Hi X-folks

Let’s take a (very) short break from the usual rumors/news stream and focus on the real heart of the X-system, which is you.

In today’s “Behind the X-gear” episode, we are going to meet Fuji X Forum member yukosteel . He will present himself to the X-world, talke about his photography, share his thoughts about the X-system and has even prepared a little Quiz for you :: Can you recognize which shots were taken with the [shoplink 45606 ebay]Mitakon 35mmF0.95[/shoplink] and which ones with the Fujinon XF35mmF1.4?

If you also want to have the opportunity to be interviewed & featured on FujiRumors, all you have to do is to join our Fuji X Forum Community, share your pics & thoughts there, and you might be the next one :) .

Previous “Behind the X-gear” Episodes:
Episode 1 – Milandro: A talk with X-shooters around the World… and about the X-series SOUL
Episode 2 – Trenton: A talk with “photoholic” X-shooter Trenton… and why the X-T1 is perfect for Lord Voldemort
Episode 3 – Mehrdad: A talk with Fuji X Forum member & official Fujifilm X-photographer Mehrdad
Episode 4 – Tom H: Meet Tom H, the X-shooter with the Coolest Office in the World
Episode 5 – quincy: Meet Quincy, the X-shooter, who made me drop my coffee with his amazing #1 Forum post!
Episode 6 – donpino: Meet Don Pino, the FXF member, who shared the Most Liked Images on the Forum!
Episode 7 – darknj: Meet darknj, the X-shooter, who goes Against the Flow and Declares the XF18-135 his Favorite Lens!

X-Shooter yukosteel

Tell us something about you

Professional Photographer or Amateur or something in between?

I’d say just hobby photographer. My work background is software testing and that is influencing most of my life activities including photography. I like taking pictures and share experience, but also like to investigate and repair photo equipment.

What is your kind of photography? (Motives, Approach …)

With Fuji it’s now mostly street photography, portraits, nature closeups. One thing I like so much about Fuji – it often makes me think more on future shot before taking it, like it was with film cameras. Somehow it delivers more “magic” with a photography process. I often hear from people that Fuji cameras just “call for shooting” – that’s often a motive.

Where can we find more about you on the web (website, Flickr, Facebook, portfolio)

I used to share hundreds of selected shots on FB until “On This Day” feature got introduced and started to disturbe me too often : ) I had to spend few days deleting each photo separately. Posting shots on Fuji forums, Flickr, Deviantart.

https://www.flickr.c…tos/yuriyzvonar
http://yukosteel.dev…art.com/gallery

What’s your favorite image taken with a Fuji?

It’s just every Fuji shot that wakes up positive memories. Being so compact Fuji helps me to catch more interesting moments comparing to heavy DSLR options I used before. I’ll create separate “Favorites” album on Flickr to share some shots that I personally like.

Your Move to Fuji

What’s the main reason for you to own a Fuji?

Excellent performance in low light and pleasant skin tones, comparing to m4/3 and Nikon equipment I used before.

Is there something you miss from your previous system?

The only thing I miss is instant performance of Nikon DSLR – they are actually always “ON” and ready (ON/OFF switch just locks buttons). With Fuji X cameras and lens there are many noticeable lags and slowness that I don’t see even on m4/3 system. But that seriously bothered me only for few months. I just got used to more calm shooting, and use some tricks and workarounds when I need to shoot faster.

What’s your favorite lens?

Fujinon XF35mm 1.4. I think it’s a top gem of all Fuji X lens line. It combines best things I like in Fuji optics: compact size, excellent IQ, light weight.

What’s your favorite camera bag?

It depends witch jacket I wear. Pocket is my favorite bag that I use 90% of time. For most other cases I use small and compact [shoplink 44350 ebay]LowePro StreamLine 100 bag[/shoplink] to fit extra lens, if it doesn’t fit my second pocket : )

What’s in your bag?

Just one camera + single lens most of the time. And one extra battery.

Your Advice to Fuji

Which lens, that is not yet in the roadmap, would you like Fuji to make?

I’d love to see any of existing Fuji lens converted to fully manual version – same optics, but with real manual focus and manual aperture control, no autofocus and no electronics. I think it will be smaller, more durable, and ton of joy to use. I will personally pay few times more for e.g. ” XF-M 35mm 1.4 Limited Edition” : )

Tell Fujifilm what’s the main thing they should still improve in the X-series system via Firmware and/or Hardware

I think it’s performance by custom simplification – more abilities to turn off unused options, menus, operations. Fuji made great step with adding programmable Fn buttons and custom screen items, custom Q menu. Let move forward and allow to tweak “Info” screen items, turn off “hints”. I’d like to be able to turn off everything that slows down camera but I don’t plan to use.

Decisive Questions

OVF, EVF or Display?

Mostly EVF, and Display for quick Info/Preview.

Rangefinder style or DSLR shape?

Tried both and much more like rangefinder style and size.

RAW or JPEG?

Primarily JPEG, for fast post processing. I only used RAW + in camera converting to JPEG to better understand which Film simulations work best for particular cases.

Curiosity & Customize you X

You most & you least used feature in Fujifilm cameras (like film simulations, build-in RAW converter, Extended DR(100-200-400), advanced filters, panorama, digital split image etc…)

Fuji cameras work great with manual lens, so my top used feature is “Focus Check” for precise manual focusing. Second one is Electronic Shutter.  The least used are Panorama/Adv Filters.

Which function is a Must Have feature to place on the FN-buttons of your camera?

Currently all I need is already there. But it would be useful to add other Q-menu items there as well.

What’s Your favorite film simulation

I like the most X-E1 STD “Provia” simulation. Unfortunately it’s no more available in newer cameras like X-E2 or X-T1 (it’s different there), and that is my biggest disappointment about Fuji.

Your favorite photography quote.

My favorite quote “A bug and a flower in the same frame, oh my!” of Petteri Sulonen in article “Boring Photographs”

The Quiz

FXF member yukosteel prepared a little nice Quiz for us. He owns the Mitakon 35mmF0.95 and compared it to the XF35mmF1.4. Under each comparison you’ll find a little Poll were you can drop your vote. Have fun :)

Click on the image for larger view… and solution will follow later on in the comments.

ALL SHOTS AT F/1.4

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Trenton said it in his entertaining and interesting interview here: “Teach your children photography, and they will never have money for drugs”.

With the saying above in mind, we can say that Pro Photographer Kevin Wyllie (ksgphotography.co.uk) did a great job with Regina, his 9 year old daughter:

Regina first picked up one of my compact cameras at the age of just 3 and started asking questions about taking photos and setting cameras pretty soon afterwards. She then progressed onto trying my DSLRs (before I moved over to the Fujifilm X-series cameras), as both my girls have been brought up around cameras, so she began going into my bags, lifting a camera out and asking me to show her how to use it.

Reginas passion for photography is big, and her skills improve quickly, so that at the age of 7, she already shoots everything on full-manual control!

Since then she has been on fashion & portrait shoots […] and at the age of just 7 shoots everything on full-manual control, like her Dad does. That Trash the Dress shoot recently resulted in an email from ThinkTank Photo as they wanted to use her photo for a new Facebook advert because I was wearing one of their Skin Set belt systems in the pic.

And finally, with just 9 years and on request of the bride & grooms (who are also close family friends of the photographer), she was “booked” along with his daddy to shoot an entire wedding.

Her equipment? A Fujifilm X-T1 + XF35mmF1.4 and Fuji X-E1 + XF18mmF2. She put all the gear in her new [shoplink 45160 ebay]ThinkTank LilyDeanne Lucido camera bag[/shoplink] and was ready to go :-).

Once back home, it was time to process the RAW files:

As she’s still learning how to edit using Lightroom, I’ll admit that I did guide her a wee bit through the editing process, but these screenshots will, hopefully, show that there really wasn’t much done to them except a wee bit of warming up, some tweaks to the highlight & shadow areas and a slight reduction in vibrance & saturation.

The results (and the whole story) can be checked out at ksgphotography. I’ll just share a few pictures of Regina In Action and some of her Work (all with expressed permission of Regina’s father).

Well done, Regina… and keep it up. Fujifilm should make you the youngest X-photographer ever :-) .

Regina In Action

Some of her Work

Push the READ MORE Button to see some more images

Earlier in May I told you how the creators of RAW digger & FastRAW Viewer needed the feedback of X-shooters to optimize the compressed Fuji RAW support. Well, it’s done now.

I remind you that many Raw Converters, including open source ones like RawTherapee, Darktable and UFRaw, use this algorithm to decode FujiFilm compressed raw files.

Here is the press release:

Youtube Video Here – NSFW

Weekend curiosity – spotted by FXF member Goran (thanks):

The festival of Cannes is running right now, with, as usual, a great selection of movies. One of them is “The Neon Demon” by the Nicolas Winding Refn, a visionary director, who already won the prize as best director in Cannes 2011 with the amazing movie “Drive“.

This movie takes place in Los Angeles, in a world of young and aspiring models obsessed by beauty and success. And of course also a world with lots of photographers!

Well, Nicolas Winding Refn decided to make his movie even cooler, by equipping one of the photographers with a stylish Fujifilm X-Pro1 + 35mmF1.4! You can see it in the trailer here.

It’s nothing new, that Hollywood loves Fujifilm cameras. The X100S was the travel camera of Hector, in the Movie ““Hector’s Search for Happiness” (which I saw in the airplane, when flying back from Cambodia). X-series cameras are also used in TV series like Parenthood TV, The Last Ship and by lots of celebrities.

Full Overview of X-series cameras spotted in Movies or used by celebrities here.