Strobist shots and long exposures with X-Series

[Boltix]

Dear Fuji-Lovers,

 

Last year I had the chance to get my hands on the X-Pro2 during Photokina. Now I’m considering more and more to switch from my Canon to Fuji. I had been a quite fun to use the X-Pro2, but afterwards there are some questions coming into my mind. They are mainly related to Strobist-shootings and long exposures. I hope you might be able to answer them:

1. Lock-time after long exposure
   Lets say I’m doing a 30s exposure – how long will my camera being blocked after I took the shot? Will I be able to continue directly with the next photo or will a have to wait some seconds or even a significant time?
    
2. Exposure-Preview before long exposures
   Do the X-Models simulate the final exposure for long exposures? So, will I be able frame and check the focus e.g. in night city scenes or stars / milky way scenes? (Yes, I know there is an optical viewfinder on the X-Pro2, but I’m currently looking for the X-T2, X-T20.)
    
3. Light-Painting mode
   If using the bulb mode, do I see the already recorded exposure level (like an live-preview on the Olympus Models)?
    
4. Strobist preview underexposed in viewfinder
   Is there special flash/strobist mode available? I didn't find something like that. When I took some model shots at photokina (see flickr photos below), I set the X-Pro2 to the recommended settings. In that situation it was quite hard to see the scene and frame it well with those flash settings. I need to be able to shoot with dedicated flash setting like 1/160 f8.0 iso200 but get a much brighter preview at the lower available light.
   
    
5. Weather sealing
   Some reports say there is no weather sealing in the X-T20 / X-ES2. Is there really no sealing or just a minimal one to survive some raindrops or moisture?

Thanks

[Adam Woodhouse]

I can answer a few of these questions, but I'm sure a few others will chime in to help out and correct me if I'm wrong.

 

1) In the menu you can set noise reduction on long exposures Yes/No.  If set to No, you can take next pic immediately after the current pic is done.  If set to Yes, I think if exposure is longer than 10 seconds the camera will take the same length of time as the exposure to apply NR.  So a 30 second exposure results in camera locked for another 30 seconds to apply noise reduction (so that shot would lock the camera for 60 seconds).  I have long exposure NR turned off since I work with the RAW files.

 

2) I think #2 and #4 are some-what related.  The camera will not give a preview of what the long exposure will look like before you take it (kind of answers #3 as well).  But you can set the camera/EVF to either give you what the exposure will look like when shooting in 100% manual (called manual exposure preview) or let the EVF auto expose for you regardless of camera settings.  This relates to #4 question.  In #4 ... when shooting in manual in that scenario you would need to have the camera EVF set to auto exposure (manual exposure preview turned off) so that it makes the scene/EVF bright and you can use the EVF.  That would disconnect the EVF from the cameras exposure settings.  If your example of Q. #4 .... having the camera set to manual exposure preview ... the EVF would be black. 

 

3) No, it won't do that.  You can't watch on the LCD/EVF the image as its being exposed in real time during a long exposure.

 

4) I think my answer to #2 answers this.  It sounds like the camera was set to "manual exposure preview" for the EVF setting ... so it would be very dark in that case.  Changing the EVF to auto-exposure preview ( I think it just turns off the manual exposure preview setting) , it would make the EVF bright regardless of manual exposure camera settings.

 

5) I don't know but would hazard a guess the cameras could sustain a little bit of moisture, but they are not rated or sold as 'weather resistant' as far as I know.