Back in June I was assigned as one of the photographers of the internal phototeam at the Nibe festival in Northern Jutland in Denmark. During this time I had an X-T2 with me as part of my kit. It presented a great opportunity for me to really see how good it would fare in the changing lighting conditions of the stage.
I used a combination of the X-T2 and the X-Pro2. I mainly used the XF10-24mmF4 R OIS and the XF50-140mmF2.8 R LM OIS WR.
Some artists have amazing on-stage energy, and it can be quite hard to keep up with them. The erratic nature of the on-stage movement demands that the camera not only tracks them correctly, but also keeps them in focus and ignores the obstacles surrounding the artist. These fast paced sequences where the great photogenic statures are captured are easily achieved with the X-T2 in AF-C mode set to track “Erratic moving subjects”. Focus with was spot on every time. Mostly I used a 3 fps CL burst, and it was more than plenty. The X-T2 surely did a fantastic job under these conditions.
I really love the way the new X-Trans III sensor in the X-T2 captures and treats color. The colorful on stage lights can often create bland or magenta skin tones because of stray light. The X-Trans sensor doesn’t seem to mind all the stray on-stage light. It keeps the skintones looking great, so I need minimal time in the post-processing stages retouching the artists. This was particularly great since I had to upload a lot of my files directly to the press-server withing minutes after the concert had ended. Having true to life coloring of the skin-tones right out of the camera makes my workflow so much faster.
One of the things that is truly useful is the flipscreen. Especially when shooting above the edge of the stage, I could easily compose my shot, and not shoot blind. I especially used it for portrait oriented shots using the XF10-24mm.
While mingling the crowds, shooting above the heads of the audience was also incredibly easy and intuitive. In addition, the small size really made it a breeze to carry the camera over my shoulder all day.
A part of the X-T2 experience that I really loved in this festival setting was how it quickly transformed from a big mean rapid fire stage shooting beast with the XF50-140mm, to being a completely discreet audience reportage camera with the XF35mm. I was able to get great candid shots of fleeing moments in the audience, simply because I didn’t look like the official photographer.
The X-T2 is a true multi-tool for the demanding photographer. You can put it through any situation and it rewards you with great images regardless.
