I went up to Williston, ND for a couple days a couple weeks ago, and instead of hauling up all of my big Nikon gear like I usually do I decided to just bring my X-T1 and 3 lenses, the 18mm f/2, 23mm f/1.4, and 56mm f/1.2. This combo along with around 6 batteries in a bag weighs less than my D4 + 24-70 f/2.8 combo, so that was very nice. 

I went up to see my wife, since she is an engineer for SRF Consulting here in North Dakota and her project is out there in Williston, but I figured I could take a few pictures while I was out there. Now she did still have to work, though, so I got to hang out with her on her paving site, where she is an inspector.

Before I go more into it, it seems that every time I drive to Williston there is an amazing sunset.

Now a construction site is a dangerous place, lots of large machinery and gruff workers about, so I got a good health and safety talking to (from my wife), and a high-vis jacket and hardhat, and they set to work. I have never really been one to pay attention to construction work, but the concrete paving process is actually quite complicated and time-consuming. Pretty much the whole time I was there (a couple days) they got through about a mile of highway. Crazy.

Without getting super close I was definitely interested to see the process from the perspective of both a Mechanical Engineer and a photographer. Lots of small intricate moving parts in the big machines all moving perfectly with all of this dirt and grit flying everywere. After seeing what one piece of sand can do to a robotic system it was amazing that it all works ever. They pretty much just deposit a giant pile of concrete in front of the big red machine, which then smashes it all down into a near-flat slab of never ending road. 

There is also pretty much an endless line of gigantic dump-trucks constantly depositing concrete from a plant somewhere near-bye into the big yellow machine that then deposits it in front of the actual paving machine.  Throughout this whole process my wife and her fellow engineers have to make sure that everything is working smoothly between the concrete deliveries, the surveyors, the finishers, the operators, and anyone else you can think of. 

A few more photos here before I close out this blog post. Not too many people want to read about construction, so I will finish out with my thoughts on how the X-T1 performed here:

What I liked:

Handling:
Having a smaller camera in this situation I feel was definitely beneficial. I could move around more easily and stay out of the way more than if I had been carrying my D4 or D800. 
Exposure:
Being able to see the exposure in the viewfinder is awesome. With a hugely backlit scene in a lot of these photos I was able to dial in my exposure compensation in order to preserve details in the much more interesting foreground. With my Nikon gear I would have had to take a few test shots to dial in the settings so that the backlighting wasn't as bad.
Tilting Screen:
Sometimes to get the super low shots the tilting screen was awesome, but it also allowed me to be more on the look-out for machinery or workers and stay out of the way more than if I would have had my face pressed into a DSLR viewfinder the whole time.
Image Quality:
In this situation the image quality was awesome. Yes it was a low ISO thing, but there is something about the Fuji colors that I love over even my D800.
WiFi to phone:
A lot of my Wife's family doesn't really know what it is that she does, so it was really nice to be able to shoot the Jpeg photos (shooting in RAW+ Jpeg) to my phone and post them to facebook or instagram. Those are some of my most-liked images, actually. It was nice

What I didn't necessarily like:
Weather Sealing:
None of the lenses that I was using are weather sealed, and it is QUITE dusty in Williston. I had to do quite a lens and sensor cleaning when I got home. The perfect lens for this whole day would have been the upcoming in 2015 Fujifilm 16-55 f/2.8 R WR weather sealed lens. So if Fujifilm wants to send me one of those I'll go take more construction photos with this great system.
Battery life:
Since I was using the LCD on the back a bit, the battery life did suffer a bit. I think in around 7 hours of shooting that day I went through 3 or 4 batteries. That was with leaving the camera on with the EVF+eye sensor going, so that could have contributed a bit, but not too much.

And since that was a HUGE block of text, I'll leave you with one more super artsy photo:

Until I stop being lazy and actually write more of these...

Kevin Fedde
Fedde Studios

I guess I will continue my website blogging experience with a comparison that many people talk way too much about, the "Full Frame vs Crop Sensor" camera debate. 

This post has been in the works for a while, hence the green plants (since I started it sometime during the summer, probably July or August). If you haven't seen it, Zack Arias has a fantastic video about this here:
All credit goes to Zack Arias.

Now there is SO much strife over "Full Frame" cameras and "Crop Sensor" cameras. As someone who has used and owned a slew of both, I can tell you that it doesn't really matter, in my opinion. I have gotten great images out of my D7000 and out of my D800. It just depends on your usage and preference, as well as budget. 

The main argument against Full Frame is obviously the greater expense that goes along with it. Your lenses have to be larger in order to create a larger image circle necessary to cover that larger sensor, thus making the lenses more expensive. The Sensor technology itself is also more expensive, with the sensors being around 2.3 times the overall area of an APS-C sensor (or crop frame sensor). 

Now this comparison is just done with a couple cameras and a couple fairly comparable lenses and my own opinions. This'll sort of end up being a bit of a comparison between the X-T1 and D4, as well (Though I want to do some sports comparisons when I get the Fuji 50-140mm f/2.8 to compare to my Nikon 70-200 on the D4). 

All the photos here were taken in Oak Park, in Minot North Dakota during a walkabout with my Wife.

I'll start out with some photos taken with the D4 and 50mm f/1.4G vs the X-T1 and 35mm f.1,4R. While these aren't as comparable, they were surprisingly close. 

Now in these photos you can tell that wide open there is a slight difference in the Bokeh and the colors, yet I would say that for practical purposes (especially for doing client portraits and whatnot) no one is going to notice any difference between  them when printing. I have also decided to not put 100% crops in this post, as that isn't the point. The sharpness of the two at 1.4 is definitely comparable, with both of them showing a bit of softness, as is to be expected. 

Now that plus the two shots at the top are all that I really got comparing the 50mm equivalents, so lets move on to the 85mm equivalent lenses. The Nikon 85mm f/1.8 and the Fujifilm 56mm f/1.2 are as close as it gets to the same (I realize I should have used an 85 f/1.4, but I don't have one and I prefer the 1.8 version anyway).

these two photos are the main point of the post, and I am not going to put which camera each was taken on below the photo like normal, just to make the point that they are ridiculously close. Both pictures are of my lovely Wife who had just gotten her GoPro Hero 3+ Black that day!

Now these are edited a little bit, but both were shot wide open on their respective lenses, and to my eyes I don't see very much difference whatseoever, besides a little bit in the color in the greens that can be attributed to the different companies. I generally point people to a picture like this when they start getting all hot and heavy about "NEEDING FULL FRAME" in order to get the best photos. I have been leaving my D4 and D800 at home most of the time and just taking my X-T1 or X-Pro 1 out ,since it is so much smaller and easier to handle for general day-to-day outings (Or taking to Williston, which I'll probably do a post on that later.)

Since people will ask, though, the top one was taken with the Fuji, and the bottom with the Nikon. 

Here are a few more pictures taken with each camera taken wide open for some more comparison.

I think that People just need to get out and use what they have, and not spend tons of money vying for the "next thing" (even though obviously we all do that, me included).  

I feel this has gone on long enough. Thanks for reading, and I hope for any discussion in the comments (if anyone ever ends up reading this). 

Now does anyone want to donate to my "Pentax 645Z fund" so I can compare Crop vs Full Frame vs Medium Format?

Kevin Fedde
Fedde Studios