Let me start by saying that I appreciate the responses I got on the comment list and in emails. The X20 has not been named yet but is close. It’s ok, it sits on the shelf next to Andre’ and Ding and Garry. I’m sure that in a day or two a naming party will take place and of course all of you are more than welcome to attend.
Alessandro gave me an awakening with his comment about the X20 being a compact and I should let it act that way. I knew this from a year ago but it’s nice to get a kick in the butt to get back on track. I’m also working on presets again and the great thing about Lightroom over Nik is the HISTORY! I’ve written about that 100’s of times but now it was time to practice what I preached. I opened some files from my last X20 a year ago and low and behold….going to the history I could see the name of the preset and also the ability to save it. Unreal. Great news but…..I want to design a new set that works for every compact camera ever built or that will ever be built. White and my Meds gets me thinking like this…..yuch!
So when I got home today, my neighbor the cop grabbed me for a minute. Yo’ he said….check this out Don….. We are standing outside in the cold..it’s ok cause I gotz me long underwear on and I’m not cold but I have to release body fluids really bad…..he shows me a Fuji XT1 and a 23mm 1.4, 35mm 1.4, 56, 1.2 and 14mm. He’s got all this in a real nice Billingham Pro bag. Yeah, yeah, beautiful I said….nice…..(remember, he’s a married cop with kids…great guy but not a pro shooter…has no idea of street work other than busting the people I make photos of)….So he hands me the highly coveted XT1 with the 23mm on it. Well, 1st impressions are that I’m glad I have my XP1 and the XE1 and now the X20 and Rogers M240. I tried it out a little but I got this cramp in my lower bowels, no, not from holding back body fluid procedures….but that didn’t help…!
The XT1 is a fine TOOL for most people that are thinking about cameras as tools. For me, I am a visual poet and think of my cameras as friends, that’s why I name them and of course they named me also. So I instantly decided I would never get the XT1 butt!… I kinda have a hankering for that 23mm. I told him that the 23 was the worst lens in the Fuji lineup and that I’d gladly take it off his hands because a Cop with a wife and 2 kids deserves more than that. Well, he’s going for his inspectors test and kinda figured that I was trying to swindle him out of a really good lens. He said….I could cuff you for that but we’re tight…I said…can I use those cuffs tonight with Tanya…..after we both stopped laughing we parted company till the weekend cause I have to get these body fluids moving quickly.
I then left without the cuffs or the 23mm……………..
Sometimes people surprise me. I was walking on Market, of course and I saw a sight not yet recorded in the historical annuals of Philadelphia History. See, it’s a well known fact throughout the entire universe that Jersey Girls Have BIG HAIR! C’mon, even Bruce wrote songs about that…He knows, he’s from Jersey….so I’m walking with the not yet named X20 and there, there right in front of me was a sight never before recorded by the un named X20….a woman with BIG HAIR. At first I was nervous but then I saw a guy looking at me for the support I sought from him…..we both assed each other and with a grin, we both realized…Jersey Girls are planning to invade the streets of Philly, The City of Hopes.
FOV
I keep going back and forth with my “N at u r a l” FOV. I mean I found out a long time ago that mine really was 35mm. Yet, in this time period I might be thinking that it has changed to 28mm. I say that because 28mm has dominated my cameras for a good period of time and I certainly FEEL that FOV. Most say that one should be able to work with any FON, of course it’s true but that doesn’t find your natural FOV.
How To Find Your Natural FOV
……… so we are walking and trying to find our lost photos…then something grabs at you and you know you just found one. You look at the scene and decide where the frame should be and you raise the camera…….as you look thru the finder or at the screen…..OH MY! the camera has framed way to much of the scene or maybe way to little of the scene. WHY?!
Because you haven’t found and utilized your Natural FOV. It’s not the fault of the scene, no…it’s not even the camera’s fault, no…it’s your fault. It’s your fault because you chose the scene and you even chose the lens but you didn’t know your natural FOV. When you look thru the finder or screen, that view should be as close as possible to the FOV the lens is seeing. For me, it’s now 28mm, used to be 35mm and probably still is making 28mm an adapted natural FOV. So what this means is that the lens is seeing about what your eyes are seeing from the same stance. Not having to move when the camera is at the ready because you and the camera/lens are on the same FOV. Of course you don’t have to believe me and you can do things the way you want, far be it from me to impose any restrictions on what you do but I guarantee if you take the time to discover your natural FOV then you will know what other lenses to work with because that FOV will present itself in your images.
Ok, back to the camera thing. Every camera has a duty that makes it the one for particular work. For me, the XP1 is about as good as it will ever be. The XE1 is a nice camera but our love affair is coming to an end…not yet but soon. The X20 is a Grit Machine as verified by many of my friends and some even pointed out in the comments region of this blog. Roger’s Leica’s don’t interest me because of the financial value they maintain. Oh, don’t get it wrong…I love Leica and always did but the Streets are different now then back in the day of my younger years and it’s not safe for me to carry or use them on the streets or public transportation. So everything has it’s place in the order of Streetshooter World of Photography and I’m very content the way things are.
There’s only one pressing item to clear up and shortly at that. The International, Intercontinental, Intergalactic official naming of the Fuji X20 here on Earth on Montour Street in Philadelphia.
So, please continue to submit your suggestions and by the end of the weekend, the name shall be selected BY VOTE if I can figure that out and the coveted Grand Prize of a preset pack thusly awarded to the winner. There was an executive decision made that awards all entrants a smaller version of the Coveted Preset Pack just for entering the contest.
Go in Peace and Pray for Peace in the parts of the World where there isn’t any! ………………….end transmission…………………..
Hmm a name for the X20 … I was thinking Elaine or Ximena.
Great post, thanks.
Thanks…. I was thinking PixelToko but I hear tell some shooter already has it….sheeeeesh!
My FOV has always been the 28. I don’t why. Just always felt natural. 50 is a telephoto. If I am out for a full day, I will carry both. Sometimes, and I mean sometimes, I’ll throw on a 35 for a compromise. It really isn’t. It’s nice when I photograph my son, along with the 50, but it just makes me curse and wish for my 28.
Your right Keith, 50mm is a short tele for me too. I was always a 35mm guy but I had 28’s…all of them at one point. I bought 2 M6’s because of the 28mm finder. It was ok but there were these stupid lights blinking every time I made an adjustment….after a year or so I realized that I was no longer a real photographer because I came to rely on the light meter but I never gave into the FOV and eventually, the 28’s were boxed and filed away.
Now I’m a digital representation of myself from years ago and I feel that 28mm is ok. I don’t know why but it’s natural for me. I hope someday to find myself on the street with my trusty M4 and a 35mm Cron on it….I keep looking, even in the mirror but nothing.
The nice thing about the Fuji 28mm is that it will focus close if you use the macro button. Sometimes ya have to turn it on and off but eventually, it gets nice and close…..
You weren’t kidding about the HAIR!
Yeah Dave, kinda scary. I think that guy looking my way was gasping for hair…I mean air….
don
On the streets of NYC it’s the Fuji 14mm when I’m walking around. If I put my butt in one spot I’ll use the Fuji 23mm – it’s a sweet lens, you need it. BTW I love the XT1, almost as much as my XP1 …… But not quite.
Gene, I get that for sure. I really love the 15mm Heliar and it has a real working DOF scale….The 23mm is my sweet spot and in time, it will find it’s way on to the XP1.
I’m faced with the SLR issue when I think about the XT1….I’m glad you like it…..
The interview will get under way next week….
don
Don, I had the same doubts about the XT1 slr look. I was going to get the XE2 in December as my second body so I wouldn’t have to change primes and then I heard on the rumor site that the next X was going to be between the XE2 and the XP1, so I decided to wait & see. I really like the large EVF and the viewfinder being in the middle. I actually think I may use my m mount adapter with my Leica glass on the XT1 since the focussing aids work so well, better than the XP1. I still love the OVF though.
Ahhhhh Gene, it ain’t a pretty picture your making. Something tells me you were a Nikon F shooter when that was a real camera. Myself, it was always Leica M. There’s just something about the XP1 that draws me to it….My wife doesn’t appreciate that when it comes to bed with me …I just tell her I’m practicing focusing….
We have some stuff to talk about…..shortly…. enjoy the weather….and the XT1.
Well now, I was indeed a Nikon F shooter, but I cut my teeth with an M4 and a hand held light meter. When I went to Moscow in 1992 I took three cameras: FM2, M4, & M6. I loved them all, still have the M6. I’m about to test my M lenses on the XT1 with the M mount adapter.