I caved...

[karinatwork]

So I traded my 3-year-old X-T1, battery grip and plate towards a new X-T2. Holy smokes. There is a steep learning curve, no doubt. I thought I knew my old camera, but this is a whole new different beast. I am struggling mostly with the video function. I believe the lenses I tried so far are too old, but the AF in video is painfully slow and often non-existent... But then again, I doubt I will do much filming anyway.

 

If you have any suggestions for a new X-T2 owner, please let me know. A new camera is always nice, but there are growing pains for sure until everything is set up just right... 

[lleo]

Upgrade the software, go out and shoot alot. You do very nice pics, just try and try yourself, beside any advice.

[gordonrussell76]

One thing to mention here and I see it time and time again people complaining about AF in video mode. I get that VLoggers and some types of videography need it, but in my opionion one of the best things you can do to make your video look smooth and as we see on TV is to turn AF off and shoot in manual mode.

 

Unless you are deliberately going for bokeh effect, set you aperture for a deep depth of field, ideally F8 or so, set it so that the DOF scale is infinity and back to say 3ft ( i use the 10-24mm a lot as a wide angle is your friend with video) and keep it manual, your shot will be in focus, will tolerate movement of the subject, and won't have the horrible artifacts introduced by AF hunting, which even the best AF systems cannot totally eliminate.

 

Its is no co-incidence that all the high end Cine lens are manual focus only, even Fuji's new releases, yes you can buy an add on that controls AF, but these often cost the same as the lens again for a reason.

 

Try what I suggest above and you will see that 9 x out of 10 you will get more pleasing results, the other nice thing about this, is it works with vintage lenses and will work on any system you use in the future as it is a general no brand specfic technique.

G

[karinatwork]

Well, turns out I had not updated my lens firmware in a while. After doing that, everything works as it should. I will keep the manual focus in mind for filming. I think I just need practice. Just as a side note, if I want f8, I can as well film with my iPhone. The only reason to film with the X-T2 is to get better bokeh. But time will tell how much I will actually film.

[lleo]

Even if you want to film, go for Fuji. Use your iphone for what it is, a phone.

Or get a good Panasonic, those are the best video cameras.

[CDBC]

So what's the difference between 'bokeh' and 'chiaroscuro'?

 

And why isn't Karina working, instead of goofing around on the internet?

 

Just messing with you ... 

[gordonrussell76]

The X_T2 will be superior to you iPhone for video for many other reasons than Bokeh, Higher bitrate video files, bigger sensor, so that F8 will give you a much much shallower depth of field relatively than the F8 on the iPhone. I don't think anyone has ever bothered doing equivalence as its so huge a difference. Oh and the sensor is twice the resolution at 24mp although the Iphone 7 at 12Mp probably has greater pixel density. Oh and the colours will probably be better.

 

Bottom line bokeh does not maketh the shot in video apart of in some very specific applications. Its just another tool in the paint box. I used to think the same bokeh bokeh, I remember when I got my first GH1 and a 25mm F1.4 it was all bokeh here we come. The reality is that the lens hunted a lot and it was very distracting. Over time and real world use I have found that F4-F8 is a very good place to be for a lot of shooting situations. 

 

But enjoy experimenting and who knows your bokeh tastic productions may make me eat my words

 

Have fun