Trek of Joy

I prefer sunstars with lots of points that taper the further you get from the sun. Personally I think the 10-24's 14-point sunstars are ok but not great. They're still much better than the Samyang 12mm and its 6-point stars that flare out from the sun. The 10-24's sunstars don't taper toward the ends like the 16-55's either, but they're still smaller than the Samyang. The 16-55 has a 9-blade aperture, which gives you more points that taper toward the ends, the sunstars are perfect IMO. The first image is from Cambodia with the 10-24, which has 7 aperture blades. The second is from Egypt with the Sony 16-35/4, which also has a 7-bladed aperture, but produces nicer sunstars - presumably because of the shape.

Yesterday I was shopping in Chengdu China with my wife and walked into a giant camera store - much to my surprise there was a A9 demo event. Despite not knowing anything being said from the Sony rep, everyone in the audience, or even being able to decipher the menus - it was awesome. The body improvements make it really feel good, more chunk in the grip, better control layout - and jeezus its fast. 20fps is not my thing, but the A9 is a beast. AF and tracking are next level for mirrorless - much better than anything I've seen from the EM1.2, A6500, A7rII or my twin XT2's. Everyone in attendance shot stills, so when the rep reviewed images on a big 4k tv, I didn't see any video. If I had a spare card I would have shot some stills and tried to shoot video - they were letting people take away images. Very cool though as this was the first time I've seen a camera pre-release like this. Funny side note - a guy was pairing the A9 with his phone to download images and he knocked over a cup of water sitting on the counter next to the camera and it splashed the A9 body and a a6500/18-110 cine lens combo sitting on the counter next to the A9. A shop staffer gave him major stink eye as he wiped water off the everything, but the weather sealing did its job, haha. I'm traveling the world for a year with a XT2 kit after switching from the A7rII mainly because of the speed and lenses. If the lower models get many of the improvements sans the crazy FPS, I'll be really tempted to head back to Sony. They've fixed everything I hated about my A7rII.

Add adjust ISO while recording to your wish list. Sometimes you need to make quick changes to exposure, and I would prefer to use ISO over aperture or SS. As to the "get a video camera" argument, not trying to be hostile, but its so tired. Everyone else has strong video offerings, Fuji will quickly fade to irrelevant if it ceases to improve its video capabilities. You do realize Fuji sells more cameras if it appeals to a wider range of shooters, right? I own 2 XT2's a the 10-24, 18-55, 16-55, 50-140, 55-200, 23/1.4 and 56/1.2 - if it didn't have great 4k video I'd still be shooting with the A7rII and A6300. I know a few other XT2 shooters that would not own the camera if it didn't have its current video capabilities. I loved the stills from the Xpro2, but it was never something I would consider because of its video. Besides the exposure aids and Flog are a simple FW fix, the camera already has the capabilities built in, they just aren't functional. Cheers

I'm shooting with the XT2, so I can also charge batteries in cam. I have four total, so one in cam, two on a dual charger and one in the clunky brick we get from Fuji is what I'm looking to do. Thanks to others for the info, I'll be ordering one of the dual chargers today.

Curious if anyone is using one of the generic dual chargers with Fuji batteries, I'd like to charge more than one with each brick. Thanks in advance.

My iMac plays 4k video in Quicktime straight off the card. I have QT version 10.4 and I'm running Sierra. Would be nice to read one Mac thread without the requisite windows troll, especially since I never seeing people in windows threads telling people to get Mac's.

Drop shadows and highlights to -2. There's room to lift the shadows. As mentioned you made great use of 4k. I use it for 3-4 camera angles with one single talking head shot, I shoot a little wide and punch in for a tighter shot and zoom/pan as well. Not a kidney bean fan cause the skin is really thick - I use black, red and pinto beans in my chili. Still looks good.

Just rented a XT2 to compare to my a7rII and a6300 as a all-in-one stills/video machine for long terms travel. I liked i so much, I ordered the XT2 kit and have started selling my Sony gear. Will have a blog post comparison coming soon. Histogram, zebras and aperture control - three things a FW update could really help make the XT2 a video powerhouse. I'd add focus peaking to the mix too and 1/48 as a SS option when shooting 24p. As it stands right now, its a great image that needs proper video exposure tools so we're not left guessing. If the Magic Lantern guys figured it out on the 5d3, Fuji's engineers should be way ahead of them.