Continued from Part 1

First run with the Fujifilm X-Pro1 last night at a wedding so I have a much better idea of how this camera works as a tool for a wedding photographer. Again, my full review will come later but here’s a few random thoughts:

Likes:

-Quiet and stealthy
-Awesome handling and ergonomics
-MUCH better AF than I was expecting (a sequence of photos of the bride and groom walking up the aisle were all in focus!)
-Macro function with the XF 35 1.4 is totally useable though not the 1:1 I’m used to with my Canon 100L. It’s fine for shooting shoes and purses but for rings you still need a macro lens.

Dislikes:
-BATTERY LIFE! Oh wow, this is a problem. My 5DII can shoot 1500 images in 10 hours on 1 battery. The X Pro-1 was dead in 1.5 hours with only 186 images taken. I have review turned off and don’t do much chimping. Ouch.
-The aperture constantly varies making noise and killing battery life. As I shoot in aperture priority mode 90% of the time, I have no idea why Fuji thought this was necessary. It’s part of the Powersave mode but if you turn powersave “on,” focus slows way down. This is something that needs to be addressed immediately as I suspect it has a great effect on battery life.
-The tab for the On/Off switch is easy to hit as it sticks off the front of the camera
-Lightroom does not yet support RAW so you have to shoot jpeg. Auto white balance isn’t very good so I’ll be spending a lot of time fixing skin tones!
-View finder crop lines are not even close to accurate. Of course you can frame tighter but why didn’t Fuji just make the lines setup a bit wider so it’s accurate? I’d say coverage is more like 85% at best.

Overall I found it a joy to use but I’ve got to figure out a way to conserve the battery as that’s ridiculous. As I I’m not a photographer who uses the LCD very often I’m guessing the constantly changing aperture is the issue so I sure hope Fuji addresses that quickly. Not to mention Lightroom as I’d love to see RAW files that fit into my wedding workflow. I got a few images but was really planning on putting it through it’s paces during the bridal portraits but the battery died before then. My backup battery won’t be here until Monday so I didn’t get to use it as much as I hoped for. I have a few other shoots in the next couple weeks so will have plenty of samples from those.
Stay tuned for my complete review after I’ve got a few shoots through it.

Click here for Fuji X-Pro1 Review Part 3

A couple sample images from the Fuji X-Pro1:
San Luis Obispo Wedding Photographers
This was one of a 6 images series of image where I shot, refocused and shot again. 5 of 6 are in perfect focus. 1/640 at f/2.0 ISO 200 so I wasn’t cheating by stopping down. Set to “Provia” -1 sharpeness. Added in a little saturation in Lightroom.

San Luis Obispo Wedding PhotographersThe Fuji X Pro-1 does a great job with detail shots. Hit the “Macro” button to close focus and the camera switches to the EVF. Focus is quick and bokeh looks nice. 1/4000 at f/1.4 ISO 1000 with a bit of punch added back in Lightroom.

  • Fujifilm X Pro-1 camera review | Colin Michael Photographer: [...] I’m going to put the camera through a couple weddings as a second camera to my Canon 5DmkII so I can really get the feel for how it works and if it’s truly as good as I hope it is. I will post my full review on it after I have enough use to draw definitive conclusions. So far I’m quite pleased though I expect to find a bunch of quirks as I go along. Expect and update later this week with plenty of example pics. See Fuji X Pro-1 Review Part 2 Here [...] (04.15.2012 05:26pm)

We headed up from San Luis Obispo to my Aunt Renee’s 50th Birthday party at Seascape Resort in Aptos (near Santa Cruz). It’s not all that often we all get a chance to see each other as there is just so much going on in everyone’s lives and we have spread out all over the place so it was a great afternoon. Everyone was about to head home after a fun day of visiting and taking the kids to play on the beach when I saw this gorgeous light filtering through the trees and knew I had to get everyone in for a family portrait. I didn’t have all my fancy wedding photography cameras, just my trusty little X100 so I set things up as best I could, locked in my settings, handed the camera to someone and had them take the picture. Came out really well considering it was a spur of the moment shot! Happy Birthday Renee!

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Brittany and Triton's wedding at Flying Caballos in San Luis Obispo this past November was so much fun! They are such genuine and caring people, it's no wonder everyone had such a great time! As theirs was a destination wedding, they planned out a whole weekend of entertainment for their friends and family. The weekend started out with a "Day-o-Fun" where they had all their guests come out to Flying Caballos for food, entertainment and even some bull riding! I was photographing another wedding that day but I hear that some of the bridesmaids were quite the bull riders!
The wedding festivities continued for the wedding day where everyone was so happy for Brittany and Triton and it showed. It's always so touching when you see how good people who really care for others are cared for in return; they reap what they sow and in this case there really was a whole lot of love going around! Now they are off on a world tour, last I heard from them they just finished up touring the East Coast of Africa and were headed to Asia. What a amazing way to start off the awesome marriage of two great people!

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A huge thank you to Brittany and Triton for being so awesomely patient with me while I’m recovering! After their San Luis Obispo wedding at the awesome wedding venue Flying Caballos. I’m just finishing up the editing now but couldn’t resist posting at least one image tonight as they have been so good to me. This picture was from the rooftop balcony on Brittany and Triton’s Burning Man bus. Yes, I’ll explain more on the full post :)

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In case you were wondering where I’ve been, that rock circled in red has held me captive for a few weeks now. I was out celebrating the end of wedding photography season by going for a ride when I clipped my back wheel at high speed and crashed into this rock. Unfortunately I broke my pelvis, wrist and dislocated my shoulder. I was able to get myself to the ER and have been in recovery mode since. It’s been 2 weeks now and I’m feeling pretty good though I have a cast on my right hand so have had to use a laptop track pad rather than a mouse to do image editing. Thankfully I was all caught up on work so this is only minimally holding up my work and I thank my wonderful clients for their patience in getting their albums finished. Also, thanks everyone for the well wishes, cards and advice. And yes, I’m sticking to the mountain bike from now on!

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Jesse and Meghan’s wedding at Lago Giuseppe in Paso Robles was truly a great time! I’m friends with Jesse as we are both local cyclists and have been riding together for the past couple years. I was totally honored when he asked me to shoot his wedding at the beautiful up and coming Lago Giuseppe Cellars in the mountains above Paso Robles.
I knew a ton of people at the wedding and it was an awesome crowd. Everyone who knows Jesse and Meghan know what amazing people they are so it was a celebration everyone was excited for as they are such amazing people who inspire those around them.
Thanks for having me and I wish you guys a lifetime of happiness, you deserve it!
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I met up with Melissa and Jason in Petaluma for their engagement session. Great times doing their engagement photos around the quiet ends of Petaluma and hitting up a couple of my favorite fields. I’m super excited to be shooting at Flying Clouds Farms again, I love that wedding venue!

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Kids LOVE to cook! Well, mine do and they are the only kids I know so I’m going with that assumption. If there’s anything they like more than cooking it’s a good picnic. We are so lucky to have great neighbors who have kids the same ages as Caiden and Kyla. On one of the last warm evenings of the year here in San Luis Obispo county, Kyla helped make the kids dinner then Eva and Ella joined them for a picnic out front. Good time ensued, especially for Amber the dog who cleaned up anything left unattended!
San Luis Obispo Wedding Photographer

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This is such a great time of year for a wedding; the weather is cooling off, we’ve got some nice clouds here on the coast and the air so so clean and clear. I arrived at the Waterfront Hotel in Oakland to shoot Wendy and Derrick getting ready. On my way down from Petaluma there was a bit of rain but still plenty of blue sky so I was pretty excited to get to work in gorgeous conditions. I arrived early and had a great time shooting the getting ready and all the little moments that make me love doing wedding photography. Everyone was super nice and having a great time.
We all jumped in the limo bus and headed off to the church for a very touching ceremony, Derrick brought the entire place to tears with his emotional greeting when he saw Wendy walking down the aisle, I don’t think there was a dry eye in the house! I got some great pictures of that but Derrick is a great Bay Area wedding and event DJ who has DJ’d San Francisco weddings I’ve shot like Kathryn and Tim’s Hamlin Mansion Wedding so I won’t embarrass him like that! How good is Derrick? Check out the picture of him with President Obama from when he DJ’d an event the President attended recently, how cool is that?
We headed back down to the Jack London Square area then up to the reception at Lake Merritt. The food was fantastic, the mood was chill and everyone had a great night.
Huge thanks to Brooke Beasley Photography for the help!

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  • Maria Fiel Williams: Congratulation on a beautiful wedding, may you have a long lasting life together like Uncle Ozzie and I we have been together for over 36 yrs an married for 22 and have had lots of ups and downs but we're still together. Love each other, keep others out of your relationship, and the most important thing Lola told us don't tell your family about your problems because they will judge and end up hating your mate and you will still be together at the end of the day. Always take at least 2 days a week for yourselves and remember to keep the love flowing everyday like it was the first day. Make each other always feel special and respect and communication is the key to all relationship and your relationship with shoot to the moon. Love you D and now your wife too... Fam First Auntie Baby (10.15.2011 06:52pm)

  • Lake Merrrit Wedding (Bay Area Wedding Photographer) » brookebeasleyblog: [...] I have a weekend off and am able to second shoot lately. I was so excited to be able to shoot with Colin Michael at this awesome wedding. I love second shooting because I am able to relax a little and get some [...] (11.01.2011 07:31pm)


Dave gave me a call about 5 days before his job (he’s in the Air Force) shipped him out of the area on his next assignment to do his wedding engagement photography. Now, this isn’t a whole lot of time to plan but seeing as he has been living in Avila Beach for years he knew that he and Isabella would want to show the beauty of the Pismo and Shell Beach areas as well as a little bit of vineyard pictures. His next assignment is in Florida so I wanted to really capture the uniqueness of the Central Coast but in a intimate way that is totally unique for this area.
I had exactly 1 day not already booked with weddings or other engagement sessions so we were totally lucky that the weather held out for the day we could shoot. I don’t do a ton of beach engagement sessions but when I do I want them to all turn out like this as the weather was perfect, Dave and Isabella were awesome and the lighting was everything I could ask for. After the beach we headed out to Edna Valley Vineyards near San Luis Obispo and while it was a little darker than I hoped for we still got some very unique and fun pictures that are sure to be remembered.

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