Video with the Fuji X-Pro2 ~ Geoff Ketcher & The Shed

I've been keen to try creating some Video with the Fuji X-Pro2 since I first had the pre-production version last October.

I'll discuss a little bit about the making of the video afterwards, but in the meantime, feel free to take a look.

It's only a two minute long mini-documentary of my friend Geoff.

I didn't really want to put any time and effort into a video project until the release version of the camera was in my hands. Now I have two production versions of the X-Pro2 (you can still see my review of the X-Pro2 if you want) I thought the time was right to try some Video with the Fuji X-Pro2.

Equipment used when shooting this video with the Fuji X-Pro2:

Fujifilm X-Pro2

As mentioned, this was the first time pressing the "record" button on the X-Pro2 and I'd cleaned my settings before the shoot.

I moved my Record button from the default position on the top plate, and swapped it with the Photometry button.  This is primarily because I prefer to have easier access to the metering options and use them far more often.

I set the film simulation to Standard and all my Shadows, Highlights, Sharpness and Colour settings were neutralised to 0.

As we were filming in doors (kind of), I chose to use a 3,200 Kelvin White Balance.  As this was more of a test video, I didn't White Balance manually each clip (which shows) - but I was very happy with the consistency of the footage.

Everything was shot at 60fps in 1080 and then footage interpreted down to 25fps in Premiere Pro.

XF 23mm F1.4

The vast majority of the footage was shot with the 23mm F1.4 lens.  Sadly, there doesn't appear to be any focus peaking when shooting in manual mode (firmware candidate!).

XF 56mm F1.2

The opening shot of the Joss Stick was shot using the 56mm lens wide open.  This is trickier than I thought and in hindsight, I think I would have used the 60mm F2.8 Macro.

Sennheiser AVX-MKE2

I recorded the audio out of camera Sennheiser AVX-MKE2.  More on this in a later blog post when I've tested more with it and synced audio to camera connection.

Small issues I had when shooting this video with the Fuji X-Pro2:

Obviously the X-Pro2 is not a professional video camera.  It doesn't offer 4K video, nor does it off monitoring via a live HMDI Out socket for example.

The footage, however, I was very pleased with.  It's not as natural to shoot without a flip down screen and this is another situation where the definite separation between the X-Pro and the X-T range are obvious.

The native footage was good, but I chose to grade it using Film Convert Pro which I think is a great tool for Adobe Premiere Pro.

You will notice in the film that there is a very small bare bulb lamp above the easel.  This caused me issues with flicker and you can see it most prominently at the end during the signature of the piece. The issue here was that I moved my shutter speed dial unintentionally, which caused the sync issue with the 50hz lamp.  When making a video with the Fuji X-Pro2 be careful of nudging the Shutter Speed dial!

In Summary

It was fun making this video with the Fuji X-Pro2.  I was keen to see more of how it operated and the ergonomics of it.

I'm going to shoot more, and do a further set of posts on here.  This is really just a feet in the water type post.

I know this camera isn't really aimed at professional video makers, and that is quite apparent, but I think its certainly producing decent enough footage to be useful for personal or small project basis.

The Sennheiser AVX-MKE2 was great and I will also be talking more about using that with my video content on the Fuji System over the coming weeks and months.

I'm not a professional video make (as you can see), I'm a professional documentary wedding photographer by trade but I'm really excited about using this camera in my Day in the Life shoots and possibly some small commercial clips too.

About Geoff:  Geoff is a dear friend of mine who live near me in North Wiltshire.  He's one of the most talented people I've ever met.  He has an effervescence about his art that is contagious and he's one of life's characters.  A great chap, is Geoff.