The Black Tempter

I have been asked to apologise for making terrible puns in this column. I'm more than happy to do so as long as it does not prevent me from doing it again and again. But today's temptation is really difficult. It's not a surprise to anyone - even to me. It's the black workaday version of the graphite-silver Fujifilm X-Pro 2 we saw earlier in the year. Same beast - darker coat. Every technical thing I said last time still goes - so nip back in the column and look at the glorious grey version as well. The difference for me is that this one gets a run with a card in it and some colourful subjects out the front. And this time I have the ability to decode the RAW file information and to tweak the files a little. I have been re-reading my book by Pfirstinger on mastering the X-Pro 1 to get a few ideas on how to deal with RAW via Lightroom CC and have implemented a number of his suggestions. In the case of the X-Pro1 and now this X-Pro 2, he advises me to turn the highlight and shadow rendering down to -2 and the sharpening to +1 - even though I am going to be using RAW instead of the Fujifilm JPEGS. This is apparently to give the LCD screen readout that I check from time to time the advantage of presenting me with highlights and shadows that I can readily see - and then emulate with LR. I will still use ProNeg High as film simulation through the process. It seems to accord with what I myself see*. Of course this new X-Pro will have higher resolution than the first model - more pixels, new processor - we saw that with the silver graphite model trialled earlier. But now I have the power of Adobe Raw and Lightroom to boot - and I have also discovered in the last few months the value of the higher ISOs in Fujifilm. Even using the new EF -X500 as a boost flash in dance shows, the cameras at 3200 ISO cruise right along. The chief problem is target acquisition when the target is shimmying like mad. Users of all photographic systems - whether Fujifilm or one of the other professional brands - are regularly faced with the dilemma of whether or not to change an older camera for a new one. You can pretty nearly always guarantee that the new one will perform better than the old one, but you are stuck with the money question and the need to balance outlay vs the return. Some people wait several years between purchases hoping for generational changes. This sounds sensible as it lets you get more value out of the first purchase...but it backfires if you never recognise that other photographers can do more, and better, once they start keeping up-to-date. If you're selling your pictures and yourself, this means you end up selling old stock...and the buyers will thin out and lose interest. Ben Franklin in Poor Richard's Almanac advised us not to get sick too late or well too soon, but Uncle Dick can add - in this CE Weblog Column - don't stay too cheap for too long or it will stick. * And here's the point that the fight starts at the bar. We all see something different when we open our eyes. I would be willing to bet that if you removed the labels from the JPEG film simulations that Fujifilm ...and other makers...put on the various setting in their menus - things like " soft", or " natural " or " Classic Chrome " - and substited A, B, C etc - that people would very quickly fasten upon the one that made things look good. And it would be good for them. Right in their own eyes. The very thing they do later when the whack the sliders in LR or PS. The interposition of a name and the things written about it causes a lot of people to stick to one version when it might not be the best one for them. Took me a long time to realise that I really don't see in Astia or Provia - I see in Pro Neg Hi. It just required me to open my eyes to the scene and not the instruction books.