Do you know when an object becomes an integral part of your life? Keys, mobile phone, wallet… That feeling of having forgotten something essential when you leave home?
FUJIFILM X100V is exactly that.
When Fujifilm asked me to make a project for the launch of the new model, I was immediately enthusiastic, simply because it is part of my daily life, it is the camera that I always have with me and I know it well.
I have chosen to go to Barcelona, a city that I love and where I have many friends who can help me during the shooting. I wanted to work on a multifaceted and diversified project to demonstrate that even with a compact fixed lens 90% of the images can be created, from action to studio portrait or street photography.
And so here we go! Landing in the city during its pre-Christmas ferment, a swarm of people inside and outside the illuminated shops, the alleys of the Gothic Quarter. FUJIFILM X100V, with its retro design, is discreet and does not scare.
I look like a classic tourist hunting memories and people trust me, they are not bothered by the presence of a photographer, they think I am just a curious and eager visitor.
The new tiltable monitor helps me a lot during street sessions, easy to use and visible from different angles, it allows me to have different perspectives and shots, taken naturally.
Then comes a new Husqvarna model that needs some images to show the totally renewed look of the Vitpilen 701, and it is here that I am totally amazed, not so much by the static photos where I knew that X100V would give me an impeccable rendering of details and sharpness, but especially as much as on the action photos, taken in the full backlight of 7 in the morning, where the renewed autofocus system does not miss a shot, even when shooting in fairly slow times, with a huge flair right in the lens. The performance was phenomenal.
I then go to a friend, a leather craftsman, and inside his atelier we improvise a portrait session set, I mount my trusted Profoto B10 with a beauty dish and start shooting. Here too the surprise is enormous, the photos seem painted, the pictorial light gives me a feeling of times gone by. Besides, I am working on jpg files with the Classic Chrome film simulation, because at the moment we didn’t yet have the software to open the Raw file.
Extremely light and compact, the X100V allows me to move quickly with practically zero weights compared to those I am used to.
Finally, to test the yield in a super controlled situation, I step into the studio. The central shutter allows me to sync at any shutter speed and the built-in ND filter lets me work even at very open apertures.
A friend, a fashion designer, makes herself available for some portraits. She comes from Senegal, has dark and shiny skin, on a perfectly white background creates a pleasant contrast in my images, full of splendid soul energy.
Then, in front of my monitor, I can better appreciate the files rendering, which only require small adjustments of lights and shadows and the retouching of small imperfections of the skin, so detailed.
After a trip and a job like this, I think that sometimes we bring with us an infinite amount of optics, ultra-heavy cameras and other accessories (maybe to look more professional or simply for fear of not being able to face different and unexpected situations) when, with a reliable and performing camera and some good ideas in your head, you always win.
