Fuji-X Sport: X-T2 and Pro Cycling at the UCI World Tour's Grand Prix de Québec

[GilBarib]

Hi !

I got my X-T2 and battery grip from my local brick and mortar store on the morning of the 8 and, luck me, on the 9 Québec City was hosting of the UCI World Tour Grand Prix Cycliste. Great timing !

It's a 16 laps, 200 km race right in the heart of the old town with the world'd very best and fastest cyclist, but please don't look for any of the landmark of the city in my pics, I was just after the riders, trying to get into the pack as much as possible.

I already had some good experience and result at shooting fast outdoor sports on AFC with the T1, from speed skating to grand slalom skiing and the likes, so the adaptation and transition to the T2 went very smoothly.

I guess there will be plenty of reviews, tests and posts about the new T2, so I'll spare you all the details about the new body and jump right to my appreciation for the type of shooting I do: it's fast and I loved it!

Enough, I think I'll let the pics talk now. Aren't they worth a thousand words ?

T2 + XF50-140 + XF1.4TC, most of the shooting was done at 196mm @ f/4

Shot in RAW, minimal PP in LR 6.6.1 (sharpening: 20-0.5-100-60, No NR )

The Flickr album (25 pics as of now): https://flic.kr/s/aHskJar3my

[erwiurewurwehu]

These are very good. How would you compare the X-T1 with the X-T2? I am pretty sure you could have got the same results with the X-T1 but the question is how much easier did the X-T2 make it?

Edited September 10, 2016 by erwiurewurwehu

[GilBarib]

These are very good. How would you compare the X-T1 with the X-T2? I am pretty sure you could have got the same results with the X-T1 but the question is how much easier did the X-T2 make it?

Hi

 

Thanks !

You're right about the X-T1, Ive shot a pro cycling criterium this summer, the T1 + XF50-140 combo did quite good: https://flic.kr/s/aHskywHsoS

 

First, I shot the whole event on boost, did not even try the regular mode yet,  the T2 is a lot really a lot more snappier, not in the same class at all.

Startup, AF acquisition, AFC tracking, shot to shot, Ch at 11 fps, EVF, everything is on steroids compared to the T1.

Also, important to me is the bigger PDAF area coverage, it is a lot less limiting, finally letting you compose more freely and the focus joystick makes it very easy to access all these AF points.

The 24 mp are very nice for cropping compare to the 16 mp, kind of useful for sport pictures where you can't control as much your framing. 

 

Did I mention fast ? Very fast !

 

This was my first outing with the T2 and the overall speed of the little beast just amazed me,  I'm really looking forward to use it in situation where the T1 would struggled: indoor sports and the likes.

But that being said, I'm keeping mine as second body, now my old X-E1 can finally retire in a museum !

 

Hope it helps

Gilles

[binklewis]

Awesome shots Gilles !! I'm looking forward to my eventual X-T2 purchase.  Having a blast right now with my shiny new 50-140 and TC 1.4x teleconverter on my x-t1 and my fujisports blog :-).  

[miburo]

How did your batteries hold up? Trying to judge how many extras i need to buy with my kit

[GilBarib]

How did your batteries hold up? Trying to judge how many extras i need to buy with my kit

 

Hi !

 

Quite good, I was shooting in burst on CH at 8 or 11 fps (with boost activated on the grip) and by the end of the 5 hour race I had one and a half batteries emptied and around 2000 pics taken,

The power consumption on the Fuji-X cameras is more time based then frame based, about 2.5 hours of full time use per battery.

 

I always turn the camera off when not taking pics, so during this 16 lap race I only had it at On when there was some action, immediately switching it Off  after the last rider had passed by me.

As a rule of thumb I usually take 1 battery for every two hours of shooting and add one for safety, I never ran out of power.  I did use two regular NP-W126 in the grip (Wasabi brand) and did not have any problems either.

 

Hope it helps you

Gilles

had the camera on when the riders would be