orlovsn
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Regular Member
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Posts: 201
Fuji for tele and birds - Pre-shot vs dual-screen focusing
8 months ago
I need to add some video recording capabilities to my old nikon gear (d810, d4) and as long time fuji user I definitely want fuji
Trouble is - I used fuji previously (from first x100 up to x-t3) as "compact" system and mainly relied on autofocus. Now I want to try using my tele lenses for birds, wildlife and some sports (he-he) on fuji body, but trouble is that most of them are "screw-driven" so no option for AF. That is not a huge problem because on nikon I mainly use "semi-manual" setup with 600/5.6+tc16 where AF is very limited in capabilities but I need to select right body for MF:
1) X-H1 - nice grip, has "dual display" focusing assist, nice speed with booster, no pre-shoot, enforced bayonet (nice for 3+ kilo lenses), cheapest body while best built. AF .. I never liked fuji's much for action before T3
2) X-S10 - some kind of grip, has pre-shot while very limited (10 frames buffer so only 10 fps speed usable for my need), no dual-display, smaller evf, price similar to x-h1
3) X-T4 - twice the price of x-h1, no grip, super fast with electronic shutter but not much faster in mech than h1 with booster, pre-shot with 20 frames buffer - doubles usable fps of x-s10, fast AF in case I will want to adapt my only "motorized" lens (tamron 150-600G2) or change it to fuji's new 150-600. battery (not very important, I have spares)
4) X-H2S - seems to be perfect for my needs but 3 times more expensive compared to H1.
All those bodies fits my video needs, all have ibis (most of my tele lenses do not have ois) so I need to clarify some aspect before making decision:
1) When I was using olympus for light tele setup, I enjoyed much pro-capture mode but I never tried pre-shot on fuji. Can pre-shot write files in raw or it is only limited to jpegs? Can it work with third party manual lenses (oly limits it's mode a little bit)? What happens in evf when pro-capture is in action (half-pressed shutter button) - is it falling to 20fps refresh rate (I need at least 1 second buffer to make it usable for my needs so max acceptable framerate is 20 for x-t4)? Is it showing real or last captured picture? Does it allow to still use dual-screen focusing or it is unusable with pre-shoot?
Pre-record buffer is one of the main things that makes me think about using mlc instead of dslr for tele, but I doubt that fuji's implementation is compatible with manual focusing
2) I never tried dual-display focusing also Is it suitable for action? On paper it looks "just perfect" and far easier to gain focus than with ovf with optical magnifier. But is it so in real life? Can display swap be programmed on some button or position of displays can only be selected in menu? Can peaking be enabled not for "enlarged" display but for "composition" screen? I don't need peaking artificial lines to mess with real structure in focus assist display but I like them for quick focal plane positioning (so nice to have them in composition view)
Focus enlarger is second thing that makes me experiment with mlc in tele, but I find traditional "full screen enlarged view" totally unusable for my needs
3) EVF. Is there any visible difference in EVF picture while focusing in h1/t4/h2s? h1 with it's 100fps seems to be ok on paper, but what about sharpness in real-time view? older olys cameras were always much softer when showing real-time picture compared to showing last-taken picture in evf due to older processing and low-res sensor readouts in live, what about fuji? are they comparable or newer bodies use higer imager resolution for displaying in real-time?
Maybe I'm missing something else?
Currently I find h1 to be best bet because it seems to solve my tasks for half the price of T4, but I really liked pro-capture much and if pre-shot is perfectly usable with MF then I'm ready to add extra.
p.s. I remember h1 ibis works nicely together with 18-55's ois in video, but what about 18-135? I need to get one native lens for simple handheld video tasks, I had 18-55 previously but I never had 18-135 and want to try one, as I remember, with first firmware versions there were some problems with this glass - were they fixed and dual (ois+ibis) stabilization works like with 18-55?