X-T2 and nightlife!

[sdinneweth]

I'm a nightlife photographer, shooting mainly with a Nikon D4. But I'm considering selling my current setup to buy a (DX) D500 or ... A Fujifilm X-T2. Does anybody here have any experience with a X-T2 in the nightlife scene, dark nightclubs etc?!

 

Thanks in advance!

[pete1959]

Eighteen months since I switched from Canon 5D MK3. I'm not a Nikon shooter but I'm going to hazard a guess that the D4 is pretty darn good.

 

Although the image quality is excellent the AF performance in low light is sluggish/slow as compared to a high end DSLR. It can be frustrating at times...lots of hunting for focus etc. It is nowhere near as fast or sure footed when compared to a Canon 5D MK3. Although you will love the shots you do get, there are going to be some shots you won't get due to poor AF. I would guess about 20% of the time. I deal with this brutal reality all the time, and have simply accepted it as a fact of life. The tradeoff is a much smaller system that is far less likely to be noticed and/or draw attention to oneself and fantastic image quality. For me the "not drawing attention" and the "size/weight" usually makes me happy I switched, but sometimes when the AF lags I want to scream and throw the camera across the room. In my experience the older lenses (23 f1.4, 35 f1.4, 56 f1.2, 90 f2) are notoriously slow  and very frustrating  to use and  slow to AF in poor light, the newer f2 lenses less so.

 

If you can afford it you may want to hold onto your DSLR and spend some time with the X-T2 (ie; keep both).

 

If I had it to do over, and could afford it, I wish sometimes I had.

 

Peter

 

www.kma438.com

[pete1959]

Oh, and it rips through batteries! Even when trying to manage battery usage, such as turning camera off "between use", it still eats up batteries at an unpleasant rate.

[kimcarsons]

If you rely on autofocus, you're not going to enjoy it. If you use flash and a small aperture and zone focusing, you can get by, but as the previous poster hinted at, you're going to chew through your batteries in your standby time between shots (which is really true of any mirrorless system.)

 

Then again, if you're using a small aperture and flash, then you're not demanding much of your sensor and optics and could get similar results from any cheapo DSLR with a crap lens.

 

EDIT: Also, mirrorless cameras are more vulnerable to laser damage than DSLRS because the sensor is always exposed to light.

Edited March 14, 2017 by kimcarsons

[jwascher]

Yes, the X-T2 does go thru batteries, but with the vertical battery grip, you can easily get 1000 shots with the on-board batteries. I shoot about 1600 shots at sporting events on a Saturday and wear a BlackRapid strap with an auxiliary pouch with 2 additional batteries. The cheap knock offs on eBay or Amazon work fine at a much lower cost than the Fuji’s.

I don’t take a lot of very low light shots, but those I do have not been a problem.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

[Guest Him]

I too have had no problems with AF in all sorts of light with the X-T2. in fact until I read this thread I would have said I was really thrilled with it. After a few years of manual lenses and with an eye issue, I decided to try the X-T2 and so far I am more than happy.

 

Also battery life seems par for course. I don't use the rear screen a lot, i.e. I switched it off for preview I just use the viewfinder. Battery life in a Leica M is about the same, so no big change. I have three, never so far needed more.

[gaopa]

I love my X-T2 for night photography. The high ISO is great! Yes, it eats up batteries, but I always carry spare batteries. I bought/tried the grip and sold it the next day as it was too heave, IMHO. I'm a very happy X-T2 shooter.

[gaopa]

I love my X-T2 for night photography. The high ISO is great! Yes, it eats up batteries, but I always carry spare batteries. I bought/tried the grip and sold it the next day as it was too heave, IMHO. I'm a very happy X-T2 shooter.

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