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thesaltyfog

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Everything posted by thesaltyfog

  1. So, I've sent my X-T1 in for the THIRD time to get the skin and door replaced. It's become an annual tradition: weather turns cold, send the X-T1 back to Fuji to get "fixed". Sigh. I have treated the camera no differently than any Canon thing I used in the past and have never had an issue prior to Fuji. Ever since the first time it happened I have been extra sure to not leave it in the sun or in a hot car, etc. and still the issue comes back every year. Fuji has come back to me with an estimate of CAD$120 + tax to fix the issue. The camera is well out of warranty, of course, but I'm hopeful based on the recent article on Fuji Rumors (https://www.fujirumors.com/fujifilm-x-t1-rubber-grip-issue-no-longer-issue-last-experience-fujifilm-repair-service/) that I can convince them to do it for free. OR, at a minimum that the service will include the newer material shown in the article and that I won't be back this time next year with the same issue all over again. What I would like to get a sense of from folks here is: how many of you have gotten your skin replaced (sounds awful) for free outside of the warranty period? I'd love to have that as evidence for my case and hopefully it will be helpful for others too. Thanks! Adam
  2. Thanks! Some lucky timing with reflections from a building across the street.
  3. Spent a morning chasing the light around since there weren't many people about. I was able to corral it a few times.
  4. A few thoughts: Posting your before and after photos is unnecessary. Most of them aren't different enough from the original (in these small web JPGs, at least) to mean much to anyone but you. Show us your final vision. I will say this small bit about post-processing, though... If you're presenting these as a set or a "portfolio" of Shoreditch you'll be well served to have a consistent look about them. The "Barber & Parlour" shot, for instance, is vastly different from the rest and seems really out of place. Was there some reason for the heavy processing in that shot? Does it feel more like Shoreditch to you? Is that processing helping to convey your meaning or the feeling of the place? Would it be appropriate to use that on all of the photos in this set? I find the photos to generally be lacking a subject or focus. My eye doesn't know where to look in many of the shots. The "Gap" shot, for instance... what is this showing me? I do like the graphic element of the line of signs, but the one closest to us is out of focus and the others are shrouded behind it, so are unreadable. My eye is left to wander about trying to land on some information, moment, or aspect of Shoreditch that you are trying to portray. If you had perhaps moved a bit to your left, this could act as leading lines to the lady in the middle. Similar for the shot of the man standing at the traffic light. What are you showing us with this photo (and the others)? The composition of the vertical photos are all very similar with a hard vertical line down the "third" point of the frame - the store signs in the gap photo, the traffic light, the line of buildings in the "Calvert" photo and the columns in the Grocer billboard photo. It may be interesting to present these as a triptych or some other set to show a theme in your composition. But be careful in that applying the same composition every time can become boring very quickly for the viewer. We don't have the same experience of the photo as you (with the sounds, smells, action, etc.), so you need to engage us visually. Mix things up. For example, the rows of shops themselves may be more interesting than the long empty sidewalk stretching out beside them - make them your subject. The food truck shots are simply centered "whole" shots of the trailer/truck - fine as information ("Here's a food truck"), but not terribly engaging for the viewer. Show us why we might want to go there, or that other people do. (Though, I'd be very curious to try what they've got at the Duck Truck, which, ironically, isn't a truck.) Take some time to reflect on each of them individually and as a group - Does this single photo work on its own? What is the subject here? Does it build upon the last one or few to tell a story or give a sense of being there? etc. With all that said, though, you've passed the first hurdles - getting out there and making the shots and then opening yourself up to random strangers on the internet (savages, we are). Neither of which can be easy to do. I get the feeling you were trying to convey a sense of being in Shoreditch - a documentation of some elements of life there: rows of interesting shops (leaving aside the Gap, perhaps), people about, some food truck culture, some common elements of graffiti and a clever sign writer. That's just my impression, at least, from these first photos.
  5. I've had mine replaced twice to date with the same purchase date as yours. As far as I can tell, it's just a straight replacement of the same stuff.
  6. Well, I think you've likely already got a lot of the answers in your own mind at the moment. You already own an X-T1 and have made some kind of rationalisation to purchase an X-Pro2. Why? Something with the shiny new one has prompted you to move on, so what was it that sealed it for you? Would you expect the new, as of yet completely rumoured X-T2 to have or not have that feature? Does that feature really make your photography skills or photographs or the experience of photographing measurably better? Odds are pretty good that the X-T2 will be a small evolution/refinement from the X-T1, likely with 90% of the same features as the X-Pro2, so you should already have some feelings about shooting with your X-T1 and why you think the X-Pro2 will improve upon that. Going back to the X-T2 will likely be very, very similar to shooting with your current camera. To me, anyway, the X-T and X-Pro lines really boil down to slightly different shooting paradigms: Rangefinder style with hybrid viewfinder/fixed screen versus SLR-style with EVF/tiltable screen. Everything else will be mostly the same (though the little differences between the two will be totally down to your personal preferences and may not be so small to you). I love Fuji's approach of jamming the same sensor in all cameras, as you can then decide on the shooting style / price / size that works for you and still get the same quality of pictures. Wonderful. This is really the way you should be considering this, I think... what about the two body styles will be preferable for you? I would have a very hard time convincing myself to wait around for an unannounced camera on the off chance it has some magical thing that will make my photos 100x better (because it won't, as much as we lie to ourselves all the time ). Personally, I absolutely adore my X-T1 and will most likely wait around for an X-T3 before I even think of upgrading. This camera is part of my hand, allows me to make completely awesome prints pretty much as large as I'll ever need, and best of all I ALREADY OWN IT and can walk out the door and make photographs this very second. That $1800 for the shiny new camera can stick around in my pocket while I make more and more photos with my perfectly awesome camera. That's not to say at all that I won't drool all over the X-T2 whenever it is announced and fight to keep my credit card from magically flying into the machine at the local shop, because I absolutely will. I just know at this moment that I have a camera... a friggin' excellent camera with friggin' excellent lenses and I'm going out to shoot some photos that will be 99% the same with this camera or any refinement thereof, not matter how shiny or sexy the new one may be. Boy, I'm wordy today. All I'm trying to say is... you have a wicked camera at your side at this very moment. Go use it! Forget the new stuff and make photos! (Maybe that's helpful, maybe not.) And totally personal preference, but I no longer have any use for an OVF, as much as I bemoaned EVFs for years. The X-T1 has converted me and there's no going back. So, the X-Pro line is mostly wasted on me these days, as much as I do love the look and style of a classic rangefinder design (I borrow my neighbour's Leica M4 on occasion... so awesome to shoot with). But to each their own.
  7. Just to close the loop on my situation for reference for anyone else... I emailed back and forth with Fuji Canada for quite a while trying to get a refund of some sort for my original repair bill given that some folks had it repaired for free and they fixed mine for free the second time. Spoke with a rep this morning and they can't do a refund, but are going to send me a free leather half-case for the camera. I have no real use for it (prefer a wrist strap to the case's shoulder strap), but a nice $100 value. ... anyone want to buy a nice new leather half case for their X-T1? Never used!
  8. Are you saying you've set your ISO, Aperture, and Shutter speed to manual, but you would like to camera to also be in manual focus? Simply move the switch on the front from A to M (or pull the clutch on the 23mm or wider Fuji primes). Done! You are in complete control of everything. The camera will no longer interfere. I don't have the camera in front of me to test with a non-clutch lens if you can instigate the AF via the AF-On button when switched to manual focus on the camera body, but that may be a possibility since it's just a digital setting. As an additional option, you can enable the "AF+MF" mode, which will let you use the autofocus with a half press, but you can still tweak things manually afterwards. Otherwise you'll either be in total AF or total MF when switching modes. I didn't really care for this as it removed the functionality of the clutch on my 23mm, which I really like. I'll have to revisit it again, though, as I didn't really learn it well to see if it would be better for me.
  9. Just got my X-T1 back from its second skin repair and it is beautiful and new all over again. Fuji repaired it under warranty this time. I had to pay the first time, so I've asked if they would reimburse me those costs in light of this being an issue that many users have experienced (thanks to this thread and one on dpreview) and its recurrence with me despite not "abusing" the camera. They are considering options. It's got to be a materials issue related to longer term use, not a short term heat thing, I'm pretty sure. Under both repairs I had not exposed the camera to any prolonged high heat periods. I do shoot with a wrist strap, so the camera is in hand the whole time it's in use, which is likely the biggest contribution to it on my end. Seeing the new skin compared to what it looked like before I sent it off, there is a pretty noticeable difference in texture. I love the feel of the rubber on the camera, but if it's not meant for handling 5-10 hours a week over a year period (twice!) they've got to change something up for the X-T2 (and X-Pro2!). I did not experience this level of degradation with 4-5 years of use on a couple Canon dSLRs prior to my Fuji switch (though I do use the Fuji way more often than I did with my 7D). Thinking about my future options if/when this recurs, which I'm pretty sure it will. Has anyone gotten a specific date from Aki Asahi on when/if they will be offering skin options for X-T1? I had emailed him a couple months ago, but did not get a reply. I've seen a few mentions on forums of "soon", but that's it. http://www.aki-asahi.com/store/
  10. Really nice shot - wonderful layered softness to it and great timing with the bird. The bird reminded me instantly of the cover of Wilco's album Sky Blue Sky - very similar element in both
  11. I use VirtualDub. Very basic, but free. http://www.virtualdub.org/ Essentially just open a directory with sequentially numbered images, tell it that it's an image sequence, and voila. You can set the frame rate and make looping GIFs or save to an AVI. From there you could import into more complex video editing software like Adobe Premiere or the like. I used to shoot for a local music promotion company and did a number of stop motion videos of live paintings that were created during the concerts. Always a fun product from the shows. Here's one example, which was quite a night... the painting was actually stolen right from the stage after the show! It was recovered the next day thanks to the stop motion camera catching the guy with his hand literally on the painting. The timing was perfect and the guy had no idea it was there. If you're just going to HD video at best, you don't need a terribly awesome camera to do this or can just set your image size much lower if you want to save on storage space (1080p is only 2MP). I used to do this with a little Canon SD300, which is a good 10-11 years old now, I think. I had hacked it with the totally awesome CHDK that opens up all kinds of crazy stuff. Though, the setup in the X-T1 is vastly more friendly and simple to implement. I did some star trails last year and a stop motion of a big storm on a river with the X-T1 and they both turned out wonderfully.
  12. View from Hotel Glymur in Saurbaer, Iceland
  13. Not typically a landscape guy, but just returned from Iceland and a place like that just demands it. Wowzers. Just stunning scenes wherever you go.
  14. Paul - this one reminded me of one of mine from 2012 in Nevada. The walking figure is very similar. Your foreground is more interesting, though. Sister photos from opposite sides of the planet.
  15. This has happened for the second time to me with my X-T1 - both the door bulge and the skin peeling. I'm contacting Fuji to get this taken care of again. They DID NOT pay for it the first time, insisting that the camera "may have been exposed to high temperatures". I bitched and complained and they reduced the $120 plus materials (~$20) cost by 15% ($120 is their "base fee" for repairs of "professional X-series cameras" in Canada). Seems like I didn't bitch and complain to the right people. Hopefully they have seen the light and cough up for this one - still under the camera's two year warranty AND the one year warranty on the original repair. Re: the high temperatures thing... I live in eastern Canada where it's not exactly tropical during the summer and as far as I could recall had not left the camera in any hot environments (say, a closed up car) to cause this the first time around. I have been very careful since the first repair and most certainly have not done that and the problem has returned. In 8 years with Canon gear I did not run into this issue, though I certainly use my X-T1 more than my old 7D.
  16. Excellent work, Stefan. It's unfortunately rare to see well composed street photos and even rarer that they are in colour. These make a very nice set. I'm really liking the man on the train - wonderful expression, a nice simple and graphic composition, and some perfect light on his face. Wonderful. You've managed to actually USE the colour to your advantage here, which is what is often missing from other colour street photos, I find. A lot of us shy away from it in "street" mode, I think, as it's often not the focus of or detracts from the focus or story of the photo. (And holding up the B&W tradition, blah blah blah.) Colour can be pretty random in an urban environment and clutter up an otherwise good photo. Instead, here you've done a great job of making the colour part of the photo. I've historically avoided that, myself, but am now starting to embrace it and attempting to put that extra dimension into effect. (The mythical "Fuji colours" are helping in that regard, too. Heh heh.) I bristle a tiny bit at the suggestion that street photography and aesthetics are somehow unrelated. The photos by both you and Paul in this thread prove that it can be done to great effect. I'm always striving to find both that story and aesthetics that make for a photo that is not only beautiful but meaningful (and vice versa). One without the other is totally fine, but both together, well... then you've really got something.
  17. This one always makes me laugh - just picturing the frustration and desperation of trying to dispose of this chair to leave it like this. "Soho Trash"
  18. Ah geeeeeez. That makes me tear up a little. Poor little X-T1. My dealing with Fuji last year for the rubber coming off of the body all over (which they refused to cover under warranty and is now coming off again 8 months later, but I won't open that up ) taught me that they have a base charge for "pro" models of $120 for service, plus parts on top of that. I don't know how much labour that covers you for, but it's essentially the "floor" you'll be dealing with. Edited just to say that I'm in Canada, so the price point may vary depending on where you are.
  19. Abandoned local high school. This was taken last summer, but they've just started tearing it down, which reminded me of it. "Thirds of Rule"
  20. Not a picture "of" windows, necessarily, but shot "through" a window. This is from our new library (shortlisted for world building of the year!). The letters on the window form leaves when viewed from a distance.
  21. I picked it up after I somehow lost my original one. *grumble* Hadn't considered it before then, but I do prefer it to the original, I think. Soft, comfortable and provides a small amount of side coverage.
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