Herco

Let me first introduce myself. 57 years and amateur photographer since the age of 12, although with intervals. My passion lies with portrait, fashion, street and urban landscape. All stills photography, almost no video. I started with an Olympus OM1 (which I still have and occasionally use) but have been around the block: from Olympus to Nikon to Pentax to Minolta to Canon and Leica. I took a few years off of photography, until someone lend me his X-Pro1 for a day. It reminded me of my M6 and M8. The X-Pro1 was far from perfect. However the camera grew on me and the image quality was so beautiful that it kept me wanting to shoot more. When the X-Pro2 came along I immediately upgraded and after a year or so I added an X-T2, which later on I swapped for an X-H1. The X-H1 is a bit big for Fuji standards, but after the EOS 5D its a breeze. In the meanwhile I own 9 XF lenses. Mostly primes, but also the 16-55 (hence the X-H1 for its IBIS). 90mm is the longest focal length I need (and have). For me the X-H1 also marks the transition point of Fujifilm. From this point onwards Fuji started to lose me. Let me explain. First of all next to the X-T10/20/30 Fuji launched the X-T100/200 line rendering the beautiful X-E line redundant and from what I hear, repealed soon. I understand the commercial viability of video capabilities and a DSLR-style over a rangefinder-style, but speaking of crowded market segments... Next to that Fuji launched the X-T3 only a few months after introducing the X-H1. I would have understood this if the hybrid X-H1 had the 26Mp sensor soon followed by the X-T3 with a similar sensor. But cannibalizing a flagship model within half a year or so, dramatically drop its price and discard of any meaningful firmware update for more than 1.5 years, is an insult to buyers. That kind of corporate behaviour is what we previously accused Nikon, Canon and Sony for, but they’ve bettered their lifes. It seems that history is repeating itself with the new X-T4 versus the X-T3. In a few years Fuji went from “video as an after-thougth” to “video-first”. There’s little progress in the X-T4 when it comes to stills. You could even say some degress: the fully articulating screen is not for stills photographers. Occasionally ‘killing your darlings’ is part of progress, but this almost feels like leaving a group of customers behind. In the meanwhile Fuji also launched the X-Pro3. I can dig dropping the d-pad and the reversed tilted screen. The titanium top- and bottom plates are a nice touch, but add little to the quality of the camera. What I can’t understand is getting rid of the dual magnification for the OVF. That renders any lens wider than 23mm or longer than 50mm useless in combination with the OVF, which is the main attraction of the X-Pro3. Leica already understood this decades ago... Probably Fuji’s best matured camera is the X100V. The style, new lens and tilted screen has defined today’s ultimate street camera. In fact I even consider swapping my beloved X-Pro2 for an X100V. The X100V shows that clearly defining a product line and improve and innovate on a regular basis is a better strategy than creating new and mixing existing product lines. It also makes it easier to maintain a stable pricing strategy. My hope is now on the X-H2 to restore ratio in Fuji’s product line-up and break with the recent ‘video-first’ mantra. However, considering the X-H was meant to be the hybrid stills/video camera, I fear the worst. I guess I’m part of a dying breed but Fuji please don’t make me want to buy an A7R...

I'm working with both now to find out if ON1 can do all that I need. The difference between older versions of ON1 and C1 where much greater (in favour of C1) but the ON1 2020 edition has improved a lot esp. for Fuji shooters. So far I think C1 is still better in color editing, the Fuji film profiles (quite a bit better), b&w controls and still somewhat better in sharpening and noise reduction. ON1 has a better digital asset management (importing, culling, keywords, managing raw+jpeg...), some very nice effect filters and is easier to use. However, note that presets and filters in ON1 can easily become a bit 'too colourful' and 'over-edited'. You have to hold back a little bit and apply the opacity slider generously. With 'easier to use' I mean that in ON1 some adjustments are combined in handy filters you can apply, whereas in C1 you need to combine multiple tools to achieve the same results. In general: C1 is IMO more aimed at professionals and high-end users, while ON1 is aimed at enthousiasts. I don't use pano stitching and HDR so for me there's no clear winner yet... but if I would do pano and HDR I would definitely download the trail version of ON1 and have a very close look at it.

X-H1 and X-PRO2 Have had an X-PRO1 and an X-T2 before...

Hi, I'm using ON1 Photo Raw (2020) alongside CaptureOne 12 (C1). Some actions are just more clever solved in ON1 (culling, tagging, managing raw+jpg...) but ON1 also has Pano stitching and focus stacking. Next to that the new 2020-edition has a much improved RAF-support. Sharpening and noise reduction is now almost at C1-level. Library management, culling and tagging and basic editing I do in ON1. Whenever I have a photo that I want to be perfect for publishing/printing I open it in C1 and do the fine editing. But with ON1 2020 that might even change... PS. next to great software at a fair price, ON1 also delivers great support and their Plus package includes many free courses (also generic photography courses) that are frequently renewed and nice downloads such as presets and LUTs.

I've just traded-in my X-T2 for an X-H1 since I like it ergonomics and IBIS. Normally I use CaptureOne for raw processing and occasionally ON1 Photo Raw. Their 2020 edition is a big improvement for Fuji shooters. However, I wanted to revisit a raw file from my X-T2 and run it again through the in-camera raw converter using X Raw Studio. Much to my surprise, the software didn't accept my X-H1 nor my X-Pro2 to process the X-T2 raw file. It needs to connect to an X-T2 (which I don't own anymore)!! In the user manual Fujifilm states: "Please note, the RAW conversion is only compatible with a RAW file taken by the same camera model as the camera connected to the computer. For example, if the connected camera is a FUJIFILM X-T2, the RAW file must be taken by a FUJIFILM X-T2." I was stunned... Is this me doing something wrong or just incredibly bad design by Fujifilm? I fully understand that an older camera can't process newer X-Trans CMOS4/X-Processor4 files. But all of my current camera's are X-Trans CMOS3 and X-Processor Pro just like the X-T2 with which I made the photos. I would expect compatibility to be depending on the sensor/processor combination (and pref some backwards compatibility as well for my X-Pro1 files), but not on the actual precise camera type?! This makes X Raw Studio useless when you update your camera. Clearly not a great business model...