Traveling Storage In the digital Stone Age I used to carry a laptop with me on trips to edit and store images I’d taken during the days shooting, loading compact flash cards onto the computers hard drive, with a copy on a separate hard drive “just in case”. The downside of this was that I was carrying a laptop, with the attendant accessories. Lots of weight to be carrying around. On occasions when I just couldn’t take a laptop, I had a Vosonic VP5700 which came as a bare chassis that I added a 60 Gb hard drive to....
read moreA long time ago, I bought an Fuji X100s as a travel camera. I was searching for the “perfect” bag and after doing much research, I bought a Billingham Hadley Small. The shop I was in also had a Billingham L2 and I had to make an on the spot choice. I went for the Hadley as it’s just gorgeous and it would handle the load very well, but I was always wondering about the L2. Leo Laksi wrote a very informative post back in 2009 comparing the two bags, and I found myself hankering for a bit more flexibility from the Hadley. Did I...
read moreSince I switched to Fuji from Nikon I’ve been looking for the perfect camera bag to carry the system on my travels when I take the main set of gear, my X-Pro1 and assorted lenses and stuff. My old bags were all for big cameras and I wanted something classy that would handle the load. I’ve had a couple of Billingham bags, a 335 which I traded for a Packington many years ago. I still have the Packington, that gets used when needed, but it’s not really up to the job. I use the Hadley Small for my X100s travel kit, usually...
read moreFuji LH-XF16 When the Fuji 16mm f1.4 was announced, they also announced an accessory lens hood to go with it. This seemed a little strange, as the 16mm comes with a perfectly good lens hood as standard. The standard hood is a modern tulip design, fairly deep and reversible. It’s made of high quality plastic, with an open design that allows you to mount circular filters inside it if you so desire. So why release another design of lens hood? Is this just cynical profiteering on poor users infected with gear acquisition syndrome? Lets...
read moreWould you like to try Classic Chrome film simulation? Do you have an X100s? Fuji has limited the film simulation to newer cameras, hoping to have you “upgrade” for better features, so you are out of luck. It’s a bit obvious that the reasons for not deploying the simulation to older cameras are all about marketing, not about technical challenges. David Hobby had a specially modified firmware for his X100s to test the CC film look, so we know it can be done, just Fuji chooses not to. I could be wrong, but….. Now I like...
read moreI’ve been bitten by the Astrophotography bug. My last post was about my very first attempt at Astrophotography when I had a chance to go out to West Texas. Now I’ve had a chance to do some more in Colorado, with a business trip to Denver. The fun thing is that it doesn’t interfere with my day job and this time I knew I wouldn’t have to be out really late. So just for fun I decided to rent a different camera. I thought I’d try the Fuji X-T10, the latest from them. I’m going to write about my overall...
read moreI’ve been wanting to try my hand at Astrophotography for ages. One small barrier is that I live in Houston, Texas and light pollution in Southeast Texas is, errr, prolific. A look at the map of light pollution shows that to get anything approaching a dark sky you have to head west – a long way west. So when I knew I had a business trip to San Antonio coming up, with several days there and a modicum of free time, I started planning. Using the extremely good advice from Ian Norman at Lonely Speck, I checked weather and viewing...
read moreI’ve seen a lot of previews and reviews of the XF90mm f2, raving about it’s sharpness and bokeh and weather sealing and autofocus, most people using an XT1 with it. I wanted to know how well it performs with an X-Pro1 and the Fuji extension tubes. I wanted to know this because that’s what I’ve got, but no one seemed to run this lens with my set up. Olaf Sztaba has a nice blog post of the 90 with the MCEX 11, with some lovely images, but not with the MCEX 16 and with an XT1. So, I went to the mountain. I’ve just...
read moreThis May, I had the good fortune to spend a week in Paris. I was working the day job, but I did get a chance to do some ordinary tourist things. I’ve only been to Paris a few time and have spent very little time there. Business was brisk, so I didn’t check all the things off my bucket list, and it was appreciably warmer than the last time I was there in February! This was all shot with my trusty X100s. I made liberal use of the teleconverters (I still struggle to remember to tell the camera if they are attached or not). One of the...
read moreWith a chance to go back to the Middle East, and specifically Oman, I was looking forward to an opportunity to stretch my legs. A friend kindly offered to take me along the coast, giving me a rare chance to explore a little, from our base in Muscat. I only had my minimalist travel kit with me, which has been augmented with the new Formatt-Hitech Firecrest ND 16 filter, which I’ll discuss in more detail later. Our travels took us to dinner at the Shangri-La resort, where a wander along the strand brings you to this rather lovely...
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