20 Frames: Legoland with a Fujifilm X100V + Kodachrome 64

Friendly Wave – Carlsbad, CA – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodachrome 64”

What is the best travel camera? My opinion, and the opinion of many other photographers, is the Fujifilm X100V.

The Fujifilm X100V is a great travel camera because of its compact size, versatility, and image quality. It features a fixed 23mm lens, which provides a classic 35mm equivalent focal length, and a bright f/2 maximum aperture. The camera has an intuitive retro design and advanced features, such as a hybrid viewfinder, leaf shutter, built-in ND filter, and weather sealing. The 26-megapixel APS-C sensor produces exceptional image quality, and, when paired with Film Simulation Recipes, is ideal for street and documentary photography. The X100V has solid build quality, yet is small enough to easily carry around, making it an excellent choice for capturing your adventures.

One travel adventure that I recently returned from was a day at Legoland (a Lego themed amusement park) in Carlsbad, California, for my son Joshua’s 9th birthday. Because his birthday is so close to Christmas, he typically gets the short end of the celebration stick, so this year we wanted to make it extra special, and a Black Friday deal made it more affordable. To capture the experience, I brought along my Fujifilm X100V programmed with the Kodachrome 64 Film Simulation Recipe. This recipe produces a nostalgic slide film aesthetic similar to the images found in National Geographic, Arizona Highways, and other magazines from my childhood. I used a 5% CineBloom filter, which I prefer for its subtle diffusion effect, for this outing.

The day started out with thin overcast sky, which gave way to midday sun before thick clouds and light rain moved in for the rest of the adventure. The X100V with the Kodachrome 64 recipe handled the changing light quite well—I even got a couple good pictures after sunset under artificial light. This camera and recipe combo is my top option for color travel photography, including a family outing to an amusement park. Because I used a Film Simulation Recipe and shot JPEG, when I returned home I only had to download the pictures from my camera to my phone, crop or straighten if necessary, and upload to my cloud storage. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

Shark Bite – Carlsbad, CA – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodachrome 64”
Happy Josh – Carlsbad, CA – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodachrome 64”
Yellow Duck, Blue Boat – Carlsbad, CA – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodachrome 64”
Skipper School – Carlsbad, CA – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodachrome 64”
Nautical Light – Carlsbad, CA – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodachrome 64”
Amused – Carlsbad, CA – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodachrome 64”
Selfie – Carlsbad, CA – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodachrome 64”
Big Leaves – Carlsbad, CA – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodachrome 64”
Blur – Carlsbad, CA – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodachrome 64”
Carousel Riders – Carlsbad, CA – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodachrome 64”
Space Guy – Carlsbad, CA – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodachrome 64”
Encounters – Carlsbad, CA – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodachrome 64”
Not Amused – Carlsbad, CA – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodachrome 64”
Snack Break – Carlsbad, CA – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodachrome 64”
Waiting Isn’t Fun – Carlsbad, CA – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodachrome 64”
Bubbles – Carlsbad, CA – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodachrome 64”
Jon Acting Crazy – Carlsbad, CA – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodachrome 64”
Under the Dim Light – Carlsbad, CA – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodachrome 64”
Amanda’s Smile – Carlsbad, CA – Fujifilm X100V – “Kodachrome 64”

This post contains affiliate links, and if you make a purchase using my links I’ll be compensated a small amount for it.

Fujifilm X100V in black:  Amazon   B&H  Moment
Fujifilm X100V in silver: Amazon   B&H  Moment

Find this Film Simulation Recipe and over 250 more on the Fuji X Weekly — Film Recipes App!

Fujifilm X100V + Kodachrome 64 Film Simulation Recipe + Rover Mini Cooper (Video)

My friend, James, has a 1994 Rover Mini Cooper. It’s such a cool classic car! He imported it from Japan, and the driver sits on the right side instead of the left, which is unusual in America. What I love about this car is its vintage features; it looks older than the year it was built. It has great retro styling, and you don’t see many of these older models on the road. I asked him if I could photograph it, and he graciously agreed.

The camera that I chose for this photo shoot is the Fujifilm X100V. It’s a fun camera to use, and it unsurprisingly handled this situation well—there’s not much that this camera isn’t a good choice for (wildlife photography, perhaps?). For automobile photography it did nothing but deliver beautiful picture after beautiful picture.

The film simulation recipe that I programmed into the X100V is Kodachrome 64, which is a film that was very popular in 1994 when this car was new. I thought it would be appropriate to give the pictures an aesthetic that matched its year built, as if these images could have been captured when the car was new. In 2010 Kodachrome was discontinued, including the chemicals to develop it, so it’s impossible to capture with Kodachrome today. My Kodachrome 64 film simulation recipe might be the closest you can get to the film straight-out-of-camera.

My wife, Amanda, who created the video at the top of this article, programmed my Kodachrome 64 recipe into the Fujifilm X-T30 and X-T20, two cameras that she used to record this photo shoot. Something that some of you might be unaware of is that my film simulation recipes can be used for video, too! No need for color grading. No need for LUT presets. I bet some of you just had your mind blown! She also used a GoPro Hero 8, and we tried to color match it to the Fujifilm clips, but that proved to be a difficult task. If you want Kodachrome-looking clips, you might be better off simply using the film simulation recipe on your Fujifilm camera instead of trying to recreate it in software.

When we started the photo shoot, it was evening light just before sunset. Smoke from the wildfires in California diffused the sun and gave a warm glow, which was quite nice; however, the sun quickly disappeared below the horizon and the light changed significantly. It was dusk by the time we stopped shooting. The great light was short lived, but we worked quickly to take advantage of it while it lasted.

One challenge with car photography is that there are often lots and lots of reflections, which can make it difficult to keep yourself (or other things you don’t want) from showing up in the images. You have to be very conscious of the entire frame. Yes, unwanted reflections can be removed in software, but the point of this exercise is to not use software, but get the desired results out-of-camera unedited. Reflections can also be used creatively, so it’s not just a challenge to avoid unwanted reflections, but to maximize good reflections.

I want to give a big “Thank You” to James for allowing us to photograph his Rover Mini. I enjoyed collaborating with him. If you like the video, be sure to give it a thumbs up and let us know with a comment! Please subscribe to the Fuji X Weekly YouTube channel if you don’t already. Thanks for watching!

This post contains affiliate links, and if you make a purchase using my links I’ll be compensated a small amount for it.

Gear:
Fujifilm X100V Amazon B&H
Fujifilm X-T20   Amazon
Fujifilm X-T30  Amazon B&H
Fujinon 10-24mm   Amazon B&H
Rokinon 12mm   Amazon B&H
GoPro Hero 8 Black   Amazon B&H