Fujifilm X30 Review Continues!

A quick update on the Fujifilm X30 compact camera.......

I have to say that the X30 has exceeded my expectations so far. I am loving this awesome little camera!

I haven't had much opportunity to get out do any more Street Photography with it, which was the intended reason why I bought it. I have however been able to use it to photograph my Step-Son's "Competitive Dodgeball Team" (yes there is such a thing as competitive dodgeball) with the camera. I have to say that using the camera, and cheating a little by using the sports scene mode, I didn't have any problem focusing or catching the action with only a little motion blur.

The lens is extremely sharp and clear. The manual zoom, while less than I am used to from the HS25EXR, is very smooth. The EVF (Electronic View Finder) is very nice and easy to read. The camera so far handles very nice and I will be hopefully putting it through its paces very soon. I will be posting more indepth reviews of the different functions as I discover and "play" with the camera.

Fujifilm HS25 EXR....more than a "Bridge Camera"!

I have mentioned in other posts that my main camera for the last few years has been the Fujifilm HS25EXR "Bridge" or "Superzoom" camera. When I first bought this camera I was looking for something with a longer zoom range for landscapes and such. I couldn't really afford to get into a DSLR at the time, especially with the price of the lenses.

At the time I was using a Fujifilm Finepix S2950 camera which had an impressive 18 times zoom, but I wanted more. I really like the Fuji camera so I decided to look at the newer Fuji cameras that had longer zooms. I settled on the HS25EXR, which has a zoom range of 24-720mm. 

I bought this camera just in time for our trip to Canada's east coast, and it was amazing camera for that trip. I managed to get some great photos, from street to landscape to wildlife photos. I was pleasently surpized by it's performance on that trip.

By watching YouTube videos (my main learning tool) I discovered a lot of things that the videos were describing for DSLR's I was able use and do with this camera. I have done portraits, weddings, engagements shoots, and other such shoots with this camera. It may have a smaller sensor than a DSLR, may not have as good low light performance and other such things. To me though it has been a great and versitle camera. 

I recently got the FujiFilm X30 camera, mostly for Street Photography, and now that I am getting really serious about portraits and other such shoots I will be looking to upgrade my camera. I will be looking at upgradeing to a FujiFilm X series mirrorless system camera, such as the XT1 or even a bit cheaper XT10. It will depend on how much I am able to spend.

 With the experience I have had with the S2950, the HS25EXR and now the X30 I have to say that I love Fuji cameras!. 

SETTING UP MY HOME STUDIO!

Even though my main interest in photography is in the genre of Street/Urban/Photojournalism, I still enjoy doing portraits. I have been working on setting up a small studio space. I have had a couple of backdrop rolls (one black and one blue) for a while now. I also have some makeshift and some pro lighting options.

Well this week I found someone that was selling a backdrop frame for $50.00. When I saw her add in a FaceBook buy/sell group I jumped on it and she was able to hold on to it for me till payday.

Then yesterday I was looking around Kijiji for backdrops and other stuff, I didn't find any backdrops but I did find someone selling a Master/Slave flash lighting kit for $80. I jumped on that one as well. It came with two flash heads, two stands and three photography umbrellas (two transluscent and one reflective).

So my little photography studio is starting to really take shape. As the weather gets warmer I will be spending time cleaning up my shed which is a nice size for a studio.

And the advantage to my gear, is that it is all pretty much portable and I can take just about anywhere to to do a shoot. Such as when my wife and I do our annual "Santa Claus" photos each year at the store she works at. Every year we have to try and "Magyver" an area for the shoot. This year with the backdrop frame and hopefully a Holiday backdrop by then our pictures will be even better.

So once I get things set up I will be available for shoots!