How I fell in love with Flash ~ Neewer TT850 Fuji X100T

X100T with WCL Attached ~ 1/1,000th Second @ f5.6 ISO 200

Back in the summer, the family and I headed to Spain for our summer vacation.  I'd been speaking to my good friend Bert Stephani previously about the Fuji X100T and how much I loved it.

He asked me if I'd used the high sync speed of the camera with a flash yet.  Of course, those who know me and my style as a wedding photographer know that I'm a "natural or available light" photographer and I simply don't use flash photography habitually.

He suggested I get hold of the Neewer TT850 and take it with me to Spain.  He also advised me to get the Remote Trigger

And so, tongue firmly in cheek of course, I can confirm that I'm now a Flash photography convert.

After a quick explanation of high speed sync from Bert, I was capable and armed, for my trip into the heart of the Andalusia desert during the hottest of Augusts.

Please feel free to click the images for high-res versions.

Image 1 shot with the Neewer TT850 Fuji X100T combination

So, imagine the scene;  its around midday on an August day in the desert, in southern Spain.

Its probably around 38 degrees.  We are, of course, in the pool.

Albie, my little boy, decides to go back into the house, put his spider man outfit on and find his sisters iPod Shuffle and do "a little dance" at the end of the pool.

This is the chance I though.  Out I popped, I got Gemma to stand to Albies right, with the Neewer TT850 raised above her head.

I exposed for the background (which was the whole point really), popped the camera up to down to 1/1,000th of a second and *flash*.

Then of course I threw him in the pool (once the shuffle was removed).

X100T with WCL Attached ~ 1/1,000th Second @ f5.6 ISO 200

Image 2 shot with the Neewer TT850 Fuji X100T combination

A few days later, and we'd been to Cowboy World (its actually called Minihollywood but the kids prefer Cowboy World).

When we got home, we took a trek, toy guns and Stetsons in hand and headed up a nearby hillock to some old Spanish ruins.

"Look angry" I said.  And honestly, with my hand on my heart, both of them just did this.  I think I'll enter them into some "how to look angry on demand" school or something.

Regards of their angry-cowboy skills, my ever happy wife was there again with the Neewer TT850 and this time, I had to the shutter speed at 1/800th of a second.

By the way - none of these images are great, or even that well lit.  I'm just showing them as I was amazed at how easy it was to shoot with the Neewer TT850 Fuji X100T combination.  And fun, too.

I remember in the old days, having a Canon speedlite with my 5D Mark 2 and it produced great images of course, but there was no way I could shoot at these shutter speeds with it (and use the speed light at full power *thanks Martin).

X100T with WCL Attached ~ 1/800th Second @ f5.6 ISO 500

Image 3 shot with the Neewer TT850 Fuji X100T combination

This image wasn't shot at such a high shutter speed, but of course, using the flash allows me to shoot at the very low ISO and retain the details in the background.

This time, my able assistant, was our friend Nick.  Luckily, Nick is about 9 feet tall, and as I'm only about three feet tall it made sense for him to hold the flash which I clicked.

X100T with WCL Attached ~ 1/125th Second @ f4 ISO 200

Final Thoughts

I'm not going to go into all the technical details of how the leaf shutter on the X100T (and X100S and X100) enable this flash wizardry.  I'll let my good friend David Hobby over at Strobist tell you.

Needless to say, I'm still not a "flash" photographer.  I'll leave that up to people who are clearly very talented at it but I'll definitely keep my Neewer TT850 Fuji X100T combination in mind - especially for my family jaunts.

If I tell you that the  Neewer TT850 including battery pack is only around £75 and the Remote Trigger is just about £25 you can perhaps see the opportunity of exploring high speed sync flash with the Fuji X100T (or S).

By the way - the other revelation on my holiday in Spain this year was the family photos I got with my GoPro Hero 4

• (Wednesday morning, sat in my studio in Malmesbury listening to Tracks of my Years, on the Ken Bruce Show Radio 2)