This is the first in a series of short posts in praise of some of the features of my Fuji X-T1 when compared to my previous Canon cameras. First up is back button focusing.
For those of you who haven’t tried back button focusing, there’s a useful article at DPS that explains the benefits.
Now I know most pro and enthusiast cameras will have this ability, but compared to my Canon the way Fuji have applied it in the X-T1 is so much easier to use.
Assuming I have my camera set up as it comes out of the box, where the shutter button activates auto-focusing, if I want to change it to back button focusing here’s the procedure with the Canon:
- Bring the camera down from eye level so I can see the LCD
- Press the menu button
- Scroll through several options to find the setting (even the name isn’t obvious – C.Fn IV:Operation/Others – try remembering that when you last changed it two months ago!)
- Press the set button twice
- Scroll to select the new setting
- Press the set button again to confirm the change
- Half press the shutter button to return to shooting mode
Now here’s the procedure with the Fuji X-T1:
- Flick a switch on the front of the camera – job done!
And … after becoming used to it, I can do that using my left index finger while keeping the camera to my eye
Now that it’s so easy to change on the X-T1, I find myself switching between these two modes as I need to, whereas with the Canon I just used to leave it on back button focusing and make do.
Note 1: admittedly I could have added the setting to my Canon favourites to make it slightly quicker, but I had already used up all six available settings.
Note 2: my Canon is 4 years old, so the situation may have improved in more recent models.
Update: The X-T1 has been superceded by a newer model, the Fuji X-T2. Although I don’t own one (yet), I’ve handled it and seen resulting images and it is also an excellent camera.