Ladies and gentlemen, would you please welcome: THE DICKENS!

Okay, so, I just got home from a (fairly) dark little pub, shooting a band I know with my latest acquisition (the Fuji X100 if you haven’t been keeping up), and I’m really trying not to swear here in polite company.  Can I be forgiven for quoting the Blues Brothers, y’think?

JESUS H. TAPDANCING CHRIST, I HAVE SEEN THE LIGHT!!

(I’ll change it, if that’s bad.)

Wow.  I have to say, focus was rock solid and consistent, the speed wasn’t holding me up, metering jumped around a little as did white balance but I’d expect that under stage lighting, and that’s why the good people at Fujifilm let us shoot RAW files.  These are straight in-camera .jpgs, no tweaking - and they’re a little underexposed because I was expecting to have to protect the highlights and pull the exposure up in the RAW conversion, that’s my normal way of shooting.

I didn’t need to go out of my way to anticipate moments - at least, no more than I would have with any of my SLRs - which is to say, the camera needed to be at my eye with the shutter half pressed to lock on a target.  But when I hit the shutter, I got what I wanted.

Now I’m home, looking at them at 100%, and reading the serial numbers on guitar headstocks at 3200ISO.  (Maybe not on the ones I shot at 6400, but still…)  My hit rate is pretty much exactly what I’d have expected if I was shooting with a 1-series Canon and L glass like I usually would be - what I mean is, the camera isn’t limiting my image selection, I’m just editing on the basis of what’s in the photo.

Sorry folks - the word is in.  This camera is SERIOUSLY good.  I was impressed before, now I’m blown away.  Did I mention I’m trying really hard not to swear, here?  It’s FRAKING SPECTACULAR.  There.  I didn’t.

Apologies for the images being re-compressed by Tumblr, and not looking sharp at the moment; tomorrow I will work out a way to post something at 100%, so don’t hassle me for it now.  (It’s night here, y’know!)  And feel free to repost this elsewhere if you like, I’d just rather you post a link back to here than put the photos somewhere else - thanks!