The Film Dial, which was introduced on the Fujifilm X-T50 and is now also found on the Fujifilm X-M5, is a lot of fun. Some people don’t like it, and that’s ok. Not every camera is for everyone, and not every feature is for everyone. It’s one of Fujifilm’s most contentious features. Personally, I like the Film Dial—it’s very useful when combined with my universal Film Dial Recipe, but, perhaps more important, it’s enjoyable.
A few days ago was Halloween. My four kids dressed up, and we went to a nearby family member’s house to pass out candy and trick-or-treat. My oldest daughter was Wednesday from The Addams Family. My oldest son was Waldo. My youngest son was a Fortnight character. And my youngest daughter was Cinderella. We passed out candy before walking around the neighborhood. It was a ton of fun!
Since it was going to be dark—starting right at sunset and continuing into the night—I wanted to use a fast lens, so I borrowed my wife’s Fujinon 56mm f/1.2 (the new version). That’s one of my favorite lenses—it has such fantastic image quality—but since it’s not mine, I don’t always get to use it. I debated between cameras, but went for the Fujifilm X-T50 because it is more lightweight and compact than the X-T5, and has IBIS, which the X-E4 does not. For this particular purpose, it seemed Goldilocks.
I only used the Film Dial Recipe that night, and turned the knob to different film simulations depending on the light, subject, and situations. The great thing is that you get a real-time preview of what the picture will look like, so you can quickly change the film sim to better match the scene, and see what each will produce. I used Classic Negative the most, but also Classic Chrome, Reala Ace, Eterna, Nostalgic Neg., and Acros+R. It worked out really well for documenting our spooky Halloween celebration.
Yeah your universal recipe is a very nice to have with dial.
Fun and enjoying this dial is all what is it about !
I welcome it, but not on all camera bodies. perfect for the X-T50 and X-M5.
Would love a firmware update so it can be fully customisable and work along or replace in a new way the 7 custom slots.
Would be great as we already discussed that all settings be saved and so each film simulation can remember the associated settings, hence storing a recipe.
7 custom slots is way not enough, so getting the extra slots of sim dials would be just awesome.
Waiting for a Kaizen update it comes…
In the meantime, for those liking the sim dial, enjoy it 😀
I think on certain bodies it is excellent. I don’t expect it to ever be on the X-T0 series, or X-H, or X100, and probably not the X-Pro. It could possible find its way to the X-E line, but perhaps implemented differently.
I agree that it could be improved by Fujifilm, and it can be done via a firmware update. I’m not sure if that’s something Fujifilm is considering or not, but I hope they are.
Yes, the Film Dial is actually a lot of fun, just like the Film Presets themselves. But it’s probably more interesting and effective for photographs with previous experience of using films that the camera simulates now. But, for example, concerning me, I have never used these films before—I used films only Svema produced in the former USSR and ORWO from the former East Germany. As well as young photographs who have never used films at all. We are not few and we don’t need this feature. I prefer the ISO Dial at the left hand.
However, I like what you Ritchie are doing because this teaches me how I may use camera settings for the best results.
The X-T00 series has never had an ISO dial, so I never expected the X-T50 to have it. A future solution could potentially be the shutter/ISO combo dial like the X-Pro and X100 series.
For those unfamiliar with the film stocks that the film simulations were modeled after or named after, I think the Film Dial is great because it begs exploration. You get to discover it with the twist of the knob. Also, Nathalie Boucry just began an excellent series that you should follow on her blog: https://blog.nathalieboucry.com/
Cool Halloween party 👻🎃
Nice to see the results.
Yeah your universal recipe is a very nice to have with dial.
Fun and enjoying this dial is all what is it about !
I welcome it, but not on all camera bodies. perfect for the X-T50 and X-M5.
Would love a firmware update so it can be fully customisable and work along or replace in a new way the 7 custom slots.
Would be great as we already discussed that all settings be saved and so each film simulation can remember the associated settings, hence storing a recipe.
7 custom slots is way not enough, so getting the extra slots of sim dials would be just awesome.
Waiting for a Kaizen update it comes…
In the meantime, for those liking the sim dial, enjoy it 😀
I think on certain bodies it is excellent. I don’t expect it to ever be on the X-T0 series, or X-H, or X100, and probably not the X-Pro. It could possible find its way to the X-E line, but perhaps implemented differently.
I agree that it could be improved by Fujifilm, and it can be done via a firmware update. I’m not sure if that’s something Fujifilm is considering or not, but I hope they are.
Thanks for the comment!
Yes, the Film Dial is actually a lot of fun, just like the Film Presets themselves. But it’s probably more interesting and effective for photographs with previous experience of using films that the camera simulates now. But, for example, concerning me, I have never used these films before—I used films only Svema produced in the former USSR and ORWO from the former East Germany. As well as young photographs who have never used films at all. We are not few and we don’t need this feature. I prefer the ISO Dial at the left hand.
However, I like what you Ritchie are doing because this teaches me how I may use camera settings for the best results.
The X-T00 series has never had an ISO dial, so I never expected the X-T50 to have it. A future solution could potentially be the shutter/ISO combo dial like the X-Pro and X100 series.
For those unfamiliar with the film stocks that the film simulations were modeled after or named after, I think the Film Dial is great because it begs exploration. You get to discover it with the twist of the knob. Also, Nathalie Boucry just began an excellent series that you should follow on her blog: https://blog.nathalieboucry.com/