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Camera Controls: Top Deck

Lesson 6 from: Fujifilm X-H1 Fast Start

John Greengo

Camera Controls: Top Deck

Lesson 6 from: Fujifilm X-H1 Fast Start

John Greengo

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Lesson Info

6. Camera Controls: Top Deck

Lesson Info

Camera Controls: Top Deck

On the top of this camera, new for the Fuji APSE cameras, they have brought in an LCD that is very similar to the one that they are using on their medium format camera. And so, this is a great at-a-glance view of the settings on your camera. Now, this is something that you can go in and customize and really adjust the way the information is given to you. You can also adjust it if you shoot a lot of video to show you more relevant video information. So if you want to go in and adjust it, you can go in to the screen setup menu, under sub monitor settings, and you can go in and control each one of those little data points and change what is being shown to you in there. Now, if it's not easy for you to see it because of the light levels, you can press the little light button right next to it and that will light up. With a little illumination there, you can easily see that under low light conditions. The top of the camera also has a couple of microphones. These are stereo microphones, not t...

he world's greatest microphones, but it's better than mono and it's better than nothing at all. But that is for the video recording. There is a focal plane indicator on here. Most people will never need to use this, but some people occasionally need to measure the exact distance from their subject to where the focal plane is on the camera, and that's just an indicator of where that happens to be. That is most frequently used with cinema lenses that are very very precise and shallow in depth of field. Sometimes also true in macro photography. The camera has a hot shoe on the top, for mounting an external flash. The camera does come with a little EF-X8 flash, which is not very powerful, it's not the greatest thing in the world, but I have seen it in use and it can really help out in a situation that you are in a very dark environment and there are people or subjects in front of you that aren't too far away that can really use a little bit of extra light, and so it's not a bad thing to keep thrown in the camera bag. Fuji's main line professional flash is the EF-X500 flash. It's a relatively expensive flash, because it is very versatile and very powerful on it, so it can zoom back and forth as you zoom the lens, and it's got an LED fill light, it's remote capable, it's top of the line flash. For anyone who does a lot of serious flash photography, like a wedding photographer, this is pretty much a must. Fuji does have a, they have a wide collection of older flashes that will technically work on the camera just fine, it's just that they were designed for different cameras and different camera systems, and they're not best suited for this particular camera, so I would tend to shy away from 'em. They work fine, but they're a little bit awkward, you might say, in their use, and so, hopefully, Fuji will give us more flashes in between this low end, because we do have a good very low end, and a very high end, so we'll hope for some more in the middle there. Now, one of the unusual things is that it uses the same communication system as Canon does. It doesn't mean that you can put a Canon flash on this camera, but you can use the Canon off shoe cord to communicate the light information from a distance. So if you are wanting to hand hold the flash a little bit off to the side, if you are using a flash bracket, for instance, you can still have a fully automated flash with the flash separated from the camera, so that is a unique quirk in the system. Over on the left and right side dials, just below the top of them is an additional little dial in there, and we can actually see these a little bit more clearly if we look on the back three quarters of the camera. The one on the right is controlling the metering system, and we have a number of different metering modes I want to talk about, so let's talk about these a little bit more closely. Alright, first option on the left is known as spot metering, this is 2% of the frame, and this is good if you want to be very very accurate about a small region of the scene, and this is something that can be locked to the focusing area as well, which can make it even more precise, and so then it can be moved around to the left and right if you choose to have it matched exactly with the focusing frame. Next up is a traditional system, called center weighted metering, and this is the way most of the cameras metered throughout the 70s and 80s, and it just looks most concentratedly in the middle of the frame. Next up is the most popular for most users, it's the multi system, this is a multi segment metering system, uses 250 different segments, compares and contrasts all that information, and then gives you a very even readout, you might say. And so this is great for a wide variety of lighting scenarios and tends to be the best all-purpose metering setup for the camera. And then, finally, there is an entire scene average, and it's a little different than the multi, it doesn't accommodate for bright and dark areas quite as well, but you might find that there are some situations where the multi is not doing the job that you want. You can give the average a try and see if that works out better for you. So, for most users, I'm gonna recommend leaving it in the multi. With my Fujis, I leave it there pretty much 100% of the time and it does a fantastic job.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Fuji X-H1 Recommended Settings

Ratings and Reviews

Erik
 

I have been thinking about buying this camera. After watching this class I know that I have made the right decision. John is fantastic! Previously I have watched a random assortment of youtube videos by self-proclaimed experts. It turns out that many of the things that these so-called experts have said about this camera are simply wrong. John is the real deal. He goes in depth for every function and explains everything very clearly. His graphics are wonderful, he obviously spent a huge amount of time on preparation. If you have this camera and want to understand it better, or are thinking of buying it, I highly recommend this class which is taught by a true expert.

Mark Ballard
 

Well done! Worth every penny. Shined shoes too.

Mario Gravina
 

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