Close-up: Fuji X-T2 AF system image

Close-up: Fuji X-T2 AF system

Fujifilm’s X-T2 arrived with an overhauled AF system and a strong focus on moving subjects. We take a closer look.

X-T2_BK_18-55mm_front_White

Although Fujifilm’s X-T2 may look similar on the surface to the previous X-T1, there are number of refinements to what’s going on inside.

The autofocus system is one area that’s received considerable attention. Some of the changes made are a direct result of the upgraded X-Processor Pro engine, and those who would like to use the X-T2 for sports and general action-based photography should be particularly interested.

The Basics

Like the X-T1, the X-T2 features an Intelligent Hybrid AF system that offers both phase-detect and contrast-detect autofocus.

When the X-T1 was released it offered 49 AF points in a 7×7-point formation. The v.4.0 firmware added Zone AF or Wide/Tracking AF modes and boosted the array to 77 points when using those modes.

By comparison, the X-T2’s AF system offers 91 points in a 7×13-point formation at default, and this can be expanded to 325 points in a 13×25-point formation.

When set to the default 91-point mode there are 49 phase-detect AF points in the centre of the array. This is a significant improvement from the nine phase-detect AF points that featured in the X-T1.

The XT2 AF arrays compared
The X-T2’s default 91-point AF system* compared with the expanded 325-point AF setting*

When using the expanded 325-point setting, however, 169 central points are phase-detect AF points in the centre of the frame. Both patterns occupy roughly the same proportion of the screen as each other, although the 325-point system is much denser, which makes it better suited for tracking moving subjects.

This central area with the phase-detect points covers 40% of the frame, and with the contrast detect points the total coverage is 85%. You can easily see the extent of both types as the phase-detect AF points are larger than the contrast-detect AF ones.

Fujifilm claims the phase-detect AF system comes into play more readily on the X-T2 than before, while the contrast-detect AF system is said to work down to -3EV.

* These images include the black surround of the LCD screen. As such, they do not accurately show the extent to which they cover the frame.

Focus options

Both the Single (AF-S) and Continuous (AF-C) options can be used with each of the Single Point, Zone and Wide/Tracking AF modes, which gives a total of six combinations to suit different subjects and scenes.

The Single Point is the default option, with one point that can be positioned anywhere on the array. The Zone option allows you to specify a particular area of the focusing system to use, while the Wide/Tracking option is programmed to automatically focus on subjects in the scene with the highest contrast, or alternatively to track moving subjects across the frame when used in the continuous focus setting.

Additionally, the camera can be set to manual focus, with the same focus assist aids as before. These are Digital Split Image, in either colour or monochrome settings, as well as focus peaking, which can have its colour adjusted over white, blue and red highlights and its peaking level set to either high or low options.

Fuji X-T2 AF System
The camera offers comprehensive control over focus peaking

Speed and precision

The new processor is said to have improved overall response times, and the AF system has benefited from this. Whereas Fujifilm claimed AF times as short as 0.08sec with the X-T1, the X-T2 shaves off 0.02sec from this to just 0.06sec. This is possible when the camera is set to its Boost option in its Power Management settings, although activating this comes at the slight expense of battery life; whereas Fujifilm claims a battery life of around 340 frames on the Normal setting when using the LCD screen, this is reduced to approximately 260 in the Boost mode.

Fujifilm also claims that the updated processor and improvements to the focusing algorithm mean that the camera refocuses more quickly than previous models, and also that the contrast-detect AF system benefits from data being read twice as quickly than before.

The camera is also said to focus more easily against low-contrast subjects and those with very fine details than was previously the case. Something else that helps here is the ability to change the size of the AF point over five levels. You simply press the Focus Lever on the back and rotate the rear command dial to alternate between the different sizes. Furthermore, when shooting with the Zone setting, you can use the same controls to change the area of the Zone over three levels.

Physical controls

The body maintains the same Focus Mode Lever from the X-T1, with Single, Continuous and Manual Focus options, and this is found on the front plate. On the back of the camera, however, Fujifilm has added a new Focus Lever (something first seen on the X-Pro 2), just beneath the Q button.

AF controls on the XT-2
The new Focus Lever control (left). As on previous models, the focusing mode is still chosen with the switch on the front plate (right).

The primary purpose of this new control is to allow for the focus point to be shifted more easily than before. It moves up, down, left, right and diagonally, and pressing it into the camera allows you to quickly return the focusing point to the centre of the array.

It also serves another purpose; when manually focusing the lens, you can shift this to the point where you want the camera to magnify into the scene beforehand. Once this happens, you can also use the rear command dial to magnify further into the scene for extra precision.

Continuous Focus

Although the X-T1 did a very good job to track moving subjects, continuous focus has not traditionally been a main selling point for the X-series. Nevertheless, the X-T2 follows the similarly specified X-Pro2 in attempting to change that.

Fujifilm XT-2 AF tracking scenarios.
You can select one of five scenarios to help the continuous focus system (left) or program your own with settings to suit your subject (right).

Fujifilm has complemented the changes to the AF system with improvements to the continuous focus algorithm. The user now has the option to customise the system to suit five different scenarios. These are:

  1. Multi Purpose
  2. Ignore Obstacles & Continue To Track Subject
  3. For Accelerating/Decelerating Subject
  4. For Suddenly Appearing Subject
  5. For Erratically Moving & Accelerating/Decelerating Subject

Each option is designed with a different combination of Tracking Sensitivity, Speed Tracking Sensitivity and Zone Area Switching, although if you feel that none suit the subject, you can also design your own AF-C algorithm and store it as the sixth option.

Look familiar? This echoes the AF Configuration tools that have been included on Canon’s higher-end EOS models for some time.

Canon EOS 1D X AF System
The similar option inside the Canon EOS-1D X Mark II

Other features

Eye Detection AF wasn’t initially included in the X-T1, although this came along in the v.4.30 firmware update announced in February. Not surprisingly this feature has been included here as standard, although it is said to have been improved to provide more accurate results. You can choose to focus on either the left or right eyes, or leave it to an auto setting. Alternatively, you can use face detection without enabling Eye Detection AF.

Fuji X-T2 AF System
You can choose whether to spot meter at the selected focus point

The Interlock Spot AE & Focus Area option allows you to specify whether you want the camera to meter at the selected focus point when using spot metering.

You can also select how to assess depth of field using the Depth-of-Field Scale option. The Film Format Basis option is suggested for those who will be printing their images to moderate sizes. The Pixel Basis, meanwhile, is intended for those who may be examining their images at 100% on a computer display. As the permissible circle of confusion becomes smaller when images are analysed in this way, this option is designed to provide the finest control for utmost accuracy.

Finally, an AF Assist illuminator is once again located on the front plate, and this kicks into action whenever the camera lacks the illumination required for fast autofocus. It is, however, possible to disable this, which is useful when you need to be discreet.

ProFiles | Mark Lloyd image

ProFiles | Mark Lloyd

We speak to sailing and marine photographer Mark Lloyd about shooting fiercely competitive races and keeping his kit waterproof!

© Lloyd Images

Hi Mark. Sailing photography, that’s an interesting niche?

Yes, sailing and marine photography is the mainstay of what I do. So it’s pictures of the racing and all things involved with it.

And you run your own agency?

Yes, it’s a small operation – me and just a few other people. Nothing too flash!

© Lloyd Images

How did you get into this nautical line of work?

I’ve always mucked about with boats and always enjoyed watching them. I used to work for the Daily Mail and after leaving, decided to give freelancing a go and it just evolved from there. I took what I knew from various places, looked at how things were and tried to do them a bit differently……… and it worked!

When I started I was working on my own, I had a couple of contacts who gave me work and it just grew and grew. I worked a lot in France at the start, working with their sailing teams and that’s where things started to evolve. At the time, before the financial world exploded in the UK, there were quite a few people doing it, so I got involved with them and we slowly built it up.  I still shoot 24/7 and I love doing it.

© Lloyd Images

Your shoots seem quite varied?

Yes, it’s a real mixed bag of stuff. Some of it is races, some of it is individual teams, and then at the other end of the scale you’ve got high-end fashion work for people like Hugo Boss. I love photographing people, so the two go hand in hand quite nicely. I like to come up with ideas for portraits, so I’m lucky that I get to do it.

© Lloyd Images

Are there any recent jobs you’ve particularly enjoyed?

In May I finished a transatlantic race called the Transat Bakerly which was quite an odd one and I was given free rein to do as I wanted. I was there at the race start in Plymouth and then later finished in New York and it had every element you could possibly imagine and more – the competitiveness, the people, the emotion of finishing. A complete story. And then – a total contrast – this week I’ve just come back from France, where I’ve been doing something called the Tour de France Voile, which is a sailing race that goes all over France. They’re little boats and you just get completely rinsed, totally soaked. More like swimming than sailing!

© Lloyd Images

You must need good waterproofing?

Yes, it’s a difficult one because you’re trying to find the balance between protection and usability. I’ve got a variety of different systems that I use depending on how much agility is needed – if I’m going offshore on the big boat I use Liquid Eye Housing, which is designed by a french photographer with surfing in mind, so we’re taking something and adapting it. And then the other system I use, which isn’t widely known but I think will be, is made by a company called Outex – it’s like a big rubber sock which goes around the camera with glass at the front so you tend not to lose too much in terms of quality.

© Lloyd Images

What do you see for the future?

Well, it’s a difficult time. Things are changing so fast, the expectation and value people put on photography has changed and consequently you need to provide really nice quality pictures that people actually want to look at, but also do it quickly. It’s all so instant now, I’d say that’s what’s going to drive everything forward.  I guess we’ll have to wait and see.

© Lloyd Images

Mark Lloyd was talking to Jon Stapley.

His professional portfolio can be found at lloydimages.com

Fixation Team: Mick Edwards, Canon Tech Manager image

Fixation Team: Mick Edwards, Canon Tech Manager

From teenager to manager of the Canon side, it’s Mick Edwards featuring in the latest of our Fixation team blogs

There can’t be many of Fixation’s long-term customers who wouldn’t recognise Mick Edwards. He’s been with the company from the beginning, assisting its founder, Mike Allen, to build it from a two-room operation to today’s repairs powerhouse.

These days Mick runs the Canon side of the workshop as Tech Manager, dividing his time between repairing kit and cracking (notoriously bad) jokes with long-suffering colleagues and customers who stop by. He tells us more about his history with Fixation…

In the beginning…..

‘Mike Allen and I met in 1982 when I was 18 and he started work at KJP shortly after I did.  Previously he was Service Manager at Nikon and when I asked him what he was doing at KJP he said he’d come to build a workshop. So I said, “Give us a job!” And for better or worse he did!

‘We built a workshop out of practically nothing, working from August ’82 until Fixation’s proper opening in June 1988 and from there it developed into what it is today.

‘It’s been fun. I love it, absolutely love it.  At first we only repaired Nikon products, but after 10 or so years we were approached by Canon who wanted us to offer the same service to their customers too. We were keen to help, so after sorting out details like the supply of spare parts, we were off and away!

‘From then I was doing Nikon, Kodak and Canon, but Canon just got bigger and bigger and needed managing properly, so I took on this role and have done it ever since.’

Fixation’s reputation

‘Relationships have always been important. In the beginning we had just two rooms and customers would come in and sit in the waiting room, which was just a sofa, and we used to repair their kit while they waited.  When we were done they’d have the confidence to just pick it up and go do a job, or even fly around the world. The good reports started from there.’

His day-to-day role

‘I’m very much hands on – I love fixing things, it’s why I like the job.

‘The challenge is what we’re all after. You’re repairing the same products, but you want to do it to the best standard because you’re only as good as your last repair. We’re all the same and proud of what we do.’

Most memorable Fixation moments

‘As much as I love the day-to-day work, the different experiences are always exciting.  Highlights include building depots at the London Olympics and Commonweath Games in Glasgow, but one of the most memorable was in 2007 when we worked with PA to set up cameras in the Royal Ballroom in Buckingham Palace.

‘PA provides images for all Royal Investitures in this room, but they can’t have a roaming photographer present.  So we helped them set up a discrete camera and cabling so they can operate the camera remotely, shooting the ceremonies with the images transmitted directly to their picture desk.

‘There have also been some great customer stories. We’ve had cameras dropped in the sea then put in a bag of vodka. People think the alcohol will prevent corrosion, but it’s a waste of vodka if you ask me!’

Mick’s hobbies outside of work

‘I enjoy riding motorbikes, but would say my real passion is scuba-diving. I organise my own diving club and am an instructor too. I may be in control at work and when I’m diving, but at home I just do as I’m told by my wife and two boys!’

 

Behind the scenes: Diving with Tuna image

Behind the scenes: Diving with Tuna

Louise Murray dons her diving gear to photograph the Atlantic bluefin tuna

The Friday morning before I leave for Andalusia to shoot Atlantic bluefin tuna, I’m making a routine  test check of all my diving and underwater photography gear. A sticky button in the camera housing means that I cannot switch between stills and video. I call Fixation for an emergency assist and hastily make my way down for an urgent repair, before catching my flight later that day.

In Spain, it’s 32°C with a light breeze and I am just about to dive with 900 giant fish, each weighing between 150 and 200 kilos. Understandably I’m a bit nervous. I’ve been dressed in a black dry suit for over two hours and am struggling to stay cool. The boat is moored in a fattening pen about a mile offshore and we can see the huge fish swimming below the surface.

Here, fish captured in May are fattened up on a daily diet of defrosted sardines and mackerel before being sold to Japanese buyers in September. At least 10 tonnes of sardines have preceded me into the water today. This is not good. Fish scales are highly reflective and my underwater flash will bounce off them, a bit like using flash in a snowstorm!

Captured endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna Thunnus thynnus, are fattened up in net pens holding up to 1000 fish in Barbate, Spain. They are fed 15 tonnes a day of sardines and mackerel.

For safety I have a dive buddy, Antonio. I’ve explained the nature of a fisheye lens and its 180-degree angle of view to him, so he is briefed to stay behind me unless I call him into a picture for scale. Antonio is there because although I am a certified commercial diver, these nets and others like them in fish farms worldwide are dangerous places to be. The powerful fish must swim constantly, and they do so in circles, meaning they create a vortex. The unwary can be sucked to the bottom of the net 30 metres down, or pushed against the outside of the swirling fish, where it’s easy to find dive gear or camera getting caught in the net. Alone, it’s quite possible to drown.

I’m here to complete a shoot of the tuna fishery for a German magazine – Unterwasser – producing an environmental piece about the state of the Atlantic tuna.

It has taken me since February, with the help of an excellent young translator called Polly, to negotiate diving with these magnificent fish. It’s now July. I’ve spent ages studying the tide tables and wind forecasts to find a small window when the sea surface will be calm, and visibility underwater acceptable. If you think topside shooting can be challenging, try working underwater. Imagine shooting in zero gravity you’ll get part of the picture, but then throw in wind, tides, currents and limited visibility – the variables are near-endless.

Fortunately I have excellent kit – an Aquatica housing for my Nikon D800 with a glass dome port which allows access to all of the camera’s controls while underwater, plus a couple of Inon flashes and a pair of Sola video lights.

Louise Murray with Nikon D800 in Aquatica housing on board the tuna dive boat at Barbate, Spain

Louise Murray with Nikon D800 in Aquatica housing on board the tuna dive boat at Barbate, Spain

Back at the hotel I finish downloading and backing up, and yes, predictably the shots are murky, turbid and full of reflective fish scales. And worse there is a reflected Nikon logo in some images when shooting into sun. This at least is easily rectified by sticking a plaster over the logo on the D800 and blacking it out with a marker pen.

I’ve managed to explain to Sebastian the boss why it’s so important for me to start shooting before the sardines go into the pen. Tomorrow I will be diving with 900 large, fast and hungry fish. Time for a cold beer.

The next day we travel offshore in a rolling swell. You need a good sense of balance and a strong stomach for this kind of work. This time I get in before the sardines, and the tuna – known as the Maseratis of the sea – are truly motoring in a tight swirl of fishy power. Antonio is with me and I get the shots over the course of an hour in the water.

Louise Murray and dive buddy Antonio

Louise Murray and dive buddy Antonio

The dead sardines start to rain down in the latter half of the shoot, so I decide to try and focus on a single sardine, secure in the knowledge that there shortly be a 150-200 kilo fish blasting out of the blue with the intent of dispatching it. I don’t get the money shot, as the acceleration of this top ocean predator is hard to predict, and with limited visibility I can’t see them coming fast out of the blue.

A few more dives and eventually I would have nailed it, but the weather stopped cooperating and with high winds forecast for the next five days, I had to leave – me, my cameras and all of my dive kit stinking strongly of sardines.

Captured endangered Atlantic bluefin tuna Thunnus thynnus, are fattened up in net pens holding up to 1000 fish in Barbate, Spain. They are fed 15 tonnes a day of sardines and mackerel.

The images from this shoot will be published in Unterwasser magazine, either late this year or early next year. The bluefin tuna remains classified as an “endangered species” by the IUCN, its population having declined by as much as 90% in some areas due to overfishing. A video from this shoot was selected as a featured clip by the Science Photo Library, and can be seen here.

Louise Murray is an award-winning freelance journalist and photographer whose work has been published in the Guardian, the Times, and countless international magazines, books and popular science publication, and can be found at louisemurray.com

Hugo Pettit | Shooting The Waves image

Hugo Pettit | Shooting The Waves

We talk to Hugo Pettit about breaking the mould of sun-and-sand surfing photography when he caught some waves in the UK’s most icily inhospitable waters

“There’s no such thing as bad weather for surfing, just bad gear,” Hugo told us. “I want to prove that the depths of a UK winter are the perfect conditions for an adventure.”

We were both intrigued and inspired by Hugo Pettit’s passion and plans for his latest project, The Exploration Surf Trip, so agreed to lend him a few pieces of kit to help him achieve his vision.

Later, with a crew of sixteen people and a Land Rover full of camera gear, he set out to create powerful images and videos in a bid to show the world surfing doesn’t start and end at sunny beaches.

Now, with the project complete, we caught up with him to find out how things went.

HP_Spread8

Thanks for speaking to us, Hugo. Can you explain how the idea for this project came about?

Northern Scotland is somewhere I’ve always been desperate to discover. It’s very untouched and it’s quite important to me as part of my philosophy of exploring where you live. I think Brits are likely to be among the first to jump on a plane and head to the sand for a holiday and actually have little idea how beautiful their own island is.

Surf photography is quite a small market, but also a very saturated one. For instance, if you go to the Pipeline on the North Shore of Oahu in Hawaii, you’ll almost see more photographers than surfers! It’s madness and very far from what I wanted to do.

I wanted to portray how the UK surfing lifestyle is, in comparison to the more commercial areas like in the USA. It’s far more fickle here – you only get decent waves every now and again, you get snow, horrendous winds, water that’s so extraordinarily cold you have to put on six millimetres of wetsuit before you can even go in. These are the kind of things I wanted the project to highlight – that it’s not a namby-pamby surf holiday. Surfers go through a hell of a lot to get the ultimate feeling, the ultimate rush that a wave gives them and I really wanted to convey this.

What’s quite sad is that the majority of surf photography and videography doesn’t portray surfing as it actually is, but instead presents an idealistic view. So the idea was to pull something together that was raw and more than skin deep.

Hugo Pettit - Shooting the Waves in Northern Scotland

So where in Scotland did you go?

The team and I went up to John O’Groats, which if you’re coming from the south of England, is pretty much as far as you can travel in the UK. We hooked up with a company there called Natural Retreats who had these amazing little lodges overlooking the strait between Scotland and the Orkney Islands.

So we based ourselves there and travelled daily along the stunning north coastline. You’ve got amazing sea caves, beautiful white sandy beaches and massive granite slabs. In terms of coastal environment you’ve got a bit of everything – it’s vast and very varied.

Hugo Pettit - Shooting the Waves in Northern Scotland

HP_Spread7

Was it hard work to get the shots you needed?

Yes. Very, very hard work. I would have loved to have said this was nice and relaxing for me but I’d say this was the most stressed I’ve ever been. It meant so much, I was desperate to get it right, desperate to make sure that we covered all the aspects and that there was a story behind it.

The idea of portraying what’s really behind a surf trip ended up working very naturally because we had to battle with such extreme weather conditions. Some days we had no waves and were combatting blizzards and other days with beautiful sunshine and calm seas.

Hugo Pettit - Shooting the Waves in Northern Scotland

Do any particular days or memories stand out for you?

It’s difficult to pick out one in particular. The day after our arrival we arose at 6.00am and went to a famed local break called Thurso East. We surfed in a blizzard! There were chunks of ice floating in the water but that did not dampen our spirits. In fact, it made us even more excited to pursue the project.

We also saw the Northern Lights, something I’ve never seen before and which was frankly spectacular. We also had two days of some of the best waves I’ve ever seen and even spotted the odd seal and dolphin!

Hugo Pettit - Shooting the Waves in Northern Scotland

What camera kit did you use?

HP: We had some invaluable kit loaned to us from Fixation, including Canon EOS 5D Mark III and 7D Mark II, together with a variety of zoom lenses and vital AquaTech housing that allowed us to go beneath the waves. We also had a Sony FS700 and a couple of Sony A7S II bodies used for both stills and videos.

So you had lots of people shooting concurrently?

We did, which made it very interesting. Normally when you go to surf events you don’t want to be shooting the same thing as everyone else, but on a project like this the whole point is to work as a team to produce a single piece of content, rather than competing with other photographers and videographers.

It was amazing how eight photographers and videographers in a single location can see different perspectives and bring different creativity to the project. At a typical location we might have had eight people behind cameras; three people in the water shooting the surfing, one videographer, a stills photographer and an AquaTech user switching between moving image and stills.

Then you have photographers on land covering the landscape using drones. It was inspiring to see everyone on their feet and not getting lazy, despite the early mornings and late nights.

Hugo Pettit - Shooting the Waves in Northern Scotland

Hugo Pettit - Shooting the Waves in Northern Scotland

Few people regard the uppermost reaches of Scotland in winter as a top surfing destination. Hugo’s stunning images are a far cry from the sun-and-sand image most people have of surfing lifestyle, a view aided in part by the enduring popularity of conventional surf photography and videography.

To see more of Hugo’s work visit his website – and look out for more of Hugo’s projects featuring in future Fixation articles.

 

Hi, how can we help?