Tag: x100v

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My Stay Home Series

Alwin Kok

“In view of the COVID-19, Singapore Prime Minister first announced the “Circuit Breaker” (CB) measures in 3rd April 2020 that kicked in four days later and last for a month, forcing people to stay at home and work from home at much as possible in effort to limit the virus’ spread. While there are many non-essential services closed, you still can go to supermarkets and food center to get your needs and foods.”

Before the commencement of the CB, I usually travelled around Singapore every weekend to fulfil my shutter therapy. With this CB in place, basically you are unable to do thing as you used to be. So what can I do at home? How can I spend my weekends to satisfy my shutter therapy?

Chrysanthemums – Orange Spider Mums.
Chrysanthemums – Orange Spider Mums.

Product shoot is the first thing that came into my mind. It has been a good 1.5 years since my last product shoot was done (not counting with the recent X100V product shots). I love to shoot product shots in my early days of photography and I love to shoot abstract from it as I love to see the details from it.  With that in mind, so I decided to pick it up again. I also intended to shoot with different products every week and hence, It is going to be my “Stay Home” series.

Coffee Beans.
Coffee Beans.

Shooting a product is simple. Just find a product and shoot. It’s fast and quick. i.e. flower, lens, phone, spectacle, kitchenware, fruits, etc.

But getting from a different perspective of the product is not simple. It took a lot of time spend to explore different angles of the product and trial and error to see if the results meet my expectation.

Bowl.
Bowl.

So initially our Government mentioned a month of CB but extended for another month in the recent updates. So from 4 products to shoot, now I have to source for another 4 products to shoot. While writing this post, we are still 4 weeks away to the end of the CB.

Over here, what I posted here are the product shots that I have done for the past 4 weeks. You can look up what products I shot during this period in my Instagram account.

Dalgona Coffee.
Dalgona Coffee.
My favourite Guinness Draught.
My favourite Guinness Draught.
My Fujifilm cameras.
My Fujifilm cameras.

Disclaimer:
1. All the shots taken here were shot by me.
2. I reserve ownerships to these images, if you wish to use my images for whatever reasons, please notify me and we can see how to works thing out.

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My First X100

Alwin Kok

X100 was announced back in Photokina 2010. Lots of praise from the media and online reviewers. Fujifilm nailed the design of the retro-style enthusiast rangefinder camera with traditional analogue control dials. It was a great hit and instantly built up a large pool of fans base. I am one of them but…  Here’s the “but”… As a student, the price tag scared me off. 

One year later, they announced the X10, a younger brother of X100, and it fulfilled my dream of having my first Fujifilm camera. Like I mentioned in my earlier post, it was a fun camera and I love the film simulations. Despite that, it did not spark much joy for me. 

Occasionally, I went to the retailer stores to play with the X100. I love the build quality, it was good to hold it in my hands and I was blown away by the hybrid viewfinder. On the other hand, the focusing system was not snappy enough, the shooting menu was not as good as what it is today and the images seem to be soft at F2. For the price tag, I have to give it a miss. 

Almost 3 years later, X100S had arrived at the shore and I still had not made the purchase. In fact, I wasn’t shooting a lot during those years and I still can count how much time I had actually brought my camera out for a click. It was my low point, it had become a hassle to bring the camera out and slowly I lost my passion for shooting.I still read up the reviews, tested it with a few clicks at the retail stores and nothing more beyond these two points.    

Another 3 years later, X-T2 caught my attention unknowingly. I knew there was a X-T1 but it was X-T2 that captured my interest. It sounds crazy but it really ignited my passion towards photography again. I even placed a pre-order for it and I got my first Fuji prime lens, XF 23mm F2, to go with it. From that day forward, I had been using the 23mm on most occasions. The versatility of 23mm is just great for street, travel and documentary, isn’t it?

In 2019, when I got my XF 35mm F1.4, things had changed a little in my path. I became obsessed with this lens as it gave me some sort of characteristic feel in my images. It boosted my passion for shooting even more. To be honest, I have left out the XF 23mm since then. The 35mm lens made me keen to bring my camera even on my working days. However, due to my working environment, I have to carry my heavy loaded bag for meetings almost everywhere in Singapore. The overall size of the camera and lens may be compact but it is not that small when I want to put it inside the office bag. This is where I started to miss the Fujifilm compact camera series. the X100, X70 and XF10.

So, what compact camera does Fujifilm have to offer? 

XF10, X70 and X100.

First of all, X70 had stopped production without a successor, not many retailers were selling it and even those retailers that were still selling it, would not recommend me to get it. XF10 was a “cut-down” version of X70, I tried and I was disappointed with the poor autofocusing and laggy interface, so I skipped. With this elimination method, that’s left with X100F. But it was 2019 already and X100F was in its third year cycle, which also meant that it may have a new successor in the pipeline. No one but Fujifilm knows when it will be announced. Since I am not an impatient person, I waited. 

After two months of waiting, the successor had finally said hello to the world. I happened to have the opportunity to try out the successor and I must say I love it. It’s that kind of first love. Beauteous, aesthetic, elegant, ravishing…. This is what I am waiting for. This is not two months of waiting but a good 10 years. This is the sexy camera that I have been waiting for since 2010! 

To tell everyone how much I love this X100V, I immediately brought it out to shoot with the packaging hand carried along. The photos presented over here are my virgin shots with it.

Sidetrack 1: This successor, which is the fifth X100 series, is also my fifth Fujifilm camera. Not sure it is coincidently or fate. Since there are lots of reviews on the web, I will not discuss the technical term or review this X100V in this blog.

Sidetrack 2: This X100V is initially planned to be my weekday camera, I was happy to have it with me and snap some interesting shots while I commute to my destinations.  But now it has become more than just a weekday camera, it’s my everyday camera. 

Disclaimer:
1. All the shots taken here were shot by me.
2. I reserve ownerships to these images, if you wish to use my images for whatever reasons, please notify me and we can see how to works thing out.