15 June 2019 I http://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk I subscribe 0330 333 1113
Testbench IN THE FIELD
● Fujifi lm X-T3 body: the fl agship pro-spec
model in Fujifi lm’s DSLR-style range.
● XF18-55mm F2.8-4 R LM OIS: Fujifi lm’s
standard kit zoom for the X-T3 is smaller
and faster than the typical DSLR kit zoom,
and a great performer.
● XF55-200mm F3.5-4.8 R LM OIS: Ideal
for views of the islands from the ship, and the
ship from the islands, and the possibility of
seeing dolphins or whales at sea. Of all
Fujifi lm’s telezooms this seemed to offer
the best balance of size, speed and quality.
● XF16mm F1.4 R WR and XF23mm F1.4
R: I anticipated that these fast primes would
be my go-to lenses. The 16mm offered the
additional benefi t of weather-resistance.
● XF35mm F2 R WR: The small weather-
proof version of the standard prime – ideal
for those discreet Cartier-Bresson moments.
● XF56mm F1.2 R: Equivalent to an 85mm
but much more compact than its full-frame
DSLR and mirrorless counterparts.
● A spare battery: With only 390 shots per
charge I knew I’d need one, and I did, though
not as much as I thought I would.
My Fujifi lm kit
shutter speed and aperture combination
you want, and let the camera take care of
the exposure by adjusting the ISO, knowing that
you can see in the viewfi nder if the camera
gets it wrong. It never did. The X-T3 is so good
even at ISO 6400 that I never had to worry
about obtrusive noise. Indeed in Acros mode
noise resembles fi lm grain and looks pleasing.Impressive primes
The fast primes really came into their own in
the ship’s low light. The X-T3 lacks in-body
stabilisation and none of my primes had OIS,
so I tried to keep the shutter speed above
1/60sec, where possible, to reduce the risk
of blur both from camera shake and subject
movement, which meant I found myself
shooting at wide apertures a lot of the time.
One third of the pictures in my fi nal edit were
taken at f/2 or wider.
The resulting shallow depth of fi eld helped
separate the subjects from busy backgrounds- even when using the 16mm lens, which
surprised me. But the wide apertures made
critical focusing a challenge. I fi nd the variety of
AF options on modern cameras confusing and
it took a bit of trial and error for me to fi nd the
best set-up, especially when the subject was
moving. I didn’t fi gure out till quite late that if I
had set the focus mode to AF-C it would have
made my life easier. But in the end I lost very
few shots to either camera shake or focus error.
Conclusion
I set out on this trip wanting to answer a few
questions. Is the X-T3 a great travel
camera? Absolutely. A Micro Four Thirds
kit would have saved me some weight,
but it would have struggled more with
the low-light shots, and the dreamy
focus fall-off I got with those fast primes
wouldn’t have been possible. On the other
hand I’m not sure what I would have gained
had I taken the same amount of kit in one of
the full-frame systems – other than backache.Overall the X-T3 is, to me, almost the perfect
camera, though I reckon I probably used only
20% of its features. Given more time I may
have found a use for another 20%, but there’s
no doubt that it offers far more functionality
than I will ever need. The great thing is most of
this superfl uous stuff (and it’s only superfl uous
to me – everyone will have their own favourite
features) stays safely hidden out of sight unless
I choose to bring it to the fore by assigning it to
one of the function buttons, or the quick menu.
The X-T3’s only downside, for me, is the lack of
stabilisation, either in the body or my favourite
lenses. Although it wasn’t an issue on this trip
IBIS is the one thing I’d like to see added, but
not if it makes the body bigger. Maybe I’m
asking for too much, but if Sony can do it...
Narrowing down the lenses is a tougher call.
It was interesting to view the EXIF data to see
how many pictures I took with each lens. Of all
the pictures in my favourites folder, 35% were
taken on the 56mm f/1.2. I loved shooting
portraits with it at wide apertures and the
quality is fantastic. The second most used lens
was the 18-55mm. It was the one I relied on
most when I went ashore, though had thereThe Cruise Director spotlit in
a darkened theatre. The Acros mode
produces a lovely tonality
Fujinon XF56mm F1.2 R, 1/80sec at f/1.2, ISO 1000I used a slow shutter speed to capture the bustle of the galley Fujinon XF16mm F1.4 R WR, 1/15sec at f/5.6, ISO 800