Category: Photo Life

A New Camera?

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4, 1/100 sec, ISO2000
 “Camera Video” Cedar Park, 2021

I’m pretty sure that within the next day or two I will be ordering a new camera. I still love my Fujifilm X100T, but the aperture ring gets stuck often, and now the entire lens assembly is getting loose. I suppose I could send it in for repair (and I probably will eventually), but it’s a good time for the new camera because we’re upping the quality of Mariko’s online cooking classes, and looking for a main studio camera.

FYI Mariko’s current cameras (Fujifilm X-T10 and Olympus E-PL9) aren’t able to work as webcams (the HDMI ports only display photos, not stream video), so a camera that can do that is essential. The plan is for the new camera to work double-duty as my everyday camera, and as a studio video camera when needed.

I almost 100% sure on which camera I’ll get, but will do a little bit more research just to make sure. Exciting times! 📸

Top-Down Snapshots

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO3200
 “Top Down Snapshot” Cedar Park, 2021
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/60 sec, ISO3200
 “Top Down Snapshot” Cedar Park, 2021
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec, ISO1000
 “Top Down Snapshot” Cedar Park, 2021
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec, ISO1000
 “Top Down Snapshot” Cedar Park, 2021
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/90 sec, ISO3200
 “Top Down Snapshot” Cedar Park, 2021
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/40 sec, ISO3200
 “Top Down Snapshot” Cedar Park, 2021
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/70 sec, ISO3200
 “Top Down Snapshot” Cedar Park, 2021
Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/15 sec, ISO800
 “Top Down Snapshot” Cedar Park, 2021

Paper Weight

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/3.6, 1/60 sec, ISO3200
 “XF1 Paperweight” Cedar Park, 2021

I’ve found a new use for my beloved and broken Fujifilm XF1 camera. It’s literally a paperweight. It has enough weight to hold down the pages of my sheet music book and traveler’s notebook, and the leather cover keeps it from sliding off the pages.

It’s a real shame that the XF1 is broken, but this model suffers from a design flaw that Fujifilm has never acknowledged and is pointless to fix since it will just break again. The size, quality, and design of the XF1 was brilliant, and the line carried on with the XQ1 and XQ2. I’m tempted to buy an XQ2, but my six-year-old Fujifilm X100T is still serving me well. So for now, I’ll just admire the design of the XF1 as it serves it’s new purpose and be thankful that it was the camera that got me into the Fujifilm world.

Sunset from the Highway

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/4.5, 1/500 sec, ISO200
 “Texas Sunset” Hwy 290, 2021

こんにちは. How’s it going?

Today’s photo is of the sunset and clouds that I enjoyed as I drove back to Austin from Houston. Often when I make this drive, it’s already dark, but today I left a little earlier which worked out nicely! I even set up the GoPro to take this “TimeWarp” video:

I hope you had a nice day! またね～

New Camera – GoPro Hero9 Black

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Photo info: FUJIFILM X100T, 23mm, f/2.8, 1/100 sec, ISO2000
 “GoPro” Cedar Park, 2021

Today I bought a new camera: the GoPro Hero9 Black. I’ve owned a cheap action cam for a couple of years, but the poor quality of the stabilization made it pretty much unusable. I only paid $35 for the Victure AC600 and the old adage “You get what you pay for” certainly applies here.

The GoPro Hero9 Black cost $399, but the quality is amazing. The stabilization is unreal! I’m going to have a lot of fun using it to record my bicycle and motorcycle rides.

Take a look at the video I made while wearing the GoPro on a chest mount:

And below is the $35 Victure for comparison. Apologies if you suffer from motion-sickness, but I even applied Warp Stabilization using Adobe Premiere Pro! You can imagine how bad it is straight out of camera.

The GoPro cost 10x as much as the Victure, which is quite a jump, but because I never use the Victure, it’s basically worthless (however, it did include various action-cam mounts and hardware which I can use). Also, the GoPro has timelapse capabilities which surpass my Fujifilm X100T, so my timelapse videos of clouds will see a big bump in quality.

I’m very happy with the GoPro Hero9 Black. I haven’t bought a decent quality camera for myself since 2015, so I’m really enjoying that new camera feeling!