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Camera Operations

Lesson 20 from: Fujifilm X-T20 Fast Start

John Greengo

Camera Operations

Lesson 20 from: Fujifilm X-T20 Fast Start

John Greengo

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Lesson Info

20. Camera Operations

Lesson Info

Camera Operations

Folks, we did it. We got through the menu system. We got through all of those different settings. I'm sorry we had to go so quick, but they have a lot of settings in there. So let's finish this class up with the camera operation now that we know how all the features work, which ones are most important for the types of shooting that we would most likely do. I'm thinking, you go out and shoot, you want to make sure that you have a charged battery, you got a clean memory card that's ready to go, you got your image quality set, RAW or JPEG, you've made your choice, you've checked to make sure that the rest of the settings in your camera are looking pretty good, and before anything really big, you make sure that your sensor is clean so that you don't have dust specks on your sensor. Now, there's a lot of different controls on this camera. To start with, there are what I call "Hard Controls." Can't change these, they are what they are. Shutter speeds, apertures, exposure compensation, no mes...

sing with those. Next up is you have your custom controls, and this is where you can put some of your other favorite features that they don't have a custom button for already. And so we have eight different options that you can use for custom controls. Dive into the menu to adjust those. Got something that doesn't fit there? Put it in the Quick menu. You have easy access to it right with that Quick button, you can go in there. You've got 16 more options you can add there. For your custom settings, this is at shooting style. You want to shoot black and white, you want to shoot with extra saturation, you've got seven different options that you can add in there. And then you have My Menu which has 16 options. There's two different pages of even more items that you can put in there, and then finally, you have the rest of your menu. And so, you want to try to get your features adjusted with number one and then you go to number two and then you go to number three, and so that's kind of the lineup that you would go through for changing and finding and locating and positioning your favorite features. Now as I said, this camera has a lot of secret functions. And in the Recommended Settings, I have all of what I'm going to show you right now in print, the secret functions review. And so you press in the Display back button? Turn it on to check your firmware. Format your memory card? Press in the Garbage Can for two seconds and then press in on the rear command dial. You want to change your manual focus assist? Press in on the back dial for two seconds. You want to zoom in on a focus area? Press in on that back button and turn it. You want to use the See for Exposure Compensation? Use that front Dial, press it in to unlock it and lock it, and turning it to adjust it. You can press the Display back button and that's going to do a short cut to to programming all your function buttons. You want to customize your Quick menu? Hold down the Queue button for two seconds. You want to lock those basic controls on the back your camera? Hold down the menu for three seconds. You want to get into the playback menu? You get to hit Playback and then the Menu button . Okay, key settings for the T20, XT20. Shutter speeds, aperture, basic exposure information. We're going to want to be able to control the focusing system on the camera. White balance and ISO, we're going to have to use the Queue button to get into some of those. And then out on the front of the camera, we're going to have our focusing mode right there as well as our AF mode in the back of the camera. Or if you've moved these, they can be moved in some cases. And then our Drive Dial on the top of the camera. So how would I set this camera for different types of scenario? First up, let's start pretty basic. Let's go with super simple. If you're going to hand this camera to somebody, well, you could just throw it in the full auto mode, that would be pretty simple. But if you want to have just a little bit of control, start with your center speeds at A. Let the camera figure this out for you. Apertures? Let the camera figure that out for you. ISOs?Yeah, let the camera figure that out for you. You'll get decent exposures. Make sure that exposure Compensation is at zero to start with. Auto white balance will do good most of the time. Focusing mode on single for basic photography. AF-area mode wide in tracking will be nice and simple. It will focus on things in the foreground, but for general things, it's going to be pretty easy to work with. And then for drive, just one single shot per picture should work out fine. In the landscape mode, we're going to want more depth of field. We may be shooting from a tripod, so in this case, most important setting to me is getting that ISO nice and low at ISO 200, which is going to give me the best image quality. I need a little bit more depth of field. F11 will do that. You probably end up with a slower shutter speed which is why you may need a tripod, but that will vary according to your light. Auto White Balance is going to be fine. My subjects are not moving, so single will work. And single focus allows me to choose exactly where I want to focus. And then, I'm probably just going to use single and I might use that two-seconds self-timer and put the camera on a tripod. For a portrait photography, I'm going to be thinking about shallower depth of field and a little bit faster shutter speeds. In this case, probably my first choice is to be choosing a shallower depth of field, whatever my lens will allow, or probably 125th of a second or faster to stop my or their motion. Prefer 200 on ISO. Auto ISO is going to be fine. As long as my subjects aren't moving around, I'll go with single focus. And if I want to be very precise about where they focus in single, I might also use the face detect. That would work very well. And as long as I just want to get one good shot at the time, the single drive mode should work fine. If I was going to shoot action, here I'm going to want faster shutter speeds to stop that action, and I'm going to want to focusing system that can track that action as well. And so in this case, kind of my first thought is a faster shutter speed, like 500 or faster. I'm probably going to need an aperture of 2.8 or faster to let in that much light, so those lenses are very valuable here. And while I would like to be at 200, I'm probably going to need to be at 400 or higher depending on how low the light levels are. We'll keep it at Auto White Balance until we see a problem, and one of the more important changes here is to the continuous focusing mode so the camera can track focus moving forwards and backwards. With slightly erratic movements, the single area is hard to keep on your subject and so a zone area will be easier to work with. And this is probably where you want to get a continuous high setting so that you can get several pictures in a burst. All right. For a last one, let's leave it with basic photography. This is kind of how I leave my camera set up on a general basis, and that's with an automatic shutter, let the camera figure that out. I'll set an aperture, a modest aperture, maybe around 5.6. I'll leave the ISO at 200, bump it up if I don't like my shutter speeds and I need a faster shutter speed. Watch out for the Exposure Compensation, leaving that at zero. Auto white balance until there is a problem. As long as I'm not shooting an action, I'm going to use it in single focus, so it's good for static subjects. I want to be very precise about where I'm focusing, so I'm going to leave it in the single mode. And for the drive mode, shooting with a single shot at a time should be fine, and so that's how I leave my camera set up for travel or just generic photography. So congratulations. I now deem you experts in the Fuji XT20. Thanks for staying with me throughout this entire class. As it says, it's a powerhouse of a little camera. I love it. It's a great little camera, tons of features, and I think you're going to have a lot of fun with it. So if you have other cameras, if you have friends that have cameras that want to learn how to use them, we have a huge collection of other fast art classes here and so we have more that we're adding on every month to this collection. And so expect to see more here and hope to see you back here with your future cameras as well. If you want to learn more about photography, I have a couple of other classes. Photography Starter kits are very popular one for people who want to get out the door very quickly. We've got the Fundamentals of Photography for those who want to really dive deep into it. I also have a Nature and Landscape as well as a Travel class for those who want to specialize in something. And I don't have a Lens class on Fuji yet, but I do have one on Canon and Nikon lenses. If you just want to learn about lenses in general, there's some very in-depth classes for people who enjoy lenses like I do.

Class Materials

Bonus Materials with Purchase

Fuji X-T20 Recommended Settings

Ratings and Reviews

James Beaumont
 

Excellent class, well structured and easy to follow. Although following this class to get to grips with my Fujifilm X-T30, the functions and menus are near identical, so this class is perfect. As a relative newcomer to photography, the explanations are incredibly helpful and helped me to gain confidence in operating my camera. I am also following John Greengo's Fundamentals class and couldn't recommend him highly enough.

Jenny Mummert
 

This was just what I needed to become more familiar with my xT30...cousin to xT20. Fast start is right. My mind is spinning with information, but that's OK. Very useful information here and valuable handout. Instructor is so knowledgeable and explains things well. I enjoyed his photography 101 course as well. Would also love to have a fast start guide for the Ricoh III. PRETTY PLEASE.

Paul Reid
 

Excellent classes. Well structured. Easy to follow. Great explanations and practical tips. I've learned so much about my Fuji X-T20 since watching!

Student Work

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