If you’ve been with me for a while you know that I have a love/hate relationship (90% love, 10% hate) with the widely acclaimed, previous-generation Fuji X100S mirrorless camera.

You can read my original review of the X100S and my second-look at the X100S for all the details, which I won’t repeat here.

Well, for Christmas, I bought myself the newer model: The Fuji X100T.

Now maybe you’re wondering: Phil, why would you buy another expensive camera that’s almost identical to one you already own (and which has flaws that drive you crazy?)

Good question.

I bought the X100T because Fuji added the one feature that I thought was most critically lacking in the X100S: Face-Detection Autofocus.

If you read my previous reviews, you know how frustrated I was with the failure of the X100S to consistently focus on my portrait subjects instead of focusing on the background.

Even in a near-miraculous camera (and the Fuji really is near-miraculous), that kind of flaw is basically a deal-breaker.

So, with the addition of Face-Detection Autofocus, I figured the X100T would finally be the perfect camera I’ve been looking for.

Better, But Not Perfect

So, after shooting with the X100T for a couple of weeks, including some heavy holiday-season family photography, the results are in:

Fuji has improved the camera, but it’s still not quite the perfect, all-purpose, walk-around camera I was hoping for.

(Of course, there is no such thing as a perfect camera.  So I’m holding the X100T to an impossible standard.  But it’s so expensive, and so widely hailed as the world’s best digital camera, that I feel justified in being picky.)

The addition of face-detection is certainly a plus. The camera does a pretty good (although strangely inconsistent) job of locating faces in the frame, and putting a focus box on them. I say strangely inconsistent because sometimes it seems to lock onto faces, even partial faces or profiles, with almost magical precision — and others times, it just doesn’t seem to find them at all. I haven’t yet figured out the conditions required for it to always work.

When Face Detection is turned on, a green box appears on faces that are in focus.

In general, the face-detection is slower and less accurate than that on my Olympus OMD-E-M5, which can locate faces quicker than a dog locating bacon.

But when it does find them, its focus is dead-on and, as always, the quality of the images is superb. There is no small camera today making better people-photos than the Fuji X100 series. The skin tones are gorgeous, and if you use flash, the camera does a brilliant job of balancing the flash and ambient light.

My main frustration with the face-detection system is its speed.

I tend to shoot a lot of people-photos from the hip (not necessarily literally from the hip, but without putting my eye to the viewfinder), partly because I like to do candid street photography, and also because I have a teenger who hides any time she sees a camera pointed at her.

So my ideal camera is one that can locate faces and focus on them, without me having to raise it to my eye, press the shutter button halfway, and wait for the camera to slowly find the faces before I pull the trigger.

But the Fuji is not that fast. Most of my from-the-hip quick shots have faces in them, but the camera was not fast enough to lock focus on them before the shutter snapped.

The Fuji missed the focus on the first attempt at this quick candid shot,
but got it on the second try.

So it fails to be the super-fast and super-sneaky street photography camera that I was hoping for.

Nevertheless, when I do take the time to frame the shot with my eye to the viewfinder, and wait for the green focus box to find a face, I can usually capture my subject in focus. This is an improvement.

And perhaps with time, I will learn to pace my candid shots, aiming the camera discretely from the hip, giving a half-press to the shutter button to wake it up… wait, wait, wait…. and then snap.

Perhaps, with practice, this kind of routine will improve my candid-photo face-detection accuracy. I’ll let you know.

Other New Features

Of course face-detection is not the only new feature in the X100T.

One addition that I’m loving is a new menu option providing three different Auto-ISO presets, where you can choose a maximum ISO, maximum aperture and minimum shutter speed, so that the camera intelligently optimizes ISO within the parameters you specify.

Having three of these pre-configured to your specifications gives you an easy way to switch modes, from say, shooting kids in action in bright sunlight, to indoor nighttime photography by candlelight, without having to set all the parameters by hand. Very clever.

One big change is the loss of the spinny control wheel on the back, now replaced by four buttons arranged in a circle. I loved that control wheel for skimming rapidly through photos, and I’m still getting used to the new method which uses the Command Dial instead.

At first I thought the loss of the wheel was a terrible downgrade, but perhaps with practice I’ll find the new method equally usable.

One great thing about the Fuji is the ease with which the buttons can have new functions assigned to them. Just hold the button down for a few seconds and a menu pops up allowing you to quickly assign any one of dozens of functions to that button. It’s the easiest customization of any camera I’ve ever seen.

Overall, I’m mostly inclined to agree with the chorus of camera geeks (including Ken Rockwell, David Hobby, Zack Arias, and others) who think the Fuji X100 series are the best small cameras being made, and I might even agree with Rockwell when he calls the X100T “best digital camera in the world.”

If you factor size and portability into the equation, perhaps that’s true.

But for sheer performance, my Canon 5D3 still runs circles around it. I’ve been shooting so much with small cameras lately, I’d almost forgotten what a racehorse the 5D3 is, until I picked it up for some photos the other day and felt like I had climbed from a Subaru into a Ferrari. Solid. Fast. Accurate. Sharp.

Even the best small cameras, like the Fuji X100T, still can’t compete with high-end DSLR performance.

But then again, my Canon 5D3 won’t fit in my coat pocket, and the Fuji will.

Price the FujiFilm X100T at Amazon.com

And remember, when you buy from my Amazon links you buy me a beer!

Amazon: My Inexpensive “DGK” White Balance Card
Note: After my review caused them to sell out, they doubled the price.  Still cheap though.

Amazon: A More Expensive “High End” White Balance Card

Lightroom Made Easy

Secrets of Successful Event Photography

If you have trouble watching the Video here you can watch on YouTube at this link:
How to Set Your Camera White Balance Using a Gray Card

Click here for a huge discount on Brent’s “Portrait Photography for Profit” course 

As a way of saying “thanks” to my subscribers, who inspired him to create this course, Brent is offering you a huge discount, but only for a limited time.

So if you’ve ever dreamed of making a living from your photography, grab this course now.  Even if you’re not ready to launch your photography business yet, you get lifetime access to this training, so you’ll find it waiting for you when you’re ready.

I hope you find it as helpful and inspiring as I did!

— Phil

P.S. What’s also great is that Brent will share a portion of any sales from that link to help me create more free tutorials for you.

]]> http://steelevisions.com/blog/brent-mail-interview/feed/ 0 http://steelevisions.com/blog/fuji-vs-olympus/ http://steelevisions.com/blog/fuji-vs-olympus/#comments Wed, 03 Sep 2014 15:41:31 +0000 http://steelevisions.com/blog/?p=2500

Click to enlarge

In my previous post, I compared my experience shooting with the Olympus OM-D E-M5 camera to my previous mirrorless camera, the Fuji X100S.

Several readers expressed an interest in seeing some side-by-side photos to compare image quality.

Click to enlarge to 100% Crop – This clearly shows the sharpness advantage of the Fuji

So I took a stroll around my neighborhood and took identical shots of various objects with the two cameras for comparison.  I set both cameras to full auto, which is not the way I normally shoot, but I wanted to test “intelligence” of the camera in choosing what it thought were the best settings for each shot.

Click to enlarge

I tried to keep the field of view approximately the same in each photo, but it’s not 100% accurate, because the two camera sensors have different sizes and different aspect ratios, so it was a matter of me eyeballing the content of the frame.

Click for 100% Crop. The Olympus looks sharper, but only because the Fuji focal plane was on a slightly different part of the flower (the Fuji f/2 lens creates very shallow depth-of-field). Fuji colors are warmer as usual. Otherwise, very similar photos.

As expected, the Fuji usually wins in terms of sharpness, because its prime 23mm f/2 lens is one of the best on the market, and my kit 12-50mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom lens on the Olympus can’t really hope to beat a great prime.

But what struck me most is just how good the Olympus kit zoom lens is.  For most day-to-day photo purposes, its quality is more than adequate, and after being resized for the web you would usually not even notice the difference between the two cameras.

Pixel peepers trying to get that last razor-sharp bit of quality will still usually prefer the Fuji.

Click for 100% crop. No camera test is complete without beer. Here, the Fuji has a slight sharpness advantage and warmer color, but most noticeable is its softer background bokeh because its f/2 lens is wider than the f/4.3 that the Olympus comes up with at this focal length.

You can clearly see a sharpness difference favoring the Fuji in some cases, but in one shot the Olympus was sharper, probably because the stabilization helped me hold it more steady.  This is not to be overlooked, especially in low-light photography.  The sharpness of the lens is not the only factor that makes for sharp photos.

Click for 100% crop. Olympus wins this time! Probably because the stabilization feature kept my hands steady, while the Fuji shot is blurred from camera shake.

The Fuji also has an ISO advantage in low light because its f/2 lens is simply much faster than the Olympus f/3.5-5.6 kit lens.  This sometimes forces the Olympus to use a higher ISO in identical conditions, leading to more grain.

Click for 100% Crop. Here you see the difference in ISO forced by the difference in maximum aperture. The Fuji at f/2 was able to shoot at ISO 800, while the Olympus at f/4.5 had to go to ISO 1600. You can see the grain in the 100% crop.

If I bought a faster lens for the Olympus, this factor would be equalized and the Fuji would no longer have this advantage.

Cick for 100% crop. A test with fill flash.  Here I am with photographer/teacher Brent Mail who flew all the way from Australia to have a beer with me. (Well, I perhaps he was also traveling around the US with his family). The Fuji has a built-in flash, the Olympus comes with a small hot-shoe flash. To me the Fuji looks sharper here.

The bottom line for me in this test:  Because the Fuji is world-renowned for its image quality, I expected to see more of a difference, and I was pleasantly surprised by how well the Olympus with its inexpensive kit lens performed.  A better lens on the Olympus would close the gap even further.

Price these cameras on Amazon.com

Olympus OM-D E-M5 on Amazon.com

Fuji X100S on Amazon.com

[By the way, my friend Sebastian Michaels just bought a Fuji X100S this week, and he has been absolutely raving about it. I get four or five emails every day from him about how much he loves it! Here’s a sample: “Good gravy, the ISO on this camera! You weren’t kidding when they said it performed beautifully in low light. And I love how intuitive and how readily accessible the functions are. Reviewing images (and with one touch being able to zoom in on the point of focus), erasing images, changing WB (and even quickly setting a custom white balance or toggling through the Kelvin settings), adjusting the AF location — it’s all an absolute delight!” Sebastian also recommended these two accessories for the Fuji:

Custom Soft-Release Shutter Button for Fuji X100S

Fuji X100S Thumb Grip

As you can see, Sebastian is really into this camera!]

Self-portrait by Sebastian Michaels – Click to enlarge

How to Hone Your Artistic Skills While Creating Great Images on a Smart Phone or Tablet

by Sebastian Michaels [guest post] 

It’s a new world out there.

The art being created today by serious “iPhoneographers” rivals (and often surpasses) easily 90% of anything I’ve ever seen created with Photoshop.

It really is that good.

When Bob Weil (2013 IPPA Photographer of the Year and author of the book The Art of iPhone Photography) decided to put together a serious online course showing the advanced layering and compositional techniques possible now on an iPhone or iPad, I knew I wanted to be part of it … But I also knew, going in, that most people were going to need to start with a more basic, fundamental skill set.

So that’s what I’ve come up with for you here.

Samples from Bob Weil’s Phone/Tablet Art Course – Click to enlarge

Where Bob’s course is absolutely stunning in what it makes possible to any serious photographer or photo artist, the way I see it is: sometimes you just want a great image. And you want it like you want your pizza: in thirty minutes or less, or your money back.

So — I’m going to make three assumptions if you’re mostly starting out from scratch in this new world of serious mobile artistry:

1.) More often than not, what you are most interested in is creating a cool image … not necessarily a major work of art.  (Let’s face it: you might have every aspiration of creating serious art, but the majority of the time you are mostly just noodling around. It’s only when something all of a sudden strikes you [“Dang, this is looking really good”], usually halfway through the process of working on an image, that you start to entertain notions of seeing how far you can take the piece, how good you can really make it. But when that doesn’t happen — cool is good enough.)

2.) While you have a bunch of apps on your phone or tablet, you probably gravitate to a small handful … over and over again. (Not that this is bad. It can be good. But I’m going to suggest an approach here that will help you expand your range of comfortable apps — by mastering a few at a time, in combination.)

3.) If you learned to work faster, and if you didn’t take it all so darn seriously, you would probably create more art … which would result in more compositions … which would mean more chances at knocking one out of the park. You get really good at this stuff by DOING IT.

What’s more, I’m going to propose that if you get fast at creating great images — those in themselves can become components in larger compositions, where you are using an app like Superimpose to bring things together with extractions and layer masks.  Which is something you will be learning a great deal about in this course.

Consider that for a moment. This is worth lingering on.

Imagine instead of just bringing unedited photos together to create a composition … you were to bring together individually edited pieces that would stand artistically in their own rights. Sort of like the difference between writing a song on a harmonica and a kick-drum — and writing a string quartet (or a symphony), where every instrument is itself immaculately tuned and rehearsed to perfection.

OK … that might be overstepping it with the analogy. But I think you get my point. You can create some pretty amazing stuff if the components you are bringing together are all — separately, on their own — wonderfully stylized images.

Something to consider.

So let’s get your library of amazing images built up. Then you can start looking for ways to bring them together in your more elaborate, more imaginative compositions as you move on through the course and learn the advanced techniques ahead.

Waterfall by Sebastian Michaels – Click to enlarge

GETTING STARTED: GRAB SOME GREAT PHOTOS

There’s a whole section here in the Fundamentals part of the course on capturing great images (and if you’re reading this, you probably already have a solid skill set when it comes to snapping quality images), so I’ll limit myself to the obvious …

Look for cool shots — and bag ’em.

With the right approach, you can make something great out of even average photos. But why settle for average? Go out of your way and the take the time to get great photos. It makes everything else you do a heck of a lot more fun.

(And try out some camera alternative apps. Not only can they make getting the shot easier, they can make shooting photos on your iPhone more engaging. Pick ONE camera alternative — start with a simple one, like Camera+ — and spend at least a day or two with it. Get so comfortable with how it works that you don’t have to think about it anymore. Then pick another one and do the same. Eventually you’ll find the one or two you like best.)

Once you have spent a day or more shooting and have some images to work with, you can move into the work flow I am going to suggest you practice regularly over the coming weeks and months.

It’s nothing complicated.

But it works.

Adhering to this workflow (at least initially) is going to teach you to create outstanding images with an almost alarming quickness. This is a good thing. In creating image after image after image, you will become proficient with the apps you are using, and you will start pushing them (and pushing yourself) further.

Think of it almost like practicing scales on the piano or shooting free-throws. Only this is more fun. And most of the results of your “practice” are going to look spectacular.

So let’s get into it.

Nymph by Sebastian Michaels

PREPARING YOUR PALETTE: Pick Your Apps

I’m going to have you focus on no more than four apps at a time. Think of these as “App Sets.” (You might even want to arrange your current App Set in its own folder or on its own screen, so you can eliminate the visual clutter — and temptation — of your other apps.)

And I’m serious here. I only want you to use four apps. One might be your camera alternative app. At least one should be capable of generating a variety of effects, even if just some cool presets. And at least one should enable you to combine or blend images (simple option I suggest you begin with is IMAGE BLENDER). The remaining app can do whatever you want to play with most, maybe a blur effect app, maybe a lighting effect app. Whatever you want.

But only three or four apps max. That’s your App Set, and you’re sticking with it. At least for the next few days.

Here’s an App Set I’ve had a great deal of success with:

Camera+ — as my camera alternative … and then mainly as my means of cropping the image, adjusting the overall lighting (with one of the “Scenes” settings), and sometimes returning to it in the final step to give the image a frame.

Pixlr-o-matic PLUS — my quickest means of snagging a great preset effect (possibly cropping from rectangle to square and saving that first), possibly dropping in one of the preset lighting effects, and a simple way of adding a cool edge/frame at the end.

DistressedFX — one of my favorite apps for dropping in color casts and texture overlays. (I especially like that you can employ one or both, then tap and hold the screen to flatten those, then continue to stack more effects and textures over that. The adjustment sliders also give you a great deal of control over the effects.) The only disadvantage, if it is one, would be that the app only allows you to work with square-format images. But that’s cool. I prefer squares.

Image Blender — the simplest app I’ve found for blending two images together, assinging a Blend Mode to govern how the two interact. This is a critical function for me, as you’ll see as we continue.

Doesn’t look like much, but it’s pretty amazing just how much you can accomplish with just those four.

(A few other apps that I’ve worked into my App Sets recently and really enjoyed: Painteresque for giving your images a fantastic “painterly” style, FocalLab for adding a quick artistic blur, Afterlight for general tweaks and edits, LensLight for cool lighting effects, and Stackables for its great presets.)

Once you have your App Set picked out, you will want to settle in and see what you can do with it.

Here’s the workflow I am going to have you follow …

THE WORKFLOW, STEP 1: Crop It and Slap On Some Effects

If you think the image would benefit from a crop, and one of your chosen apps allows you to crop, then crop. This is also where you should decide whether you want to have a rectangular canvas or a square canvas. But if you ARE going to crop, make this your first step … and then SAVE TO YOUR CAMERA ROLL before going forward. You’ll see why further on, but whatever your crop, you want to be able to return to it later.

After you’ve saved your cropped version to the camera roll, go on and push the image somewhere through experimenting with the effects you can employ. Hold off on adding any kind of edge or border … but other than that, go nuts.

Try out the pre-packaged effects (if there are any), and then try out the different ways the app allows you to customize or tweak them (assuming it does).

The point is to start moving your image toward something more artistic. And your goal is to create a pretty cool-looking version of the image. Needn’t be museum-quality, mind you; just something that looks decent enough to share a friend sitting across from you at the coffee shop.

When you like what you’re seeing, save it to your camera roll.

THE WORKFLOW, STEP 2: Create a Variant

Now you want to go back to the original (or the original saved crop you made), and you want to open it up in either the same app or a different app in the App Set you chose at the beginning of all this.

Depending on how far you pushed that first version, decide if you want this one to be even more effects-heavy, or if you want this one to be carried off with a lighter hand.

If you are feeling especially bold and courageous, work on the image in one app … save it to the camera roll … then open up the saved version in a second app so you can carry it further …

Maybe you use the second app to drop in a texture overlay.

Maybe you use the second app to add in a lighting effect or lens flare.

Maybe you use the second app to blur part of the image, so you can then save that, then open this new blur version back over in the first app, where you can layer in some other effects or give it a color cast or whatever the image seems to need.

The important thing here is to limit yourself to one or two apps and make yourself cook up a new version of the original image. Just as exciting, but in a different way.

When you think you’ve got something that looks cool, save this one to your camera roll as well.

THE WORKFLOW, STEP 3: Blend Them

Now I want you to open up an app that allows you to bring multiple images together. IMAGE BLENDER is the easiest I’ve found. SUPERIMPOSE is even more robust. LEONARDO is an alternative, as is PHOTOSHOP TOUCH.  (And I know Superimpose and Photoshop Touch have matching Android versions.)

What you want is to be able to open up your original edited image from step 1 (this will be your background layer), then stack above it the second version you cooked up in step 2 (this becomes the foreground layer).

Then you apply a Blend Mode so that the two versions merge.

The app IMAGE BLENDER, for instance, allows you to tap the background square at lower left, and choose your first image from the camera roll … then you tap the foreground square at lower right and choose your second image from the camera roll … And then you either pull down on the screen or tap the square-over-square icon up at the top center to reveal the various blend mode options along the bottom. Tap any of these to see the result, or swipe the list to the left to reveal more blend options and try those. (My favorites tend to be Multiply, Overlay, Soft Light, and Hard Light.) Once you have the mode you like best, you can then drag the slided at the bottom to the left or right to emphasize the one layer or the other. Simple.

(If you really want to get fancy, IMAGE BLENDER even allows you to mask part of the image where you don’t want the two blending together. You might not want to bother with this, but in some pieces it could help you achieve an even more interesting effect — perhaps masking out the more affected version from the part of the image to which you want to draw the viewer’s attention.)

With your two versions brought together, go ahead and save the combined result to your camera roll.

What you will have accomplished through this process is rather extraordinary when you think about it:

First, you have tried out different effects (even sequences of effects) on the same image — something we too often forget to do when we’re forever jumping from one image to another to another without really exploring the possibilities in one particular shot.

Second, the ultimate blended result you will have created ends up being far richer and far more complex than anything you could have created had you just run the one image through a series of apps and stopped there. The blending of two different versions often produces a result you never could have anticipated until you saw the two stacked together.

THE WORKFLOW, STEP 4: Add a Unifying Texture and Border Effect

This is optional, but I like wrap up most of my images this way.

Once you have your blended image saved, you can either repeat steps 2 and 3 and blend in a third version of the image, or you can wrap it all up with a final one-two punch.

First, open your final version in one of your apps that allows you to drop a texture overlay on it. (DistressedFX is great for this. But there are plenty of others.) Giving your piece a final texture overlay is sometimes all it takes to push an image over the top.

Second, give the image either a vignette or a border/edge effect (or both). Many apps will have stock preset borders or edge effects and vignettes you can apply here at the end to give it that final finishing touch.

Save this completed piece to your camera roll.

If it looks especially cool, post it to Facebook or to a Flickr group and give it a cool name.

Enjoy the praise and congratulations of your admiring peers.

(Just don’t tell anyone that you knocked the whole thing out in under twenty minutes while eating a bagel.)

AND THAT’S IT!

Honestly, it’s that simple. But the results you can achieve with a process like this are quite remarkable.

Best of all, in limiting yourself to a handful of apps at a time, you will really get to know them. You’ll become comfortable with what they can (and can’t) do. You’ll see how they combine as you move between them, transferring your piece one step at a time, app to app, layering in effects, moving your piece forward with each version you save to the camera roll …

And in blending two different versions of the same image, you will achieve results that go far beyond anything you might have accomplished in a purely linear approach.

In the end you will have learned to take just about any photo and make it into something quite fine. And ultimately, these images might stand on their own … or they might find their way into your larger compositions: individual components (each artistically rendered in its own right) extracted or masked or blended into ever more intricate works.

You’re going to have a blast with this.

Take half an hour right now and go try it out.

Make something beautiful — something that is sure to elicit the response I hear so often lately myself: “You made that with your PHONE?!”

– Sebastian

Sebastian Michaels is known best for his internationally acclaimed Photoshop Artistry: Fine Art Grunge course, but has recently taken to iPhoneography in a big way — partnering with celebrated artist and author Susan Tuttle on her beautiful course on Artistic Self-Portraiture, and now partnered with world-renowned artist and author Bob Weil on his new course just released this summer: iPhoneography Photo Art Composition.

(Note from Phil: the links given above to all three of these courses will get you into any of them at a substantial discount. Highly recommended!)

Cameras that perform like DSLR’s (well, almost) but without the weight, the bulk, and the backache are a welcome breath of fresh air in an industry that was starting to stagnate in a war of megapixels.

Last December I plunged into the mirrorless market by reviewing the remarkable Fuji X100S, and I updated that review in June after using the camera for six months.

And while I still think the Fuji is an astonishing camera — near perfect in many ways — its few shortcomings have sent me searching for an alternative, or at least an additional, small camera.

With so many options to choose from, it’s almost impossible to know where to begin, but I have one criterion that slashes the list:

A Viewfinder

I can’t stand trying to frame a photo in bright sunlight using the LCD on the back of a camera. For one thing, it’s all but impossible in bright light. And for another, I’d have to put on my reading glasses (yeah, I’ve reached that age).

So I’ve eliminated many candidates, and probably some excellent cameras, from my consideration by insisting that they have a real viewfinder (electronic, or optical, or both, it doesn’t matter, as long as there is something to put my eye up to).

Olympus OM-D E-M5

The Olympus OM-D E-M5 is part of the well-established “Micro Four Thirds” family of cameras. Cameras in this class have an image sensor slightly smaller than the APS-C sensor found in the Fuji (and in most crop-sensor DSLR’s), but still very large by comparison to traditional point-and-shoot cameras.

Size comparison: Canon 7D, Olympus OM-D E-M5, Fuji X100S

I chose the Olympus OM-D E-M5 for my second mirrorless camera because it fills some gaps left by the Fuji in my camera lineup.

Most Importantly

• Image Stabilization (in-body, 5-axis stabilization to reduce camera shake)
• Interchageable Zoom Lens (as compared to the Fuji’s fixed 23mm lens)
• Face Detection Auto Focus

Faces in Focus!

If you read my previous Fuji reviews, you know my chief complaint was its frequent failure to autofocus on the subject.

I’m happy to report that the Olympus does a much better job — and it even helps you by automatically detecting faces in your frame and focusing on them. Nice!

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Face Detection Auto Focus. A white square in the viewfinder shows faces detected by the autofocus system. Click to enlarge photo

It’s not perfect, but it’s a big improvement over the erratic performance of the Fuji.

Zoom Lens (and the option for more)

The Olympus allows interchangeable lenses, so it’s far more flexible than the Fuji with its fixed 23 mm lens. There’s a whole spectrum of micro-four-thirds lenses made by Olympus, Panasonic, and others that will fit on the OM-D E-M5.

So far, I’ve only used the kit 12-50mm (f/35.-6.3) lens, which is roughly equivalent to 24-100 on a full frame camera. This is a versatile range which serves nearly all my needs.

Olympus OM-D E-M5 – Zoomed in tight 50mm, f/6.3, 1/250 sec. Click here for a 100% crop.

Of course, the downside to a zoom lens is you’re just never going to get the quality you can in a prime lens. And when compared to the near-miraculous prime lens on the Fuji, this Olympus kit lens comes up a little bit shorter on quality. But that’s not really a fair comparison, because the Fuji can’t zoom.

And for a kit lens that zooms, the Olympus 12-50 is really quite good. I’d like to try a wide-aperture prime lens on the Oly (perhaps a f/1.2 of 1.4) to see what it’s really capable of, and I’ll expand this review in the future if I do.

Meanwhile I’m basing my opinion on the 12-50 kit lens.

Stabilization

You know I’m a fan of stabilization. Every one one of my Canon lenses is stabilized, because I have shaky hands, and I find it greatly improves my images.

Olympus took a different path and stabilized the camera a body (actually the sensor), rather than the lens. This has a couple advantages. The lenses are less expensive and smaller without the extra moving parts. And any lens you mount, from any maker, still benefits from the in-body stabilization.

Olympus OM-D E-M5 – Chimney Rock in Asheville North Carolina. 12mm, f/3.5, 1/1000 sec.
Click to enlarge

Some users complain that the Olympus makes a humming noise when stabilizing, but frankly I don’t find it noticeable.

I configured mine to stabilize then the shutter is half-pressed (rather than the default instantaneous stabilization when the shutter is clicked) because (a) I like to see the effect in the viewfinder to know it’s working, and (b) I don’t really trust it to be able to stabilize that fast.

Of course, I pay for this option in battery life, but I always carry a spare, and still find I can usually get a normal day’s shooting from one battery.

PROS
The biggest benefits of the olympus are three mentioned above:

• Image Stabilization
• Interchageable Lenses
• Face Detection Auto Focus

Other great features:

• Tilt-out rear LCD screen (great for framing high or low angle shots)
• Touch-screen control
• Compact body size (slightly smaller than the Fuji — until you attach a lens)

CONS

• Ridiculous name (come on Olympus, “OM-D E-M5”? Really catchy. Why not THX1138?) I still have to look it up the spelling every time I write it.

• Cumbersome flash – The E-M5 has no built-in flash. Instead, it comes with a little hot-shoe flash that you can mount on top. When it’s mounted it works well enough, but attaching it requires removing three (three!) little plastic widgets from the camera and flash (little widgets which you must then keep track of). The flash comes in a little velvet carrying bag which can be attached to the camera strap, and I use it to store the little fiddly bits when the flash is mounted. But overall, it just seems like too much of a hassle to mount the flash.

• Non-Intuitive Controls – I’m still struggling to get familiar with the E-M5, despite having read the manual (much of it twice). For some reason, it just doesn’t want to gel with me. Of course, the Fuji also has a steep learning curve, but somehow it’s easier to just pick it up and do things with than the Olympus. My shooting-partner Julie also finds the Olympus a bit frustrating. For example, we couldn’t figure out how to delete all images from the memory card without consulting the manual. I often feel like, “I just want to do X! Why should I have to look at the manual to do X?” Of course, if the Olympus were my main camera, I’m sure I’d come to know it backwards and forwards, and this problem would go away. But for now, I still struggle with it.

Olympus OM-D E-M5 with flash mounted. (And the little fiddly bits that you have to remove, and avoid losing, when you mount it.)

Compared to the Fuji X100S

So, now that I own two of these little mirroless wonders, which do I prefer? Well, the answer of course, is:

It depends.

If your primary photography need is shooting quick, reliable snapshots of people, especially on the move, then the Olympus beats the Fuji, because its face-detection autofocus is simply more reliable. And the stabilization helps avoid shake. So for family vacation photos, shots of the kids in action, etc., you might prefer the Olympus.

And if you want a zoom lens, or to attach different lenses for different purposes (especially telephoto), then the Olympus wins hands down. Because the Fuji is always fixed at a fairly wide 23mm.

But if your main concern is image quality, or the convenience of a self-contained one-piece camera (even if you have to spend a little more time getting the shot)  then the Fuji still reigns supreme.

There is a good reason why many expert photographers and gearheads (such as David Hobby, Zack Arias, and Ken Rockwell) call the Fuji X100S the best digital camera they have ever owned. The image quality of the Fuji is simply astonishing.

So, I would summarize the strengths of each camera as follows:

Olympus OM-D E-M5 Strengths:

• Easy people snapshots
• All-purpose walk-around versatility (zoom lens)
• Ability to use telephoto and other lenses
• High/Low Angle shots (tilt-out-screen)
• Stabilization prevents camera shake in stills and video

Fuji X100S Strengths:

• One-piece camera. No extra lenses or flash needed.
• Super-sharp photos (especially with manual focus)
• Tricky flash situations (leaf shutter = sync at any speed)
• Low light shooting (f/2 lens)

How I Decide Which One to Carry

Here’s the way my decision process is starting to go when I’m running out the door and have to decide which camera to grab:

If I’m going to be primarily shooting people, I go for the Olympus. For example: Recently my daughter and I went to Comic-Con, which is all about getting photos of costumed people, most of them in motion, frequently shot while I’m also in motion. The Olympus is a no-brainer for this, because the Fuji would miss the focus on half of these moving people. The Olympus, with its face-detection auto-focus, makes these rapid-fire moving snapshots much more reliable.

Olympus OMD EM5 – Face detection autofocus even worked here! Click here for a 100% crop.

On the other hand, when I want to shoot an object, like a flower, or a plate of food, especially in low light, and I have all the time in the world to focus, I choose the Fuji. Especially if I want a really shallow depth-of-field for an artistic look, because the f/2 lens gives a beautifully soft background.

Fuji X100S – When you want a super-shallow depth-of-field, the f/2 lens rocks.
23mm, f/2, 1/900 sec

So, as with all things in photography, it’s a trade-off. I think that if the Olympus 12-50 zoom lens had an aperture of f/2.8 throughout its range, it would be almost the perfect camera. Or, if the Fuji could zoom and had more reliable autofocus, then it would be the perfect camera.

I love shooting with both of these cameras and wholeheartedly recommend both of them.  If you are in the market for a compact camera with great performance, you can buy either of these with confidence and expect to get a lot of joy from it.

But I still don’t feel like I’ve found the “perfect” small camera for me — if such thing even exists. Maybe I’m on a unicorn hunt and doomed to be disappointed.

But for now I’m going to keep hunting, and I’ll let you know the results as I go.

Price these cameras on Amazon.com

Olympus OM-D E-M5 on Amazon.com

Fuji X100S on Amazon.com

(And by the way, if budget is no obstacle, Olympus has subsequently released a newer model in this camera line, the Olympus OM-D E-M1, which reportedly has better image quality.  Add the Olympus Zuiko 12-40 f/2.8 lens and you have what sounds very much like my fantasy scenario described above, but the total cost is about $1,000 more than my Em5 package.)

As always, when you shop from my Amazon links you buy me a beer!

After using the camera sporadically for six months, and and after another recent heavy-use trip, I’d like to share some revised thoughts now that I know the camera a bit better.

I’d especially like to highlight two important features that I didn’t get to use in my previous Hawaii trip, and which I think are strong advantages of this camera.

First, the Bad Stuff

Before getting to the good stuff, let me address the biggest problem of this camera, which I wrote about previously:

It has a tendency to sometimes miss the focus on your foreground subject, and focus on the background instead.

Here’s an example (if the composition seems weird, well, we were on a roller coaster). The focus point was on her face:

Fuji X100S – Autofocus missed the foreground subject

It doesn’t do this all the time, of course, which would be intolerable. It does it just enough to be annoying.

And in my experience, it happens most often when you have a well-lit, high-contrast background behind a low-contrast or poorly lit subject.

Compare the photo below, taken one second later with the subject in bright light, the Fuji nailed the focus:

Brightly lit subject and the Fuji found the focus.

It seems that in the former conditions, the Fuji “sees” the background better than it sees the subject, and locks in on it instead.

This is understandable, but if other camera makers can avoid this problem, Fuji should be able to also.

And it’s not just my camera. Since my previous review I’ve heard from countless other X100S owners frustrated by the same problem.

So with this seemingly serious flaw, why is this such a popular camera?

Well, because it’s such a damn good camera in so many other ways that people still love to shoot with it.

I won’t repeat everything I said in my previous review about its sharpness and low-light ability (both are amazing).

Instead, I’ll mention two more good features that I hadn’t tested last time I wrote about the Fuji.

Built-In 3-Stop ND Filter

On my DLSR cameras I sometimes use ND filters to knock down the light on a bright day. Maybe I want a slower shutter speed in order to use a wide aperture for shallow depth of field. Or maybe I want to bring the shutter speed within my camera’s maximum flash sync speed. Or maybe I want to achieve a special blur effect like the common soft waterfall or ocean blur seen in landscape photos.

But in all these cases, putting the ND filter on the camera and fussing around with it is a hassle. (And that’s assuming I even have it with me.)

The Fuji, on the other hands, has a built-in 3-stop ND filter that you simply turn on by a menu selection.

How fast and easy!

Suddenly I find myself thinking on sunny days “What could I do here with a slower shutter?” or “What could I do here with shallow depth-of-field?”

Here’s an example from a trip to Disneyland last week, where Julie and I were shooting lessons for an upcoming course on travel photography (don’t hold your breath — watch for it in 2015).

Shooting this roller-coaster in bright sunlight yields the usual results: completely frozen motion at a high shutter speed.

Fast shutter = Frozen motion  – 1/800 Second, f/11

But this is the Fuji, right? So why not just turn on the ND filter and show some motion?

Three stops means three halvings of the shutter speed. So if my shutter speed was 1/800 cut it in half once to 1/400, again to 1/200, and again to 1/100.

At 1/100 you can see some blur on a roller-coaster!

And now that we’re in the ballpark, by tweaking the aperture and shutter and ISO we can get just the amount of blur we want.

Fuji X100S – 1/40 sec, ISO 200, F/8 with 3 stop ND filter

This filter is also great for sunny-day portraits where you want a nice soft background. Turn on the filter, open up the aperture by three stops, and get a nice shallow depth-of-field.

And with the Fuji’s amazing flash sync speed (1/1000 at f/2 and any speed at smaller apertures) you can introduce on-camera or off-camera flash, combined with the ND filter, for well-lit shallow-focus portraits. More on that in a future write-up.

Great Low-Light Video

In my previous review I had not yet had a chance to fully test the Fuji’s video capabilities.

Now I’m pleased to report that the light-loving  APS-C sensor that makes such great still photos also makes great videos as well. This thing just gobbles up the light, even in the most dim surroundings.

Now, if you’re a serious video shooter, the Fuji is not going to become your video workhorse, because it doesn’t give you full manual control. When you enter video mode, the camera basically goes full auto, making its own choices for shutter, aperture, and ISO. (The good news is, it does a pretty good job of choosing its settings.)

So the Fuji is no substitute for a DSLR when you want to have full control over the look of your video.

But if you compare the video from the Fuji to the camera that it is probably replacing in your pocket or purse, then it wins hands down.

Because of its large sensor, the Fuji easily outperforms your standard point-and-shoot camera or iphone for video in low light.  And in bright light it gives you depth-of-field that you could never get on one of those small-sensor pocket cameras.

In the video below you’ll see some twilight clips that show how in low light the Fuji outperforms a standard point-and-shoot camera, the Sony Cyber-Shot DSC-HX5V. The Sony is a good camera, but its tiny sensor just can’t compete with the Fuji.

Final Thoughts

My feelings about the X100S remain mixed, but mostly positive.

Because of its annoying focus problem, after my initial review six months ago, I had intended to sell it on eBay and put the money toward a different mirrorless camera.

But for some reason, I just can’t seem to part with the thing

And now that I’ve gotten to know the built-in ND filter and low-light video ability, I’ve found two more reasons to hold onto the Fuji.

About 95% of the time, it’s the amazing pocket camera you’ve always dreamed of (assuming you have a big pocket). And the other 5% of the time, when it’s missing the focus on your subject, it seems a small price to pay for all its virtues.

If you’re a serious camera buff who loves manual controls and loves having a camera that will challenge you to keep learning and growing with it for years, then I still recommend this camera.

And if actions speak louder than words, then perhaps the best way to conclude is by noting that when traveling with several cameras at our disposal, despite its flaws, Julie and I were always fighting over who got to shoot with the Fuji. That says something.

Check the current price on Amazon.com
Price the Fuji X100S on Amazon.com

Optional Equipment that I added to mine
B+W 49mm Clear UV Haze Filter (to protect the lens)
JX100 Lens Hood/Adapter Ring (buy this for $14 or the Fuji version for $90)

As always, if you shop from my Amazon affiliate links you buy me a beer!

(a) Inexpensive,
(b) Easy to refer back to any time,
(c) Portable on all your devices, and
(d) Did I mention inexpensive?

Well, while I was busy finishing my Event Photography course, two of my favorite photography teachers put out great new e-books that I am long overdue in bringing to your attention.

Let’s look at each separately.

Location Flash by Jimmy D

Here’s what I love about this book:

1) It covers a little bit of everything. If you’re just starting out and want an overview of the different kind of lighting tools, lighting modifiers, and lighting strategies for outdoor portraits, you’ll find it all here. From small speedlites to big studio strobes, from reflectors to umbrellas to softboxes to ring flash, you’ll get a little sample of everything Jimmy D uses to create portraits.

I can’t tell you how much I would have liked to have this overview, all in one place, when I was starting to light portraits.

2) Lots of great example photos using people who are not models. (Sure, some of them are models, because Jimmy shoots models for a living. But here he also uses his kids, nieces, nephews, and other “real people” for subjects — just like you do).

3) Jimmy speaks from experience. This guy has been shooting people professionally for decades. It’s all he does. Portraits, glamour, fashion. Jimmy has made a lifelong career of lighting people to make pictures. When he tells you how to light people outdoors, he knows what he’s talking about.

4) It’s a great supplement to my Flash Portrait course and my Event Photography course. If you own either of those courses, you’ll love the way this book extends and enhances your knowledge of outdoor people lighting.

5) Did I mention it’s only ten bucks? That’s less than a movie ticket. Even if you learn only one thing, at that price, it’s worth it. I learned several new things, and I got some really good forehead-slap “oh yeah!” reminders on a dozen more things I had forgotten.

You can buy it here and download it right now:
Location Flash by Jimmy D – Just $9.95

Successful Photo Shoots by Ed Verosky

This is a very different kind of book from anything Verosky has offered in the past.

Rather than detailed instruction in gear or techniques, this book looks at the complete, overall process of a photo shoot with a model.

If you’re considering shooting models, especially glamour and boudoir photography you’ll learn exactly:

• What happens in a typical photo shoot
• What camera, lens, and lights to use at each step
• When and why to change lenses
• What camera settings to use
• How to keep the shoot flowing
• How to maintain rapport with the model
• How to recover from mistakes
• How to get back on track when the shoot goes off the rails
• How Ed edits his photos in Lightroom to get the finished look

Here’s what I love about this book:

1) Ed shows you four different complete photo shoots, from beginning to end. You can see the process happen again and again in different variations.

2) Ed actually tells you word-for-word what he says to the model at every step. Literal spoken dialog. And what he’s thinking. At every step. This is great.

3) Ed shows you his missteps and bad photos as well as the good ones. Then he shows you how he selects and edits the keepers to create the final photos. It’s comforting to know that even the pros take a lot of mediocre shots, and that it’s a process of refinement, selection, and editing that gives the great end result.

4) This vicarious experience, repeated again and again, really builds your confidence as if you were there. If you’re nervous about shooting models, after going through all these shoots step by step, you’ll feel almost as if you had these shooting experiences yourself. What a huge confidence boost!

Warning: These are bouidor/glamour shots, so there is some mild nudity here. But it’s artistic (and I think you’ll enjoy Ed’s choice of models). If nudity turns you off, don’t buy this one.

I think this “complete photo shoot” concept was a brilliant idea on Ed’s part. In fact, the only thing better would be to see it all as a video series, but as videos it would cost $200 instead of $10. So. Love the e-book!

And of course, I got you a discount! Normally $15, you can get it for $10 if you use the coupon code SAVE5. Because I love you, man.

Successful Photo Shoots by Ed Verosky for just $10 with discount code

For me, e-books like these provide a ridiculous amount of value for the price.

I mean, I spent more than that on lunch today! And these books represent decades of experience by top photographers who are also great teachers.

At this price, it’s a no-brainer choice for me, little treasures of photography info you can refer back to any time. I just gobble these up.

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

Happy Shooting!

–Phil

P.S. And what’s also great is that if you buy these Ed and Jimmy will share a bit of the proceeds to help me keep making free tutorials for you.

And that’s a pretty good description of his mammoth new photography book Road to Seeing.

It’s infused with love. Of photography. Of life. Of human beings. Of art. Of mystery.

Winters has gifted us with an unconventional book that is half autobiography, half photography lesson, half art history textbook, half philosophical treatise, and entirely delightful. (Yes, I know that’s four halves, but at nearly 700 pages, this feels like two books).

Roughly half of those pages contain photos, and roughly half of those were taken by Winters. The rest are favorites of his, from Daguerre’s first historic photograph of Paris, to the chilling Vietnam war photos of Eddie Adams and photos from other past masters who influenced Winters in his career.

If you’d like to know what kind of life path, and what kind of thoughts, lead a man to become a great photographer, this is the book for you.

Kate Winslet

Far more philosophical than most photography books (or most books of any kind for that matter), Road to Seeing is filled with personal observations like:

“I now find peace in the realization that millions of potential masterpieces happen each moment the world over and go unphotographed.”

Of his family photographs: “Evidence of a life replete with love is, in my mind, the greatest gift a photographer can give to the world.”

Of portrait subject Sandra Bullock: “The privilege of being in her company has made me a better man.”

Of his long-time assistants and colleagues, “I mention these associations because I believe it speaks to the practice of treating everyone in life with dignity and respect.”

We’re well beyond Photography 101 here.

And what a welcome change of pace from the self-absorbed “celebrity” photographers whose egos seem to eclipse even those of the celebrities they photograph. Winters seems to have grown more humble with his success.

And yet, he is one of those celebrity photographers. Among other things. He’s also a street photographer, a carpenter, a video director, a skilled illustrator. The man’s talents seem to know no bounds.

I was captivated by the book from the opening pages where Winters describes his life-changing childhood encounter with the movie Star Wars, and how it led him to become a maker of spaceship models so complex and detailed that he was hired, still in his teens, to build models for movies.

(This reminded me of my own experience as a 13-year-old sci-fi geek in southern California, when my class got a special field trip to see a pre-release screening of some unknown movie called Star Wars. No one knew at the time that it would become a success, and I recall sitting in the vast screening theater in Los Angeles with a bunch of chattering, spitball-throwing teenagers, wondering, “Am I the only one who sees how great this is?” Turns out I was not the only one.)

Winters hopped rapidly from one artistic genre to another, soon settling into shooting editorial photos for newspapers and magazines.

When he describes these photojournalistic assignments, Winters’ spare prose pulls the reader into the world of the stories that he covered, from tragedies like the crash of Swissair Flight 111 and the deaths of 19 Texas firefighters, to a remarkable cold-case murder in which the acknowledged and confessed rapist/killer (a priest!) is still living peacefully in a suburb of Phoenix because a DA simply won’t prosecute him.

The murder victim and the DA

Winters’ photographic style, and his work, is all over the map, from stark black-and-white photos reminiscent of Dorothea Lange’s depression-era portraits, to the glossiest of Hollywood magazine cover photos.

The celebrity-photo section in the center of the book will undoubtedly appeal to many readers interested in learning how Winters created the famous photos we’ve seen on magazine racks. His descriptions are often less technical than those of Greg Heisler, and more descriptive of the way he directs his subject (at least when they will allow themselves to be directed). I found it fascinating to read about the “method acting” approach that Anthony Hopkins and Christopher Walken take when they step in front of his camera and take over directing, and even more fascinating to learn that Winters’ favorite portrait subject ever was Mr. Rogers.

Anthony Hopkins and Christopher Walken

But despite all the acclaim (and undoubtedly money) that came from his celebrity portraiture, Winters expresses a healthy skepticism about Hollywood, celebrity, and fame.

In fact, he intentionally fled Hollywood for Austin Texas, saying: “If I were to view my behavior during my 10-year period in Hollywood, it’s clear to me that I was living more unconsciously that I would have preferred. My work ruled my life, and the decisions I made were usually steeped in the frenzy that was my career.”

Winters attributes to his father, a welder and “gentleman farmer,” his early acquaintance with hard work and the satisfactions of manual labor. Winters seems willing and even eager to undertake any amount of work to capture the image that’s in his head, even when it means staying up all night and building a set with his own hands, as he did for his portraits of Denzel Washington, Helen Mirren, and others.

Poignant and personal street photography

If this book has a flaw, for me, it is the physical format of the hardcover. Simultaneously luxurious and cumbersome, it weighs a hefty six pounds, and its pages are of paper so thick that it feels almost like card stock.

The combination of thick paper and the book’s rather compact brick-like shape make it hard for me to fully open it to enjoy the photos as I would like to. I feel like I’m wrestling with the book as much as reading it.

So it may be a blessing in disguise that the Hardcover is frequently “Temporarily Out of Stock” at Amazon, leaving the Kindle version, weighing six pounds less and perfectly flat, as your alternative.

I encourage you to buy the Kindle version now, and if you love it enough to also want the physical brick for your shelf, you can always put that on your Christmas list if it comes back in stock.

See the Hardcover at Amazon.com

See the Kindle Edition at Amazon.com

The last word should go to Winters, and I think this may be the best advice one could give to any photographer trying to make art:

“I make it a habit to approach every picture as though it were my last.”

————————————————————-
Time is Running Out — Save $50 off my new Event Photography Course
————————————————————-
Don’t forget that my new course, Secrets of Successful Event Photography, is on sale right now. Get it here and save $50 — before the price goes up.  (You can also read customer reviews of it here.)

Second, if you’re not among those buyers, I’d like to share some of the feedback (both positive and negative) to help you decide if this course is right for you.

THE GOOD

First, a small sample of the overwhelmingly positive comments that have reminded me why I do this work:

“Packed with useful information I can immediately apply! You are able to simplify things and make them immediately comprehensible—a true sign of mastery. More, it is a sign that you have spent a great deal of time and effort on course design.” — Rick Caniglia

“The best and most concise explanation of slow sync and second curtain flash I’ve seen. Thank you!” — Arthur Drooker

“I have purchased all your other course materials, and knew to expect a great product. I got what I expected, and more!” — Greg Wingerd

“The video on flash modifiers and the way it is applied in event shooting was GREAT!” — Richard Battilana

“I was concerned about the price being higher that your other courses, and the fact that Julie was an unknown quantity. But after buying, I found the course was worth every bit of the price and Julie was a great addition! I LOVED the critique of the final shots at the end of the fashion shoot. Phil, you are a great teacher and having Julie take a totally different track on almost everything got me considering different ways to shoot, light, and think about events.” — Paul Wilson

“I was hesitant to purchase this after spending a fortune on self-help DVD’s that left me with more questions than they answered. But I really enjoy the bite sized chunks of information. Good value and very informative.” — Jim Matthews

“I was afraid this might be more “professional” than I needed since I’m doing pictures strictly for my own interest, but I found it very helpful for many situations. I especially like the information on flash photography, posing people and getting candid shots. I appreciate your including Julie with her different set of skills. I have recommended this course because it gives a lot of information without overwhelming us with technical jargon.” — Wendy Saunders

“I am not even really into event photography, but having purchased other videos that you have made, I felt sure that there would be some content that I could use. I was not disappointed. Flash is difficult to master properly, but the in-depth discussion that you presented sure made it a lot easier to understand. Keep up the excellent work!” — Brian Little

“I’m not a pro, but I learned several tricks that made this course worthwhile. I especially like your reassurance that you can do with less expensive equipment. I loved the discussion of pros and cons of various equipment and where you both went through your camera bags and provided your rationale. Thank you for your encouragement and your commitment to helping others shoot better photos.” — Bill Boyd

“I’m in love with this course! You teach me in minutes things I’ve been struggling to get out of other people, books, and tutorials for years.” — Geraldine Watson

“The way you inform and teach is the best of its kind I have ever experienced. Many thanks for your all round professionalism.” — Ray Stewart

That’s just a tiny fraction of the kind words I’ve received, and I wish I could share it all, but it would run on for pages.

THE BAD

But of course not all the feedback is positive. There are a handful of experienced shooters who felt that the material was not advanced enough for them. A typical comment is:

“I’ve been doing event photography for 18 years going back to film. I admire your effort on what you’ve done but this is strictly for a beginner.”

Approximately 6 out of 900+ customers requested a refund for this reason, and I happily refunded their purchase promptly. And that’s exactly why I have a 100% money back guarantee, so you can give my training a try with no risk.

On the other hand, far more often, I got comments from advanced and even professional event photographers saying that although some of the material was familiar, they gained new confidence by confirming their existing knowledge, while learning some new tricks and techniques that make the course worthwhile.

For example:

“I was afraid that the scope of the course was not broad enough to cater for my needs as a part time professional photographer. But it is chunked and sequenced so that I can dive deep directly into what I need. While the prime audience may be less experienced photographers, you have catered to a broad range of experiences and learning styles. Great work!” — Paul Mansell

“As an ‘intermediate’ photographer I was concerned that there might now be much new information. As expected, I found the equipment section mostly a refresher. But the photo shoot section has been very helpful and is worth the cost. I liked the part on parades best. I know I will now have a much higher percentage of ‘keepers’ in my event photos.” — Lenny Wollitz

THE PERSONAL

Finally there are the personal comments and are most gratifying of all to me, and that remind me why I do the work I do. Some examples:

“There is no finer teacher and no better training videos than yours.”

“I follow you as a GURU, and I will never stop thanking you, and telling people about you who want to get the best from their cameras.”

“I recommend this course because I recommend YOU…”

“You co-teacher Julie is delightful. Both of you seem very genuine and humble.”

“Phil, you are professional in your approach to training and you make it enjoyable. I have a number of videos from others, but none reach the standard that you achieve.”

“You are my MENTOR, and I want to express my gratitude for all your hard work and how much you teach us for such a small price…THANK YOU !!!”

Comments like these keep me inspired through the long months (and years) of work that go into these projects.

To all of you who gave this kind of feedback, my most heartfelt thanks. You are literally what keeps me doing this work.

If hope this small sample of the responses had helped you decide if this course is right for you.

Your can get the full details or purchase here

Secrets of Successful Event Photography

And don’t forget you can save $50 right now during the launch.  Get it before the price goes up.