Fujifilm X-T3 APS-C Mirrorless announced: 10bit 4:2:0 INTERNAL!

[John McCully]

Thanks Simon, I certainly agree with you regarding the concept of applying tools in video productions according to their functionality. The more I cogitate the less concerned I am about the exposure stepping functional reality of the Fuji cameras. Furthermore I’m not a run ‘n gunner and I have a Lumix G9 which has a remarkable stabilization capability plus much more should the need arise even as it is not perfect when it comes to auto-focus.

While I do agree with your sentiments regarding auto-focus in general there are times when shooting wildlife using auto-focus is the only option as by the time the focus is set manually the bird has flown.

I wait and keep an eye out for well shot footage.

Thanks again. Cheers…

[Simon Denny]

All good mate, the auto focus on the Sony Z90 is fantastic and would use this for wildlife etc...the X-T3 auto focus is the best they have at the moment and it's very good.

When I move camera systems as I have done heaps (and for the last time), it's not so much the bodies, it's the glass that becomes costly and when I moved to Fuji years ago I started collecting Fuji glass with hope that Fuji will become leaders in the small form mirrorless video/stills game, man they are really listening to customers and producing some great gear.

Cheers, S

[Dan Brockett]

Just rented the X-T3 and the 18-55 and 10-24 lenses for a project, I'm in love. Great camera and love the color science. I will be buying it soon. Still a mirrorless so you have to deal with it not being a video camera but if you can live with no internal NDs, no real audio, etc. the images are pretty nice.

[Simon Denny]

Yeah Dan, another Fujifilm camera op, love it. I've been singing the praises of Fujifilm for years.

[Dan Brockett]

Originally Posted by Simon Denny

Yeah Dan, another Fujifilm camera op, love it. I've been singing the praises of Fujifilm for years.

I've been a Canon shooter the past few years because I hate Sony colors, they make people look like corpses and while I like Panasonic color science (I had the DVX-100A, HVX-200, HPX-170, HPX-300), I liked Canon a little better. But now, as a C200 owner and I shoot with the C300 MKII rentals a lot, I think Fuji has better color science, the images are just breathtaking. Not sure if you saw the spec piece Matthew Libatique shot but the colors in it are astoundingly good, although I am sure that it went through someone like Company 3 or the like for the finish. But still, this is a $1,500.00 camera! Very Arri-like images.

X-T3: A Different Beyond Full Movie | FUJIFILM - YouTube

[Dan Brockett]

FWIW, picked up the Zhiyun Crane 2, X-T3, 18-55mm f/2.8-40, 16mm f/1.4 and the Fringer Fuji-X adapter so I can still use my Canon lenses that I own for the C200. Doing my second client shoot today with it, did a shoot earlier this week. It's not perfect but it's very, very good. Focus on the gimbal can be a bit challenging, still have some focus fine tuning to do but overall, very detailed, nice looking images that grade easily.

I am producing a second documentary that we have already shot a year and a half on, we will probably transition that film over to shooting on the X-T3 because it involves a lot of traveling and having a small camera would also help with the subject matter. Thinking about pairing it with the Sound Devices Mix Pre 3 for interviews.

[Seth Bloombaum]

Originally Posted by Dan Brockett

FWIW, picked up the Zhiyun Crane 2, X-T3, 18-55mm f/2.8-40, 16mm f/1.4 and the Fringer Fuji-X adapter so I can still use my Canon lenses that I own for the C200... Thinking about pairing it with the Sound Devices Mix Pre 3 for interviews.

What do you think your interview lens will be?

I’ve reluctantly come to the conclusion that my 17-50mm on Canon crop cameras is almost but not quite long enough when I want to punch in for an ECU. (Though I do love the wides and that lens is a great walkaround.) Maybe a 24-70 would best match for my interview style. What’s your experience?

[Dan Brockett]

Originally Posted by Seth Bloombaum

What do you think your interview lens will be?

I’ve reluctantly come to the conclusion that my 17-50mm on Canon crop cameras is almost but not quite long enough when I want to punch in for an ECU. (Though I do love the wides and that lens is a great walkaround.) Maybe a 24-70 would best match for my interview style. What’s your experience?

It's funny you ask. I recently shot a documentary on Brazilian composer Sergio Mendes and the director and producer specifically wanted the camera on sticks for all interviews, no slider, no movement for interviews, but what was interesting was they only wanted relatively wide shots for the interviews. Their reasoning was, "CUs and ECUs look like television or YouTube, wider interviews show the environment that the person is in and are much more cinematic." After shooting on this documentary for two years, I am inclined to agree, the long lens, super shallow DOF for a lot of my work, is played out. I too, on my own two current documentaries have resorted to wider frames for interviews. I find lately my favored focal length is between 28 and 35mm on an S35 imager with subject about 8' away. With the C200, I mostly used the Canon 17-55 2.8 IS but I found that the EF-S Canon lenses vignette and the you can see the round edge of the lens and see the IS working when shooting DCI 4K (17:9) on my camera so I am selling off all of the my EF-S lenses and replaced them with the EF 24-15 f/4.0 IS II, which I have been using. It's full frame so no corner vignetting and it's sharper than the 17-55 2.8 IS or at least my copies are.

But to mix things up even more, I am going to be trying to shoot interviews for one of the documentaries with the a lot of flying and traveling with the X-T3, I am buying the battery grip and a Sound Devices MixPre 3 for the audio. I purchased the 18-55mm f/2.8-4.0 OIS and the 16mm f/4.0 with the Fuji. But I also purchased the Fringer adapter so I can use any of my Canon lenses. So maybe I won't sell of the EF-S lenses as I can mount them to the Fuji? I will probably mostly use the 18-55 for interviews, that would work fine for how I am shooting interviews these days, more environmental portraiture kind of look than traditional tightly framed CUs and ECUs.Or I could use my Canon primes, the 28mm 1.8 or 50mm 1.8 if I need the speed.

[Gary Huff]

Originally Posted by Dan Brockett

I found that the EF-S Canon lenses vignette and the you can see the round edge of the lens and see the IS working when shooting DCI 4K (17:9)

Did you have Peripheral Illumination Correction turned on? I would think that would take care of it, though I haven't used that in conjunction with DCI.

For wide shallow DOF interviews, I don't feel like you can really beat the Sigma 18-35 1.8.

[Dan Brockett]

That's the funny thing, yes, turned on the PIC/EF-S compensation. I should clarify, you don't see just vignetting, you actually see the edge of the lens tube in DCI 17:9. Like, black silhouette and you can see the internal lens tube clunk around when the IS is engaged.

It does this on all of my EF-S lenses to some extent, some are worse than others. The worst offender is the EF-S 18-135 f/3.5-5.6 STM IS. The 17-55 f/2.8 IS shows it also but not as much. The EF-S 10-18mm f/4.5-5.6 IS barely shows it, which is weird since it is by far the widest EF-S lens I have.

Don't see it at all, of course, on the 24-105 f/4.0 IS II or the 70-200 f/2.8 IS II.

I don't really care about shallow DOF for most of these interviews. Just some slight blurring of the background elements is fine. Mostly been around f/3.5-f/4.5.
I think for myself and a lot of our clients, they just don't care about super blurred BGs anymore. Slightly blurred, just enough to make talent separate but no soft blobs as is in vogue.