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Barcelona Street Photography: Review of the Fuji X-T1wifi function and VSCOcam app

 

 

Last week I had a short break in the wonderful city of Barcelona. This was not only my first trip to this beautiful city but would also be the first time I got to try my hand at a spot of street photography using my Fuji X-T1.

In this particular blog I shall be reviewing three things: The Fujinon XF18-135mm F3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR, The Wifi function & Fujifilm Camera Remote app and finally the VSCOcam app  for post production work.

Here are my notes on each:

Fujinon XF18-135mm F3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR

The first thing I noticed about this lens is it’s size and weight! for a start it’s double the weight of The Fujinon XF18-55mm F2.8-4 R LM OIS  making the Fuji x-T1 nearly as heavy as my DSLR. Not really a problem but it made me a little less inconspicuous as a street photographer than when using the fuji x pro 1 and Fujinon XF18-55mm F2.8-4 R LM OIS lens and I’m still a little bit shy on that front (maybe it’s the Brit in me 🙂 …and then there was the zoom ring itself, I found this a little stiff to manoeuvre, in contrast to the aperture and focusing ring which both worked seamlessly, though I’m not sure if this is a fault with my particular lens as I haven’t heard of this being reported before (I will update once I find out).

The lens itself produces stella results, pin point sharpness, fast auto focusing and it’s also great to have the extra 80mm in focal length and the loss of around 1/3 of a stop in aperture is immaterial especially when shooting in such sunny climates. On the downside however, the beautiful weather also meant I didn’t get to review it’s much published weather sealed body; for another time perhaps…

 

The Wifi function & Fujifilm Camera Remote app

This is a handy little feature I was excited to try out. I already have the wifi function and EOS remote app with my Canon 6D and find it really handy as it allows my clients to view the images whilst I am taking them (a bit like virtual tethered shooting). The FujiFilm remote app is slightly different to this as even though it does allow you to view the files via the wifi hookup the wifi disconnects once the camera is in use so you can only view after, not during..

From this app I was able to select and upload files to my iPad though the resolution is compressed greatly: The IPad uploads at 1184 pixels x 1776, 72 ppi whereas the files are actually 3264 pixels x 4896, 240 ppi. This is ok for my blog, but not good enough for print.

VSCOcam app

Once downloaded I used the VSCOcam app to edit the images. Obviously this is no match for Adobe Photoshop lightroom and the controls are a little cruder (not allowing many suble nuances) but I was on holiday and didn’t want to spend much time on editing and VSOcan still  aloows you to adjust the exposure, contrast, colour balance etc and even allows you add film effects.

Despite it’s the lack of detail and downgrade in image quality  I do love the effect this app gives. It reminds me of the Polaroid from the 70’s, overall I’m pretty pleased with my street shots of Barcelona and the post production made it effortless and fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Posted: July 27, 2015

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