DigitalSplash 17

Having just returned from DigitalSplash 17, which took place over 2 days, at Liverpool’s Exhibition Centre, I thought I’d give some of my thoughts and experiences of the show over the next few days. With over 70 photography brands represented, 17 speakers, photo walks and workshops and various interviews and activities from the stands there was plenty to be interested in. Also, as its run by Wilkinson Cameras there’s plenty of bargains to be had (I got a Lowepro slingshot 250 for £20 cheaper than most places) and this year there were more tills, so no long lines like last year. This year I went for the 2 days it was on, mainly because the weekend tickets were being offered free, but also, because I’d booked various talks and a photo walk over its course. And it’s the photo walk I want to talk about first.

The photo walk I decided to go on was run by Liverpool based and Fujifilm Ambassador Matt Hart, it was also backed by Fujifilm so, the idea was to borrow Fuji’s latest cameras and go out and shoot with Matt for 90 minutes. When I got to the stand and asked about trying out the XT-2 and being told they’d got none left, I was offered the X PRO2 instead. Now, I’d done a bit of research on both these cameras and was happy to try either out, so, after a quick run through by the tech guy and 5 minutes of quickly going over it myself we set off on the walk.

Matt gave us a quick talk before we set off and said we wouldn’t be able to do much in the way of street photography, because the route we were taking wouldn’t get us in the best areas in time, and with rain threatening we would end up at the Museum of Liverpool before heading back. I’ve done a lot of shooting in Liverpool so this wasn’t necessarily a bad thing plus, having a new camera in hand I wasn’t about to get the best photo’s anyway. He also said to take as many photo’s as we could because we got to keep the memory cards afterwards, with this in mind, we set off and just took anything and everything.

I’ve had a few Fuji cameras over the years and always loved them my most recent being the Fuji X 20 compact and I was interested to see how good these premium versions handled. The X PRO2 has an electronic viewfinder which can also be switched to optical but, because of parallax problems with the optical I kept mainly to the electronic version. When using the electronic viewfinder, you get an instant idea of what your shot will look like and so can adjust settings to make sure it’s perfect before you press the shutter. One thing I did notice though was how long it took to write to the memory card, whether this was due to the camera set up or it is slow I’m not sure, I ended up putting it in burst mode so I could take pictures quicker, which seemed to help. The autofocus was very fast and accurate although I haven’t had chance to upload any photos yet I’m sure that most are sharp with the focus where I wanted it.

It’s hard to get a feeling of how good a camera is in only 90 minutes and with so many features to tweak to reflect your shooting style, it can be a real challenge. If I had bought this camera I would use it with a wrist strap (I wrapped the neck strap around my wrist so I could carry it like this) and although it wasn’t a major problem I did feel the grip on the right-hand side was a bit small. The battery, as with all mirrorless cameras, was a bit limited too, I’d gone from 100% to 27% in the 90 minutes and about 200 shots; I’m sure there’s a way of turning the rear screen off but couldn’t figure out how, which would have given the battery more life.

Overall, I liked the X PRO2 but, would have to do some serious research if I ever considered buying one plus, I still want to try out the XT-2 or its future derivatives if I don’t end up on the Nikon full frame system. As for the walk we got to the Museum of Liverpool just as the rain set in. after about 20 minutes shooting inside we headed back, luckily the X PRO2 is weather resistant so I did manage a few more shots. Matt apologised for the weather as he hadn’t ordered rain and then told us about some of the upcoming walks he has planned for next year, so, maybe I’ll meet him again and with better weather pick his brain on street photography.