An overview to the way I set up and use my Fuji X-T1.
From the very start I would say that I tend to use the cameras in a very simplified way, with many of the auto functions turned off. I guess there might be a part two of this blog that will come along which will also look at HDR, Interval modes, movie modes and flash, but for now, this is just a simple set of images looking at the menus and the way I use the camera on a day-to-day basis.
Have any questions about setting up your X-T1? Place them at the bottom and I shall try and get round them as and when I can.
I would urge you to make sure your Fuji camera has the latest firmware for all the lenses and cameras you have. Check here for the latest updates and how to install any firmware you may need to update. Click here for the specific X-T1 update.
*Flash not working ? Are you in ‘silent’ camera mode? Flash won’t work if you are!* Check out my review of the camera that I did aaaaageess ago and to be fair needs updating… never the less – here it is on the SLR Lounge Blog THE EVF SET UP Things to think about when it comes to the EVF – There are two ways the EVF can work on the X-T1. One is the Preview mode which will show you what your expected exposure will be on the screen with the colours that the white balance is set too. The problem is that if you are in a studio this will give you a black screen so you need to turn this off if you are using lots of flash. In Tools Menu 1, select Screen Setup. Preview Exp is the setting you can play with. Try to not increase your EVF colours or brightness. This is for a couple of reasons. Battery life as one but mostly, you need to be able to see what you photographing and when you make a change with the settings you need to be able to see what effect they make. 
The Display The display button is also the ‘back’ button. Click it to cycle though the settings. I like the mode that gives me all the info like histograms, levels and I also have the grid turned on to help with my composition. 
The Front View of the camera: The things to point out here:
- The hand grip is from Peak Design This one is called the Wrist Cuff.
- The Arca Swiss plate is from PhotoMadd I particularly like this grip as it fits the hand very well and has protection on three sides of the camera.
- Normally There is a rubber plug that covers the PC-Sync port, I have removed it here to show you where it would go if needed.
- The focus method is on M, this stands for Manual and the camera very rarely is taken of this mode.
Back Button focus On the back of the camera, on the top right you will find a button that says AF-L. This stands for AutoFocus Lock and it is the button that I use to ‘pull’ camera into focus. 
Focus Peaking The X-T1 has many aids to help you focus the camera. The main mode that I use is the focus peaking mode. This means that the display will highlight areas of focus with a colour contrast. As standard this is white contrast but you can change the colour. I have like to have mine on red letting it stand out more. This works especially well when shooting in monochrome. 
Focus Modes There are a few focus modes on the X-T1. All of them are wonderful and quick and the new firmware update has added a whole new dimension of motion tracking and a much quicker response time. As a rule I have all the things like Face detection and Eye detection turned off, they can interfere with other settings in the camera also. There is a short cut to moving the area – I prefer to move the focus area over the focus re-compose. The bottom of the circle buttons around the menu button will let you move the focus area. 
M – Manual – For pretty much all my photography C – Continuous – Useful for moving objects. S – Single- Useful for stationary subjects General Camera set up Sensor Cleaning, Power Management and colour modes. Having the camera do a sensor clean is very useful, but unless you really are worried about dirty sensors, try having your sensor only clean when you are powering off, this lets you turn the camera on and shoot quicker without waiting every-time. To save battery I turn the camera off between shots quite often. As to the high performance mode – it will speed up the camera in a few ways but will reduce battery life ( I heard a 20% decrease in battery life ?) Focus should be faster as will the processor and a few other things. Setting up the date and time are normal things.. but I also like to custom my file names. This just makes it quicker to spot files on drives and gives a bit of ownership when shooting in groups or for clients. 
Also… I prefer to shoot in Adobe RGB – At the moment I would prefer to keep this bit simple and just redirect you to this wonderful link on the f-stoppers blog https://fstoppers.com/pictures/adobergb-vs-srgb-3167. I think of it in the way that the Adobe gamut gives you more colours out of camera – however, in theory this is correct but without good workflow you would get worse colours than shooting with sRGB. This is also a good link to check out. http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/sRGB-AdobeRGB1998.htm 
Shutter Type The Fuji X-T1 is one of the only cameras I know of where you can manually & automatically change the shutter mechanism. This lets you shoot in a wider range of ways. The X-T1’s mechanical shutter tops out at a speed of 1/4000 sec. The electronic shutter lets you shoot at far higher / faster shutter speeds than the ‘normal’ shutter and also is near silent next to the normal shutter. One of the downsides of being able to shoot at 1/32,000 sec, is that you can not use flash at the moment, the upside, allowing you to go three f-stops wider in bright light. Something to note: if your shooting with florescent tube lighting, you can start to see interference due to the flicker rates of the lighting interfering with the image when shooting in the electronic shutter. This is known as Colour banding. Most of the time I use the Mech Shutter mode as I like my subjects to be able to hear the camera go, but since I have been shooting with the 56mm more often it has been fun to use the sunshine and shoot outside at f1.2mm (f1.7 APDmm) like in the image below. 
The Q Menu & Shooting Styles The ‘Q’ menu is the most common menu that is used to navigate around the camera. I wanted to just shot the two most common settings that I use to shoot. One of them is for monochrome / black and white and the other is the colour set up using the classic chrome film simulation mode. (Classic Chrome is a colour setting, the chrome word is slightly misleading ! At the moment I am using a mix of Lexar cards which are super fast. The X-T1 is one of the very first cameras that can use the SDHC/SDXC UHS-II. The new Lexar cards have a massive 300mbs write speed. Normally, I shoot RAW & Jepg. This is only for one reason though. When you shoot only raw, after capturing an image, you can not zoom in to see the image 1-1 on the camera. For some reason you can only do this when the camera has a large enough Jpeg stored. If you are one of those people who love to ‘chimp’ at your images and zoom right in to check focus after a shot, yet still want to shoot raw… shoot both Raw & Jepg. The highlight and shadow tones are tweaked along with the sharpness giving amazing images close to what I would do with them after in Lightroom so I if I do want to wifi them to my phone or instragram direct, I can do so an they look great. Also…. Wifi only works with Jpeg. This is the set up for Classic Chrome / colour and a sample image 
This is the set up for monochrome colours and a sample image 
As a final setting To be honest.. I don’t use this as I shoot Nikon & Fuji, but, with Canon cameras the focus rings move the other way round to the Fuji System as default. Because the of the type of ‘wire’ design the XF range of lenses use, you can change with direction you rotate the barrel to focus. Just simple things like this really will help you get in tune with your camera and become more comfortable. 
Other Fuji X-T1 guides Mike Browne’s thoughts on the Fuji X-T1 Another couple of Fuji blogs about the Fuji X-T1
Fast Start Fuji X-T1 – with JOHN GREENGO
6 Hidden Features on a the Fuji X-T1
PhotoMadd Hints & Tip
Here are a few links to help you find some of the stuff mentioned in this blog post, also remember to sign up for the newsletter which can be found here.
