A failed experiment

It seemed like a good idea at the time to take the little Fuji and use it to make some black and white pics at the auction mart. For one thing the lighting is inconsistent in colour, for another the camera is unobtrusive. Where could there be a fly in the ointment? Lots of places as it turned out.

I thought I could live with the slow autofocus. Even bypass it by using manual focus. That didn't improve the slight lag between pressing the shutter release and the exposure being made. Using autofocus I had forgotten about the other delay. The slow autofocus messed up a few frames by putting the focus somewhere unexpected when the shutter actually fired. Maybe a change of setting would cure that. But there'd still be a lag. This makes grabbing shots hit and miss. In this case, miss.

Hmm. Why is that in colour? It's in colour because when I got the files on the computer I converted one to colour and preferred it. Odd colours and all. I guess that black and white, for me, is to be saved for 'art' photography. The documentary stuff has to be in colour.

I did try some 'arty' stuff. Slow shutter speeds to get movement blur. Even then the lag factor messed things up for me.

All in all it was a bit frustrating. There's no doubting that for static subjects, or even slower moving ones, it can be a great camera. But for this sort of thing I find it awkward. At least for the sort of pictures I like to try for, and the way I like to take them. So my few better photos from today were mostly of subjects which didn't move much. With the odd exception.

I even succumbed to taking pictures of Herdwicks. They are very photogenic... And some pictures work better in colour no matter what.

There was another thing. Batteries. They don't last five minutes. What's more, the electronic viewfinder, while perfectly useable in daylight looks like a TV that's on the blink under some artificial lights. It's most off putting to see dark bands scrolling over the viewfinder. Those who are saying that DSLRs have had their day are jumping the gun in my estimation. Maybe the new breed of mirrorless cameras are a match, but they're rather expensive to try out only to find they aren't all the fanboys crack them up to be.

The non-technical lesson learned is that I'll have to up my game on the picture making front. I didn't come away with much more than snaps if I'm honest. I might have been concentrating on the gear instead of the pictures. But that's what can happen when the gear isn't intuitive to use, or what you are well accustomed to using more like. It was a valuable experiment to give the Fuji a concerted try out. But it#s back to the comfy old slippers of the DSLRs for me.

---