Thank you Uniqlo for picking me as one of the artists for your Fall For Autumn project, present in the Singapore Flagship store at Orchard Central.

We’ve got a set of postcards by 4 photographers and an in-store postal service, along with decorative lightboxes with quotes about autumn.

“As a photographer, I love it when the light casts a soft glow on the things arounds us, creating shadows and dimensions. It reminds me of the passing of time, which we cannot stop, and that for everything we do, the forces of nature are much bigger than us.”

FALL FOR AUTUMN — UNIQLO was originally published in Tinyhumanmind on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Solving the confusion

Let me solve some confusion and misconceptions between the X-E3 and other Fujifilm X-series cameras.

The way Fujifilm has cleverly conceived its X-series, its latest mirrorless cameras are all fitted with the same CMOS III X-Trans sensor.

More precisely, the Fujifilm X-Pro2, X-T2, X-T20 and X-E3 all have the same APS-C “X-Trans CMOS III” sensor, on 24M effective pixels. The different cameras have a different physical body but the same intelligence.

Think of it this way, they are a range of cameras who look different on the outside but are the same on the inside. It’s a little like the same person wearing different clothes — some days with more layers and pockets, some days stripped to the skinny in summer wear.

For example, the X-T20 has got the tilt screen whereas the X-E3 doesn’t.
The X-T2 has got an ISO dial button on the top left, the X-E3 doesn’t. But it has a touch screen with shortcuts which you can use to change ISO. However, the X-T2 doesn’t have a touch screen.

Another example, perhaps an easier comparison- Between the X-T2 and X-T20, there is a $1100SGD price difference. You are paying primarily for the larger electronic view finder.

When people pose the question: Which camera is better?
They really mean : which camera produces a better photographic result?

But in the age of mirrorless cameras, that’s a blind question to ask, given that the sensors and software of these cameras are of equal standing. It is not more difficult for a camera company to install the same software technology in all of their cameras, and there is no reason not to do so in view of value for money for its consumers.

The difference now, is in the physical hardware. A bigger, better leather grip? A tilt-screen? A larger Electronic Viewfinder? A joystick? A touchscreen?

The real question to ask is — How you would like to operate a camera?
If you know that answer, you will know which physical forms you prefer, and how much you are willing to spend for your gear.

This comes down to design and form — Form factor and how you would like to use your cameras.

I’m a dials kind of person. I like everything to be in my face at one glance. I prefer to turn dials then navigate the touch screen. And I shoot manual. So alot of the Q button functions, Drive functions (except for film simulations) are not of priority usage to me. I don’t need them everyday, and only for specific occasions

Therefore, the X-T2 is my workhorse, because it presents the 3 main elements of photography in old school physical dials — the ISO on top left, shutter speed dial on top right, aperture on the lens ring. Super no-brainer. Can change settings with eyes closed and while crossing the road planning my attack on next street subject.

Now back to the newly launched X-E3 whose tagline is MINIMALISM. What is that?

After having the camera for over a month, I asked Fujifilm if they would consider the X-E3 as an X-Pro20 — which doesn’t exist of course, but I feel that’s 80% what it is. A Rangefinder baby.

Fujifilm X-E3 vs Fujifilm X-series cameras was originally published in Tinyhumanmind on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Using X-E3 for Night Photography in Low-light for the Hungry Ghost Festival

Getai （歌台) literally means “Song Stage”, set up to entertain the ghosts. They are unique to Singapore, Malaysia, Taiwan, and parts of Indonesia, emerging in Singapore during the Japanese Occupation in the 1940s.

Today the performances, along with dinner feasts, auctions of lanterns, whisky, and massive burning of hell money and joss sticks, are supported by donations from businessmen who believe monetary contributions for these festivities will help them ward off the evil and bring protection to their businesses.

Popular singers and emcees from Taiwan and Malaysia are in great demand in Singapore during this 7th lunar month. The best organisers secures rights to have a popular singer perform on his stages, which rove from venue to venue around the island every night.

Holding one of the pre-production units of the Fujifilm X-E3, I embarked on shooting the Getai, the main draw during the Hungry Ghost Festival this August. Most of the time, you don’t have to go very far to get a good picture, it’s right at your doorstep.

And here are 6 things I discovered using the Fujifilm X-E3:

1. No tilt screen —reconsider if that bothers you.

If you’re used to the XT2 and XT20, you may find it awkward not having a tilt screen, especially for framing those top-down layflat shots.

Personally, this means shaving more weight off my shoulders so I’m happy to do without a tilt screen.

Instead, I’ll turn on the LCD, which is also a touch screen, and guess the frame. You can’t go very wrong from here. In fact, I’m glad the X-E3 and I share the same minimalism philosophy.

2. No ISO dial

Okay old-school, analogue-lovers... This gets a little frustrating, as with the same feelings I had for the X-T20 — Just where is the ISO dial?

Perhaps I’m some sort of unique manual user. But I like to keep my aperture and shutter speed pretty constant when shooting human subjects so I’m relying on changing ISOs as I walk from light to shade and in-between different lighting conditions. If you’ve attended one of my street photography workshops, you’ll know exactly what I mean.

I depend on the ISO dial alot on the X-T2, and on the X100F.
Not having the dial bothers me. It could be a make or break factor to getting that shot and I don’t really want to have to look down at the camera menu to change ISOs if I can be keeping my eyes on the subject.

The simplest solution I’ve figured to get around this, is to turn on the touch screen and swipe up. Its the shortcut for ISO.
From here you can use your fingers or the joystick to select desired ISOs. Takes a little less than 3 seconds, but I’m still bummed that I’ll have to look at the touchscreen to make that switch.

No doubt, having another dial which few people may find useful may not make this camera a minimalist.

My guess is Fujifilm might have considered traditional ways we used cameras— those days where we’d had to wait till an entire roll of film was finished before changing to another roll with a different sensitivity.
Unlike me who jumps from ISO 200 to ISO 1600 with every other shot.

OK.. I am not so minimalist afterall.

3. As light as a feather

Right. All 337 grams of it. Fits easily into a ladies handbag without breaking the strap. For the quality you get in return, the weightlessness of this camera is unbelievable. No more backaches, no more shoulder-aches, goodbye twisted necks.

4. Image Quality Rocks

There is no doubt image quality is fantastic. Yes. CMOS III sensor. All the images you see in this blog post have been shot XE3 on JPEG, because the Adobe Lightroom Raw conversion still isn’t available at this point and the photographers need to submit our images for large format printing for the camera’s launch, so…we shoot JPEG. No gimmicks here.

(Lightroom Raw conversion for new camera models usually get released a few weeks, or a month or two, after the camera’s official launch)

For this particular series which has very harsh light contrasts and so much of it occurs at night, I’m shooting above ISO1600, sometimes even up to ISO 10000. File sizes average 15mb at largest resolution.

For the official launch where these images have been displayed, I was pretty amazed at how the prints are looking at A1 size.

5. Super fast AF Tracking

With the new firmware, Fujifilm says its AF tracking is 40% faster. This fact was presented by the development team to photographers and media when we attended Fujikina 2017 Tokyo in early September.

Not surprising to hear. As I already felt it while testing out the pre-production unit, without even knowing its specs or improvements. What usually happens is we are given these units and asked to take some photos on it, but we don’t know about the camera’s capabilities which are hush-hush because the final firmware isn’t out yet.

While shooting the Getai, I was already surprised that the X-E3 was focusing faster than my X-T2 in low light. It was really responsive and at some point I just had to check the light source and aperture settings to make sure I had read the darkness alright. I thought it was brighter than my eyes were telling me. But in Tokyo, fact confirms it was just the camera that’s focusing faster.

New firmwares are also soon to be released across X-series cameras, so be sure to update firmware for improved capabilities in all of your cameras.

So, the cameras are supposed to focusing 40% faster after the firmware upgrades. I can’t wait to test it out to see if its for real.

6. Get the Silver

Before going to Tokyo and having the chance to meet up with the X-E3’s team of designers, I‘d requested for a black X-E3. Black is always cool yeah…

But after I met the team… pictured below (much younger than I imagined)

and saw the XE3 design sketches, I started to admire the sleek curvature on the top part of the X-E3, (resembling some sort of a microwave curve) which is visible only with the silver body, and is more pronounced than on the X-E1 and X-E2.
Yes please, Silver!

CONCLUSION:

So… If I could redesign the X-E3, I’d squeeze in ISO dial. I’d be willing to pay a hundred++ dollars more for that dial, and carry a few more grams around.

I might rename the X-E3 as the X-Pro20, so it will be easier for consumers to understand. However, that might mean its aesthetic form might have to be altered to look more similar to the X-Pro2.

Overall, super happy with this baby beast.

• Will use it as backup body for commercial or wedding shoot. Gladly pack 337grams in my bag for an important shoot.
• Will use it as main body for travel editorial assignments — light, great print quality.
• Will use for family photography, people portraits
• Definitely the Excellent value-for-money among the range of X-series cameras, in my opinion.

And now, take a look at the pictures produced by the Fujifilm X-E3, with a lens combo of :

XF16mm 1.4 R WR

XF23mm 1.4 R

XF56mm 1.2 R

Last but not least, a video:

REVIEW: 6 things you should know about the Fujifilm X-E3 was originally published in Tinyhumanmind on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Nostalgia, childhood and 80s Singapore

The back story of “Ah Ma, I”, a short Singapore story about a photographer’s notes to her to my grandmother — using Fujifilm GFX, Fujifilm X-T2

When I was a child, I didn’t like my grandmother. She spoke only the Hokkien dialect making communication a one-way street. And I complained she smelled weird, refusing to go near her, my mother recalled.

You see, Ah Ma hardly washed her hair. She’s grown it since she was born (until about 80 when she became too weak to care for herself, her hair had to be trimmed). Because it was longer than her petite 1.5m frame and reached the floor, shampooing was a tedious affair otherwise she wore it neatly in a bun. Unless you were one of her daughters or granddaughters hanging out in her kitchen at the right time, it would not be possible to see Ah Ma’s loose hair.

Despite my refusal for her touch, I observed Ah Ma keenly and quietly.

Getting dressed, she would gather her black Samfu pants around her waist, securing it with a long metal chain twirled around her waist, the extra cloth carefully tucked in. Quite an odd sight looking back, but as a child, this was just something my grandmother did. The petite woman would then put a small-toothed comb through her wet hair, separating it before twisting it expertly into a neat bun, then covering it with a hair net and a black holder.

My memories of these private moments are intense, perhaps this was Ah Ma sharing her most gentle moments. The rest of our interactions were stoic, never emotional. Ah Ma just wasn’t that kind of woman.

She hailed from China, sailing herself in a junk boat across the South China Sea to Singapore after World War II to be reunited with my grandfather who had come here to seek work, a man she was betrothed to in her hometown in Fujian.

In those days, that journey took months. It was not uncommon for people to die in the boats due to overcrowded conditions, disease and lack of sanitation. Only the fittest survive. And that was my grandmother — a petite woman named 陈香 (Tan Hio) who stood barely 1.5m, with considerably high cheekbones and deep-set eyes for a Chinese. She was loyal, determined, hardworking and modest. She wore the traditional samfu all her life.

Along the corridors of her old home, she grew a singular fat, juicy Aloe Vera in a deep dragon kiln, very popular as pots in the 80s. Every weekend when I stayed over, Ah Ma would cut a fat leaf off her Aloe, slice it into half, grab me by my limbs and forcefully slander the Aloe’s translucent pulp all over my body, in hope to improve my flaky dry skin.

This accounts for almost all of our physical skin to skin interactions during her lifetime. The horror of being left with Aloe slime on my skin stays with me till today.

It was obvious when I purchased my apartment — an 1976-built government block of flats of early days socialist architecture — that it constantly reminded me of Ah Ma. The layout of the apartment was identical, and outside was the same long, never-ending corridor.

I often photograph my block. It’s impossible to find a straight wall in it. So I call it the crooked house. It has the patina of age, which is a rarity in Singapore. That’s where its charm lies.

One day after the rains, I stuck my head out my apartment’s window to this image of bamboo poles dripping with water. Ah Ma… I thought…

She was swift when it came to hanging wet laundry out on the bamboo poles. She would grab the long poles laden with clothes and charge towards the open window like a warrior with a sword, stepping on a stool so she could lean her body out the window to insert the pole into its placeholder, all in one, swift action.

These memories are clear as lighting, dramatised by my own imagination I suspect. And this photograph stayed on my desktop for some years, even before I’d switch from the Nikon dSLR system to using Fujifilm cameras. I’d look at it from time to time, in a the same way a colour soothes me.

I knew that if I ever directed a short film, I would recreate these memories so vivid in my head.

When Fujifilm approached me to create a video and photographs for the GFX cameras, I knew instantly I wanted to focus on nostalgia, childhood and this crooked block. That it would be a short film instead.

In Singapore, Fujifilm approved of my idea for very subtle hints of the GFX in the video, focusing on the story I really wanted to tell.. a heart-warming story that would cut across language boundaries and international borders; a story based on times and eras that was happening elsewhere in the world, not only in Singapore.

At the same time I wanted to showcase Singapore in the way of the locals, and show scenes familiar with the 70s and 80s.

With a few tweaks here and there, and after appointing and consulting cinematographer Why Keen Tham of Red String Video Co. to help me realise these initial thoughts, we scripted “Ah Ma, I.” Why Keen understood the concept and more importantly I felt he would be passionate about making such a film.

We dropped initial discussions to hire an actress who would be Ah Ma, because sadly, even the simplest visuals, like that singular fat Aloe Vera in a dragon kiln simply didn’t exist anymore. We decided to leave Ah Ma would be in our imaginations, and only in the last frame, her photograph would appear.

GFX images for “Ah Ma, I”

I wanted to share some images made with the GFX concurrent with the filming. Not all of them have been used in the final edit. Being emotional vested in the scenes also made it extremely difficult for me to trim the selection down to the final edit.

Chun Mee Lee Rattan Furniture

Mr Chen Fook Kee of Chun Mee Lee Rattan Furniture, a craftsman who has seen his business in its prime, where he hired many to handle the craft while he concentrated on import and export of rattan furniture. Today, his business is run solely by him and his wife, in a quiet corner in Bukit Merah. The heydays are over, Mr Chen says.

Most of the customers who bring furniture in for repairs are expats, not the local community unfortunately. Expats really have a knack for sourcing old furniture, they are more appreciative of the craft, he observes.

Ironically, Chun Mee Lee is located right across the road from Ikea. This purely is a coincidence, Mr Chen says. His shop was here before Ikea opened.

The shop can be found at 122 Bukit Merah Lane 1,
Singapore 150122

Eng Tiang Huat Chinese Cultural Shop

Eng Tiang Huat was started by Mr Lee’s grandfather in 1935. They specialised in sewing traditional red door clothes used for display outside their homes on special occasions by the Chinese community. They also embroidered special banners with motifs and folklore characters, used for hanging at ancestral alters, at funerals and also inside the home.

Today, along with the decline of many traditional practices and beliefs, demand for such handmade intricacies are rare.

Mr Jeffery Eng told us many stories and owns many physical records of his ancestry, it’s a pity there was only so little we could include in the film.

He’s even found a receipt of the sewing machine his grandfather purchased, which Mr Eng soley uses today to sew his banners. The receipt is dated 7 August 1937. The same date, 7 August is Mr Eng’s birthday, a sort of a serendipitous coincidence with the sewing machine that comforts Mr Eng his fate has been sealed as gatekeeper of this cultural shop.

Mr Eng’s shop Eng Tiang Huat is at 10 Lorong 24A Geylang
398534 Singapore

Heap Seng Leong

And time stood still.

This coffeeshop needs no introduction. Located at №10 North Bridge Road in Singapore, Heap Seng Leong has been an old-favourite with its regular customers, food bloggers and food fanatics, thanks to its

1. Charcoal-boiled coffee. — a real treat in this modern city, who uses charcoal to cook anything anymore?
2. Coffee with butter soaked into it — the new-old definition of fat. It seems the earlier generation knew how to enjoy life better than we do!
3. The father and son team — two photogenic men who really are the spectacle of the shop, not to mention its interiors who have been original since Day 1, and accumulated the grime and grittiness of all the coffee that has ever been served there.

Lao Shen Ah Ma Teochew Kuehs and Snacks

№125, Bukit Merah Lane, #01–164, Alexandra Village C3, 150125 Singapore

Kuehs and Snacks is its English name. Lao Shen Ah Ma Teochew Kueh is probably more accurate description of this shop which was featured for a split-second in the film.

The shop makes traditional Teochew Ang Ku Kuehs, Soon Kuehs, Ku Chai Kuehs, and a few other unique varieties and flavours including peanut, red bean, durian, sesame, yam and coconut kuehs.

Most of the kuehs pass through the hands of Lao Shen, who made time for our filming and even switched her Soon Kueh routine to Ang Ku Kueh just so we could have more colour in the video.

I first found out about this shop while chatting with a bus-driver on a bus… That’s right… chatting with the bus-driver. He told me to alight at a particular stop, cross the overhead bridge, and this is precisely where I ended up, at the best Teochew Kueh shop in Singapore. Always chat with your friendly bus driver.

On the streets, we found and approached a few interesting people to photograph. A jovial granny in modified samfu packs lunch and some cigarettes home.

BEHIND THE SCENES

Chrispy, our video assistant who’s also a photographer, took some photographs experimenting with the Fujifilm Instax Square SQ10. These stills are straight out of camera.

And yes, the entire production is filmed on Fujifilm X-T2 cameras, as you can see, with Why Keen taking a coffee break here. As mentioned in the film, the coffee he’s drinking isn’t an ordinary one, but coffee with butter — the way Hainanese coffeeshops in Singapore used to do it, even before the days of Ya Kun. (Photo: Chrispy)

Nostalgia, childhood and 80s Singapore was originally published in Tinyhumanmind on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

On approaching the shoot… the mind strives to empty itself to be void of words, lest photography gets defined by the spoken language and starts to take on a rigid form.

Vague as it might get, photography as a visual language perhaps can communicate its nuances if we just let the feels enter and let the heart do the thinking.

#fujifilmsentosaphotowalk #singapore #sentosa

Just a feeling was originally published in Tinyhumanmind on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

How light is the X-T20, and how heavy is the GFX?
The former weighs like a mango, the latter weighs like a watermelon
(or a say.. a Nikon D800, with a 24–70mm attached. Got it?

How small is the X-T20? … How big is the GFX? was originally published in Tinyhumanmind on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Here are the links to my work.

If you have a project in mind or would like to drop me a message, please feel free to write to hello@mindytan.com

I would love to hear from you!

Documentary photography website
Wedding photography website

Instagram @tinyhumanmind (street and documentary photography)
Instagram @mindytanphotos (weddings and lifestyle)

Facebook
Facebook for work

Contact & Portfolio was originally published in Tinyhumanmind on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

About Mindy Tan

Mindy Tan is a photographer adept at capturing people.

Disconcerted by an Asia that is quickly forsaking its traditions for a modernity which leaves more people on the lower side of equal, she finds herself compelled to photograph ordinary people.

She looks into a human psyche caught between split-seconds of emotional revelations and harsh truths. Her photographs are straight-forward, sometimes confrontational.

Mindy began her career as a newspaper journalist. She won the Society of Publishers Asia (SOPA) award for excellence in Human Rights Reporting in 2007, before becoming a successful commercial and documentary photographer.

She has worked brands like Shell, Uniqlo, Mini Cooper and Huawei, and shoots commissioned work for various editorial clients including Reuters, the Associated Press and Die Zeit.

An ambassador to Fujifilm on its international team of X-photographers, Mindy has exhibited with Fujifilm in Cologne, and presented at Fujikina 2017, in both Kyoto and Tokyo.

Her passion is documentary and street photography, focusing on Singapore and Asia. Her North Korea photo series went viral on social media and was subsequently exhibited in France, at the Festival Pil’ours.

Her photos of Lee Kuan Yew’s death were shown in the National Museum of Singapore. She also co-published ‘Silenced Minority’, a pictorial about Singapore’s 2015 General Elections.

Her work ‘A Faded Rainbow’ documenting the voices of the last residents of Rochor Centre through photography and video footages, showed at Deck as part of the Singapore Night Festival 2017.

She is currently on artist residency with the Exactly Foundation.

PUBLIC SPEAKING & WORKSHOPS:

2017
Fujifilm X-E3 Singapore Launch, Le Meridien Hotel Sentosa
Fujikina 2017 Tokyo, Japan
Concerned Minds — Public Talk, Deck, Singapore
Fujifilm Street Photography Workshops, Singapore
“Camera, Shoot, Edit”, Funan Showsuite, Singapore
Fujikina, Kyoto: Talk Show, Asphodel Gallery トークショー・スタジオデモ スケジュール
Fujifilm X-T20 Singapore Launch, Suntec City Convention

2016
Fujifilm X-T2 Singapore Launch
Nikon School, Street Photography Workshop

2011
Singapore Sports Council & Reuters, Sports Photography Workshop,

ARTIST RESIDENCY:

2017
Exactly Foundation Artist Residency: The hour before she sleeps

EXHIBITIONS:

2017
Motor Valley, a tale. An Italian Project. The Arts House, Singapore
-Play to Screen. Deck, Singapore Night Festival (Outdoor projection with Live Music scoring)
-Beijing Hutong , Funan Showsuite, Singapore

2016:
Beijing Hutong, Fujifilm X-Photographer’s gallery, Photokina, Germany
North Korea — Festival Pil’ours, Saint Gilles Croix de Vie, France.
K+ Instgrm Exhibition, Scotts Square, Singapore
A Moment of Unity, National Museum of Singapore
One by One metre square, Flaneur Gallery, Singapore

2010:
SKII Clear Water Jakarta, Tangs Orchard, Singapore
Sports Photography Exhibition, Singapore Sports Council
Behind the Wheels of survival (Manila), Jurong East Regional Library

2008:
Para Games Beijing, Volvo Art Loft, Singapore

2004:
‘Fish in a dish’, Singapore International Documentary Film Festival, Singapore History Museum
‘Fish in a dish’, 9th Malaysian Video Awards Festival, National Art Gallery, Kuala Lumpur

AWARDS:

2008
International Photography Awards, 10 Honourable Mentions

2007
International Photography Awards, 2nd, Editorial Sports

2007
Society of Publishers Asia Awards (Hong Kong),
Editorial Excellence in Human Rights Reporting, Honourable Mention

2007–2005
Singapore Press Holdings Special Award for Excellence
- Cambodian Dragon Boat Tragedy
- Abuse In Children’s Home
- 200 Maids In Little Shophouse Of Horrors
- Filipino Maid Murder Stories

2004
Crowbar Awards 2004, Design Category, Editorial Publication, Bronze Award
Crowbar Awards 2004, Advertising Category, Narrative Photography, Bronze Award

PRINT, TV & RADIO INTERVIEWS:

2017 前线追踪，Frontline FY1718, Channel 8, Mediacorp
2016 AXN Channel, Nikon School
2016 Talking Point Ep 47: Singapore after Lee Kuan Yew, Channel 5, Mediacorp
2016 BFM 89.9: The Business Station, Interview on Ticket to Ride, When in North Korea (Kuala Lumpur) Podcast
2016 938Live, The Culture Cafe, Art Beat : One by One Metre Space
2016 91.3FM, The Living Room interview

FILM FEATURES:

2010 ASIA Exposed Season 1, Ep 4, Channel News Asia, Disability in Manila.

PUBLICATIONS:

Silenced Minority
Publisher: Little People Collective
Paperback: 222 Pages
Published: 2015, Singapore, 1st Edition
ISBN: 978–981–09–7493–0

Thank you, Mr Lee
Publisher: Basheer Graphic Books
Paper Back, 94 pages
Published: 2015, Singapore, 1st Edition
ISBN: 978–981–09–4969–3

Founding Fathers (GREAT SINGAPORE STORIES series) David Marshall — The Legal Eagle
Author: The New Paper
ISBN978.981.4266.75.8

You can follow her instagram @tinyhumanmind’ and @mindytanphotos or visit her website www.mindytan.com

About was originally published in Tinyhumanmind on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

SNAP-SNAP-GO, Kyoto! — my X-T20 technique

This is the way I shoot with the X-T20. It’s so Lit!
Warning: the touch-screen is addictive.

Arriving in Kyoto, I am holding onto Fujifilm’s X-T20 pre-production unit #48. I’ve had it for 3 months now and to be honest, it competes for attention with the other cameras in my dry-box, all of them waiting for their turns to come out and play. Mostly in a hurry, I would grab the Fujifilm X70 for daily use and for its familiarity.

Only when I started packing for a work-holiday to Japan that it occurred to me to carry the X-T20 as my sole camera body. It is small, it has all the quick dials on top like the X-T2 and film cameras, and the lenses can be interchanged — which means I get to shoot on primes.

For an enjoyable two-week trip, the kit had to be light enough for long hours of carry everyday for 14 days. I shoot mostly people on the street, what you call, street photography. But because anything can happen on such a long holiday, the kit had to be versatile enough for all possible conditions — intense sunlight, gloomy alleys, and also Maiko hunting in Gion.

They’ve brought the EVF into touchscreen

The X-T20 started growing quickly on me once I used the touch-screen as a viewfinder, instead of looking through the EVF.

(I’m so spoiled by the large X-T2 Evf that switching between the two takes abit of getting used to.)

And once I started shooting solely with the XT20 in Kyoto, the camera became really Lit! Give yourself really a few hours on the street to get a good feel of how the touch-screen responds and you’ll become a master soon.

With the touch-screen on shooting mode, you can:
1. Touch for Auto-focus
2. Touch for Area
3. Touch for Shot

Touch for Auto-focus replaces the joystick, which the X-T2 has but the X-T20 doesn’t. Instead of using the joystick to indicate your focus-point, you use your finger to speak directly to the camera. Touch the screen to give instructions where you want it to focus. That’s right, Talk To My hand.

You can then use your right hand to press the shutter button
- half click to lock your focus point
- full click to trigger your shot

Touch for Area is basically focusing on an area instead of a single point. You can also choose the size of your area by pressing the selector button (left, right, up, down), then turn the dial to increase or decrease area size.

Touch for shot, this is an all-in-one button for lazy buggers. Once you touch the screen, the camera focuses at the spot you have touched. Once the shot is in focus, the camera takes a photo. Obviously, that’s quite alot of things to command a camera to do, it’s also slower. Unless it’s still-life or a sitting portrait, your subject may have run off by the time the camera triggers. Plus point is that it’s idiot proof really, anyone can handle this mode.

With the touch-screen on preview mode, you can also:
1. Pinch to zoom in or out on your picture
2. Double-tap to zoom in or out on your picture
3. Swipe left or right to see your pictures

Think iphone. Of course you can also turn the dial for the same effect. But I just love that the touch-screen does all of these as well.

It’s like playing the piano

Once you get your fingers accustomed to the touch-screen, jazz it up with those dials. I soon found my left fingers turning the aperture and left thumb on the touch-screen. My right fingers adjust the shutter speed, control the AF-lock and press the shutter button.

It’s like playing the piano once you get a hang of it, all fingers are in sync with your mind and soon you’ll be jazzing things up.

If all else fails, there is the auto-switch button on the top right which has 58 built-in presets which I found responds quite cleverly. See picture below.

The Auto-switch

This man (above) was approaching as I had my camera pointed in a ditch — I was actually photographing the drain beside him in the dark shadows. If I recall correctly, I was trying to photograph some moss… Yeah… the moss in Japan is a different variety from that of Singapore’s, kawaii and delicate.

Then this man, from the corner of my eye, purple with his sleeves flapping in the wind passed me by oh-so-quickly. Do not be fooled by the walking stick, he was in a real hurry and this speed was essential for the shot otherwise his sleeves would not be flapping so wildly.

There was no time to switch from ISO 1600 to ISO100, which is essentially from shooting kawaii moss in shadow to flying man in the sun. There was no time to switch from 1/60 still-life to 1/200 walking human as well.

So..I instantly flicked the Auto switch and started running after the man.

The touch screen was on — all 3 inches of image preview. The live view was crystal clear, all that was left to be done was to compose and trigger the shutter at the right moment.

SHOOTING FROM THE HIP

The touch-screen tilts. Yup. If you’re not utilizing this, it would be a shame. The tilting screen basically turns me into a yoga master or gymnast as some of my clients have commented… ‘you’re very nimble’, or ‘it was more enjoyable watching you shoot.’

I’m not entertainment but okay… if you think so.

What the touch screen tilt does is allow you to shoot top-down or bottom-up. It allows you to go higher then your arms outstretched, and lower than your knees can bear weight.

It’s great for shooting lay-flat images like food shots for Instagram.

It also allows you to shoot from the hip. If you are shooting people with buildings or lines in the background that you want to get straight, you might have to bend your knees to lower yourself. Now you can tilt the screen to take advantage of all these different angles you’ve otherwise had to ‘guess’.

You can also use it to explore strange angles, or express your story better.

I’m basically shooting alot faster than my usual pace with the touch-screen because its so addictive, I have to stop myself from snapping at everything I see.

Watch the slideshow above, it’s deliberately prepared at a very fast pace filtering between day and night, almost accurately displayed in the sequence reality it happened, to give you an idea of my shoot-rate and the way I shoot. It’s a visual diary of my trip.

All the images were shot on Jpeg, with very minimal post-processing. I used several modes of film simulations and controlled all sharpness and contrasts in-camera.

Looking back, it helps me remember all the people and moments I’ve come across. Conversations with strangers… Battles with my own mind…my own inhibitions… that sort of thing. What I got out of it is a really sweet memory.

Conversations with strangers… Battles with my own mind…my own inhibitions… that sort of thing. What I got out of it is priceless — a really sweet memory.

Travelling light

I hand-carry all my gear while talking a flight and waiting in line at the immigration. A heavy backpack wrecks the nerves behind my neck because I tend to be wired loosely after suffering multiple back injuries from years of carrying heavy DSLRs for extended periods of time at wedding shoots, which are intensive, back-breaking labour. My nerves have had to be ‘reflexologied’ to its original spot by the Chinese tui-na masseur so many times, it’ not even funny anymore.

This is not forgetting I’m usually also packing in a laptop plus all the important wires, chargers and batteries. On top of that, I also pack feminine travelling essentials like moisturisers, a notebook or magazine, and a bottle of water. All that load can be pretty stressful and straining. Imagine taking a connecting flight in Dubai where you have to go through immigration twice. I’ll bet you’ll be beaten up even before you arrive at your destination.

The release of the XF50mm prime lens completes the trinity of power-packed F2 primes at 23mm, 35mm, and 50mm. (There’s also the 18mm F2 in the XF line-up if you like it really wide).

These three lightweight primes, at a total of 55ogms, would be my choice for travel gear if I wanted to, for example, take a 3-month backpacking trip around Europe where there would be multiple Eurorail transits or Ryanair/ Easyjet connecting flights to catch. The X-T20 and 3 primes fit easily into a sling bag and is something I would take on a long trekking trip or a rough backpacking route. The prime trio series allows me to shoot the way I want, for days and days of travel, and more importantly, to go the distance.

XF 23mm F2 R WR = 180gm

XF 35mm F2 R WR = 170gm

XF 50mm F2 R WR = 200gm

Total weight : 550gm

F2 is a really wide aperture and fits most scenarios I desire to shoot in.

The X-T20 doesn’t break even at ISO 12800, you get very decent quality even in that darkness. If you have the ISO12800, 1/60sec, F2 combination, it literally means you can shoot even where your eyes can’t see. Of course, you cannot expect 1.4mm bokeh, this means more glass in the lens construction, resulting in much heavier gear.

It’s a little bit of give and take, so I choose to travel lighter. At an aperture of F2, I know I’m 99% covered for any conditions what will come my way.

Let the camera complement you, not burden you on your travels.

Lighter gear:

= Lesser injuries

= freedom to move around

= Happy photographer

A photographer asked me on instagram, “What camera bag do you usually use for these?”

I say, don’t get too hung up on these things.

The beauty of carrying small gear is, you do not have to scramble once you get the kit, to buy a new LowePro or Think Tank. No, you don’t need to be combat-ready. The camera and gear fits into any bag, any bag at all.

I rough handle my cameras and lenses. Ask them, they’re bashed up, and they’re built to withstand that kind of beating. They’re either on my shoulder, or stuffed into whatever bag (backpack, handbag, sportsbag, duffle, recycled cloth bag…) I happen to be carrying that day.

That’s usually the camera body with its attached lens, and 1 other lens which I would wrap into the non-discreet black Fujifilm cloth provided in the same box when you first purchase your camera. By the way, that same cloth is also used to clean my lenses... lol… sorry, I am very, very minimal.

It really is a joy to be using cameras in this way that it becomes a part of your daily life, not something you deliberately try to protect, to guard, not something that keeps you on high alert all the time.

K.I.S.S — Keep it simple, stupid.

If you’re Singaporean or from South East Asia, you’ll know that large chillies pack little punch. The smaller the chilli, the spicier it is.

Exactly how I would describe the X-T20 — a chilli padi.
It’s a small camera that can conquer the world!

Mindy Tan is a documentary photographer based in Singapore. She is a Fujifilm X-photographer.

All the views expressed in this post are her own. To see more of her work, follow her on Instagram @tinyhumanmind (street and documentary photography) and @mindytanphotos (weddings and lifestyle)

If you have enjoyed reading this article, please ‘like’ it!

SNAP-SNAP-GO, Kyoto! — my X-T20 technique was originally published in Tinyhumanmind on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

I was one of the 100 photographers around the world to externally receive a pre-production sample of the Fujifilm X-T2 for a dry run before its launch.

In a mere span of 2 months, this little metal piece with its model and brand concealed under black tape, has travelled with me from Singapore to Beijing, Hong Kong and Malaysia. It’s been bashed up on the streets, it’s fallen (accidentally, once), and attracted too many a curious onlooker who would attempt conversation.

Especially when I carry it side-by-side, shoulder-on-shoulder with the Xpro2 while shooting a wedding, curious guests would observe this wedding photographer for a while before inquisitively asking, “Is that a Leica system you are using?”

It’s all rather hilarious, but today with the XT2’s official launch announcements, the black duct tape comes off, we unveil the truth.

I can’t recite the specifications of the camera.
- 24M, X-Trans™* CMOS III & X-Processor Pro
- Improved AF Performance (I attest, X-T2 is much faster than the X-T1)
- New AF-C Custom Setting
- New EVF (Magnification ratio 0.77x, Shutter time lag 0.005 sec, 100fps live-view) (The EVF is so huge you won’t get your eye make-up on it)
- 4K Video Recording
- ISO 51200 sensitivity (Would personally never go beyond ISO 12800)

That was all cut and paste which you can find on Fujifilm’s main website.

But I can tell you that 6000 x 4000 pixels means lots of information will be captured in each image, even if you had to bump your initial Jpeg captures up 2 F-stops in your editing, the image will still look pretty decent.

As a woman, the ability to relate to a camera at an emotive level also makes a subtle difference to how well I perform. I know this can sound like a fluffy fact, but this ‘resonation’ is like ‘feeling at one’, your body, your camera and you. It is a difficult concept to grasp.

For me, this would be simplicity in form and a reduction of functions to its core. In the X-T2, I love how the camera’s dials are laid out like an open book. This is not unfamiliar to Fujifilm cameras. There’s no need to go through the menu screen for basic functions. I’d be able to close my eyes and operate the various dials, changing ISO, shutter speed, and of course aperture. Those dials trick my mind to shoot a little slower by thinking a little harder for each shot just like using a good ol’ film camera, shooting as if each exposure is precious.

That’s called resonating with a camera. It’s being at one with it because your personal philosophies fall in line with the way the camera makers think.

About the XT2’s look, there’s only one thing on that genie list.

I love the X-Pro2 being such an antithesis in design and wish the X-T2 could be a little less flashy in front like its good brother, which has ‘Fujifilm X-Pro2’ quietly stated on its top corner, if you ever had the good fortune to peer in that direction to make that initial discovery. The Japanese No brand (Mujirushi) value of good items (ryohin) are aesthetics that impress me.

Luckily for the X-T2, that’s a design problem easily improved with black tape.

The Joystick

The joystick dial similar to the X-Pro2, that was not found in the X-T1, is a little piece of brilliance. My favourite.

Being a professional photographer who shoots lots of weddings and street & travel photographs, speed is everything for me. There is a spilt second difference between catching a moment of subtlety of expression that takes you from good to excellent.

On the X-T2, I can adjust my focusing points as if playing a reality computer game, I’m but also getting really fast at scoring points with those focused shots.

The swivelling screen that flips up and down or left and right, means that for modesty’s sake, I no longer have to bend down in my skirt to capture puddle reflections off the ground (now I just have to flip up), or stick my body out a car or building window to get a better landscape shot (now I just have to stick my hand out and flip right).

Want to see the results? Let’s get down and dirty with performance.

Below are some images photographed on the streets of Beijing using my pre-production set.

BEIJING STREET PHOTOGRAPHY

Swivelling function on ‘view mode’ saves me from digging my head into the wet cement for this (above) shot.

As I mentioned before, I like how the branding stays calm with Fujifilm cameras. That really allows me to get close to people and stick cameras in people’s faces without screaming the LVs and Pradas of the camera world at them.

The power of a jet black, sleek camera in photography is understated — especially when I am sticking serious equipment at half-naked men on their shivering morning swims, you don’t get much closer than that.

Don’t forget we are also talking mirrorless cameras here. Mirrorless shutters = S. I. L. E. N. C. E

That means I can take a minute’s worth of photographs with this cat before it even budges.

The same gorgeous colour rendering from Fujifilm is of course found in the XT2. Red is one bleeding colour that’s always hard to replicate.

To keep this post concise, I will be posting more photographs on Beijing on my Instagram @tinyhumanmind

SHOOTING FIGHT CLUB IN SINGAPORE

I am also going to share some images taken at high ISO with the X-T2, with specs intact. These were photographed at Singapore’s The One Fighting Championship, a mixed-martial arts event held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

The images were taken before the later versions of firmwares for the XT2 were released, the current firmware version is slightly smoother with less noise. I’d expect better results when the cameras go on sale in September.

What do you think, especially of the XT2’s low-light performance?

Hope you enjoyed the review, I’ll be writing more about street photography. See you soon!

Mindy Tan is a documentary photographer based in Singapore. She is an ambassador for Fujifilm — X-photographer.

All the views expressed in this post are her own. To see more of her work, follow her on Instagram @tinyhumanmind (street and documentary photography) and @mindytanphotos (weddings and lifestyle)

If you have enjoyed reading this article, please ‘like’ it!

Fujifilm X-T2: A Street Photographer’s review was originally published in Tinyhumanmind on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.