X-T30 or the X-T2, X-T3, X-T4 or even the X-H1. The off-center viewfinder may create a small different perspective between you naked eye and the image recorded by the taking lens but if your concentrate your attention at your viewfinder, it wont be noticeable. So spontaneous photography stay a strong opportunity.

As for most of the Fujifilm X-series camera models, the controls of the photo basic parameters are designed in a similar fashion way that it is used to be for the traditional analog (film) cameras. Shutter speed, lens aperture, exposure correction and focusing options including manual adjustment can be selected with direct dials or control rings. The others parameters have to be adjusted through push buttons, touch screen options or using the versatile joystick located beside the rear screen. All these functionality controls need to be learn before really be able to master them without hesitation.

Using the Quick menu (Q) and reprogramming certains function controls can facilitate the handling of the Fujifilm X-E3. Most of the menu option presentations are easy to understand and interact but some functionalities may need more time and essaies to get the habit. There is a lot of autofocusing modes at your disposal that can tailored your shooting workflow. The all-"AUTO" option (lever next to the shutter speed dial) is a good idea for emergency snapshots without disturbing your already programmed setting.

The electronic viewfinder (EVF) is fine and detailed with all the (configurable) information you may need and got an auto-rotation presentation very useful for vertical framing. In some specific situations, the image on the EVF will be more contrasting making more difficult to evaluate the lowlights and the highlights. For people who are wearing glasses like me, the eye relief is more limit and will ask you to pay more attention to the corner of your framing composition of the subject. The back and none-orientable live screen (LVF) give you a better reviewing reddition of your picture facilitating a deeper image analysis.

The side location of the Fujifilm X-E3 electronic viewfinder may give you a better viewing confort compare to the centered viewfinders of the X-T series models. The  instant picture review is easier and the reviewing (Play) push button is  located on the bottom right side of the LVF.

In all, the Fujifilm X-E3 is a very convenient camera model, a compact size device but without sacrificing too much good handling compare to the "center viewfinder" model type.

If you are already an owner of other Fujifilm X-series models, you will fully enjoy that the X-E3 is using the same battery packs (X-T4 except) and the same external electronic flash units and is part of the same optical lens X-mount system.

The Fujifilm X-E3 doesn't have an in-(camera)body-image-stabilization system (IBIS) and will rely on your ability to set and handle the camera in effort to avoid generating blurry from the photographer's movement. Of course you can couple a lens with an optical image stabilization (OIS) that will help you to prevent that phenomena and further permit you to select lower shutter speed in low light situations or simply to get a smaller lens aperture (for increasing the deep of field). As a loosely rule of thumb, no stabilization is available with focal fix lenses (except for the new XF80mm F2.8 OIS Macro and the XF200mm F2 OIS) and it is the contrary with zoom lenses (with some noticeable exceptions such as the XF16-55mm F2.8 Pro). At this day the Fujifilm X-H1 and X-T4 are the only X-Series models equipped with an IBIS.

What I am appreciated the most of the Fujifilm X-E3 is its compactness and its very discrete status in regard of other people ressent when they are facing the camera. It is what we can call not only a user-friendly camera but also a subject-friendly photo device. Combined with a short fixe focal or short zoom lens, the X-E3 appears to be part of the family. It is not perceive as an agressive intruder of our life compare to the look with the older DSLRs. So the interaction between the photographer and the subject is very different and much more positive.

If you like black & white photography, you will adore to work with the Fujifilm X-E3. This lovely camera model offers you a choice of two monochrome reddition, standard Monochrome and Acros, with 3 different filtering variations, Yellow, Red or Green. So you can literally transform the X-E3 as a Monochrome camera without further expensive investment. (This remark is also good for the other Fujifilm X-series models).

Is it sufficient to simply have a good camera device that can deliver not only nice, well exposed and focused pictures but which is also a creative tool fun to use and to bring with you? Sure, there will always be more performing camera models now and in the future and that is inevitable in this race for better human crafting but, in the mean time, we have not to forget that the most interesting and rewarding think is to do photography.

In a sense, the Fujifilm X-E3 fulfill nicely the task of proximity photography essential in close urban situations or in interior contexts. The Fujifilm X-E3 is a compact photo companion that is not only a competent tool but is also an inspired creative photo taking device.

(First published in February 2019, revised in January 2020 and May 2020)

Another post about the Fujifilm X-E3!

2020: the "climatic" year for photography

Things are changing in a very fast manner especially into the environmental context. The demographic pressure of the last two or three decades is pushing profound physical and psychological transformations around and inside us. And we can add without much risk that it will be the same for the years to come.

It may be because that we are entering in a real globalization of human activities without any opting-out still available and it brings a lot of frustration among people that are afraid of the changes to come. But with that inevitable fact in view, many individuals and collectivities are trying to avoid it by building new physical frontiers that will simply crack up under the necessity of the human Mondial needs in living in this planet.

Further than that, the human presence is directly affecting our surrounding in the air, in the water, on and in our soil. The climatic changes are the consequence of our environmental pillage provoked by our gradual territory invasion. The so-call "natural" (unspoiled) habitat is now, at least, a think of the past and, at most, a old fantasy for some. Many animals and vegetal species have already paid the extinction price of the human territory expansion and transformation.

On the photographic point of view, most pictures presently done will not be easily reproduceable if not completely impossible to redo as everything is mutating in a fast pace. Even the "nature" of humanity is now largely different from what we have seen in a recent past, let say twenty or twenty-five years ago, since the event of the popular Internet availability.

Documenting visually our civilization evolution can be the next primary task as many references of today or yesterday have a tendency to evaporate in a short lap of time. The big challenge will be how we will be able to transmit into the future generations of the next decades and the next centuries all those images. Hardcopy prints are may still be the surest way to do it again knowing that digital archives can be lost easily or, more important, they can be no more accessible because of the technological changes.

Can we reinterpret the "Family of Man" exhibit (***) sixty-five years later? Can we produce a planetary photo album of our humanity that will be available to everybody of this world as a sounding testimony of the human diversity but also about its profound closeness? Yes, our body envelop can be very different, but our soul is common to all. Photography can transcend superficiality to project the inner expression of our feeling, our understanding and our hopes.

Because today more than ever we need more photographic authenticity which is opposing the actual tendency to artificially mask it or recreate it. We need to preserve "what we are seeing" instead of "what we want see". Yes, there is still a place for personal interpretation of realities recorded because we cannot avoid the obvious difference of perceptions. But integrity, honesty and respect have to be the guide of our human photo quest.

Inspired by the great photo documentarists, the photojournalists and the street photographers, many of us may assigned themselves to record and share this human interest about the faces, the activities, the moods, the relations and their ecological surrounding. Curiosity can guide us to new perspectives. Studies of the past can generate a search for new interpretations of our present realities. Different image interpretations can help to up-come new ideas and analysis.

A new "climatic" year for photography should be the opportunity to refocus ourselves about the integrity of ourselves regarding our world's surrounding.

*** The Family of Man (Wikipedia)

(Photo equipment) Obsolescence seen as a state of mind (Keep it, Use it, Enjoy it!)

The tungsten light that have permitted longer hours of human activities

It may appear obvious that every new technological small or big steeps is pushing the precedent one to obsolescence. And it is true to say that the lasts two or three decades of photo equipment development have totally change the way we use to do, to explore and to show photography. The ancient way to photograph by using analog film and printing, edit, enlarge or diffuse the final picture has been mutate into a digital recording manner presented into a multimedia different platform.

So, the bridge we have passed over the large river of changes is very extensive to an obvious none-returning point (except for the analog traditionalists!). Consequently, the digital science in photo equipment have followed a fast pace in its recent development. But since the very last few years, thinks are getting more peaceful in the photo gear planet. Many manufacturers are reconsidering their future development orientations with a more circumspect point of view.

Can we have reached a plateau in photo equipment technical advancement that will prevent us to discard too early good photo devices on the assertion that something new will be much better than its predecessors? That question has been answered by some prolific photo (gear) reviewers that have started to propose a longer maintaining of our present photo arsenal. And that can be a clever proposal as long the manufacturers can guaranty the hardware and software support of their past models of cameras and lenses. And because of that, it stays obviously an unstable situation for the long term of digital photo equipment use.

The hard recorded music supports have preceded the cloud now availability 

Material obsolescence is a plague of our present civilization. At a time that we are speaking about durable development, photo industry seems to be in a world apart simply ignoring the urgent task of environmental preservation. And the (camera-lens) consumers are participating directly to that contradictory tendency.

Even today, the pictures of the past are still a valid artistic expression of our visual (and virtual) world. They are history but they are also an art expression as we told of painting, or sculpturing, or writing, or theater, etc. So, it is true to say that is not the tools used to create pictures that are paramount to photography but, moreover, it is the picture representation by itself which is most important. Yes, the tools are a form of cultural testimony, but we have to not concentrate our mind on the means only but more importantly on the results produced by them.

Brace and bit: before the electrical power tool era. 

Yes, a beautiful design of a (highly) practical tool like the today's digital camera is not only pleasant to use but it is also the expression of an esthetically functionalism. And many camera models can be classified as beautifully crafted photo devices which can be very inspirational for the users (mea culpa for myself!). But equipment durability must be part of the entire cycle of human appreciation as we do with older analog camera models. That material continuity is part of the evolution process that preserve our past heritage and giving the base of future (material) advancement

Books are now on recycle shelves (or into bins!) 

Some camera manufacturers may have already understood the importance of continuity like Leica, Fujifilm or Olympus. I hope others will follow that path. Because ingenuity is not only to start on a fresh blank sheet of paper but depend also how to reinterpret strong ideas of the past that can survive to the futility of a momentary and superficial mood.

Proclaiming obsolescence over many awesome photo devices from the past or even the very recent past is an easy critic to do, often without any real justification. The photo fundamentals didn't basically change over the years except maybe in terms of enhanced performance versus a more lagging time of reaction of the older analogic camera models if you are speaking of light exposure or of autofocus accuracy for example. My only hope is that the responsible manufacturers will support their products further than only the first few years following their release.

Is it really the camera fault???

Doubting is a profound human nature (except for overconfident people!). So, you may ask yourself, is it the camera (or the equipment) fault if you cannot get the best picture that you are looking for? Yes, by today very high and demanding image standards, we are asking for almost perfect exposed and focused photographic subjects right from the camera output file. And, I must add, those modern picture devices are doing an outstanding job compare to not that far ago analog counterparts, thanks to the combine advancement of internal compute abilities and of sensor newest technologies.

But, even with the most sophisticated system, can a camera be able to really anticipate what will be our photo interpretation of a scene or a specific subject? Because, in some ways, that is the crucial point. Unless you were able to teach (or configure) yourself the behavior the internal camera computer, it will rely on bases implemented that are the summation of multiple selected and pre-experimented situations-solutions. In one word, it is a replication of the vision of others.

We already that modern sophisticated digital cameras are deeply configurable even in some ways that were unimaginable a few decades ago. Speaking of color (and black and white) renditions, of focus stacking, of exposure bias and corrections, of high-resolution picture merging, etc. The contemporary photo equipment is simply amazing and honestly can surpass the common knowledge of most photographers. So, the "pre-processing" of a taking picture intended can be a dire task if you agree to invest truly in that process. Moreover, the post-processing of the image file can also very complex providing you have at first a good basic image (RAW) file registered.

Creativity is not already part of all the algorithms introduce into the artificial "intelligence" of the newest digital camera. There is still places for selecting a subject into its context and for choosing the moment to register it. Because the photographic expression can still be a matter of personal interpretation. Even the most technical parameters have bias that could be voluntarily accentuated by the photographer. The choices are still present into the photo taking process.

Therefore, freedom of subject choices and personal pictorial interpretation have some consequences. No automated systems can guarantee a perfect camera set-up. Furthermore, there are technical limitations that every photo equipment will reach depending of the picture taking situations. So, is it really the camera fault? Or is it because the photographer intends to do something that his/her photo equipment is not able to cope with? Or worse is it a wrong configuration on the part of the user? The key point here is that we still have to learn how to our photo equipment is working and how to properly set it. And this simple fact is deterring a lot of people that are used to simply take a device and spent a very minimal time on learning to use it.

Here are some parameters (among others) that can be useful to check and possibly to change on your camera:

The picture quality set-up: Image file compression (JPEG, RAW) and resolution (Fine, Normal, Small); Sensor sensibility (ISO); Color and black and white rendition (Picture modes, ); Exposure set-up (Aperture, Shutter speed, Light distribution curb); Special effect picture modes (that can be a lot of possibilities there); In-board picture camera (post) processing; Avoiding too low shutter speed or unstable camera sit can generate micro blurry line of definition; Preventing incorrect focusing and/or insufficient deep of field will produce softy subjects; Rejecting low quality glasses (like cheap filters); Cleaning dirty front glass on lenses; all these factors can enhancer or destroy a nice picture.

The composition of your subject: The point here is to better analyze what is in the subject arrangement that is catching your attention. Don't forget that your photo interpretation has to be translated on the two-dimensions picture file. Framing; object or subject dimensions and localizations; light distribution; context references; you are the master of your picture canvas. Like the painter, we have to exercise our inspiration "to get the picture". Past and repeat experiences learned knowledge throughout others works or personal critics and experimentations can refine your subject composition.

The photographic moment and the interaction between you and your subject (if applicable): It is the (perfect) timing of a picture taking moment. It can freeze an expression, a position, a glimpse of light, a documentary event. The key is anticipation that can be subjective or truly conscient. You can be lucky but most of the time it is better to prepare yourself by learning about your subject or following it in its changing evolution. You can also rely on your (photographic) instinct to immortalize this very magic instant of time.

You may ask yourself again: Is it the camera fault? Yes, it can be, but the real disturbing factor is most of the time located behind the camera often by a technical misunderstanding from its own (photographer) operator. The modern digital cameras are sophisticated tool with many ways to be configured, thanks to technology and the people who have engineered it. But even with this marvelous imbedded electronic aid, the photographer setting task stay paramount for producing from good to outstanding pictures.