Sunday, May 22, 2011

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X100: Low-light focus and a film set...

Actresses Bernadeta Wrobel and Julia Dordel in the lab. (f/2.8 - ISO 1600)

Note: Before I get started, some of you might be wondering where the heck my X100 review is, the one I said I was working on quite some time back already? Well I've been super busy, one of the things taking my time recently being the work on this film set for example. I have decided to write about the X100 piecemeal, with today's instalment covering low-light focusing. So no big review, rather a bunch of relevant observations, praises and even some criticisms and suggestions spread out over numerous blog entries. Starting here...

Recently I worked on set with my Fujifilm X100, shooting stills during the filming of several episodes of a production called Libelle The Series, the brainchild of my friend Julia Dordel, producer, actress and PhD holder. If you're interested, see page 8 of UBC's Branchlines publication for an article on this project. Note that this production started out being called "Dragonfly The Series", but due to a naming conflict it was changed to Libelle, the German word for dragonfly.

The X100 was ideal for this shoot since it is super quiet, especially when a filter is mounted as it deadens the already quiet camera even more. It also performs extremely well in low light and high ISO settings with outstanding image quality and amazingly effective auto white-balance. The X100 is even quieter than a standard DSLR in a sound-proofing enclosure (a camera blimp), so I had way more freedom to shoot close in and intimate with the action, without having to worry about camera sounds being picked up by the microphones while filming.