Fuji X-T3 and X-T4 discussion

[Dustin]

2 hours ago, Jay60p said:

Unfortunately the 16-55 does do stepping during a zoom. It is the lens being used in the first video I linked above at time 4:52.

That is how the lens maintains a constant aperture, same as my Fuji 10-24 f4 (see my post above, Thursday August 6).

I was thinking the 18-55 was doing some sort of ISO stepping, but putting the lens to my ear I can hear faint clicking that

sounds like aperture stepping while zooming at above f4. So the new X-T4 firmware may not fix this.

The OIS is strong in this lens, great for hand holding in one position. It may be overly strong for panning shots since there is little

ease-out when coming to a stop and appears too abrupt. So I pan slowly with OIS on.

I have several old 35mm SLR zoom lenses that work best for zoom shots. They have manual aperture rings (no stepping) and are very parfocal so they don't rely on the camera's auto focus.  They are also a small fraction of the cost of new Fuji zooms, and use $20 adapters.

Good to know! I was going to say, the OIS in this kit lens is better than any I’ve ever had. I have a few Nikon primes I’ll eventually buy a dumb adapter/speedbooster for. Particularly my 100mm 2.8 e series Nikon prime. Really enjoying this camera so far, especially the colors.

[Xavier Plagaro Mussard]

Is anybody zooming in 2020?? Of course, yes to reframe, but I say "keep in editing" zooms?? 

[Jay60p]

I found an earlier post about this exposure stepping workaround (auto aperture & AE-L lock), so I'm not the first!

https://www.eoshd.com/comments/topic/24941-fuji-exposure-shift-during-video-recording/?do=findComment&comment=341693

Wish I hadn't missed this one six months ago.

 

On 8/14/2020 at 11:46 AM, Xavier Plágaro Mussard said:

Is anybody zooming in 2020?? Of course, yes to reframe, but I say "keep in editing" zooms?? 

I have become amazed at how different Fuji users are.  I remember watching a well-respected youtube review of the X-T3 for video and the reviewer's methods and settings were completely different than what I would use, and his complaints were about things that did not bother me at all, and he never mentioned any of the things I have problems with. So to each his own.

I am doing mostly family video (birthdays, barbecues, my kid's new activities) and use zoom lenses all the time, trying to cover what is going on in a group and zooming in on who is speaking or going crazy at the time.

I also do backyard nature, and a bird feeder about 20 feet from my window allows for great telephoto views of food fights, including squirrels who come for the seed droppings and are always chasing away the chipmunks. If I didn't have a telephoto zoom mounted I couldn't have kept a deer in frame who wandered in the yard and headed straight for my window.

So I've been playing with the 10-24 in "auto aperture/exposure lock" mode and it is the closest thing to a camcorder mode that I've got with the X-T3, without exposure stepping. The auto focus is improved from the last firmware update. I've only got a few inexplicable focus jumps in about 7 minutes of shooting with 10-24 & 18-55 zooms. Still, the gold standard for me is a tripod and a manual zoom.

 

[Xavier Plagaro Mussard]

Hi! I am having a very stupid problem, the XT-3 don't let me change the movie recording settings (4K/Full HD, fps, mbps). The option is grayed. Anybody know what can it be??

[Jay60p]

I don't recall having that happen, tried changing some things but those settings haven't greyed out.

Is this a new camera?

[Kubrickian]

2 hours ago, Xavier Plágaro Mussard said:

Hi! I am having a very stupid problem, the XT-3 don't let me change the movie recording settings (4K/Full HD, fps, mbps). The option is grayed. Anybody know what can it be??

Check the high-speed and f-log / picture style to card / HDMI settings. 

[Xavier Plagaro Mussard]

Yesterday I was in a hurry, so I couldn't answer. So the problem was that the camera never entered the movie mode. The dial was on movie, but it didn't enter movie mode and it couldn't even record, it just took pictures. I reseted the camera but nothing changed. I panicked for several minutes, but then thought that I didn't have the last firmware, so I updated it. And it solved the situation!!! I am happy that I solved, but remained a bit worried that at any moment something like this can happen. My XT-3 is my A camera and I wanted it to remain it for several years!

[Jay60p]

Yeah, I put off installing new firmware for a month or two, sometimes it breaks more than it fixes.

Good to hear a happy ending!

[dgvro]

On 8/14/2020 at 4:46 PM, Xavier Plágaro Mussard said:

Is anybody zooming in 2020?? Of course, yes to reframe, but I say "keep in editing" zooms?? 

Documentary / event / general run 'n gun shooters of a certain style, it has uses for them. The Hate5Six guy, it's almost a signature thing of his imo. Though his style is still evolving and not the same for every subject. Also not that he uses Fuji...

[Ricardo Constantino]

5 hours ago, dgvro said:

Documentary / event / general run 'n gun shooters of a certain style, it has uses for them. The Hate5Six guy, it's almost a signature thing of his imo. Though his style is still evolving and not the same for every subject. Also not that he uses Fuji...

I think he's using the Blackmagic Micro and yeah the zoom style is his signature especially for the live show edits. I think it's to accentuate the rhythm of the songs but I love it so I'm kinda guilty on this subject 😅 nice to see another hxc fan! 

[Jay60p]

On 9/15/2020 at 3:05 PM, Jay60p said:

Yeah, I put off installing new firmware for a month or two, sometimes it breaks more than it fixes.

Speak of the Devil...

X-T3 Firmware update

Version: 3.30

https://fujifilm-x.com/global/support/download/firmware/cameras/x-t3/

"Very dangerous... you go first."

[Chris Whitten]

Looks like it mostly addresses the new 50mm lens, which I don't own.

[Xavier Plagaro Mussard]

23 hours ago, Chris Whitten said:

Looks like it mostly addresses the new 50mm lens, which I don't own.

Me neither, unfortunately! 

[Anaconda_]

According to Fuji Rumors, this update also gives:

Quote

No more exposure stepping in either Auto ISO or Aperture priority. When setting the aperture to Auto, stepping still occurs in 1/3rd stops.

and

The wireless communication is much stronger and the camera can be paired at longer distances – Worked flawlessly standing 1-1.5 meters (3.2-4.9 feet) away from the camera.

 

 

[Jay60p]

On 9/20/2020 at 5:29 AM, Anaconda_ said:

According to Fuji Rumors, this update also gives:

No more exposure stepping in either Auto ISO or Aperture priority.

I haven’t installed it yet, but-

This is really REALLY excellent news.

This new smooth auto exposure (ISO) solves my biggest problem with Fuji video.

Auto ISO allows panning from sunlit areas to shadow, doing interior walk-throughs with changing available window light, and any uncontrolled situation where you don’t know how the light will shift during a shot. Which is often the case in run & gun video. Having to set a manual exposure is no longer necessary full time to avoid the flickering exposure stepping. You have a choice.

Here is how it looks in the X-H1
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYyrEd4vhqi-01AIlmc3DKQ/videos

(I have been waiting to see if there were any reports of firmware update problems,
so far have not seen any.  There had been a problem with an update for X-T3 last
year which increased the auto focus hunting/pulsing when stopped down to f/8 or more.
That was fixed in a later update, but it took half a year?)

Auto aperture is still stepping, but I much prefer setting an aperture for depth of field,

and let the ISO go on auto.

[jpleong]

The recent stepping fix worked across my Fujifilm cameras (X-T2, X-T3, and X-H1).

It DOES NOT solve the fixed-aperture stepping-artifact (I say artifact because it's not actually stepping) whilst zooming. I tested with both the XF 18-55mm and XF 55-200mm.

And... having just recently re-watched several episodes of the Office, I will point out that Zooms are used a LOT in that show as a story-telling tool. I was in the "who the heck uses zoom moves in final footage?" camp until that point.

[Jay60p]

7 hours ago, jpleong said:

The recent stepping fix worked across my Fujifilm cameras (X-T2, X-T3, and X-H1).

It DOES NOT solve the fixed-aperture stepping-artifact (I say artifact because it's not actually stepping) whilst zooming. I tested with both the XF 18-55mm and XF 55-200mm.

That’s because zooms cause aperture stepping even on manual aperture, which is not smoothed in this firmware update. (Except for 18-55 which did not step when the aperture was wide open.)

I installed the update and did a few pans from a window view to an indoor view which showed very smooth auto ISO at 30fps. Every frame shows a change in video scopes luma so there is no stepping. Fixed!

However, at 60fps I get pauses during the auto ISO, it adjusts smoothly for about 30 frames, then pauses for about 35 frames, then adjusts some more for 30 frames and continues intermittently like that until the ISO is fully adjusted. Do you see the same?

So 30p looks completely smooth, 60p improved but not completely smooth, in my X-T3.

[Jay60p]

1 hour ago, Jay60p said:

So 30p looks completely smooth, 60p improved but not completely smooth, in my X-T3.

Those quick tests were with the 10-24 zoom on continuous auto focus.

I just noticed that auto focus affects the auto ISO smoothness at 60p.

Switching to manual focus and viewing the auto ISO in viewfinder shows a smooth auto ISO exposure change at 4K DCI 200mbps HEVC 60p.

Thank you Fuji.

 

 

[dgvro]

8 hours ago, jpleong said:

The recent stepping fix worked across my Fujifilm cameras (X-T2, X-T3, and X-H1).

It DOES NOT solve the fixed-aperture stepping-artifact (I say artifact because it's not actually stepping) whilst zooming. I tested with both the XF 18-55mm and XF 55-200mm.

And... having just recently re-watched several episodes of the Office, I will point out that Zooms are used a LOT in that show as a story-telling tool. I was in the "who the heck uses zoom moves in final footage?" camp until that point.

as much of a success and comedy/culture touchstone as it is (alive and well in reaction gifs and memes even now),

If I saw another comedy show doing similar zooms, I'd maybe think "c'mon... The Office did this to death..."
If I saw a serious documentary of any kind doing zooms I might almost inappropriately infer it as an optical laugh track at this point for similar reason

But like I said above it works pretty well in some other cases like the chaotic/fast/heavy live music docu stuff.

I'm also a big fan of slow-crawl-speed push-ins for adding a feeling to some stuff but I suppose they tend to look better done in post or by physically dollying in the camera anyway

[dgvro]

vaguely related / don't know if there's any real other thread for this: I'm about to have a Ronin SC and try squeeze as much electronic control of Fuji XT(4) out of it as possible. I think Ronin is still the only gimbal that does full control of electronic focus pulls etc (no external motor) for Fuji cameras, with the gimbal wheel. Let's hope it works out better than the Moza gimbals I used to have.