{"id":3354,"date":"2013-12-16T08:46:41","date_gmt":"2013-12-16T08:46:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=3354"},"modified":"2013-12-15T20:05:07","modified_gmt":"2013-12-15T20:05:07","slug":"germany-more-in-the-country","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/re-photo.co.uk\/?p=3354","title":{"rendered":"Germany – More in the Country"},"content":{"rendered":"

More pictures from the Fuji X-E1 taken in Germany. We cycled along the main road east from Neumunster to the next place of any size – a large village approximately 15 km east of Neum\u00fcnster called Bornh\u00f6ved.<\/p>\n

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There was a cycle track alongside the road almost all the way. When it disappeared we took an unmarked side road which fortunately led into the village over a motorway. Almost all cyclists use the cycle paths, which most major roads have beside them. Few cyclists seem to wear helmets, except children (for whom I think it may be compulsory, though not all do.)\u00a0 Outside of the towns we saw very few cyclists.<\/p>\n

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\nBornh\u00f6ved<\/small><\/p>\n

Bornh\u00f6ved is a largish village and unusually hilly after the very flat area we had cycled to.\u00a0 It didn’t seem a place where there was a lot to do, though it had some pretty detailed boards about its history on the edge of the car park. We cycled around it then back to Husberg<\/a>, where we were staying, making a small detour on the route. It wasn’t the most exciting ride I’ve ever done, and German bikes are not like mine at home.\u00a0 It did have a lot of gears, but I think I just found the right one and stayed in it almost all of the time.\u00a0 But the back-pedal braking is extremely annoying, particularly in making it difficult to get a pedal in the right position for a good start. There would have been more pictures, but I’d decided to travel light and forgot to transfer a spare battery from the bag I left in our bedroom to my pocket.<\/p>\n

The EX-1 eats batteries fast, especially if you spend much time reviewing pictures, and tend to leave the camera switched on. I had five with me in Germany, and certainly got through three some days despite not taking a huge number of pictures.\u00a0 The batteries are fairly slow to charge too, I think a couple of hours. The one I’m looking at is 1250 mAH and I think supposed to last around 300 pictures. It’s not a huge problem, as non-Fuji replacements are less than a tenner on e-Bay (and seem every bit as good as the genuine Fuji item which costs a ridiculous \u00a359.99).<\/p>\n

The Nikon batteries are a little larger and higher capacity – 1620 mAH – but though I carry a spare in my camera bag, I’ve yet to have to change one when I’m out working. Every day when I get home I do a check, and if they are under 80% they go in the charger and are replaced by the spare from the back. Some of the cheap replacements have higher capacity and can still be at 100% after I’ve taken a few hundred pictures.<\/p>\n

It isn’t just the electronic viewfinder that makes the difference. The Fuji X-Pro 1 which I use mainly with the optical viewfinder eats up batters as well, though perhaps not quite as fast.<\/p>\n

A couple of days later we took a walk closer to where we were staying. B\u00f6neb\u00fcttel and Husberg are really more or less the same place. But B\u00f6neb\u00fcttel seems to have more older farms and a lot of agricultural land around it, and we were able to make\u00a0 nice circular walk that took us two or three hours.\u00a0 This time I took my bag with the spare batteries and lenses, though I think most if not all of the pictures were made with the 18-55mm zoom, probably because I was feeling lazy!<\/p>\n

There were plenty of wide open spaces and somehow out in the country I feel less of a need for an extreme wide-angle than in the town, where the 15mm Voigtlander was often nice to use.<\/p>\n

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\nB\u00f6neb\u00fcttel<\/small><\/p>\n

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\nBrammerweg, B\u00f6neb\u00fcttel<\/p>\n

and for something completely different: Designer Outlet<\/em><\/p>\n

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\n‘Designer Outlet’ in Oderstra\u00dfe, on the edge of Neum\u00fcnster “Designed for those who love to shop”<\/small><\/p>\n

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This is a kind of fake-old German town composed entirely of shops. We went in a few of them, but I didn’t see anything I wanted to buy.\u00a0 All the pictures I took here were with the 15mm Voigtlander (22 mm equiv) and sometimes it wasn’t quite wide enough. But it is a nice lens on the camera, small and light. I don’t have any complaints about its sharpness, nor can I see any trace of distortion. It is a manual only lens, but that isn’t any problem on the Fuji X-E1. There were very few pictures where I needed to focus, having initially set the lens to a sensible setting by scale. Depth of field at f5,6 or f8 is pretty excessive.<\/p>\n

Although it was ideal for this location in decent light, the maximum aperture of f4 was a little limiting for interior use, where the f2.8 of the Samyang made a noticeable difference. And it would be nice to have a lens that does autofocus for use at near distances.\u00a0 So though I was very pleased with how this lens worked, I still ended up wanting the 14mm Fuji, which would have been even better.<\/p>\n

The Fuji did a pretty good job in Germany, despite a few problems, mainly caused by the photographer. What I’ve not dwelt on in these posts is its performance shooting movies, where I think it did pretty well. It isn’t a camera of choice for fast-moving action, and it doesn’t have the flash capabilities of the Nikons, but apart from that it could replace them for much of what I do.<\/p>\n


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