Video

Fact Not Fear and CoronaTime

I was asked to make a ‘Day in the Life’ film to be included in the latest episode of Fact Not Fear. Now on Episode 4, Fact Not Fear is a series on the Coronavirus pandemic featuring mostly retired journalists from all over the world telling the real story of the place they are living.

I started off by recording the music. The ticking clock was actually the foundation of the project as so much of this lockdown period has been about how slow and how fast time can move, sometimes at the same time. I then built up the track and finally adding the tenor sax part.

At the same time as recording the music, I was shooting video on my X-T3, GoPro, and Drone. I then put the whole thing together in DaVinci Resolve. You can see the full episode of Fact Not Fear above, and my contribution below. Our newest member of Kage Collective, Neale James, does the links on this. Neale is a photographer, but was a BBC DJ many years ago. Phil Payne has a film in this episode too, but he also puts these programmes together.

Workaround For Fuji X-T2 Video Problem

001_DerekClarkPhoto-XT-2post.jpg

Even with the release of the huge hog beast they call the X-H1, The X-T2 is still a great camera for video. But locking in your settings is a problem, especially if you shoot at 24 or 25 FPS. 

THE PROBLEM
For decent video, we need to lock in our three exposure controls (Aperture, shutter speed and ISO). Aperture is mostly ok because we set it on the lens, but the aperture rings on some Fuji lenses have little resistance and are easy to move without realizing. ISO is pretty good as we can set it on the top dial and press the lock button. Or we can assign ISO to the front command dial and press said dial to lock it (this is the quickest way). But shutter speed is a real problem if you like to shoot at 24 or 25 FPS. We can choose 1/60th of a sec on the shutter speed dial on the top plate, but to get it down to the required 1/50th of a second we need to use the rear command dial. So far so good, but the rear command dial doesn't lock and they tend to be as loose as a loose thing. I've had this move on me multiple times and it drives me nuts. I don't know why we can’t press the dial in to lock it the same way the ISO dial works.

THE SOLUTION
But there is a solution to this problem that allows us to lock in any of the exposure triangle settings or lock all of them at the same time. Here's how to do it. You will find all of these settings in the menu under Settings - Button/Dial Settings

1. Make sure the rear command dial (or the front command dial if you have them reversed) is set to adjust shutter speed by 3rd stops. You will find this on page 1 of the above-mentioned menu, SS Operation.
2. Next, you will need to change one of your Fn buttons on the X-T2  to 'Lock Settings'. This is on page 4 of the Button/Dial Settings menu. I use the AF/L button because I have back button focus assigned to the rear command dial.
3. Now, with the camera back in normal shooting mode, press the Fn button that you assigned to Lock.
4. Choose 'Function Selection'' and then tick the boxes you wish to lock. I have Shutter Speed ticked, but you might also want to lock Aperture, ISO or both. 
5. Now when you want to lock in your setting you just click that Fn button and choose Lock Settings - 'Selected Function' and your Settings will be locked and can’t be moved by accident. This will also lock your shutter speed dial on the top plate, so remember to turn the lock off when you want to change the settings.

That’s it. Any questions just leave them in the comments below and I'll answer them as best I can as soon as I can.

X-T2 Firmware Update Needed For Shooting Video

I love the X-T2, it's such a great all round camera and very capable of handling pretty much anything you through at it. Video wasn't really something I expected to be doing with it, but it happens now and again. I had a video shoot at the weekend with the X-T2 and I ran into a potentially disastrous problem. Thankfully it's something that could be easily fixed in the next firmware update.

WHAT'S THE PROBLEM?

With the latest firmware update (v2.10) for the X-T2, we got the ability to set one of the front or rear command dials to control ISO. Fantastic! Here's how to:

Go to Setup Menu (the spanner) - Button/Dial Settings - ISO Dial Setting (A) The options are Auto and Command. Choose Command. Set the top plate ISO dial on the X-T2 to A. Now ISO can be adjusted by either the front or rear command dials. The Command Dial Settings Function in the same menu allows you to choose front of rear dial.

Shutter Speed (front) F. (rear)

With this configuration, the back command dial does nothing (unless you have a lens attached that doesn't have an aperture ring, like the 27mm). Both ISO and Shutter Speed are assigned to the front command dial and you toggle between which one is active by pressing the dial. The problem is that one of them is always live and can be knocked off easily.

F. (front) Shutter Speed (rear)

With this configuration, shutter speed is changed by the rear command dial and ISO by the front. The upside is that the ISO can be changed using the front dial  and then locked by pressing the command dial. Unfortunately the shutter speed is always live and so easily knocked by a third stop or two, causing rolling vertical lines that cannot be fixed in post. Video footage is useless if this happens. I must have knocked my shutter speed of at least 6 times at the weekend and will be taping the rear dial down from now on.

THE FIX

F. (front) Shutter Speed (rear) is the ideal choice in my opinion. When shooting video, I like to chose my aperture on the lens and select my shutter speed on the top plate SS dial, then make minor adjustments using the rear command dial (for instance: Set the top plate SS dial to 1/60th and then adjusting the SS to 1/50th using the rear command dial when shooting at 25 fps).

update the firmware to allow the rear command dial to be locked by pressing it (just like the front dial for ISO), we could lock both ISO (front dial) and shutter speed (rear dial).

No more moving dials by mistake!