A portrait set with Alena testing the new Fuji X70

Posted on May 12, 2016

Fujifilm continues with his magic touch which allowed to churn out beautiful and, above all, high-quality cameras in recent years.

The Fuji X100 (in the original version, and the S / T variants) is now almost a legendary series: used worldwide by many professional photographers (and even some celebrities such as Annie Leibovitz and Prince Henry of Wales) is a camera system that has earned a great reputation thanks to the top quality pictures produced, the portability and the objective beauty of the machine itself.

Fujifilm, five years later the first X100 model, introduces a new version. A smaller camera that is not giving away anything on the quality side: the Fujifilm X70 uses the same Xtrans APS-C sensor seen on the larger sister X100T so you can expect the same quality results talking about Iso and quality of the colors (the thing that I love the most).

Indeed: Fuji X70 inherits the last autofocus system implemented on bigger X-T10 so a step forward compared to the X100T series.

How does the machine work? In my opinion from the first test I took, I am very satisfied with the results.
The general operating speed is very good, I would say that we are on the same level as the X100T.

I have only noticed a small lag difference between the single photos taken in a quick shot sequence with the X70 and the X100T sister: with the same memory card (I used the Lexar Professional 1000x) the X70 has a period of “black screen time” that is a fraction of a second longer than his older sister. I’ve double checked that all settings on the camera are the same and that the “High Performance” is “On” mode on both machines.

Speaking about the lens, the Fujifilm X70 has a 28mm equivalent. The quality of the lens is very high, it’s sharp already at the full aperture of f/2.8 and creates a very nice contrast in the images and some beautiful colors, something that luckily we are well used with the Fujifilm system. So even with the new 28mm lens, the new Fuji X70 is highly promoted!

I also liked the new functionality of the focus ring. In this case, Fuji copied (in a good way) the iFunction feature that I used for years on the Samsung mirrorless camera: turning the ring is therefore possible to change some parameters that can be chosen from the user. I think it’s a nice trick and I hope that this feature can be implemented with a firmware update on the Fuji X100T too.

Negative aspects of the machine: beyond the slight lag highlighted above, I noticed that the arrow keys on the back of the machine are too close to the screen, and in some cases, it’s difficult to press the “back” button cause it’s very close to the edge of the LCD.

To test the camera I want to take some photos in my studio with a model to see how it could perform in a portrait set in my studio. I know that it sounds odd to use a wide lens for fashion or portrait but we have always to remember that in the art field there are no rules.
For example, one of my favorite fashion photographer, Jeanloup Sieff, used as a personal style for his fashion and portrait shoots a wide lens. I think his images are very interesting and unique thanks to this wide angle of view that gives a different vision of the space.

For my set in the studio with the model Alena, I used only continuous LED lights. The exposure time was around 1/40” to 1/100”, and with ISO range from 500 to 1000. I’ve used always the maximum aperture at f/ 2.8.
The photos were shot in .raw mode and I’ve applied in Lightroom the “Classic Chrome” color profile. I almost didn’t do any other extra work, only a bit of skin smoothing in Lightroom.