Travel and Photography | London With Fujifilm X100T

Trans-Siberian Railway trip is the first trip that I’ve ever travel light. I mean this is the first overseas trip that I didn’t carry a big bulky DSLR, in fact I just bought my Fujifilm X100T less than a week before I flew to London. I bought my X100T mirror-less camera on Friday 5th December and flew to London on 8th December 2014 and arrived on London Heathrow Airport around 5:30 AM on 9th December 2014.

I don’t have much experience or chance to play around with my new toy before heading to London, I really wish I know how to use Panoramic mode while I was in London and I don’t really know how to fiddle around with Film Simulation that the camera provided , let alone to use so many custom button there but my real concern is on how to get the right exposure, how to adjust the aperture and shutter speed, that’s all I really wanted to know at the moment.

Yes, for first timer like me, it’s quite cumbersome to use it, because I’ve no experience with this kind of a camera and it wasn’t easy for me to change ISO, Aperture and Shutter speed,unlike DSLR, I think I need to slow down with this camera, maybe after awhile I’ll get faster using all the buttons but then, I’m not on assignment, I’ve no rush, I can take all the time in this world to get my exposure right, I’m not really concern about losing any precious moment because I’ve nothing to chase.

The only drawback with this camera is that, it only have one fixed focal length which is 23 mm or equivalent of 35 mm on full frame camera. So you can forget about getting a tight head shot of the Royal Guard in front of the Buckingham Palace, and the 23 mm is not really wide enough for most situation especially on architecture shot, I did try to take a selfie shot of me inside the Natural History Museum of London but I end up with my face filling up the frame at an arm length and there is no way to tell where am I.

Yes I know that Fujifilm has given the option to get extra wide or extra coverage with the option of getting the wide and tele conversion lens but I don’t want to carry lots of accessories with me and then, it would be better for me to bring my DSLR I need to change lens.

Anyway I’ve had a great moment with my Fujifilm X100T camera, despite its shortcoming or drawbacks, I manage to get a memorable shot for my journey, the quality of the photograph at High ISO is quite comparable to what high end DSLR can deliver and among the bonus that I like also is the sound of the shutter, almost silent, it work great in the museum where I can take a photograph without anyone notice and without become annoying.

All of the photographs above were shot in RAW and process with Adobe Lightroom and using Fujifilm Classic Chrome Simulation Preset which I use in Lightroom not in the camera, off course I did tweak a little bit to get the look that I really want. Inside the Natural History Museum of London, most of the time I will use High ISO somewhere around ISO 1600 to ISO 2000.

London is just a quick stopover for me, I travel in winter so daylight time is limited, by 5 PM its already getting dark. I just have two days in London and did not manage to visit so many places, on the second day I spent almost four hour inside Natural History Museum, in fact I was among the few visitors who came just few minutes after the museum was open for visitors.

The first day when I arrived in London, my friend in London Muhamad Rafique took me to Malaysia High Commission and then quickly take the tube to Buckingham Palace because I wanted to see the changing of guard around 11:15 am, I don’t want to miss the moment because I know that the changing of the guard doesn’t happen everyday. Unlike in Summer in winter the guards wear grey greatcoats over their scarlet tunics, so I’m out of luck to photograph them with their iconic red colour.

Fujifilm X100T with fixed focal length of 23 mm is not for everyone but for casual traveler or street shooters, I think, this camera or any camera equivalent is more than good enough. Their small in size and lightweight makes it easy to carry them around for the whole day without burdening your shoulder.

Will I ever regret not having a DSLR with Me? No, Not a chance, in fact I began to enjoy shooting with this small mirror-less camera and if given the chance I would like to visit London once again and spent more time here, so that I can visit so many interesting place that I missed.

*Just to let you know, for my Trans-Siberian Railway Trip, starting in London and then fly to Saint Petersburg Russia and then take the train all the way to Beijing China, I only have one camera with me which is Fujifilm X100T camera.

Travel and Photography | London With Fujifilm X100T

Wazari Wazir

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Wazari Wazir

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