EP29 Charlie Blevins Portrait Photographer and FUJIFILM National Training and Events Specialist

[00:00:00] Speaker A: And. [00:00:10] Speaker B: Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. Good morning. This is the the Fuji Camera Life podcast proudly brought to you by the team at Lucky Straps in Bendigo, Victoria. I joke, of course, it is the Camera Life podcast. I was just talking to our guest off stream that, you know, it's my plan. It's a slow takeover of the camera life and the lucky Straps brand to make it all Fuji orientated. I play a long game. I play a very long game. Justin. It's Thursday the 5 September and we're coming to you live from Bendigo, Victoria, Melbourne, Victoria and Sydney, New South Wales in Australia. It's 09:00 a.m. here, there and everywhere. If you're watching along, thanks for joining us. Be sure to a couple of things. Be sure to check out our back catalogue of our live podcasts from the past few weeks or even longer. Also check out Justin's daily challenge videos, which is now finished and we'll get an update on that in a moment. And also, we're live. Sorry we're not live, but we are available on audio podcast. If you like to listen to your podcast while you work, pretend to work run. I don't know why you would, but yeah, we're on there as well. So welcome and feel free to add comments, ask questions, and we'll get to them throughout the show. Justin, how are you? [00:01:35] Speaker A: I'm good. I'm very good. How are you? [00:01:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I'm okay. I did end up getting a third coffee. I am on to number three. It is only 09:00 a.m. here and I am already onto three. But we are joined today by a very special guest, a very good friend of mine and not surprisingly, a Fujifilm photographer, Mister Charlie Blevins. Charlie, welcome to the Camera Life podcast. [00:01:59] Speaker C: Thanks for having me, Greg. Thanks, Justin. [00:02:02] Speaker B: Hey, Charlie, I see there that you're wearing the faithful brand colors Fujifilm top on. We're going to get to Charlie's story in a moment, but before that, I just want to get an update from Justin about the 30 day challenge. What have you learned from getting out every single day? Shooting JPeg straight out of a canon camera. Although you did take a Leica out. [00:02:29] Speaker A: I did shoot with a Leica as well. I shot with a Q three a few times. What did I learn? I learned a lot. I learned that it's uncomfortable trying to take photos that you're then going to show on the Internet when you're not really feeling it. You know you don't. There are many of those days I wouldn't have gone out and taken any photos, and I think I definitely got photos that I'm really happy with that would absolutely not exist had I not done that challenge, which is really interesting. So that's one thing I learned, that sometimes you need to force yourself to do things, and even when you're not feeling creative, you can make something out of nothing. What else did I learn? I learned making a video every day for 30 days is difficult. [00:03:20] Speaker B: And is that harder than the actual challenge itself? [00:03:24] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, for sure. That was the hardest part. The hardest part was knowing that every day when I wake up that I can't go to bed until this is done. And I had no idea of what to do that day. But that was sort of also part of the fun, I learned that when it comes to YouTube, and this wasn't a YouTube thing, this was like a push myself with photography thing, but I am interested in YouTube and making videos and that kind of stuff. And what I learned was, you never know what videos people might be interested in. Some of the ones I thought would be really interesting, no one cares. Some of the ones that I thought wouldn't be interesting, people have been watching. And I think if you were thinking about doing YouTube, the reason doing a 30 day challenge might be worth trying is it takes perfection out of the game. So you just. You've only got however much time you've got that day. One day, I literally did. I had five minutes. I made, like, a two minute video that was basically unedited and that was it. It is what it is. So it gets you to actually produce things and start making them. And I don't know if I can. I'll do it one day, share the analytics from it. But, like, there was a string of five or six videos that got almost no traction at all. People just weren't really watching them. And if I wasn't doing that every day, if I sort of was trying to make a weekly video, that could be five or six weeks of getting no traction. That's a long time to let your mind play tricks on you and say, you know what? Maybe this isn't worth it. No one cares, whatever. But then the videos after that, they've got thousands of views, which is crazy because this is a brand new sort of channel. [00:05:11] Speaker B: So it's the mysteries of the algorithm. [00:05:15] Speaker A: Exactly. And you don't really, if you don't know what you're doing and what sort of videos people will like and what you want to make and all that sort of stuff, if you just blast a heap of stuff out there over 30 days. Who knows what, what might work and unknown. So I think it's something that if anyone wanted to try it, you can make it fit whatever time you've got. If you've got five minutes, just do five minutes. Make a video on five minutes. It can be done. [00:05:38] Speaker B: Yep. [00:05:39] Speaker A: So, anyway, super fun. I will be making more. It's not over. It's just. It was nice to not have to make one yesterday, I can tell you that. [00:05:47] Speaker B: Yeah, no, that's good. Although Yelena has dropped in the comments. No. Day 31 Justin. [00:05:54] Speaker A: Yeah, she's. She's happy it's over, too. She's happy it's over because every day was, like, dictated by what video am I making today? But now it's. Now it's gonna be. I think I'm excited to keep doing the videos and have a little bit less time pressure. It means I could actually make a video that takes longer than a few hours to make, which is kind of cool. So, yeah, it's. [00:06:17] Speaker B: And you can. Five reals mark two reals videos got a lot of traction as well, didn't they? [00:06:22] Speaker A: Yeah, they sure did. And that was. It was weird, too. Obviously, it's a popular camera at the moment. It's new. It's just sort of started shipping and all that sort of stuff. But I've always wanted. [00:06:32] Speaker B: Yeah, we'll get to that in a minute. [00:06:34] Speaker A: I've always wanted to do, like, camera reviews and things, but again, I let the ideas and the perception of what a camera view needed to be based on the big youtubers that do this stuff. And I let that paralyze me because you're like, I got to do this, and you got to do that and all this stuff. And so I just made. I think I made a video unboxing it, which is easy. Everyone does that. But then I took a few photos with it as well. And then the next day, I had a shoot that I needed to go to. So I just filmed some of that shoot and just put that up as like, oh, this is me. Just first shoot. Let's see how the autofocus goes. And I didn't have to get too deep into this. It has to be the most perfect camera review ever. And people found them valuable. Cause they were a little bit deeper on just one thing about the camera and a little bit more real, I guess. Not something that was produced before a release of a camera. And it has a very polished look and all that sort of stuff. They could hear me kind of reacting to my exact feelings is very raw. [00:07:44] Speaker B: And they could hear your breath get harder and heavier, hotter as you open the box. [00:07:49] Speaker A: And I'm walking around, oh, it's the mic. I go on these photo walks, Charlie, and it's like, the mic, I stopped to shoot something and all you can hear is like. [00:07:59] Speaker B: And then slipping the coffee. He's always got a coffee with him and I think, was it a short or one video you made was just on the little hot shoe. The weather sealed hot shoe cover. How to get that on and off. [00:08:12] Speaker A: Yeah, because that's been. The Internet's going nuts about. All the reviews have been saying that it's canon's biggest failure is this hot shoe cover or whatever. You can't take it off and blah, blah, blah. I did it five or six times and now I can take it on and off instantly. You just have to know how to do it. Because I thought to myself, I'm like, they didn't just get high school kid on work experience to design the hot shoe cover. Like, someone designed this that knows what they're doing. I was like, there's a way that this is supposed to work, that it'll be fine. And then I played with it for a bit and it is fine. It seals really well and it stays on. Whereas the hot shoe cover for my r three lasted less than one shoot. It was gone. I don't have no idea where it is. In the bush somewhere. I, like, took it out. I was like, oh, that's nice. A little hot shoe cover gone. [00:09:00] Speaker B: So does the hot shoe cover on the five reals mark two, does that complete the weather sealing or is it weather sealed without it? [00:09:07] Speaker A: No, I reckon that completes it. Cause I think they've got like a multi contact hot shoe thing that can take. I haven't got any of the things that it attaches to, but like digital accessories, like mic inputs, I think, maybe, and stuff like that. [00:09:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:09:20] Speaker A: So I think, look, I've shot with the r three in the rain without the hot shoe cover because I lost it instantly and I never had a major issue. But I believe you can have issues with it. So it's nice to know that now that it's. It's sealed off. [00:09:35] Speaker B: Nice. Just a couple of quick comments in the. In the chat there. Steph Liu. Morning. Morning, Steph. And it's Tony, isn't it? [00:09:45] Speaker A: Get off, Tony. Morning, all. [00:09:47] Speaker B: Morning, Tony. [00:09:48] Speaker A: It's an interesting photo of him. [00:09:50] Speaker B: We've already heard from Yelena and Digi Frog. Dave Clark said, love this pod. Keep it up, lads. [00:09:57] Speaker A: Thanks. [00:09:58] Speaker B: We will thank you, Dave. Very interesting. And I think the one thing I found with watching your videos is that it actually inspired me. I'd been in a bit of a funk and I talked about this on past podcasts, and I talk about it in my own blog about how I deal with my photography moods, so to speak. I think we all have them. And I found it quite inspirational and it forced me to go out and look at my photography differently. So typically, I'm a street shooter and I go out and I look for compositions with leading lines and people and shadow and light and broader scenes. I usually use like a 23 mil crop sensor lens and. And I decided to go with a 50 mm lens and shoot in monochrome or across, which is a fujifilm film simulation, and shoot with a 50 mm f two. At f two. Typically in street, I shoot at a 23, around f eight and pretty much leave it at that and just manage ISO and shutter. But I really pushed myself to try and get out and change what I was looking for in my compositions. And I was looking down a lot. Rather than looking up at an expansive street scene, looking for where people are going to pass through light and shadow, I was looking down and I was looking up outside of my normal field of view, which I think is something that we're all guilty of, not just photographers, everyone, that we don't look outside of our normal view. And I got some really nice shots. I was really happy with the process and composing shots in Akros black and white, which I got from watching your videos. Justin just changed the way that I look for a composition, which was really, really nice. But speaking of Fujifilm, our guest today is Charlie Blevins. Now, Charlie is a Sydney based portrait photographer. He's also a member of the Fuji x Oz Facebook community. He's an admin along with me. And Charlie is also the Fujifilm Australia national training and event specialist. How does it feel to have specialist at the end of your title turn? [00:12:13] Speaker A: Did you get to make that title or how does that work? [00:12:16] Speaker C: Yeah, originally I just wanted to be all capitalized, but they instantly changed that right away, but with the capital S. Nice. [00:12:25] Speaker B: Welcome to the show, Charlie. It's great to have you on board. We've been keen to have a chat to you, and we promise, we promise not to grill you about what's going on behind the scenes at Fujifilm, don't we, Justin? We promise. Yeah, I think something's wrong with Justin's audio. But before we get to your work with Fujifilm Australia, we'd really love to explore your photography journey. So can you take us back, Charlie, to your earlier influences of photography? What got you into photography? What were your inspirations, and what was the first camera that really hooked you? [00:13:01] Speaker C: Great. Good question, Greg. My earliest memory would probably be some from San Jose, California, which is pretty around San Francisco, and probably the earliest one is just my mom. My mom loves taking photographs as well. And then I have very fond memories where, you know, as a kid growing up, like, mom would give me disposable cameras. And, you know, as we walk around San Jose, San Francisco, wherever we're going, you know, she found it to be really important that, you know, I document whatever, whatever I'm doing at such a young age, and what a great influence. Yeah, very good influence. And so, you know, as if I was good that weekend, the prize was, would go to Costco and get the film developed. If I wasn't so good that week, then I have to wait a week. And that just killed me because I'm like, I just want to see the photos. And so I think, like, there was a lot of principles of photography that, that impacted me at a young age. And then, of course, you know, as time progresses, like, priorities change and interest change. And I was really, really, really into sports, and I was really into just, of course, hanging out with my friends. And so then the passion for photography, definitely. [00:14:12] Speaker A: We've lost him. [00:14:13] Speaker B: Oh, I think he's, he's frozen. [00:14:16] Speaker A: Come back, Charlie. Come back to us. [00:14:18] Speaker C: Oh, there. [00:14:20] Speaker B: You dropped out. [00:14:21] Speaker C: Yeah, there it is. [00:14:23] Speaker A: What, what happened to the passion of photography? [00:14:26] Speaker B: Yeah, you're talking about your passion dropping. [00:14:28] Speaker C: Oh, yeah. So, I mean, as time progressed, and, of course, as I grew older, that what was really important to me was just hanging out with friends, and I was really, really serious about basketball as. [00:14:38] Speaker A: A kid, and I was gonna ask what sports was. It was basketball. [00:14:42] Speaker C: Basketball, that's right. Like, I was crazy about the Golden State warriors and NBA team. [00:14:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:14:47] Speaker C: And I have fond memories of just going to games, like in middle school and high school and whatnot. They weren't great. They're pretty bad at the time, but I think it was just, it was definitely time of exploration. So my earliest memory is probably that. Yeah, that's a bit of me and my back. [00:15:05] Speaker B: Very cool. And so your mum. Sorry, Justin, do you want to go? [00:15:09] Speaker A: Oh, I was probably going to ask a very similar question in terms of where it led to from there with photography. When did it reemerge? [00:15:18] Speaker C: Yeah, good question. So it wasn't until 2000. Oh, geez. Probably around 2010 ish. Is that, you know, that's when I moved to Australia. And at the time that I was studying a bunch of different things all at the same time. And it made sense by being in a country that I've never been to before, that it's so important to document and take pictures because I was making new friends in left and right. So then that's where I was like, you know what? I'm going to get back into photography again. And so I've always had a film camera with me, which was, I think it was the Pentax spotmatic two. And I love that camera and took a lot of fond memories of that. And then, yeah, that's where it kind of reemerged again, because I kind of feel like when you're in a new environment, it's like you're in a new playground to document a beautiful city, like a place of the world that you can only dream of on the other side of the world. And so just to be immersed in it, and it was at the peak where it's like, oh, finding Nemo, where's the hot spots for that? And, yeah, I think it was just a really cool way to connect with the place you're living at. So that definitely needs to spread on there. [00:16:20] Speaker B: Yeah. And so you were running around with your pentax film camera. Film was becoming expensive and rarer. What made you. When did you make the jump into digital? And what was that like for you? [00:16:36] Speaker C: Yeah, I've always had, like, small digital cameras or whatnot, but I think, like, the first kind of APs C cameras, your typical DSLr of a Yemenite, what you expect from then. And so I've had it, but it didn't really pull me in. So if anything, I was just saving money to actually make a switch to a, you know, a larger sensor camera. And as I was thinking about getting into that, that's, you know, you may already know the story of just how I kind of made that transition straight into the fujifilm system in particular. Yeah. [00:17:06] Speaker A: So you. That was kind of your answer. [00:17:08] Speaker B: Better than full frame. [00:17:11] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:17:11] Speaker B: I mean, like, you guys have, isn't it better than full frame? [00:17:15] Speaker C: Yes. Good old. I'll bring out the camera in a bit. Yeah. So the. Yeah, I mean, it all really started in, oh, geez, probably 2013. No, no, 2014 is when I saved up enough money, and that's when I was like, you know, I'm going to upgrade my camera because it's not keeping up with the paces of the quality on the work. And then, of course, quite a number of folks were asking me, like, hey, do you do headshots? Do you do portraiture? Like, whatever it may be? And I'm like, if I'm going to do justice for the clients and just people that I work with, I need to make sure that my work is able to keep up to that as well. [00:17:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:17:50] Speaker C: And so went to a local camera store just in the CBD, and I was like, hey, look, I'm thinking about upgrading to this full frame camera. And, yeah, and good friend Alan, literally, the guy said, hey, look, if you're thinking about jumping to this camera, like, don't worry, we got it. But have you heard of Fujifilm? And at that point, I was like, yeah, I've heard of them. Like, you know, I shot with them as a kid, but, like, I don't know if they're actually a serious contender in the. In the camera space. And this is when mirrorless was just like, they just got it right, in my opinion. And they were just like, okay, well, how about this? Give it a go for a week, and if you're not happy with the Fujifilm camera, I'll give you a good price for this full frame camera that you're thinking about. And I said, sure. So, you know, I did. What any creative would do is that I flew from Sydney to Melbourne, like, you know, for the week and really just gave that camera a road test of just like, all right, let's see how this mirrorless camera goes. [00:18:47] Speaker B: And what camera was it? [00:18:49] Speaker C: That was the Fujifilm x t one. [00:18:51] Speaker A: Oh, it was? Yeah. Which really. That really was the. I remember when. When that stuff come out, that was the one that was like, oh, you can. You can do wedding photography and stuff with this system now. Like, this is. This is for professionals, too. Yeah. Wow, that's. [00:19:09] Speaker B: That was my. That was my first Fuji interchangeable lens camera from the X series. Yeah, prior to that was the X 100, but, yeah, that was the cam. [00:19:19] Speaker A: The person at that camera store changed your entire life. [00:19:23] Speaker C: Yeah, but the thing is, it's like he wasn't your typical salesman by saying, oh, you know, if you get this or that, but, like, he was one of those firm believers, like, oh, my goodness, you got to try this out. And I kid you not, I had a week to road test it, and within two days, I contacted the store and just said, you know what? I love it. Cannot believe the work that I'm producing with this, particularly the acrost or the black and white or, sorry, the black and white film simulations from that from back then. There's a certain quality to it that just reminded me so much of the black and whites of what I was used to. [00:19:59] Speaker B: So that sold, it was a 16 megapixel X trans one, a CMOs X trans one, which was a Bayer. Was that the last Bayer on an XT? I think it was. And then. And the X processor one. So it was kind of the Ogden proving ground for the X series, really. [00:20:18] Speaker A: Is that the same sensor as the OG X 100 or is that a twelve megapixel? [00:20:24] Speaker B: No, that was a twelve. [00:20:25] Speaker A: A twelve, right? [00:20:26] Speaker C: Yeah, that's correct. [00:20:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:20:30] Speaker C: Yeah. So I think, if anything, that, you know, not a lot of folks actually say this, but that camera rejuvenated me in a. In a very, very different way because the body resembled a film camera, you know, to the t, where before you turn it on, you could see the aperture, shutter speed, ISO on the top, and it's just like, oh, it reminds me of the sunny 16 rules. I'm great. I got it, you know, easily adjust things and to see the beautiful colors. And it was just. It was new. It was a new camera, but it felt very familiar. [00:20:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:21:01] Speaker A: So cool. [00:21:01] Speaker B: That's Fujifilm magic, by the way, Justin, you wouldn't know about it, but it does exist. [00:21:06] Speaker A: He doesn't know that. [00:21:07] Speaker B: I own. [00:21:08] Speaker A: I've owned multiple fujifilms. I currently own a Fujifilm, but I'm also currently. I was looking at them, literally, last night again. So later in this episode, I'm gonna. I'm gonna use you two as, you know, shopping. Shopping consultants. [00:21:26] Speaker B: Stay tuned, folks. We're gonna do a live purchase of a brand new camera. [00:21:30] Speaker A: We did that last week. We live purchased a festival ticket this week. It could be a camera. We'll see. [00:21:35] Speaker B: We did purchase a festival ticket. We'll come back to that in a minute. So, Charlie, the XT one. And what was the first lens that you dropped on that? [00:21:43] Speaker C: Oh, good one. The 35 f two. [00:21:47] Speaker B: Nice. [00:21:48] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:21:48] Speaker C: I mean, of course, like, with most folks, you know, I had the 18 to 55. I think that's what. And right away I was like, portraiture? Yes. It's a highly capable lens, I think, like, in terms of focal lengths, and, you know, I just felt like I needed a faster. A faster lens, especially on the APS C. Yep. [00:22:08] Speaker B: Yep. So you've got your fujifilm camera, you've got your x t one, a couple of nice lenses. What happened for you in terms of the sort of work that you were doing currently? You're obviously a portrait photographer, and we'll get to some of your images soon. But in the early days, how did the moving to the Fujifilm change your sort of work that you were doing? [00:22:33] Speaker C: Yeah, good question. The Fujifilm camera in itself, as you guys already know, the thing that blew my mind was just how small and how light it is. And, you know, it's like that phrase that we often hear. Photographers often hear over and over, is that the best camera is the one that you're willing to pick up and use. And that was a camera that would never, ever, ever leave my side. And so then how it changed it is that when I was using that, not just for portraiture, but I was curious to see how the color palettes would actually resonate in landscape and, you know, especially when it comes to street photography in itself. And it was interesting because, if anything, as I was exploring the camera, I felt like I was exploring myself in many different ways as well, because it brought me out into different places I've never been. And, Greg, just like how I met you, it introduced these beautiful pathways to meet people that I've never met before, too. So it definitely influenced me in a way where, as I'm connecting with people on a personal level and the camera isn't intrusive, it opened up a lot of doors of just how to relate to people, because I definitely pride myself in, like, you know, I love one on one conversations, and equally, I love getting to know groups as well. And I think, like, you know, because I have that nature of just getting to know folks left and right, it influenced the way that I would do portraiture because, you know, as I'm able to work specific angles, work with specific color palettes, get to know the person, see what's important to, to the person. Is it the scene? Is it an object? Is it, you know, is it something really meaningful or a milestone in their life that they need justice of just to remember those moments, I felt like the Fujifilm has. Has yet to fail me. Like, in that category. [00:24:13] Speaker B: You're gonna make me cry. That's beautiful. [00:24:17] Speaker C: Yeah. So it's beautiful in a personal way. And I think, like, as I'm taking photographs, that I would never fool myself in a way by saying, like, hey, Justin, I want to do your portraiture, and I'm going to make this everything about you, which is the case, like, yes, it is about you, but it's also that saying that says a photograph, you know, equally, if not more, says more about how you would view the person too. [00:24:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:42] Speaker A: Interesting. [00:24:43] Speaker B: Very well put. Just quickly, in the comments, let me put this up. John. Esteban. Esteban. [00:24:51] Speaker C: Esteban, my brother from, from San Jose. [00:24:55] Speaker A: I was about to say where. Where are you? Good afternoon. What time of the world? Okay, so cool. [00:25:01] Speaker B: Welcome. Welcome to the show. Please like and subscribe, please. Charlie. So we've talked about your early introduction to photography, and I think, you know, hearing you tell of you, the inspiration from your mum and giving you disposables, that's ingenious. It's such a beautiful gift to be given an alternative way to document your experiences. The rest of us drew pictures and played in the mud, but you were out taking photos. So today, what's your daily driver today? Today, aside from your fujifilm work, you still do portrait photography, you still do some street. And every now and then, when we catch up, we do a little bit of model work. We do a whole bunch of different things. What's your daily driver camera now? [00:25:54] Speaker C: Yeah, my daily driver at the moment. So when it comes to studio GFX, like, it's definitely. It's a game changer in many ways that, you know, because especially when it comes to the earlier series, like the 50. The 50s was my first meeting. You know, first we say, we call it large format, but just keep it simple. We'll say medium format, meaningful camera and. Yeah, like, it was interesting because the autofocus, as many note, like, it wasn't there. Like, it was quite sluggish and, you know, really have to take your time, which for me, it wasn't really a problem because, you know, especially with shooting a film and then transitioning to that again, it felt natural. So, day to day, I love using the 50s back then, but now I'm using the 100s or the. It's. It's crazy just how the developments have changed from the autofocus speed and of course, adding more film simulations to it and just the overall user experience, it's crazy. Like the experience that I used to have with the X series, it's merging with the GFX system that actually feels a lot more lighter in the hand as well, especially with the latest release, which is the lightest, you know, x processor five body in terms of weight and in terms of flagship as well, in that medium format range. Yeah, that's definitely been my driver for the studio work. And then when I'm out and about, I would confidently use the XT five. Why not use xh two xh two s? Well, as I just shared, it's because I have fond memories of the XT one. And when I use the XT five, it feels very familiar. But the areas that upgraded it, it was much needed. And, yeah, it ticked many boxes. [00:27:37] Speaker B: I know when you guys sent me down, Charlie. That is when you guys sent me down. The GFX 100s Mk two to review. I was blown away. And that was the first GFX I'd ever pick. I shot with the GFX, but I'd never actually tested one fully and reviewed it. Just how easy it was to go from shooting with an X series to a GFX series camera. The transition was seamless. Like, it just felt like a slightly bigger, you know, more powerful version of an XT, of an XT model. It was quite impressive. And so I want to talk about your portrait work. I'm going to pop up some of your shots for those playing along at home, if I can just remember how to do that. [00:28:19] Speaker A: Do you want me to do it? [00:28:20] Speaker B: No, I got it. That's all right. [00:28:22] Speaker A: You got it? Okay. [00:28:23] Speaker B: Yeah, I'll work it out. It's not my first radio. You guys can see. [00:28:28] Speaker A: We can. [00:28:29] Speaker B: Charlie's instagram. So, um, I know this series here. I've been familiar with these shots, um, before. Where. Where were these taken? Charlie with his boat. [00:28:41] Speaker C: So that was taken in Perth? Yeah. The blue boathouse. Like, it's a very iconic, um, place. Like, it's your typical kind of scene where if you go to any Kmart or whatnot, that's the picture that you would see. [00:28:53] Speaker A: Comes with the frame. [00:28:54] Speaker C: It comes with a frame. [00:28:55] Speaker B: That's what you're doing now. You're doing stock image. Nice. That's right. [00:28:58] Speaker C: You know, that's when you. Bread and butter. Yeah. [00:29:04] Speaker B: Where's this? This is in Sydney, Los Angeles. What's that building? [00:29:09] Speaker C: That's a Walt Disney concert hall. And. Yeah. And yeah, if we have time today, we'll definitely talk about that period when I went to go visit there. Like, literally found that location by accident. Yeah. [00:29:22] Speaker B: Now this is a recent one of yours. This wasn't that long ago, was it? [00:29:26] Speaker A: No. [00:29:26] Speaker C: Was it? [00:29:27] Speaker B: And is that gold leaf on the. Or is it paint? [00:29:30] Speaker C: It's a mixture of everything, I think, like. So the makeup artist I worked with, whose name is Nikki. Yeah. She had. I gotta ask her what material she used, but I'm pretty sure there's, like, whipped cream in there, like, that you'd use for cooking. [00:29:42] Speaker B: But these are all shot with the GFX. Yep. One hundred s mark two. Oh, that's really cool. That's lovely. There was a shot that I saw earlier. Now these ones here of Capcata yes. Capcataz, australian based singer and songwriter. I went and saw his one off live show called Hidden, which was supported by Fujifilm Australia. And I actually got to photograph behind the scenes for this. That's cool event. Yeah, it was a really cool thing. Charlie got me. Got me involved and they had some. It was. The event was to also showcase the videography capabilities of the XH two s and GFX 100s. Was it Charlie? [00:30:30] Speaker C: 102. [00:30:31] Speaker B: 102. Sorry, my mistake. And they got me a x t five and an ex 900 mk six that had only just come out to shoot some behind the scenes stuff in my kind of street style, which was fun. But this is Cap here. I assume that's Cap. [00:30:51] Speaker C: That is Cap, yes. [00:30:54] Speaker B: These are wonderful. [00:30:56] Speaker C: Thank you. [00:30:59] Speaker B: Very cool. He's very photogenic, lad. So, Charlie, let's jump to your. Your current gig now. You're the. Let me see if I can remember it again. Fujifilm Australia, national training and events specialist. All caps. Tell us about how you moved from trying out a Fuji X T one, falling in love with it, getting involved with the Fujifilm community and becoming a Fujifilm fanboy to now working for Fujifilm Australia. [00:31:34] Speaker C: Yeah, good question, Greg. So the transition, if I could describe one word of it would. I'll probably describe it to. It was very organic and it was just interesting because the moment I had that camera, you know, I did what a lot of folks did. Like, when they first get a new camera is like, oh, let's. You know, let's see what community groups are involved with this. And then, you know, through that process, you know, Greg, like myself, you and a bunch of others, we have Pooji x oz. And I just remember when it was at the very, very early stages that, you know, when. When I was really involved in that, after the first meetup, I was like, I love the brand and I love the people associated with it, because every single person is very, very genuine. And I think, like, from that vibrancy of community and cameras that we really steamrolled, like, not just in Sydney, because from Melbourne to Sydney and then to Perth and prepared time was in Brisbane that, I think just with that transition, is that we were just a bunch of folks who are very passionate. And for myself, like, I have always been really passionate for events and I've always been passionate about community because even before photography, I was building basketball groups and there was a period where I was on the online gaming thing and I was like, let's get a community together in that way. And then I can't help but to get people together. And I think, like, when it came to a couple years after that, of course, as you may know, that Fujifilm started to build a relationship with our Facebook group and they were like, look, we have, of course, we have this amazing product, and, you know, they clearly didn't have a community at the time, so they tapped into us quite a bit of just, like, doing collaborations with retail events and left and right and the events that we were doing, and I'm not going to say it was all me. Like, we had some amazing reps, like Igor and Chris and then, of course, before me, Mark and whatnot. That just really helped to produce these quality events and we just built natural relationships, like, and so I knew quite a few people in Fujifilm on a friendship level. And I think, like, when the time came, who was the person that was in my role who was no longer with the business? There was an opening for this role and it's actually a new role because previously the role was national training and product specialist. And so then, so then they were looking for someone who was a trainee and events. And so at that time, I've had, like, it was amazing because I've had a lot of experience when it came to trainings and events. I transitioned. I was a primary, I was a primary school teacher for a while. And while I was doing that during COVID period is when I was like, you know, I have to really, really step up. Like, I really have to, you know, push my freelance work and whatnot. And then when I made the transition a couple years after that from, from teaching, and then I wanted to just do my own work. And then I started working with just with other brands as well, of just in that retail space, of just doing events with them. I was just like, this is like, literally the position I want to be in, that if I could just do Fujifilm, I could do trainings, I could do events, that would be the dream job for me. And so when I went into, when I saw the application, I applied, you know, I was just learning as much, like, as deeply as I can about the business. And so, of course, when the position came up, you know, there's quite a few people that I believe that that went for the role, and I believe that I was one of the few, if not the only one that had the drive of just brand loyalty for many years. Someone who has a proven track record of doing events, to put it in perspective. I think about within the year, I think, or maybe I think within the year we pulled off, we called it Sydney's largest photography meetup at the time, which, you know, nearly like, we brought about 150 to 170 people on one place and just getting a lot of folks involved with the brand, but really getting community together and I think that strongly that struck a strong chord within the brand by saying, we need a guy that's filled with passion, who has training, experience, who's passionate about events. And I feel very fortunate to be able to exercise those passions on it on a daily basis now. [00:36:00] Speaker A: So those events that you were doing in the lead up to applying for this job, were they events that you somehow made money from? Or were you literally just doing those because you love them? Or was it a bit of both? [00:36:13] Speaker C: Or how did that. I've never received a dime for any of the events that are done. And the way that we've done is because with influence and the communities that we've developed, like outside of Fuji Xos as well, is that we've built relationship with multiple retail stores. There was a period where we were connected with the Sydney Living Museum and we're partnering with cafes just pretty much anywhere and everywhere. [00:36:37] Speaker A: Yeah, but it's a really good point for a lot of people. And I know you can't say, hey, just go and run events for free and eventually you'll get a job with a major camera brand. But it just illustrates that point that's happened to me a ton in my life, and probably Greg as well, I would imagine, is if you're passionate about something, doing it, just doing it and doing it for free often opens doors that you don't even know exist. It's like a lot of people say that you've got to know your worth and charge what you're worth and don't work for free and stuff like that. But I think there's, there's a lot of times where it's far more beneficial to just get started, throw your hat in the ring and do something, and then later on you can start to figure out, hey, where could I make this a living? Or something like that. [00:37:28] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think, as Charlie said, getting into a community, if you've just gotten into photography and you might be feeling a little lost or you want to go out and shoot with other people, but none of your normal mates do photography or family. Join a community and just get involved, you know, show up to events, show up frequently, offer to help with administration duties and just, you know, don't expect anything in return. And I think the word that Charlie used earlier, which was organic, is just as relevant with communities, with getting yourself involved, you know, through exploring that avenue of creativity, you'll learn from others, you'll support others in their learning, you'll create relationships that will last a lifetime or not at all, but you'll still learn from it all, you know, and I think there's a lot to gain and, you know, with Charlie and I being admins over, gosh, it's probably been almost ten years for me anyway, as it had been on and off with the Fuji xos Facebook community. You know, some of my best mates from that group and, you know, I've run street walks, I've run different events. I've showed up to plenty of events. Back in the day, Fujifilm Australia used to run an event called people with cameras. This was pre Covid, and it was a big event for photographers to get together. And it wasn't just Fujifilm. Like, anyone could show up with any camera and there'd be, you know, events and prizes and talks and giveaways and. And just getting involved in that stuff without expecting anything in return was amazing. It was so fulfilling and, you know, meeting wonderful people and learning and having some pride of being involved with the brand as well. That's always been a selling point for me, you know, to inspire me to get involved with, with the group. So, very interesting. And so you're shooting with a GFX 100s mk two, and that, that's only, that's only been out now for. How long has it been? About five months? [00:39:34] Speaker C: May 16 is what I believe. Yeah. [00:39:38] Speaker B: Yeah. And you had a very special and important role in, in the global release of that camera. You want to talk us through that? The Fujifilm X summit, 2024, Sydney, Australia. [00:39:53] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. Now, X Summit is equivalent, you know, for those who don't know, it's equivalent is like, as an example when Apple would release a product and they would hold, like, their conference in the Silicon Valley, just to say like, hey, we have these new products coming out. Whereas the X summit, you know, every single time they have an excellent. They do it in different parts of the world. Where previously, of course, in Japan, I think it was in Bangkok, it was in Stockholm, it was just New York was one in 2002, I think, like, it's just a mix bag of everywhere. So the fact that it was the very first time in Sydney, something I've told myself for quite a few years, is that on my bucket list, if I could just attend the next summit, I would just die happy. And so I suppose that's brand loyalty because, you know, like, I'm a big believer. And now just getting to know the folks personally of just the folks that would make these amazing products and just to be in that same room and I just feel like I would just be inspired for life, like, to be there and to connect with others who are like minded. And of course, for many people, like, it's just a job. Whereas for myself, I look at it as, you know, if you could do what you love, it's not a job. Like, you're literally doing what you love. [00:41:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:41:11] Speaker C: And so, yeah, so the key thing is that I remember just being in the office with myself and my colleagues and, you know, that's when they first kind of share like, hey, the X summit's going to take place in Sydney. I was already, you know, like struck by that. And then the head of marketing was like, hey, and, you know, and the GM at the time was like, look, we think that, you know, there's a new product that's of course that we all know that to be released at that period that you'd be perfect to be the one to unveil it. And I was speechless because it felt like a. Almost like a full loop of just having those fond memories of picking up the XC one to the community groups just left and right. And I was just overwhelmed with gratitude that I was able to be involved with that. And so it was quite good because, you know, the GFX 100 SII, it's a. It's a game changer in many ways that has many attributes of the GFX 102. But what I love about that is in terms of price point, like they are trying to make it competitive for those considering that format, which they are, because there's nothing like this camera in particular with the price point, with the features on the market. [00:42:23] Speaker B: Yeah. When I reviewed it, the subheading of my article was accessible medium format. [00:42:30] Speaker C: Yeah. [00:42:31] Speaker B: Because that's what it represented to me through my experience with it is that it was incredibly accessible, especially if you would, it would be for anyone. But especially if you're jumping up from an X series and you thought, okay, I want to take the next leap. You know, current gen X series flagships are 40 megapixel and you could go to a fifties at 50 megapixel. But why not go the whole way? Go to 102. [00:42:55] Speaker C: Exactly right. Exactly right. And it's literally the camera that I've used now. And the thing that blew me away is Mokoto, who's the guy that is the genius behind the GFX. I remember he distinctively said like, you know, with this. And he was referring more to the 500 millimeter lens that came out at the same time as that paired with it. It's like, you know, this is the, you know, like, he said it with confidence to say, you know, the way that you use the X series camera, you can use it with this. I was like, that is such. That was a huge gap, like, in recent years. But to hear that is just music to my ears right off the bat. So I think, like, you know, to be able to, one, announce this beautiful product that's going to help in the creative space on a global scale, but to be the one to announce it, it's twofold on an internal level, overall, you know, like, very, very thankful. On an outward level, I had, you know, just full steam ahead energy by saying, this is going to be the best product that's going to hit the market. [00:43:57] Speaker B: Yep, very cool. Now, we. For those of you that joined us last week, we were joined by Matt Crummons. No, sorry, the week before last week was Shane Henderson. Before that was Matt Crummons, who's one of the directors of the Bright festival of photography. But obviously you also know Matt, Charlie, because Matt was involved in the GFX with the 500 mil and the GFX 100s mk two launch. He did some wildlife photography up in the top end. [00:44:25] Speaker C: Yep, that's correct. [00:44:26] Speaker B: And in a couple of weeks, we're going to be joined by another Fujifilm GFX photographer. And that's Russell Lord. [00:44:34] Speaker C: Yes. [00:44:35] Speaker B: Is Russell an ambassador officially? Yes. [00:44:39] Speaker A: He's been for a while now, hasn't he? [00:44:41] Speaker C: Yeah, he's been with us for many years, and he's been instrumental a lot, I think, going back to even the original GFX 100 as well as memory. [00:44:50] Speaker A: Yep, I remember that he. Yeah, he got some of our straps for that with the GFX. I think he shot some video for us on the GFX hundred and. Yeah, I remember him switching from Nikon to the x series for his surf photography and stuff like that. He was definitely one of the people showing what could be done in terms of action with those cameras. [00:45:15] Speaker C: Yeah, 100%. And of course, out of all genres, like water, surf, underwater, like, it's not that it's not easy. And so the fact that he's pulling off on our older cameras and, you know, and continue to kill it with every single product that's been released since. Yeah, yeah, he's, you know, more. I would say he's more than an ambassador. Like, you know, he's just killing it? [00:45:38] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:45:40] Speaker B: Very cool. Now, I'm interested to know, Justin, you mentioned earlier that you were looking at some fujifilm cameras last night. [00:45:46] Speaker A: I was. [00:45:48] Speaker B: Have you got your credit card ready? [00:45:50] Speaker A: I do. [00:45:50] Speaker B: For those playing along at home, um, what. What were you looking at out of? [00:45:54] Speaker A: Well, first of all, I have to. Have to have a little bit of a whinge, because even if I had my credit card ready, it seems like you still can't buy an x 100 anywhere. Is that. Is that correct, that they're sold out pretty much worldwide? [00:46:09] Speaker C: The new one, there's a great, um, a lot of back orders on it. So my usual advice is that, you know, if it's something that you're considering, put that deposit down at your local camera store with the stores, and then on a weekly basis, we're often talking to our retail partners to say, like, this is the status of whatnot. [00:46:31] Speaker A: So anyone that is looking at an x 106. So, yeah, x 106, you. It's not like there's gonna be no cameras shipped for, say, six months or something. It's just that it's just like a continual evolving thing. So it's like, if you get on a list, it's not gonna be nothing, and then they're gonna ship a million cameras next year or something like that. It's more like every month, they'll be trickling out to retailers around the world, and just. Yeah, you'll slowly progress through. Through the list. [00:47:09] Speaker C: Yeah. Like, I can't really comment just, you know, in terms of frequency whatnot. But I do know that, you know, the shipments are coming, and then they are meeting those back orders at the moment. Yeah. However, if you're thinking about today, to get one, like, yes, it's gonna be rough, but I'll probably say to encourage you, go for the long run, like, definitely. Just, you know, that's probably the best way to. Best way forward. [00:47:33] Speaker A: Yeah. Cause it's like, obviously, it's a super interesting camera I've owned. I've got one still, but it's the original one, and I've owned the way earlier generation. I think it was the s or the t or something like that as well, in the past, and. Cause I want a camera, everyone's gonna laugh at me, but I've got a lot of cameras. I want something that I can take with me mountain biking and things like that. That's small enough to fit into a pack, like a small hit pack kind of thing, which I've got a Leica Q three as well. I really like 28 mil, but it's a little bit. It's a funny shape, like something flatter would be cool, which is why the X 106 would be super appealing. But then I know Greg is a big fan of some of the smaller X series lenses and the older body. What is it that you shoot with, Greg? [00:48:26] Speaker B: I'm shooting with an XC four. [00:48:27] Speaker C: That's referencing the X 70 there, Greg. [00:48:32] Speaker B: Yeah, well, I shoot with that, too. That's here. That's the X 70. Little tiny. [00:48:36] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, yeah. [00:48:38] Speaker B: But that's the 27 2.8. You can see there it is tiny. And I've got my XC four here. It's got a 23 mil on it at the moment, but it's around the same size. The XC four is around the same size as an X 100? [00:48:56] Speaker A: Yes. [00:48:57] Speaker B: If you took the lens off, it's around the same size and dimensions. But of course, the X 100 mark six is a bit of a hidden. It's like a sleeper, you know, like those cars that look like an old, beat up volkswagen or something, and they. They're hiding like a v eight and turbochargers and turbos and superchargers under the hood. Well, the X 106, when I got one for review, I was just blown away. Like, in this tiny little form, they pack in 40 megapixel sensor. Pickle. I said it again. [00:49:27] Speaker A: Yeah, megapixels. We gotta get that t shirt made. [00:49:30] Speaker B: Yeah, we do. You know, the in body image stabilization and the latest processor. Plus it supports frame IO, which is. We talked about that last week in our news segment on the show. We were talking about how it's camera to cloud technology, that Fuji will eventually expand out further to other cameras. But, yeah, I like. [00:49:55] Speaker A: I like a RangeFinder style camera. I've realized that after, you know, traveling solely with the q three for a few months and then going back to a non rangefinder layout, it had me wondering why. Why things like the. Why the XT series is the way it is. Because you don't need that shape anymore, mechanically and optically. You know, you can put the electronic viewfinder anywhere you want on a camera now. And I was like, I wonder why we're sticking with that middle viewfinder. Because it's, to me, it's way more comfortable off to one side. I don't know, maybe that's just me. [00:50:38] Speaker B: But I think it's sticking with styling and aesthetics. That's, you know, Fuji's always had. This is my view, CharlIE, but it's always had. [00:50:45] Speaker A: But the whole industry. [00:50:46] Speaker B: Oh, the whole. Yeah, yeah. [00:50:48] Speaker A: Everyone makes a. I mean, most, most cameras have that center sort of eVF stuff. [00:50:54] Speaker B: The old mirror box. [00:50:55] Speaker A: Yeah, the old mirror box. And we've sort of squished them down and things like that. Like Canon's gotten more squished down now that they're mirrorless and. But, you know, Canon, Nikon, Sony, like, everyone has that same layout. I just got me thinking as to why, because I really. Yeah, I like that. I like it off to the side. [00:51:15] Speaker B: I don't know, I was just doing a bit of a piece. I was writing a piece which I finished this morning for Shotkit and it was about the history of X Pro range. Yeah. Won't put any pressure on Charlie here, but we are due a new X Pro and that's a range finder style with the hybrid viewfinder and like the X 100 series. And, you know, and that in itself was a revolutionary camera. The X Pro one was the first interchangeable X series camera. The X Pro two was the first in, in that kind of, in that genre and generation to feature dual SD card slots which, you know, people doing more professional work loved being able to back up or shoot, you know, JPeG plus raw to two different cards, you know. And then I went up to Sydney for the launch of the three and the X Pro three. And, you know, it came in three finishes of the titanium top plate and you could get. And then later they released a special edition with a Duratec scratch resistant coating and a matching 23 mm f two lens. Gorgeous machines. Gorgeous machines. I don't know why I went off on that tangent. I just love them. [00:52:38] Speaker A: What were we talking about again? [00:52:39] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, the camera life. Sorry, we're on a podcast. I was just rambling. Oh, dear. Yes, I've well and truly lost my train of thought. [00:52:49] Speaker C: Yeah, well, great. Do you have that same love that Justin has expressed of shooting with a rangefinder? [00:52:58] Speaker B: Not as much. [00:53:00] Speaker A: Doesn't bother you? Like, doesn't. [00:53:03] Speaker B: No. I have a smaller nose than you, Justin, so that, that middle eye piece doesn't bother me. [00:53:07] Speaker A: It is. I'm sure it's part of it. [00:53:10] Speaker B: I mean, the XC four has. [00:53:12] Speaker A: Hate to put a competing product up. [00:53:14] Speaker B: On the screen here, but the xe four has a. [00:53:17] Speaker A: It just fits nicely. [00:53:19] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, this has an off center eye piece. And I like this because often I'm also checking my composition with my left eye. [00:53:27] Speaker A: That's one of the other reasons I like it too. It's. I feel more aware. [00:53:31] Speaker B: Yeah, I can see what the peripheral. [00:53:33] Speaker A: Stuff, something that the people have spoken about as well, as interacting with a subject too, because it's. [00:53:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:53:38] Speaker A: You know, you're sort of like. You're not blocking your whole face from. From a subject and they're losing interaction with you. Yeah. So anyway, long story short, where I ended up last night was on Facebook marketing looking for secondhand GFX 50 R's because I was like, oh, maybe. Maybe that's what I want. Because they do have that one lens that's quite small, which I think is like a 50 equivalent. What, what is that? Yeah, yeah. [00:54:09] Speaker C: 50 millimeter. [00:54:10] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. A 3.5 or something like. [00:54:14] Speaker C: Like a 43 ish, I think full. [00:54:15] Speaker B: Frame, relatively compact for a GFX lens. Yeah. Or for any medium format lens. [00:54:20] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. For almost any lens. Yeah. It seems nice and small. So I was like, oh, maybe that would work. So here's my question. One of my questions. How so? You were talking about the difference in autofocus in the feel going to the two versions of the being a lot closer to an X series. You know, unfortunately, I'm spoiled with Canon autofocus, which is a very different system, but it's insane for sports. It's amazing. And I don't expect to get a camera that can do that kind of thing in the form that I'm looking for and the style that I'm looking for. But how big of a difference is there from something like the GFX 50 r to the new two series? [00:55:07] Speaker C: Like, is it, it's night and day. [00:55:11] Speaker A: It really is that big of a deal. [00:55:12] Speaker C: It really, really is. Because even if we go from, to put in perspective, the X processor four and the X processor five. So we're thinking like XT four to XT five. So that same process finding there is the same that you would find on a GFX. So it's twice as fast to begin with. [00:55:29] Speaker A: Right. [00:55:29] Speaker C: In terms of just the process and speed. But I mean, and then also the AI subject detection is also something that's completely new in that processor X processor five as well. [00:55:40] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:55:41] Speaker C: So I think, like, if you pair, you know, these multiple kind of subjects, you could photograph with something that is twice as fast together, comparing that to something, you know, like the 50 R, that you're going to feel the big difference. And I remember distinctively when I was on the roadshow for the kid, you not, there was a couple of customers that brought in their 100 SDE, tested out on birds outside, and people were making deposits and purchasing the camera right off the bat. [00:56:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:56:10] Speaker C: So it is a very, very. Yeah, it's a very big difference. [00:56:14] Speaker A: Big difference. Okay. [00:56:15] Speaker B: The 50 hours was pretty slow on the focus was, you know, it was a street style range finder. You know, it wasn't. I don't think it was marketed well enough personally, but it also wasn't really marketed at. This is your pro level, medium format camera. This is, you know, for a serious enthusiast looking for an everyday shooter, you know, and it borrowed heavily from the X Pro range. And it just had that kind of feel, that range finder, street photography feel to it. And a couple of friends of Charlie and mine had and probably still have their 50 hours. And they are, you know, they do a lot of street shooting as well. [00:56:58] Speaker C: And I suppose for many street or, it depends which one is that zone focusing is the way to go, like, every single time. And I think, like a lot of folks, there's just like the X Pro one, that there's a lot of cult following behind the 50 R and behind the expo one because of the personality of the sensors and whatnot. But as you just expressed, Justin, that it's also just that the user experience of just how folks could relate with their cameras. Because, you know, if they grew up with rangefinders and they prefer that, then it makes sense to go for something of that size, which you compare that with the. With that small lens, then it's the perfect combo. [00:57:36] Speaker B: And to go back to your point earlier, Justin, about finding the rangefinder style, you know, asking me whether I prefer the old mirror box style or the rangefinder style. I mean, my x 70, it doesn't have an EVF, just a screen. You had to play with this when I was in Bendigo. [00:57:52] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. [00:57:53] Speaker B: And I prefer to shoot this from the hip with the screen kind of flipped up. [00:57:59] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:58:00] Speaker B: You know, like street style kind of thing. You know, I will often just hold it down low, looking down at the camera. I'm not drawing attention to myself or targeting anyone in particular. So, yeah, I guess it just depends on your shooting style. And so when you're on your search, Justin, for a 50 hours, what did you find? [00:58:20] Speaker A: I found a secondhand 50 r. I think it was about three and a half thousand. I was like, that's why I'm just not sure about the, you know, without ever having shot with one, the speed. I don't know what I'm looking for in this, this mythical camera that I want. You know, I think I want. I basically want a. A Q three with a lens that doesn't stick out as far, which seems to be an x 100. [00:58:48] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:58:49] Speaker A: Six that you can't get. [00:58:53] Speaker B: And even the fives are still incredibly hard to find. When I was. Yeah, well, from secondhand. [00:59:01] Speaker A: Yeah, sorry. [00:59:02] Speaker B: They're easy to find. They're overpriced. [00:59:04] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:59:04] Speaker B: The second hand market. Because we can't get sixes. [00:59:07] Speaker A: Can't get sixes. [00:59:08] Speaker B: They've become incredibly popular. A lot of people are looking at fires, and unfortunately, a lot of people are thinking, well, I'll upgrade. I'll sell my five for a killing because the demands there. [00:59:20] Speaker A: And then just wait, wait for a six to come. [00:59:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:59:23] Speaker A: But probably lose almost nothing in the changeover. [00:59:26] Speaker B: Yeah, probably not. When I was doing the looking into the X Pro range history for my article, I was having a look on eBay at the pricing, and they have held their, I find Fujifilm cameras do in general, but they've held their value so well. Like the pricing, I was shocked at how much they're still selling for secondhand. [00:59:48] Speaker A: Yeah. I think a lot of x pro three s still sell for close to their retail. [00:59:52] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, they were, yeah, I mean, they're built like, they're built like a tank. Like you could, you know, you could hammer in nails with the next pro three and not scratch the body. If you get the Duratech version, I'm gonna try that. Really? Yeah, I think that video, it would. [01:00:10] Speaker A: Make a good video. [01:00:11] Speaker B: You like the one on the, on the lucky camera straps channel, where you trying to hack through the. The patented nylon webbing? [01:00:19] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. That's right. You see how quick it got through that? The strap that comes standard with the d 850? Yeah, it's gone just before I forget. Very quickly reminded me. So speaking of Fujifilm, I don't think he shoots the Fujifilm anymore, but he did at the time. These straps, which I think this was the second style of strap we ever made. We made, like, one big style of strap when we first launched over ten years ago, mainly for DSLR sort of style shooters. And then a photographer by the name, a wedding photographer by the name of James Day was getting into the XT. I think he did x pros to start with. And then I think maybe when the XT one or something come out, he was like, hey, man, I got these new cameras, but I need straps for them. Can you guys make a thinner strap? And I like hand cut. I wish I could get them back off him. I'm sure they thrown out by now, probably. But the ends were all misshapen. They were hand cut. We did them in 12 hours because he rang me and he's like, I've got this event tomorrow or something like that. Anyway, that was the birth of this strap, which is still in range. [01:01:35] Speaker B: That's what, the slim. Slim 30? [01:01:38] Speaker A: Yeah. So, yeah, that was designed for a fujifilm shooter that wanted something smaller to suit the smaller bodies and light a little bit. [01:01:46] Speaker B: When am I going to get my new strap for my x 70? You've been talking about this prototype on your Q three that you took to the US. I'm still waiting for my complimentary version. [01:01:58] Speaker A: I've got mine. So once I've got a prototype made that works for what I want, I'm like, oh, yeah, that's good enough. And then after a while I'm like, oh, we should probably sell these. So, yeah, I'm working on it, I'm working on it. I've got to decide. We've got a few design decisions to make. There were some things I liked that you didn't like and we're working on it. [01:02:17] Speaker B: Okay. [01:02:18] Speaker A: But, yeah, I thought that was interesting. That was definitely. Yeah, that was a changing time with smaller cameras coming out and because that was. Would that have been before, like, Sony was just sort of starting to do their thing as well. [01:02:34] Speaker B: Yeah, they're a little bit earlier, but also Olympus was big, right? [01:02:38] Speaker C: Yep, yeah. [01:02:40] Speaker A: But it was very early days for lighter. [01:02:44] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Including Sony. Yeah, yeah. [01:02:47] Speaker A: The amount of people that were still cruising around with, you know, a 70 to 202.8 on a Nikon or a cannon for so much for whatever. Yeah, yeah, big, heavy. Yeah. [01:03:01] Speaker C: You brought up James Day, like, definitely big influences for me were James Day and then Kevin Mullins because I think, like, both of them were using next year ones and the older cameras quite a bit. Yeah, not. I'm thinking, yeah, lucky straps. I think the first lucky straps I've had was the wrist straps. [01:03:18] Speaker A: Yep. [01:03:19] Speaker C: Um, love those. [01:03:21] Speaker A: Yeah, yep. We're working on a new one. We're working on a new one. Sweeney and Greg with. It's happening. But, yeah, we still. We still sell the same design wrist strap. Yeah, these. Yeah, it's. I don't know. [01:03:33] Speaker B: I've got my XC four. You do my camera life special one, but, yeah, use wrist straps. But, yeah, we are working on something smaller, like an x 100 or something of an equivalent size. [01:03:49] Speaker A: Yeah, that smaller sort of style. Style camera. [01:03:53] Speaker B: And if we can get the right. Get the right kind of design. I'm trying to convince Justin to call it the classic chromie instead of the classic chrome. [01:04:03] Speaker C: Has a ring to it. He agree? [01:04:05] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, I like it. I like it. We'll go with that. [01:04:09] Speaker B: Yeah, I think it's nice. So, Charlie, what sort of work are you? I know that you've been very busy. You've been traveling all over the country, especially since the GFX 100s Mk two dropped. And before that, we caught up in Melbourne with the X 100 mark Vi. So you've been all over the shop training and running events. And I imagine that the GFX launch party was pretty massive. I know you guys had a day at the zoo in Sydney. How did that go? [01:04:44] Speaker C: Yeah, it went well. And I think the excitement of the new products resonated well with just every single person that was there. Because we chose the Taronga zoo, because in terms of location, but also it's just a cool experience just to be able to photograph the animals. And Matt Crummons was using the 500 millimeter lens of just taking pictures of. I think there were owls. No, koalas. No, sorry, they're koalas. Just in the entry. They don't move very much. But just to be there and just to be able to just see how great it was to pick up the eyes and whatnot. And then different stations. Because of course we had Russell Ord, we had Rachel Clare, we had Shelley Pearson, and we had Tonya Malkin. And each one were just photographing a bunch of different animals in different kind of ways. So we're always, you know, it's one thing to kind of just tell others about, hey, this is our new product. But was quite important to us to actually show that as well. Because a day after that X summit, we've had our consumer event where I think from memory, like, there was almost like half a 1404 to 600 people from memory that actually came to that event, which is quite amazing because during the event, you know, we had birds flying, like from. From the top to the bottom. And then Matt Crummons had his own station. And then it was just really cool just to kind of mix that community and mixing the new products on one. And of course, we had the 100s there as well, and pretty much our whole flagship cameras and older ones, too. So then that way people could actually see the contrast between from product to product. [01:06:19] Speaker B: Yep. One thing I've always appreciated attending events where, you know, whether it be a touch and try event of a new camera, a Fuji camera at a store, or even just when you come to town sometimes and catch up with people, is just the amount of luggage you bring with you and the size of the case. And you're not just carrying, you know, every shiny flagship camera. You're carrying some older stuff and some of the older lenses which are still just as sharp for people to actually borrow them and get out in the street. [01:06:52] Speaker C: Yes. [01:06:53] Speaker B: And that's something that I've always loved about, you know, with the brand and our association through the Facebook community being able to build that relationship where, you know, we can invite you guys to photo walks and events and, and you'll show up and you'll show up with gear and, and people get to experience the joy of photography in new ways. Speaking of events, very, very sloppy Segway here, but just want to remind everyone that you're watching the camera live podcast brought to you by lucky camera straps. Now, Justin, you were up in on behalf of lucky camera straps because you were up in Sydney for the Canon EOS five reals mark two launch, as we've discussed. And special strap was produced for the first thousand australian five mark two buyers and 150 new Zealanders. And Kentaro designed to a special graphic for the other end of the strap. Now, I've seen on social media that Kintari's been showing up at camera stores and replicating the design. [01:07:58] Speaker A: Has he? [01:07:58] Speaker B: In person live? Yeah, I think I've sent you a couple. This is how much you pay attention to my messages. Kintari's been showing up at some, I think Ted's in Sydney. Big black canvas and actually do it with the white paint doing the design on it. Yeah, it's. It's quite fascinating to watch him work live and I mean, we all saw the polished, you know, video that was produced for the five mark two launch. [01:08:23] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:08:25] Speaker B: And, and the collaboration was, was promoted in that video. But just to see him work live, I should try and find it. [01:08:33] Speaker A: Yeah, it was pretty cool thing. It's the first time we've worked with an artist for something like that. You know, we've worked with camera brands before and different, different things, but, yeah, never had an artist create something specifically. So it was. Yeah, it was pretty sweet. [01:08:47] Speaker B: Very good. It might have been on their live, so it might be gone now. I know. Here we go. Let me just stop that for a second. Share my screen. So, Justin, Jordan, just fill Charlie in on this. What actually happened? And for those that haven't seen our past segments on this story, when you went to the five reals Mark II launch, the launch. [01:09:09] Speaker A: Well, I mean, to go back a little bit further, we've worked with Canon in the past. On the launch of the original five reals, we made some camera straps specifically for that which went really well. And then they wanted to do something similar again, but this time was less of a focus on just a great strap that sort of suited this new camera. It was more. Yeah. They also wanted some specific artwork that I think tied in also with a japanese artist that lives in Australia that also tied in with the fact that I think it was Canon Australia's 50th anniversary, I'm pretty sure. [01:09:46] Speaker B: Yeah, that sounds so. [01:09:48] Speaker A: Yeah, so it was all sort of tying all of that together and then. Yeah. Obviously, as with most camera launches, I'm sure Charlie's probably aware there was not a lot of time to get everything done. You know, it's always like the last. Can it all come together for the last minute? And it did. And, yeah, I even got to go to the launch in Sydney, which was pretty sweet. I've never been to a camera launch before, and it was very exciting. Kintaro was there, so I got to meet the artist, and I didn't realize he'd been going around to camera stuff. [01:10:20] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:10:20] Speaker B: So this is on the Ted's Instagram page. Here he is here. [01:10:24] Speaker A: Oh, wow. [01:10:26] Speaker B: Painting the design, which is pretty much what appears on the straps. Yeah, it's a. [01:10:32] Speaker A: That's so cool. Yeah, I did. I did message him, Greg. I would like to. I want to get him to design a new logo for the podcast, but I'm scared of how much it will cost. [01:10:49] Speaker B: Yep. [01:10:49] Speaker A: Because he's quite a good artist. [01:10:51] Speaker B: Yeah, he's really good. So that's really cool. [01:10:54] Speaker A: Yeah, it's awesome. Especially if we got him to design it on something that big. And then I have to just drive up to Sydney and pick it up instead of getting like a digital file. That's what I want. The new logo just designed on a giant wall canvas or something. [01:11:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:11:07] Speaker A: And just have to carry it home. Yeah. Very cool. [01:11:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:11:15] Speaker C: And from the comments, it looks like he also did some prints as well. That. [01:11:20] Speaker B: Yeah, that'd be cool to get. [01:11:21] Speaker A: Hmm. [01:11:22] Speaker B: Yeah, that would be very cool. I've got a lot of japanese inspired art in my house, so Justin, if you can hook me up, we want. [01:11:29] Speaker A: A print of that. All right. Yeah, I'll talk to him. [01:11:32] Speaker B: We'll see to the list of things that I've asked you for recently. [01:11:36] Speaker A: Exactly, exactly. [01:11:38] Speaker B: Still waiting on a mouse mat, a belt. [01:11:42] Speaker A: We're working on it. We're working on it. [01:11:43] Speaker B: No, I'm going to come back to Bednego soon. [01:11:46] Speaker A: Yeah, exactly. Come and visit or at the bright. [01:11:48] Speaker B: Charlie, aside from your Fujifilm Australia work, what personal photography projects have you got coming up. You got any more portrait shoots? [01:11:58] Speaker C: Yeah, we're still in the brainstorming stage. So Nikki, who's a makeup artist, I think the last image I posted, the black and whites. So we're just kind of sussing out of just, you know, trying to think a bit more outside of the box things that we normally don't see. So that's something that we're kind of working with. So we're trying to tie into a series of just going over texture of just, you know, how to bring out more of a realism into photographs, more than just, you know, what you see, of course, with the face and when it comes to clothing. But we're trying to think of elements to implement into it that would complement that. Yeah. So that's something that we've been discussing quite a bit. We're still at that point where we just got to land on the idea. Yeah. Other than that, there's not too much going on because, as you know, work has just been pretty full and rewarding. And so, yeah, it's kind of like where it's at at the moment. [01:12:50] Speaker A: So with your role. So you would run events that most of the time are specifically. I mean, obviously all the time, but for people that already own fujifilm cameras to come and try, or maybe if they. They're thinking about moving to the system, they can come and try, or are they more like, is there a lot of come and try events, or is there a lot of more specific, like, education on a specific topic and it's more about the topic than the gear or how does that work? [01:13:21] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm glad you asked, Justin. So I'd probably say a lot of the events that we do, I personally am not a believer of, hey, come to this event. I have all these cameras on the table. Just come and check it out in the store, and then we'll kind of dust the dust off our hands and then we're done. Um, because we're all about folks experience it and different, unique experiences. So I think it was just last week, you know, we had a BMW motorcycle, like, in a shop, and then, like we had in partnership with nanlite, and then there was smoke and whatnot. Like, we're trying to create these kind of experiences. And then before that, I mean, I'm just kind of going off of some of my favorite events. Is that, like in camera pro in Brisbane? What I love about that store, you know, is that we're a bit more experimental, where we did have birds, like, fly in the store, you know, for folks actually test out the autofocus tracking, whereas also we had like, kind of like TED talk kind of experiences where we'd get photographers in the industry who uses our products to talk about it. But interesting enough, a lot of our events, we've noticed that there's been a trend probably in the past, within the year, is that a lot of folks who come are actually not fujifilm users. [01:14:32] Speaker A: Which to me is fujifilm curious. Like, is it usually about that? They're like, they're trying to figure out, like, is this maybe something I want to look into? Medium format or smaller? Smaller system? But they're not sure yet. [01:14:47] Speaker C: Yeah, we get a mixed batch. And one thing I'll probably highlight is that I'll share this conversation. I had a chat with someone pretty high up in Japan when he was here for the X summit, and I've asked all the deep questions and whatnot, but one conversation that really, really stood out to me for this, and it's making sense because I noticed that my events are reflected on. What he's saying, is that a lot of times when it comes to camera brands, we're often thinking like, hey, you should switch over because ours is the latest and greatest, whatever it is. And that has been the case for many times. And even within photographers, we're always constantly thinking about, like, oh, like, is that lens going to give me what I want? Or is that camera body going to do it justice? But he made one comment that said that when it comes to our gear, it's actually one of the best brands that would complement other brands in itself, in the case. Because in terms of like, not only just sensor sizes, but in terms of just the practical use of like, for folks who are really sold on their camera and they need something smaller and lighter, that APSC camera works out beautifully. But then if size does matter in that regard, that meeting format hits that void really, really strongly as well. And so when I'm doing these events, I noticed that a number of folks are coming. They're like, hey, I really love my brand. However, I'm really thinking about Fujifilm and it's kind of like how I feel about having an Android phone and an Apple phone is that I love my Android, but because most of my stuff is, is Apple, like, that's been working great for me. So it's like the same thing that you're investing into an ecosystem and that's what's going to make or break an experience. And so a lot of the folks are coming to these events. They're looking for cameras that would. Yes, some would want to replace other ones are looking that would complement what they're currently using, which our products do like so well in both mediums. Yeah, it's been quite interesting in that. So to answer your question, it's. Yes, it's touch and tribe, but we always try to add a strong experience. And my personal ethos is we're better together. So we often partner with distributors and unique kind of brands in itself. Like to highlight. One event was in our house of photography workshop, our last one at our old location on Park street. We got alpaca gear, who does backpacks everyday carry, kind of, you know, carries. And then we had rze watches involved in that as well. And then I invited a model friend and of course I had a Fujifilm cameras. And the moment we started, we didn't do a whole. And this is our products, these are our lenses. It's literally, hey, we have these beautiful stations come and, you know, test it. Our cameras are there if you would want to use it. But folks were using their own personal cameras and they're loving it. But the conversations around, wow. Fujifilm gave us an experience like this has been quite rewarding. And that in itself brings up the question of. Actually, let me think more about the Fujifilm cameras. [01:17:45] Speaker B: I think it's a good philosophy, and that's what I've always found with the Fuji stuff, is that it's about the experience. It's not about the mega pickles or the ISO, partly about the film simulations, but about that joy of photography and that user experience. And then that obviously extends to community and things like that. But I know with the events I've been to, the most recent one that I went to with you, Charlie, was at Ted's, and I think that was the GFX. No, that was the X 106. [01:18:19] Speaker C: Yep, that's correct. [01:18:20] Speaker B: And we went for. We went. Met at Ted's. You gave a brief presentation about the camera, but you said, I don't want to stand up here. There's no PowerPoint presentation. This is what you need to know. How about we just get out on the street? And we had two models and nanlite were there. They provided you with a whole bunch of product. We had lighting tubes and cob spots. And we just walked around the streets of Melbourne getting yelled at by the local neighbors, you know, doing model shoots. It was. It was all about the experience. It wasn't a hard sell. You had a bag of older gear with you, or two big cases, I should say. And, yeah, really interesting events. And again, it was very community focused. It wasn't just Fuji people, it was all. Every brand loyalty was there. But everyone was keen to kind of just get involved, which was really nice. Just a comment from the chat Nev Clark who's an alumni of the show who got a few weeks ago go wa. He's finally out of bed. Morning nev. Love to see one of the Fuji events in Perth. Also never said this is how I entered my. Entered Fujifilm. My x t five was my fun. I think he means complimentary camera. Now I own three fujis. Haha. But love the philosophy. Thank you. [01:19:40] Speaker C: That's it. Yeah. Definitely keep an eye on the events with a lot of stores there because at the last event that we did there we had with camera electronic, we had Dan and Zora who was instrumental of previous campaigns and they replicated one campaign where we had ballerina dancers hopping around and Dan was photographing them with a 500 millimeter on the other side of the warehouse. And then we did some lighting with hobo. Hobo light was used that night and just created scenes as well. And then the other one was with Digidirect KENnington where we got Shelley Pearson, who's that wildlife bird photographer. But we also had. I forgot her last name but her first name is Samara, I think. Samara Dean. And she's like a. She's only been doing photography for a year and a half but her images are just spot on. And it was cool because we did an interview style and the store manager printed out their work side by side. And it was such a beautiful bridge between someone who's been seasoned in the genre for many years and someone who's up and coming and hearing the passion on both. Both spaces. So there are events that are taking place in Perth roughly around every two to three months. So we'll definitely encourage you to come along to those. [01:20:50] Speaker B: Stay tuned. [01:20:51] Speaker A: Very cool. Actually I have a. I have a very specific product question. So I was excited about the little film simulation dial. Yes, I like that. That's cool. Because I. On these, the videos that I've been doing, getting out daily shooting, I'll regularly switch from black and white to color and stuff like that while I'm shooting. I really like trying to get it right in camera and. Yeah. Shooting JPEg and choosing what I want to shoot for that scene. [01:21:26] Speaker C: Yep. [01:21:27] Speaker A: So is it the only camera that that's currently on is the XT 50? [01:21:33] Speaker C: That's correct. [01:21:34] Speaker A: The new. The new one. [01:21:35] Speaker B: It's a dedicated dial. [01:21:37] Speaker A: Yeah, it's got its own dedicated I know you can switch simulations on all of them and I'm sure it's not too hard, but I just, I don't know. I like the dial. Yeah. So that, but then, and I thought oh, maybe the XT 50 is for me. But then I looked at it and it's quite expensive. Not, not expensive in terms of like GFX expensive, but it's a very similar price on the Internet to the X T five. And so I'm trying to figure out like what's the, who's, who would buy the X T five and who would buy the XT 50? [01:22:07] Speaker C: Yeah, good question. So the, there's a couple of things to consider. Is that the XT five on release and I believe the RP on that is around 3100. [01:22:17] Speaker A: Okay. So it's discounted a little bit at the moment. [01:22:20] Speaker C: At some places it's been out on the market for a period of time. So you'll notice that there has been specials, there's been promotions and I believe cash back stuff as well. But in saying that, like let's continue with the notion that in terms of price point, like they are similar. And you know, I think in Australia. [01:22:37] Speaker A: Like roughly around 2500 thereabouts seemed like both of them. Maybe there's a few hundred dollars difference. But I mean when you're buying a camera, it's like, you know, 2426 hundred, 2700, they're all in that kind of same range that you could pick the one that's most suitable for you rather than just saving a couple hundred dollars. So, yeah, that's what I was interested to find out. [01:22:57] Speaker C: Yeah, that's right. So, yeah, so I suppose in principle at the moment there's a couple hundred dollar difference. And it's always good to start out with the question of, you know, who are these cameras for at the end of the day that, you know, if you want a workhorse that has a proven record of that, you know, for the years and years to come and, you know, dual SD card's important to you. And then of course the viewfinder of the XD five is pretty darn good in itself and with the dials and of course, what else with it? The battery life as well and the weather resistance. Because XT five uses the MPW 235 whereas XT 50 for memory uses the MPW 126s. So there's two, that in itself kind of shows two different kind of camps. So the X 50, like that dial on top, I often get a lot of questions like, and I could simulate, I could kind of simmer down to you either love it or you're not a fan of it. And I've noticed that the people who are a fan of it resonate with the statement that we made with that, is that films, like film is in our past, is in our present, and it's in our future. And a lot of times, folks would want to remember certain compositions and people who are in it. But I. Not often do we actually think we actually want to remember the color palette of the past as well. And so for that to be as a dedicated film simulation dial in itself, someone like Rachel Clare, just, you know, hearing her speak or we had a chat saying, like, she just loved that she's able just to see the film simulations in the flesh right then and there, and she feels like she's active for camera even more. So. Whereas, you know, for someone who. That's not as important. Whereas, you know, a lot of folks tend to change the customs, like, you know, with some other cameras, c c one to c four or c one, c seven. You can change the film simulation that way by saving those profiles on there, too. [01:24:54] Speaker B: Or you can program one of the custom dials. [01:24:58] Speaker C: Yeah, that's great. [01:24:59] Speaker B: I mean, on my x 70, you just. You can set it to. If you turn the focus ring, if you're shooting auto and you turn the focus ring, you can use that to change a film sim. [01:25:07] Speaker C: Yes, that's correct. [01:25:09] Speaker B: Very customizable. [01:25:10] Speaker C: Yeah. So I think, like, if I was going to give someone advice, they're both great cameras. If you want something small, compact, you know, good stabilization. I said this, I don't know, not up to date with the latest products from other brands or whatnot, but for something that small, with up to seven stops of stabilization with the color science of Fujifilm, and to have, I believe that's frame IO as well, got double checked. I'm sure it does. Is like to have all that in a small form factor. If anything, I feel like it should be priced higher for what it offers. [01:25:41] Speaker A: So is it more so? Just that at the moment, the X T five is also probably a pretty killer deal. Cause if you're saying that maybe outperforms its price range, the XT 50, then realistically, the XT five was probably really outperforming its price range. Even though it is, it is a model that's been out for a little while. [01:26:03] Speaker C: Yeah, it's a killer deal to have that 40 megapixel with the processor, with the autofocus, with everything that's there. I think it's, you know, I believe in the notion that, you know, when you hold a camera, it's like putting on a glove. And a lot of folks who do have larger hands, and when they do hold that XT 50, they're like, this feels like a toy. It doesn't feel right. And it's like, we'll try that XT five. And it's like, actually feel a bit better. And if they need something different size. XH two. XH two SDE in that way. But yes, GFX. [01:26:35] Speaker A: I got long fingers. I'm like, yeah, I need a GFX. This. This fits my hand like a glove. [01:26:40] Speaker B: So, Justin, does that mean that you were also browsing the Internet for X T five S and XT 50s last night? Yeah. [01:26:46] Speaker A: So that's where I didn't even get to the end of my story, where I ended up was I. Unfortunately, I was mistaken. I had this imaginary thing in my head that the new camera that came out with the dial was kind of like a $1500 camera, not with all of the features it had. All I was thinking was like, maybe it's like a 24 megapixel, kind of not entry level, but, you know, like more of an enthusiast sort of cheaper fujifilm line. I was like, oh, maybe that's what I want to be able to just sort of put a pancake lens on it and take a mountain biking and stuff like that. And then I ended up going down this rabbit hole of, okay, what's the difference between the XT five and the X T 50? And I found out not a lot other than, yeah. Dual card slots, battery. So it seems like. Is there any advantages of the, say that, say if they were exactly the same price, you would go into a shop and they're like, literally, you can have whichever one you want. Same price. [01:27:42] Speaker C: Yeah. [01:27:43] Speaker A: Is the only advantage of the XT 50 over the XT five that it's smaller and lighter, or does it have some, like, newer process or anything like that? That's an advantage as well. Or is it really mainly the form factor that is the benefit of the XT 50? [01:28:03] Speaker C: I'm sure there's small key differences, but the way I look at the XT 50 is if the XT five and XT 32 were combined into one camera, that would probably be the go for both ways. Um, whereas I think, yeah, like, what you pointed out, like, in terms of the dual SD cards and those other strong features, like, I would lean towards the XT five for. I think it's just for a lot of the punch that it often gives. [01:28:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:28:31] Speaker C: Um, but I think with XT 50, we've pushed it quite a bit as a traveling, travel light kind of camera. Whereas, you know, when you start pairing that with heavier lenses, that's where, you know, in terms of form factor, I feel like, okay, it may feel not as comfortable compared to the XT five, unbalanced. [01:28:47] Speaker A: Like, when you put a small. A big lens on a small camera, it often doesn't feel nice. [01:28:52] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. It. So traveling small light with a lot of punches for you go for the XC 50. Whereas if you want something that's really strong as an all around or workhorse every day, you know, we can't pretend that XC five is a. Is a heavy camera in any sense. It's still relatively light, like, for robust, it's solid. [01:29:11] Speaker A: But it, like, I'm just looking at it here, it looks like it's almost 200 grams difference, which is like, that's significant. I think 600 and something grams for the XT five, down to 438 grams for the XT 50. That's a significant difference. So it really is the size and weight that's got that benefit, because if you do put a light lens on it, that's going to be quite a. Yeah. A really comfortable little travel camera. Yes. Okay, that makes more sense now. I'm starting to figure it out. I'm figuring this X series stuff out. The problem is I start looking into it, and then I end up on the GFX pages, like, within about 9 seconds. And so I always seem to skip over the X series stuff because both. [01:29:50] Speaker C: You know, just one perimeter. [01:29:52] Speaker A: Well, this is why it's super interesting that you say about being complimentary products to other brands and stuff like that, because despite the fact that. Despite the fact that Russ Lord can make photos that I'll never be able to make with any camera, if Fujifilm was to sort of come out and say, hey, switch to our cameras, they'll beat your three reals in any sports situation or whatever. I kind of know that even though I could make great images with those cameras, Russell Aud has proven that you could, you know, grab what it, whichever one, and he'll make great images with it. I know that the r three is probably a better tool for those specific jobs for me, but that doesn't mean that I'm not going to buy a GFX. One hundred s, two for landscapes, for whatever, as an additional camera to my system. And I think it's a good. It's a good position for Fujifilm to take rather than saying our cameras are better than your cameras, switch to us just to be saying our cameras are better for this and for that. And why not try one? You know, like you need a travel camera to go with your heavy Nikon gear. What about this? And. Oh, you want it? You want some more resolution? 45 is not enough. Well, we've got 100. Try that. You know, it's. I think it's a really nice position to have. Rather than that just direct. We're better positioned. [01:31:21] Speaker C: No, that's a friend, a friend of. [01:31:22] Speaker B: Mine who's a. I actually do know some non Fuji shooters. He's a Sony shooter. Name three affil Adam and Justin Apple, who we hope to have on the show in the coming months. He, he's a Sony shooter, but he, he has an x 100 just for his. It's always in his bag. [01:31:46] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:31:47] Speaker B: Taking photos of his kids or, you know, when he's out doing stuff. So I think there is that complimentary element to it which is really, really nice. Let's jump to some news. I've got some news. We talked earlier with Charlie about the x 100 mark six or version six. We don't say mark in the Fuji world. Well, Canon are having their own problems and I'm just going to try and find the news article and share with everyone. This is showing up on Shotkit. So the Canon eos five reals, Mark two reals is currently, it appears to be shipping delays with up to six months. Wait for the backlog to clear. [01:32:38] Speaker A: Wow. [01:32:40] Speaker B: Which is interesting. Canon have apparently said, know where this quote is from more that they've receiving more orders than expected. Now Canon's been in Australia for 50 years, they've been in Japan for what would it be like 80, 90 years? They've been in this game for a long time. And releasing a flagship camera like the EOS R five mark two, you know, the supply chain issue that they're facing. And we talked a couple of weeks ago about how some accessories and a few lenses were already on back order, but that's a pretty significant gap now. You know, Fujifilm experienced it with the, the x 100. Where, where are camera manufacturers missing the mark on meeting demand? Is it an issue with obtaining silicon for chips or is it. And I'm not asking you specifically, charlie, it's just a conversation point. I don't need you to comment on. Well, Fujifilm's position is we don't need that. But it's just interesting. We're seeing this more and more and more. You know, we saw it around Covid. And that was understandable because, you know, there were supply chain issues. There was shipping delays. There was a ship stuck in the Panama Canal. Nothing could get out. Was it? No, it wasn't Panama. Where was it? Where was that ship stuck? [01:34:03] Speaker A: I think it was the Panama Canal. [01:34:04] Speaker B: It wasn't the Panama Suez. [01:34:06] Speaker A: Suez. Ah, no. One of them anyway, one of the. [01:34:09] Speaker B: Big shipping channels like. Yeah, yeah, I don't know how you get a ship stuck in something like that. But anyway, says me with all my nautical knowledge. So. Yes, so the eos R five mk two, possibly six month delays. I know last week I was looking at b and H photo in the States and I, and they had them back in stock temporarily. [01:34:30] Speaker A: I was going to say I'm seeing them available like pretty regularly. So I don't know whether that's kind of like a maybe. We're going to see delays of up to six months and maybe there should be more focus on the maybe and up to because, yeah, I see them coming in and out of stock in a lot of places, which is probably similar to the x 100. Um, six. Other than you don't see this. It probably doesn't, you don't see it come in and out of stock, but it's, it's coming in and out of shops as, as people are picking up their orders, you know, and. Yeah, I don't know. I didn't realize it was as big of a, I know they got a lot of orders for it, which is great, but I did. Yeah, I didn't think they were going to have six month delays or anything like that, so I don't know. [01:35:18] Speaker B: And they're not planning, they're planning on continuing the supply chain, continuing the deliveries. Like they're not just going to build up a backlog of orders and send them all out at once. They'll continue to ship as they produce, it, says here. We apologize to our customers and business partners for the inconvenience. Products are scheduled to be shipped one after another, but it is expected that the new camera, EOS R five mark two, will take a longer time to ship this. They've talked about global, more orders than expected and due to the impact of global parts supply. Now we've been hearing that line for a while now. So what are the global parts supply issues? Is it, you know, rare earth metals? Are we running out? Are we going to run out of cameras? Justin? [01:36:03] Speaker A: Well, that brings up an interesting comment here, Jason. I'm just trying, I keep having a blank every time. An interesting point is I think it was Jason? I'm pretty sure. An interesting point is that we hear that the camera market is shrinking, yet so many new products are getting caught out with availability issues. So who's continually buying new models? Me. It's mostly me. I get most of the cameras that come out and unfortunately that means there's none available for anyone else. No. What we did see is that the camera market didn't shrink in the last twelve months. It actually grew a little bit. Is that correct, Charlie? [01:36:42] Speaker B: We did see some numbers. [01:36:44] Speaker C: That's correct. And I believe it's reported from Petapixel. Like they've put it all together in terms of Canon, Nikon, Fujifilm and whatnot. Like. No, in terms of most companies, like it's been a really strong year, especially with the latest products. So maybe he's talking about maybe in the grand scheme of just over a decade or things like that. [01:37:04] Speaker A: Exactly. The last decade or something is trending down. But we've certainly seemed to have just a little bit of a turn. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then. And Greg's gone, but that's okay. And then obviously. Yeah, we're sort of. Yeah. There might be still flow on effects from supply issues, chip issues and things like that. And who knows, maybe some camera manufacturers are trying to be more careful with their stock planning. So don't, don't get caught out manufacturing too much for a time period or something like that. Let's be a little bit more cautious rather than being too optimistic and getting caught with a huge amount of stock or something. It could be a bit of that as well. When you're not sure what the market's going to do. Might be better to be cautious rather than. Yeah, I don't know. [01:37:58] Speaker C: Did I lose you? Yeah, I'm here to. [01:38:00] Speaker A: Oh, you're back. Okay, good. Oh, and Nev is also saying we're seeing this with many new cameras. I grabbed the hundred s two after seeing Russell Orr's work, Russell Ord's work and was worried about having to wait five months. [01:38:15] Speaker C: Grab the 100s. Interesting. Russell's work. [01:38:20] Speaker A: Yeah. It's not simple. Yeah, I don't know, it's. It is interesting. It does seem to be. So I don't want to bring too many other brands into this, but I went while I was searching last night for my new camera. It seemed like the Ricoh Gr three is still hard to get, which that camera's been kicking around in various forms for years now. So for it to be difficult to get is kind of strange. And. Yeah, I don't know. It is weird. It is weird that it seems to be happening more and more at the moment than it ever used to, that's for sure. And across many brands, not just. Just one brand. [01:38:58] Speaker C: Yep, that's correct. And it just seems like it's probably a combination of, you know, many things. Is that for folks wanting a particular camera and not being able to get it? [01:39:14] Speaker A: Uh oh. We're having some serious Internet issues or something today. I lost you there for a second, Charlie. We're really. We're riding the storm at the moment. I don't know what's happening, but we've lost Greg and I. Things are getting patchy. Hang on. Yep, Charlie's. Greg's back. Charlie's. [01:39:35] Speaker B: Sorry, guys. [01:39:36] Speaker A: This is. We've. We've. It's. It's getting tough. Greg, we've lost you. It's been patchy. Internet. [01:39:42] Speaker B: Yeah, I had Internet issues, too. [01:39:44] Speaker A: Did you really? I wonder if there is. And looks like Charlie's frozen in a happy face. Oh, no, he's back. No, he's frozen again. This is, uh. Yeah, we're getting wild now. Anyone that's made it this far through the podcast knows what the deal is, though. They know that this is. This show gets held together with string and scrap pieces of leather. So it's. It is what it is. [01:40:06] Speaker B: Yeah. Sorry, where were we? [01:40:10] Speaker A: What are we talk. Just, you know, general supply chain issues stuff still. I was just saying that, um, to bring in yet another brand into it, I was. When I was searching for cameras last night, I even looked at the. The little Ricoh gr III, which is, like, in my mind, has been on the market for, I don't know, five years or something. Like, it's an old camera, I thought. [01:40:32] Speaker B: Yeah, they keep updating it with new little. Well, there's two versions. There's a 40 and a 28. Yeah, I think. [01:40:38] Speaker A: And there's one with an orange ring on it. [01:40:40] Speaker B: But, yeah, you could actually buy a kit with different colored rings. [01:40:45] Speaker A: Okay. Now, um, anyway, I thought, I was like, oh, maybe I'll get a deal on that little camera. Play with that. No, no, you can't even buy them. They're out of. [01:40:53] Speaker B: No, they're out of stock, too. I'm trying to get. I'm trying to get one in for a review for shotkit. And, um. Yeah, no, we can't. We can't. Can't get one. [01:41:04] Speaker A: That's weird, though, isn't it? Like, on a camera that's been in production for so long, so there's obviously more going on than. Than what we could be aware of in the industry. Because, I mean, camera brands want to sell cameras. They don't want to be out of stock all the time. [01:41:18] Speaker B: No. Makes no sense. [01:41:20] Speaker A: No. [01:41:20] Speaker B: So there's lots of nasty grams about. Yeah. They're doing it to drive demand and inflate pricing. It's not the case at all. They want cameras and hands. But, I mean, the good thing is the flip side of it all. Yes. It's frustrating that we can't buy a brand new camera and 100% know it's going to be there the day that we want it. The flip side is that the more cameras that people get in their hands, the more that these brands like Fujifilm and some of the lesser brands, the more that they're going to develop gear and push the technology, the more that they see people demanding these products, the more that they're going to invest in them. And I think that's just good for all of us as visual creatives. Speaking of pushing the envelope, that's another sloppy segue. [01:42:12] Speaker A: Yeah. Where's this one going? [01:42:15] Speaker B: That segue had absolutely no relevance to what I'm show you. TT artisans who develop a third party developer. They've been developing lenses for a while now. They're bringing out a 100 mm f 2.82 times macro lens for pretty much every mount you can see down here. [01:42:37] Speaker A: Oh, even Canon RF? Nope. [01:42:39] Speaker B: Oh yeah, Canon RF. Nikon Z Alm GFX. Yep. Which I think might be one of these bigger. Let's have a look. What happens when we click on that? Absolutely nothing. [01:42:52] Speaker A: These lens brands, they're doing. I mean, obviously a lot of them can't do anything with autofocus or whatever, but yeah, you know, for macro. [01:43:03] Speaker B: So this is 320. That's probably us. [01:43:08] Speaker A: Which is still thousand dollars australian. [01:43:11] Speaker B: No, doofus, it's about $600, which is still pretty affordable. Yeah, interesting. More and more companies are doing this sort of multi, you know, multi mount, multi format. But being able to develop for, you know, all of the full frame cameras as well as APS C as well as medium format is pretty impressive. Yeah, I know that. When we had Shane Henderson on last week. Hey, Shane, if you're watching, talking about his heavy metal concert photography he was recently trying out of. Was it a TT artisan 27 mil he was talking about? They don't always feature autofocus. That's. That's the flip side of something like this. Nev wants me to ask a question I don't know if I should have. Charlie. Oh, nice. Nev loves a good bit of kit. Ask Charlie, is there any chance Tamron could partner with GFX systems? You don't have to answer that at all, Charlie. You can just pretend like he's still frozen. [01:44:20] Speaker A: That is a great question. Are there any third party GFX lenses currently from any brands? Sorry. Ones that autofocus, you know, like ones that use the contacts and all that sort of stuff. Is that a thing yet? [01:44:36] Speaker C: I'm not too sure, to be honest. [01:44:38] Speaker B: I don't know. [01:44:39] Speaker C: I'm not too familiar and I think. [01:44:42] Speaker B: Lauer are looking at it. [01:44:44] Speaker C: Yeah, I'm not too sure. But I mean, to answer the question is I'm not the right person to ask right off the bat, but then not the right person to ask. And I suppose my question is, you know, what is it about Tamron that maybe you could kind of shed light on that you feel like we're not producing on our end that would benefit the company? [01:45:05] Speaker A: Cost effective, I was going to say. Was it Nev that mentioned it? Or was it maybe it was Nev someone, one of our many, many Fujifilm shooter guests, mentioned that one of their things that they don't like about the GFX system was the lack of entry level priced lenses in the range, which personally I don't see a big issue with it. Because I don't shoot GFX. No, because I figured if you're buying into that system, you know the deal, you know, like that, like the X series is there for more cost effective stuff and if you're buying into GFX, it's like, hey, I know Canon have a heap of affordable lenses now for the RF system, but a 50 mil L prime is a very similar price to the GFX lenses. It's not like the GFX lenses are charging Leica prices. [01:46:01] Speaker B: They're not hasselblads. [01:46:02] Speaker A: They're not hasselblads. You know, like, they are expensive, but they're just in line with any of the other best lenses on the market. So. Yeah, but I assume that that's what he's was more the entry level line of stuff that maybe, I don't know, entry level price. [01:46:22] Speaker C: Yeah, no, that'd be fair. And that's definitely feedback that could definitely bring forward to the team and just say that, just to see is this something that we could think about. [01:46:31] Speaker A: However, I was completely wrong. Actually change that. I was completely wrong. [01:46:37] Speaker C: Come on, mix it through. No, it wasn't me. About cheaper lenses. [01:46:42] Speaker B: Justin, stop calling nev cheap. [01:46:45] Speaker A: Sorry. It must have been. It must have been here. I can't remember who it was. It was someone else. [01:46:51] Speaker B: Jason said, I imagine entry level for resolving 100 megapixels is going to be tricky. And I agree. [01:46:56] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. [01:46:57] Speaker B: You know, it's not a, you're not picking up something for, you know, the holiday snaps, you're picking up a serious professional piece of equipment and like any trade or, you know, that sort of level, high level hobby, you know, you pay for what you get. And, and like you said, justin, if you know, you're going to invest in a, you know, 8910 thousand dollars camera. [01:47:22] Speaker A: Well, it's already the most affordable medium format system that there is. [01:47:26] Speaker B: Yes. [01:47:26] Speaker A: It's sort of like you kind of, you know what you're getting into and it's already reasonable. That's my opinion on it. I don't look at that system and think the lenses are what's keeping me out. I look at it and think, is it the right size? Is the autofocus going to do what I want? Like all that kind of stuff, not the price. Yeah, yeah. [01:47:47] Speaker C: And my usual advice is think about a guitar and an amp that you could have the most expensive guitar but you plug it into a very cheap amphienne, like you're not the sound or what's going to make the most out of the personality of the instrument. So in the same way, like, I mean, I can't attest to Tamron because I haven't really used their lenses. However, you know, be really mindful of whatever lenses that you do put on because a lot of folks who do use GFX, you know, some of them love their full frame lenses and they put adapters on it and, you know, for very specific purposes and whatnot. And I suppose that's the strength of the GFX, is that it has that flexibility wherever. Yes. If you want the best color science, you want the best autofocus and whatnot, keep it native. Like, that's the way to go. However, you know, as a creative, there are specific looks that you're after and if you are, you do have a large range and you're thinking about transitioning into the system. That's usually what a lot of folks do when they first get a GFX is they get the adapter, use the current lenses that they have and actually compare that with the current lineup and like, yes, I could actually see the personality of this lens and I could actually see the value of that too. [01:48:54] Speaker B: Yeah. And if you want some more information on that sort of approach, dial back a few episodes and watch our chat with Greg Carrick from his first appearance on our show where he talked about, you know, he's calling on family and friends to 3d print his own adapters so he can put the lens out of a cinema projector onto his, onto his, onto his GFX. So there's definitely a lot of. A lot of fun to be had in taking that approach. But, yeah, I think I agree with you, Justin, that I think that the, the cost matches the level of the system that you're investing in. [01:49:37] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:49:38] Speaker B: And, and Charlie, you're right. You know, you don't, you don't buy a great guitar or any piece of equipment and then pair it with crap accessories. Like, it just doesn't. You don't get the best value or experience from it. [01:49:52] Speaker C: Yeah. And to be clear, like, you know, when it comes to third party lenses, like, I personally use them. Like, some of them are pretty darn good, like, for what they do. And it all comes down to purpose at the end of the day. And I think just from speaking from experiences, whenever I've gone native, I've never felt like I was lacking anything going backwards. Yeah. So there's definitely a place for it. But I'm 100% advocate to say that, you know, you're investing that for a larger lens, a lot more glass, a lot more quality that's going to go into it. [01:50:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:50:19] Speaker C: So to keep with apples. With apples in that way. [01:50:22] Speaker B: Yep. [01:50:22] Speaker A: Makes total sense. I'll get a nice, nice segue from that lens discussion. Greg, did you see the news that GoPro released a new camera today? [01:50:32] Speaker B: No. [01:50:33] Speaker A: The Hero 13 is out. [01:50:36] Speaker B: It's up to 13. [01:50:37] Speaker A: They're up to 13. And it's got lenses, it's got a focusable macro lens available. It's got nd filters that when you put them on the camera knows which nd filter you've put on and can actually tell you if you've put on the wrong nd filter because there's not enough light or what, whatever. Because I think they figured out that a lot of people that are using nd filters on GoPros don't actually really know what it is that they're trying to achieve. [01:51:07] Speaker B: So can you actually swap out the lens? [01:51:11] Speaker A: Yes. [01:51:12] Speaker B: And is it like, you know how they. Yeah, that'd be great. [01:51:16] Speaker A: It's not like that. They're not doing telephotos or anything like that. Like, it's not like, hey, now you've got an interchangeable lens camera, but. [01:51:22] Speaker B: Yeah, because, you know how there was. Was one, I don't know who made it. It was a couple years ago, maybe a year ago, where there was like a kind of cubes. It was like a camera base, and you could put in a cube that had the lens, and you could change that for another cube that had a lens on it. [01:51:38] Speaker A: It was like an action camera, Insta 360. I think they did a modular one, and then it was like, you'll be able to upgrade this in the future. And then they discontinued it. So it was like. It was one of those things that until. Until that stuff kind of takes shape often a bit risky to put too much stock into those systems, but, yeah. [01:51:56] Speaker B: While you bring that up, just from Nev, thanks for the show. Thanks, Charlie. House of Fuji, a fabulous two. Have a great day, everyone. Thanks, Nev. [01:52:04] Speaker A: Thanks, Nev. All right, so Hero 13 black. So, yeah, they're doing an anamorphic cinema type thing, but that isn't available till 2025. But there's a few YouTube videos kicking around. I think one of the youtubers that flies drones and stuff was like. So they sent me this lens. They said, be careful with it. There's only six of them, like, that are available for people to test around the world. So they're kind of shipping them around for people to test. And then he strapped the thing on an fpv drone and was like, let's see what it could do. And he didn't crash it, which is nice. It's got a focusable macro lens, which is really interesting because after doing my pov videos recently of shooting, taking photos and stuff, the GoPro standard set focus distance is a little bit too far away for me to hold a camera in front of it and get it in crisp focus. So this actually allows you to choose your focus point. It's a manual focus, just like lens adaptery type thing, but you can. You can focus it rather than it being just where they set it. [01:53:09] Speaker B: So if all those bits, Justin, which ones are the lenses and which are the filters? Are the front four. The filters. [01:53:17] Speaker A: The front four are just different. NDS 4816 and I'm guessing a 32. And those are the ones that. Yes. So if you throw the. The 32 on, I believe that the camera might then go, dude, you're inside. No, take this. Back off. This is dumb. I'm pretty sure it has some sort of system where it adjusts the settings for you and also tells you if it's the wrong nd, which is pretty interesting. [01:53:45] Speaker B: And then what's the next one back? The fifth one. [01:53:47] Speaker A: They call that their ultra wide. That's their. They've had that already. It's kind of takes it to almost a 180 degree field of view, like a very immersive lens. It's cool, but it's also. Yeah, it's just even wider than a standard GoPro lens. And then you got the macro and then the anamorphic. [01:54:04] Speaker B: Wow. [01:54:05] Speaker A: So, yeah, it's interesting. [01:54:07] Speaker B: That is a really cool concept. And so I would imagine that you can buy this as the camera on its own and you can buy it with a kit or you can buy. [01:54:15] Speaker A: The kit part, I'm sure. Yeah, I'm sure it'll be like extra for everything kind of thing. Yeah. But, yeah, so very cool, very different. [01:54:26] Speaker B: It is one last bit of news that I've got. I don't have a segue. I'm just going to go straight to the news. Let me just find it. The folk design have finally launched a new backpack design. So you know how peak design have always had that classic. I can't remember what it's called. They've got it in two sizes. [01:54:47] Speaker A: The everyday. [01:54:49] Speaker B: The everyday. That's it. Yeah. With the two kind of wing zips down the side and you can open the whole thing right up. Well, these are their new kind of outdoor adventure packs and slings, and they've got a very different look from anything peak design have really done before. They look more for the sort of stuff that you would do, Justin, kind of, kind of. [01:55:12] Speaker A: I've got a few issues with this line of. Line of backpacks. I have some positives and negatives to say about this launch. Okay. All right, well, the first one, not so much a positive, but the first one is, there's a lot of people saying, hey, really a Kickstarter for a well established brand? What's going on here? Can't you guys just put products out? I want to defend them and say they started on Kickstarter very, like, their first thing was a Kickstarter and they've been a huge success from that. And the, I think continuing the Kickstarter thing for them is part of the DNA of their brand. And I don't think, you know, I have seen big brands do Kickstarters for no reason and I'm like, what are you guys doing? You can afford to just launch this product. But for peak design, it's part of who they are. So I'm on board with that. The downsides of that backpack, there are many. And what I didn't like was they put out. We couldn't see any good outdoor backpacks on the market, so we made one and I'm like, dude, it's like, come on, like mind shift. There's a million brands that have been doing it for a long time that make very, very capable outdoor camera bags. [01:56:24] Speaker B: They've always been a bit punchy with the marketing, haven't they? [01:56:26] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like, throw your hat in the ring, make a product. You guys do great products, but don't pretend that there was nothing else on the market so you made your own. It's like, come on. Yeah, that's all I have to say about that. [01:56:37] Speaker B: Okay, fair, cool. Fair, cool. Yep, that's the last bit of news I've got to share and we're heading to the close of the show, so. [01:56:45] Speaker A: I have a question, if we've got time. [01:56:47] Speaker B: Yeah, of course, you're the five minutes. You're paying the bills. [01:56:50] Speaker A: So I saw this article and I think it got me, it clickbaited me or whatever. And I want to ask you guys the question. Unfortunately, the website that it's on is horrendous, but I'll present it anyway. It's just full of, is it on MySpace? No, it's on digitalcameraworld.com. i don't even know if this is a real publication or not. I know it's been around for a long time, but there's so many ads that have nothing to do with photography. It's about a game anyway. [01:57:15] Speaker B: Possibly. See what that is. Can you zoom in on that while. There we go. [01:57:18] Speaker A: I've never shot any photos over 2500. So why do we need high ISO cameras? The luminance of light has not changed and I've never shot over 2500. I'm like, and then the whole article proceeds to go through and saying that why are we obsessing with high ISO when I've never had to shoot over 2500? And I've done all of this cool stuff, including taking photos of horses, jumping over stuff, you know, what do you guys think? Do we need over 2500? You know, as this guy, this guy sort of said, you know, back, I remember many photographers being able to shoot 3200 film and that's all we need and blah, blah, blah. I think, what's the deal with this? Is this click? Did I get tricked? Is this click? [01:58:05] Speaker B: He did. I think it's just creating an article for, for the sake of getting some views on the ad page, not to diss the writer. I mean, we all have a job to do and there's, oh no, I'm. [01:58:15] Speaker A: Happy, I'm happy to disagree. It's ridiculous. [01:58:19] Speaker B: But having said that ISO is just another part of our toolkit as photographers. Use it, don't use it. I couldn't give a shit, you know, like make your work or your art or what makes you happy with photography, with whatever settings you want, you know, as long as you don't oversaturate your images, I'm not going to complain. Get me started on vibrance and saturation and yeah, I'll get angry, but, you know, I think it's just another toolkit I personally, I'm shooting with, you know, what is it now? Twelve year old x 70 that really struggles with ISO in low light. But I love it and I wouldn't, I wouldn't change a thing about it. And I'm shooting with a slightly older Fuji aps C size xe four. And it's. ISO is pretty good. But I don't tend to do a lot of night photography. And, and even when I do, I don't try to, to change much about what's going on in terms of my settings. Like, you know, I'll drop shutter speed a bit, but if I can't get the shot clean, then I don't take the shot, you know, but I'm not doing it for money. I'm not shooting events, I'm not doing weddings. So I'd be interested to hear what you think, Justin, about ISO in a professional sense. [01:59:42] Speaker A: Well, look, the thing that really got me with this article is the example image that I've got here of a horse jumping, which is wonderful. Good job, horse. Oh, and there's a person on the horse. Anyway, they're jumping over stuff and it says, this is one of the examples. This was shot with the D 800 at ISO 1000, at 800th of a second at 5.6. And I'm like, dude, that is not low light. 800 a second at 5.6 at ISO 1000, that's just light. That's not even low light. [02:00:09] Speaker B: Yeah, it's not really a challenge. [02:00:11] Speaker A: I've shot weddings at 25,600 or whatever it is, ISO at the end of the night because it's under festoon lights outside. There's nothing reflecting anything in it. And that's all there is. And that was on, that would be on like a 1.4 or 1.8 lens or something like that. And it's like, that's dark, usually at like a shutter of 250th or 320th. And I know back in the day, people would have just gone a slower shutter speed to try and let more light in. But then you risk motion blur and on our high megapixel sensors, it's more easy to see motion blur. And anyway, so that's, that's. Anyway, I got tricked, I'll admit it, by the clickbait article. What, like, what do you think, Charlie? Like Fujifilms, you know, the GFX 100 high ISO capabilities are pretty amazing. How clean they are. [02:01:02] Speaker C: Yes. [02:01:02] Speaker A: Do you have to shoot high ISO much doing portraits, or are you mainly in control? You got plenty of light situations. [02:01:10] Speaker C: Yeah. And it's gonna. The answer will depend on person to person and personally. For me, I've shot confidently up to 6400 and with Fujifilm products. And, yeah, so for portraiture, I never really found the need to. And I suppose that the article, like, not to knock on him, is that, like, I'm not a big fan when someone says, I don't shoot over 2000, so you don't have to. And. Yeah, like, right away, you know, I think I'm Matt Crummons because we did a workshop together here in Sydney. And one thing that I love, what he pointed out, is that when he did his wildlife stuff, is that he was shooting aperture priority, or shows you priority, like those party modes are there to help you. And so when he does that, of course, you know, we're thinking like, well, why don't you just shoot manual? And he said, well, with the advancement of technology, especially when it comes to our products, like, it's there to help you at the end of the day. So my response to that article in itself is, think about technology advancement, that if we capped it at 2000, are we giving enough wiggle room for our cameras to actually make, you know, a greater scope to adjust according to the scene at the end of the day? Yeah, because, yes, he's doing horses, but that's excluding the multiple genres that may require a higher ISO, and especially with editing software and software that actually helps with noise in particular. I know two guys in Melbourne that shot in that 12,800 that brought that ISO all the way down and it looks really, really clean. [02:02:38] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:02:39] Speaker C: So I wouldn't knock down something that's actually there to help you, but I understand the principle of, you know, distortion and, you know, it's not, you know, ideal, but the good thing about our products is our cameras in particular does pretty darn good of handling noise. Because, you know, I think I may be wrong in saying this, though, is that I think our camera is one of the few that has a dedicated grain feature in the camera. And there's something beautiful about the aesthetic that it produces. There is noise involved in that as well. [02:03:11] Speaker A: Interesting. I've never thought about it like that. Yeah. Does anyone do grain other than. Yeah, they do. [02:03:17] Speaker B: It's one of my favorite sayings. If you're not happy with the shot, just make it black and white, add some grain and call it out. [02:03:23] Speaker A: But do any other camera brands have that in camera with their jpegs? I actually don't think I've ever heard of that. [02:03:30] Speaker C: The size of it, the density, and just add all that characteristic traits which ties into simulations and you can control. [02:03:37] Speaker B: Whether you want strong or weak grain as well. [02:03:39] Speaker C: Exactly. Right. [02:03:40] Speaker B: And you can use the in camera raw conversion software to add it. Yep. [02:03:44] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:03:45] Speaker B: On the spot. [02:03:46] Speaker C: Yeah, that's right. So I would say embrace the noise, especially when it comes to. [02:03:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Again, it's just. It's just one of the many options that we've got available. Tools. One of the tools. You know, I don't think camera companies aren't going to go, oh, we don't really need it that high. Let's go backwards. It's just part of the chipset, it's part of the processor and what it can do and what the sensor can see and can't see, they're not going to go backwards with it. [02:04:10] Speaker C: That's great. [02:04:12] Speaker B: From a marketing perspective, it's also a selling feature. [02:04:15] Speaker A: Well, I guess. Well, here's the way to look at it. Because we live in a consumer driven society. If high ISO wasn't needed by photographers, camera brands wouldn't be putting their time and effort into developing better, cleaner high isos. They wouldn't bother because it wouldn't be a selling point. Yeah, it's obviously needed. This article was done. What are we going to cover? A couple of comments. The first one. The first one to read. [02:04:43] Speaker B: For everyone. Yeah, for everyone at home. You can thank Justin for that ten minutes of your life you'll never get back. Sorry, Jason said Panasonic. Do they have an lemonade jpeg with variable grain structure options? [02:04:58] Speaker A: Interesting. [02:04:59] Speaker B: I like that. Variable grain structure. That's a good way of saying noise. Yeah. I'm just going to control my variable grain structure. [02:05:07] Speaker A: Yeah, that sounds. That's very much one of those like buzzword, what was one prime sonic with variable gain structure. [02:05:15] Speaker B: Remember that we talked about the five mark two? They talked about the neural networking, neural net, AI development, deep learning. [02:05:22] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:05:24] Speaker B: Well, that brings us to the news of the end. Sorry, that brings us to the end of the news segment. Clearly, we've been talking for over 2 hours. We're going to make a wrap on today's show. But before we do a little bit of housekeeping, just a reminder, you're watching the camera life Fujifilm podcast, brought to you by the wonderful team at lucky camera straps. Now, Justin, I believe last week you said we would do a giveaway. [02:05:49] Speaker A: And look, we did, because we are up to 620 something subscribers now, which means since I started that 30 day challenge, we've put on almost 500 subscribers, which is pretty amazing. But I wasn't very organized this week, so we will do it. [02:06:04] Speaker B: Way to float your own boat, mate. [02:06:06] Speaker A: Yelena asked me about it last night, and I said, if someone mentions it in the comments, we'll do a giveaway. But no one mentioned it, so. Too late, guys. [02:06:14] Speaker B: Yeah, the cutoff has dropped a. Yeah. But maybe we'll work towards something at a thousand. [02:06:19] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, for sure. We might even do one next week. I don't know. We'll see how we go. [02:06:23] Speaker B: Yeah, we'll see. We'll see. [02:06:25] Speaker A: Is there anything, Charlie, that you want to mention about Fujifilm before we wrap up in terms of, like, where should people follow to find these events that are available? Like, how do you find out about them? All that kind of stuff? How do they get involved with what. [02:06:39] Speaker C: Yeah, absolutely. So to. To be in the loop of our events, I recommend following our Fujifilm eventbrite. And so we do two house of photography events a month in. In Sydney. However, you know, depending on where you live at, just, you know, subscribe to your local camera source, because most likely I will be there to help run those events. [02:06:59] Speaker A: I went to that house of photography place, that little house that you guys have full of cameras in Sydney. It's pretty sweet. [02:07:05] Speaker C: Oh, nice. Did you go to our new location, like, on Sword Street? [02:07:09] Speaker A: I did, yes. I went to the. Because they said they only recently moved. It was pretty big, had a cool little space for. Yeah. Workshops and stuff like that. There was. I think there was three staff in there, and it was just me, so I was like, I could try anything I want. It was really cool. They let me play with the GFX 102 and. Yeah, it was. It's a. If you're in Sydney, go and check out the house of photography. It's pretty awesome. [02:07:38] Speaker C: That's correct. [02:07:39] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:07:39] Speaker C: No. Thanks for your time, Justin. Thanks, Greg. And for everyone watching, I'm hoping to link up soon. [02:07:45] Speaker B: Yeah. Cool. [02:07:46] Speaker A: Awesome. [02:07:46] Speaker B: Charlie, thank you so much for joining us. It's been an absolute delight to have just the odd Fujifilm guest on, but obviously one was such an inspiring story that you started off as someone looking for a new camera. You got recommended a camera to try for a week and look at you now. You're now the national training and events specialist. Did I say that right? Fujifilm Australia national training and events specialist. All in caps. Congratulations on your journey. It's very inspirational. And thank you once again for joining us. Before we say goodbye, what are your photography plans for this weekend, Charlie, if any? [02:08:20] Speaker C: This weekend? Well, we actually have a House of Photography event this Saturday where instead of doing a workshop, we're actually having a camera and coffee social at Benden Cafe. That's located in the city that's part of Cupra as well. So if you want to come and mingle, that's probably what I'm doing this weekend. [02:08:38] Speaker A: Nice. [02:08:39] Speaker B: Nice. What about you, Justin? [02:08:40] Speaker C: What? [02:08:41] Speaker B: You've dropped the 30 day challenge. What have you got on this weekend? [02:08:44] Speaker A: I will make. I'll make a video of some sort and it's nice. I haven't decided what it will be. I bet I'll be getting out and shooting something. I just, I'm gonna let. Let the world come to me and see what I make. So keep subscribe if you want to see what I get up to. [02:09:00] Speaker B: As for me, I don't have any solid plans. I do have. I've kept tomorrow free. I've gotten all my work done this week so far, almost. And so tomorrow is a bit of a street shoot day, probably in the city. Melbourne might head in. But some other exciting news is that lucky camera straps is heading to the bright festival of photography. Yeah, Justin and I will be heading up at some stage. Somehow we still don't have anywhere to sleep, but we're working on it. [02:09:29] Speaker A: I got a van. [02:09:30] Speaker B: Yeah, whatever. I'm not sleeping in your van with you. But yeah. So we'll have more on that in coming episodes. But for now, thank you everyone, for watching. Please like and subscribe and hit the bell button so you get notifications prior to the podcast going live. And also when, whenever Justin drops a one of his videos randomly and yeah, we'll catch up next week. Next week. Trying to think who we've got on the show next week. [02:10:03] Speaker A: Is it Russell next week? [02:10:04] Speaker B: No, no, Russell. Russell's week after, I think a couple of weeks after that. Anyway, it'll be. Stay tuned. Subscribe. You'll find out. I should know because there's. It's my job, but I don't. But yeah, have a great day, everybody. Get out and shoot. It doesn't matter what camera you've got, just get out. Point it at the light and see how you go. But have a great week. Thanks for listening. [02:10:26] Speaker A: Great. [02:10:26] Speaker C: Thanks very much. [02:10:28] Speaker B: Bye, Charlie. [02:10:29] Speaker C: All right, see you. [02:10:29] Speaker B: See you, Justin.