In Coventry we are proud of our ring road, which loops around the city centre, just outside of where the old medieval city walls were, it is notoriously tricky to drive on, with junctions merging into each other. The secret is to ignore usual best practices and stay in the right lane unless you are leaving at the next junction. When I heard that a group of local photographers were going on a photowalk around the ring road I was keen to join them, and somehow the stars aligned such that I was free on the day, and it was not raining either! It was a dry day, but the weather was pretty dull, so I made the decision early on that I would try to shoot in black and white, feeling that it would work well with the grey skies and grey architecture. I considered using my X100V, as it is a camera made for street photography, but I wanted the flexibility of switching lenses, so opted for the X-H2S, mainly with the 35mm f1.4 prime lens.
We met at the canal basin, and took some shots around that area whilst waiting for the whole group to arrive. I like the canal basin, it is just across the ring road from the city centre, but feels so much calmer, especially on a chilly Saturday morning, when the canal was as flat as a millpond, which made for some great reflections. That is until a couple of swans swam through and spoiled my fun.
As we left the canal basin for the ring road, my inner car photographer was coming out – I was trying to combine a silhouetted person walking across the bridge with a car driving under it. Then I saw this hot rod truck approaching – it did not quite give me the shot I was aiming for, but in my view an interesting truck makes for a better shot than perfect timing/composition with a Toyota Prius.
We crossed over to the inside of the ring road, and walked around anti-clockwise, stopping to take photos. Our first main stop was Nauls Mill Underpark – somewhere I had not been since I borrowed an X100V from Fuji a few years ago. It is an underpass which has been done up as a park, with seating, a climbing wall and logs planted into the ground. I used some of these logs as framing, and waited for someone to walk into, or out of the shadow of the bridge – my plan worked! Although I think I would have been happier with a slightly faster shutter speed, I think having the slight motion blur works for this image.
Our next main stop was the abandoned housing estate at Spon End – the flats have been empty for a while now and are due to be demolished, it felt strange to be walking around what would have once been a busy area. Hopefully something nice will be built there soon, as it is a good location near to the city centre, with the River Sherbourne running alongside.
From Spon End we carried on round the ring road, criss crossing through the many subways on the south side of town. I liked this composition with the light and the square hole, I just needed to wait for a subject to walk into frame. We did not have as much time here as I would have liked, but it is somewhere I can revisit.
I thought I knew Coventry well, but I had never previously noticed the Frank Whittle building at Coventry University, with its hexagonal patters was pretty spectacular. I have driven past it loads, but you cannot see if from the road, as it is hidden behind the old Whitefriars monastery. I felt like I could have done better here, I had some shots with cyclists riding past, but I needed either a faster shutter speed, or a much slower one to get more motion blur. Another area to return to…
I did not take many photos on the last section of the ring road, but I did notice a few areas which would be good for some static car photography, so next time I have a free afternoon and a clean car I will give those a go. As we got back to the start we stopped for a well earned hot drink and cake at the Transport Museum cafe – we had been walking for more than four hours and I had done over 16,000 steps! It was great to get out exploring my home town, and to meet some other local photographers, the fact that I got home and was pleased with a number of my images from the day is the cherry on top!
After going to the Dukeries Rally with Owen earlier in the year, I was keen to get to a “proper” forest rally – and the next one scheduled was the Rally Nuts Severn Valley Stages, in Mid Wales – a round of the British Rally Championship. Even better, it was just after I had bought my Fuji X-H2S, so it would be a perfect opportunity to put it through its paces. My dad was also keen to watch a rally, so a plan was hatched.
As an early start was needed to catch the cars on the first loop of stages, I stayed at my parent’s house for the night so we could make a quick getaway. Usually I would relish an early morning blast across to Wales, but due to logistics we ended up going in the van. It was still a decent drive though, and we stopped for bacon sandwiches as a second breakfast, shortly after crossing the Welsh border. First we went to Sweet Lamb, as it seemed that it would be the easiest stage to get to and park at. It felt strange being somewhere that I have seen so much on television, it always looked like a cold place on television, and the reality matched that. As we waited in the spectator area low clouds drifted over, occasionally clearing. We would hear the cars coming before we saw them coming down the hill, round a corner, through the water splash, over a jump, then round a couple of hairpins and across the finish line. Whilst it was great watching the cars, we were stating to get cold as the last classes of cars were coming through. So we decided that we would watch the afternoon loop from the Myherin stage – via a third breakfast at the cafe in Devil’s Bridge.
By the time we arrived to Myherin, and had parked up on the side of the fireroad, and walked up to the viewing area, the sun had come out. I am not sure if it was the weather, or the better location, in the forest, but spectating at Myherin was one of my favourite motorsport experiences. Seeing the cars drifting through the back-to-back right angled, right hand corners and hearing them continue down the stage was exactly what I imagined rally spectating to be. The classic Escorts were mostly sideways (predictably), but it was also impressive seeing the top drivers in their modern four wheel drive machinery being millimetre perfect on the apex of the corner. There was also a Mitsubishi Evo VI who just brushed the large rock on the apex of the first corner, to gasps from the crowd – caught perfectly with the 20FPS of the X-H2S. However, my favourite car of the day was the classic 911 driven by Seb Perez (photo at the top of the post), it was good to see the mix of classic and more modern machinery on the rally. Also of note was that Jos Verstappen, ex-F1 driver, and father of current F1 world champion Max Verstappen, was taking part in his first gravel rally.
It was a good first test for the X-H2S, paired with my Fuji XF 50-140mm lens, the autofocus locked onto the cars, with the car subject detect mode activated. And the 20FPS shutter ensured that I could select the prime frame in Lightroom when I got home. I felt like a came home with way more keepers that I would have done had I been shooting with my old Fuji X-T2.
Spectating at a gravel rally in a Welsh forest really lived up to the hype, it was defiantly worth the early start, the long day in the van and spending the morning on a cold Welsh hillside. Seeing the cars sideways on the gravel, especially at close quarters was such a great experience. It was also nice to spend the whole day just with my dad, something that we do not manage to do enough.
After trying a Fuji X-H2S last year, it was inevitable that I would end up buying one, I just was not expecting it to be so quickly… After buying a XF 50-140mm lens last year I was mostly happy with the performance upgrade over my old telephoto lens and was enjoying photography. Thoughts of upgrading my camera had been pushed to the back of my mind. When Owen was frustrated with the performance of “his” camera at the Dukeries Rally, I started looking at options for either a cheap Fuji body to use with my old telephoto lens, or even a Canon lens to use with my very old Canon Eos 20D body, an upgrade for me was not on the radar. However, the more I looked the more I realised that there was not really such a thing as “a cheap Fuji body”, and then that my X-T2 was probably the best of the “cheaper” Fuji bodies, and that I would be as well upgrading my body and letting Owen use the X-T2, but the idea was filed away for later in the year.
Then over the Easter holidays we visited Leeds Castle in Kent, and I figured it was as good a time as any to let Owen try the X-T2, to keep things simple for him I fitted the FUJINON XF35mmF1.4 fixed lens, whilst I used my X100V. Not only did Owen absolutely love it, he was careful with the camera and took some good photos. My plan would work. When we had guests round over the Easter weekend, rather than taking photos myself, I handed Owen the X-T2 and put him in charge of photos, once again he did a great job, capturing some lovely photos of his cousin. He had proven himself, but a camera purchase still was not on the cards.
What tipped me over the edge was learning that the price of the X-H2S was going to increase by £500 from April the first. Now I had three reasons to buy the camera, on their own better autofocus performance for shooting action sports, being able to have a spare camera for Owen or avoiding a £500 price increase would not have been enough to get me to buy the camera, but all three together was a compelling case. The only catch was that it was Easter Sunday, and the price rise was the next day. Usually I would buy from London Camera Exchange in Leamington Spa, as they have always provided good service, and I feel it is important to support bricks and mortar camera stores, but I had to settle for ordering from LCE online.
The camera arrived in the middle of a busy week at work, so I did not have much opportunity to try it out and work my way through the multitude of settings, although Owen and I did get out for a brief, muddy, walk on Coundon Wedge, where I took the photo above (of course Owen had the X-T2). From a photography perspective it was not the most productive, but it was nice to get out with Owen.
It was not until the weekend that I got to really try the camera out properly, and even then it was only a quick walk around the War Memorial Park, whilst Jen did Parkrun. I only had about thirty minutes, so did not want to waste time switching lenses, so fitted the 50-140mm and went to see what I could find in the park. First I found squirrels, and being park squirrels they were used to humans, so even with a relatively short lens, I was able to get close enough to them for some decent photos. More importantly it was a good opportunity to experiment with the animal detection autofocus, which worked really well.
Over the next few days I was able to take photos of the boys at Junior Parkrun, and also Henry at Cycle Speedway. In both cases the improved autofocus over my X-T2 was noticeable, and I was pleased with the photos. After each time using the camera I continued to tweak the settings to my liking, which I feel will be an ongoing process. I may also have made a mistake setting up the custom modes too early, as now if I want to change something globally on the camera, I then need to change it eight times, once as the default, then once again for each of the seven custom modes. I have got a busy few months ahead, and will have plenty of opportunities to put the X-H2S through its paces, so hopefully there will be more photos appearing on this blog soon.
When I switched camera systems to Fuji back in 2018 I thought that my sports photography days were in the past. However, I really enjoyed photographing the British Downhill Series at Llangollen last year, and a few other mountain bike races since. The only problem was that I felt I was being held back by the autofocus on my Fuji X-T2. When Fuji launched the X-H2S camera with a stacked 26 Megapixel sensor and improved autofocus my interest was piqued. Especially as they announced it with a mountain bike video! I did have some reservations, as the camera was aimed at hybrid (stills and video) shooters and hoped that Fuji would have carried over the new technology to the next X-T camera aimed at photographers. Instead, they went for a higher resolution, 40 Megapixel, sensor. My ideal camera would have been the sensor from the X-H2S, in the body of the X-T5, but sadly Fuji have not made that (yet!), so I have to choose between the high resolution stills model, or the fast hybrid camera. Luckily Fuji UK free 48 hour test drives, so I would be able to try both options. I decided to test the X-H2S first and booked the loan in to coincide with the first round of the Racers Guild Winter Series Downhill race at Cannock Chase.
My first reaction on unpacking the camera was that it is a chonky beast – I had not appreciated how much bigger it would be than my X-T2. After failing to attach the supplied strap, I threw on some Peak Design tethers, so I could use my Peak Design Slide strap. The strap lugs on the X-H2S are much better than on the X-T bodies which require metal rings between the camera and strap (or anchor in my case), it is only a minor point, but one that made me warm to the X-H2S. On my lunch break, I quickly dialled in some settings, and went for a walk in my local woods, to try and test the autofocus on some squirrels. I did not have much time, nor were the squirrels cooperating, but I did get a glimpse of what the subject detect autofocus was like. However the first real test was in the evening when Owen was at his karate dojo – Henry and I went to a nearby park. Henry was typically reluctant for photos, but I managed to grab a few shots with my 35mm f1.4 prime lens fitted to the X-H2S. This lens is known to be slow to focus, so I could not come to any conclsions about that, but chasing Henry around the play ground was a good test for the handling of the camera – such as quickly switching to a slow shutter speed for the photo on the roundabout. Upon getting the files in to Lightroom I really liked the Nostalgic Negative film simulation, which is not available on my previous generation Fuji cameras.
The race was on Sunday, but we also had a fun plan for the Saturday – Owen and I were going on a boys mountain bike trip with my friend Partho. The original plan had been a trip to one of the “top ten XC trails” with Partho, which was one of my goals for the year. However, Owen needed to come with us, so it changed to a boys trip to the Forest of Dean to keep the driving time down. Then we realised that there was a big event on there, and plan C formed – a return visit to Sherwood Pines for Owen to try and meet his goal of a 20km bike ride.
We rode the full length of the red-graded “Outlaw” trail, which was not quite long enough for Owen to meet his goal, so we added on another short loop, starting on the blue-graded “Maid Marian” trail, then rejoining the last few sections on the “Outlaw” trail. Before heading out for the second loop, I swapped my hydration pack for my camera bag, to get some shots of Owen and Partho on a new section of the blue trail. I chose a berm, with good lighting, set the X-H2S to 15 frames per second high speed shutter, activated the “bicycle” AI focus mode and called for Owen, and then Partho to drop in. I felt like I got good shots of them both railing the berm, then quickly packed up my bag and chased them down the trail. It felt great to be riding at my pace on a fun section of trail, even if I had a heavy camera bag on my back. As I caught up with the others Partho even managed to get a photo of me airborne over a jump.
We completed the loop, and celebrated Owen achieving his goal with some lovely brownies that Partho had brought with him. The excitement only lasted until we were back at home and I had downloaded the images to Lightroom: none of the eleven frames of Owen were sharp, and only one out of seven of Partho were sharp – the one above. The shutter speed, 1/500th of a second, should have been fast enough, so it could only have been missed focus. Disappointing when I had such high expectations for the autofocus on the X-H2S.
Not feeling fully convinced with the autofocus on the X-H2S, I decided to also take my X-T2 with me to Cannock Chase, just in case it was needed (thankfully, it wasn’t). After walking down the track I found a good corner to shoot from, but again, the AI autofocus was struggling, so I started going back up the track to try a few more angles. For the last few runs of practice I was shooting head on, as the riders came down a long chute – and the AI autofocus was working well. It seemed that it needed to see the rider for a bit before tracking then – maybe this is something that I could have tweaked in the advanced settings, but would need more time with the camera to be sure. Another option would have been to disable the subject detection autofocus and to just use a single focus point, like I would have done on the X-T2, but in the heat of the moment I did not consider that option.
Now knowing how to play to the camera’s strengths, I stayed at the bottom of the chute for the first race runs. The photos were nicely in focus, and I had been able to get a shot of most of the riders. However, they were not what I was hoping for, they were lacking in dynamism, execept for the riders that were jumping.
For the second race, I went back to the first corner I had scoped out. I had come up with a plan to work around the autofocus limitations I had experienced earlier – I would switch the camera to manual focus (I missed the SCM focus switch from the more traditional Fujis) and pre-focus on the exit of the corner. The 15 frames per second burst mode would allow me to pick the sharpest frame. As well as being better for photography, there was more of a party atmosphere at this corner, as it was towards the end of the track, next to the biggest drop. Riders were finishing their runs and gathering around this area to watch the faster racers coming down on their runs. Once again I was reminded just how fun it is to watch mountain bike racing in person, even at a grassroots level, the fact that I was able to photograph it was the icing on the cake!
When I got home, I had some issues importing the files to Lightroom, I do not know if this was a hardware or software issue on my MacBook Pro, or anything to do with the Cfexpress Type B card used in the X-H2s. I tired importing both from the card reader Fuji had sent with the camera, and by connecting the camera directly by USB, but both had issues. It is something that I would need to investigate more in the future, but I would not rule out the camera based on this. As I understand it, the Cfexpress Type B card is part of the reason that then camera is so fast in use, but I thought that it was worth noting the import issues. Otherwise, I was happy with the image quality, it is the quality I would expect from a Fuji X camera.
My preconceptions of the X-H2S were that I would love the autofocus, but hate the handling, I was wrong on both counts. I was underwhelmed by the autofocus, although I expect that with more time, tweaking of the settings and learning how to work with the camera I would be happier with it. Experienced camera reviewers believe that the autofocus on this model is pretty much on a par with Canon and Sony’s high end cameras, so will have to trust them on that. After initially thinking that the camera was huge, I grew to appreciate the size and handling – I even managed to forget to take a camera strap with me to the bike race, so held the camera all day – I am not sure that would have been as doable with my X-T2, which is a much smaller body. I was shooting in shutter priority mode all weekend, but adapted to the different “PASM” controls easily – I thought this would be a deal breaker for me, but I think I could manage.
Although I am yet to try the X-T5, the X-H2S has overtaken it and is now top of my wish list for my next camera. However the reason I use wish list is that there is a big price jump from the X-T5, especially when you consider the need for a Cfexpress Type B card and that there is no “kit” package with the 16-80f4 lens available for the X-H2S. However, my main takeaway from the weekend is that I probably need to prioritise a new telephoto lens, rather than a new camera body. When I bought my Fuji 55-200mm lens I liked the compact size and versatility, but after a few years I am coming into its limitations – the autofocus could be better and I either use it at the wider end or maxed out at 200mm for wildlife, where it is not really long enough. So an upgrade to the Fuji 50-140mm f2.8 lens is in order, and my aspirations for wildlife photography will have to be put on hold. 50-140mm is the Fuji equivalent of the 70-200mm lens that I used on Canon for many years and is the go to focal length for sports photography. So even though my expectations for the weekend went out of the window, I still feel like I have come out of it with some clarity on what camera kit I will purchase next.
