0:00 Let's be honest. Today's digital cameras can be at odds with the creative processes that a lot of photographers enjoy. With all of the information thrown at you on the displays, all of the different controls to think about, and then all of those menu settings that are available to us. So, in this video I want to show you how to take your Fujifilm camera down to bare bones so that you can feel closer to the photographs that you create. I'm doing this video in response to a question that I got just that very topic. How do I minimize all of the different things that are available on this camera so that I can think more about the photos. If you have any questions similar to that, please let me know in the comments here and I'll think
0:47 about it for an upcoming video. First, let's take a look at those displays. There is a lot of information here that I would argue is unnecessary and distracting to you. In fact, that's why the uh Fujifilm XE5 introduced the classic display. And if you're an XE5 owner or want to learn more about that, you can check out another video that I did about the classic display. But you can make every other camera very similar to that following these steps. There are two different kinds of categories for the display symbology. There's the standard indicators, those are the small letters and symbols around the screen. And then there's the large indicators mode, which I know a lot of you love to use. And they're a lot easier to see. You can set up your
1:32 camera to use the large indicators while you're looking through the EVF and then have the standard indicators set for the LCD. But you can customize what little symbology there is already in the standard indicators mode. We're going to do all of this in the screen setup menu. In the large indicators display setting, and I'd recommend keeping the exposure display variables, your shutter speed, aperture, and ISO. That exposure scale is really nice to have. You can also have just the exposure digit or a combination of those. But then there are eight other slots, four on the left side and four on the right side. You can just select all of these, and then in that list of available options for that display, at the very end you'll
2:18 find none. And so when you select none for the L1 through R4 positions, now you have a really clean, large indicators display where only your exposure variables will be displayed in that large format, and you won't have anything else on the screen. If you prefer using the standard display, the smaller letters and symbols, you're going to do that in the main screen setup menu under display custom setting. And there are a lot of options in here, and most of them are enabled by default. So all you need to do is just go through here and remove the check mark from all of the information that you don't want to see in your minimal Fujifilm camera. I think at a minimum the information
3:03 that you want here are your focus frame, your aperture, your shutter speed, and your ISO, either the exposure digit or exposure scale, the frames remaining, and the battery level. That's also kind of another nice one to have. All of that information is what's displayed more or less in analog cameras. So we're really simplifying that display and removing all of that other distracting information that probably doesn't do a lot for you while you're looking at the shooting screen. Once you have the information on your screens minimized, think about only using the viewfinder and not that back LCD screen. I love using the viewfinder. It's a more immersive experience that removes all of
3:48 the distractions around me. And with that, I disable my LCD screen. You're going to do this again in the screen setup menu under view mode. Some cameras have a switch on the viewfinder housing to change the view mode, but what I'd recommend using here is EVF only plus eye sensor. And what this means is that your displays are going to be completely off, all of them, until you bring the camera up to your face, and when you start looking through that viewfinder, the viewfinder is going to come on so that you can use that, and then when you're done shooting, that viewfinder's going to turn off. If you have a camera where that LCD screen can completely rotate and get tucked in against the back of the
4:34 camera, do that so it doesn't even tempt you to look at, and you're also protecting it. But that's another way to kind of make this more like an analog camera. A lot of us fell in love with Fujifilm cameras in the first place for their tactile exposure controls. But there are a lot of other controls that can get in the way and impede your creativity. So, let's look at how to clean that up. First, take advantage of those exposure controls. Many Fujifilm cameras have controls for all four exposure settings: aperture, shutter speed, ISO, and exposure compensation. Use them. If you have those dedicated controls for those exposure variables, there's no need to use the command dials for your
5:20 exposure variables, so you can disable those. Go into your button dial setting and then command dial setting. On some Fujifilm cameras, you're limited to just flipping which command dial controls which exposure control. But for many other Fujifilm cameras, you can assign which exposure functions are controlled by which command dial. You can also set these to none. So, if you have an aperture ring, a shutter speed dial, an ISO dial, and an exposure compensation dial, go through this all the functions for the front command dial and the rear command dial function and choose none from the list. None is not available for that first function there, but if you just set it
6:05 to aperture, that'll more or less be disabled if your aperture settings are set up for the defaults. And now you're only using those dedicated exposure controls. But, if you're missing an exposure control, like you don't have an ISO dial, which is common on a lot of cameras, or you don't have a shutter speed dial, which you'll find on some cameras that have a mode dial instead, then you're going to have to use the command dials. Although, one little note, I would recommend not using the command dials for the ISO because that can lead into a lot of troubles. I'll show you how to change the ISO in a much easier, simpler way in a few minutes. But, if you are missing that shutter speed dial, then yeah, you're going to
6:52 want to make sure that you have at least shutter speed programmed to a command dial. Just remember which command dial you program it to so that you can quickly use that to adjust your shutter speed when you need to. And while we're on the topic of controls, that touchscreen can be really distracting, too, especially when you accidentally activate something with the touchscreen. So, let's turn that off. First, we're going to go into the AF/MF setting menu and turn off the touchscreen mode. You probably remove the check mark from this in the display custom setting to remove that touch control for the touchscreen mode, but turning it off in this menu will keep it off for good so that you're not accidentally turning on
7:37 like that touch shooting or the touch focus function. And then you can also turn off the rest of the touchscreen settings at the end of the button dial setting menu under touchscreen setting. You can just turn all of these off. It is going to disable the touchscreen for the touch functions like the swiping up, down, left, or right. If you want to leave those, then you're going to want to leave that touch function on. But that's just another way that you can simplify this so that you're not accidentally activating controls, which is a big pain point for a lot of Fuji phone photographers, especially regarding the touchscreen. And as far as the rest of the controls, depending on your camera, you may have a lot of buttons and other things that can
8:22 be customized. So in that function FN setting menu, if you don't want to be accidentally pressing any buttons and changing things, then just go through the buttons or the controls that you don't want to use. And just like we did in the large indicators display setting, set those to none. You may want to leave some things on like the auto exposure lock, the AF on control. The Q button is another control that drives a lot of Fuji phone photographers crazy by accidentally activating that and bringing up the Q menu when you don't want to. You can disable that here. And then there's all of those touch functions that we talked about just a second ago. I do just want to mention the focus settings real quick. If you're looking
9:07 for a way to minimize this, if you're going for more of like an analog experience, you can just stay in manual focus mode. And then for the manual focus assist, try the digital micro prism if your camera has that or the digital split image. That's a focus aid that'll help you focus manually. But if you still want to use autofocus, just try the single point autofocus mode so that you have a little more precision and a little more control over that wide area. And then finally, there are way too many menu choices in these cameras and I'm sure you'll only regularly use a handful of them if you're shooting this way. So, let's look at how we can consolidate those menu options into just a couple of different places.
9:53 Let's first just set up our own menu. We don't need to wade through all of those different menu pages with all of those different options to keep finding the one or two settings that we use on a regular basis. So, put all of those into your own custom my menu. Now, I'm not going to walk you through each and every step to set up your my menu. I already did a video about that that you'll find linked here. But, this will just let you consolidate all of your most used menu items into one or two pages. And that alone can make using these cameras a lot less of a drag. But, I mentioned earlier not using the command dials to change your ISO. This is one place where you can put the ISO setting menu. The other menu I I mentioned the Q
10:39 button, but the Q menu is another really useful menu if you want to do this kind of minimalist style with your Fujifilm camera. And you don't need to use the Q button to pull up the Q menu. That Q button is in such a bad place because it can be accidentally activated so easy. If you have another button, like a function button on the top of the camera plate that you don't have anything useful program to or you program it to none, you can set that to the Q menu. I'd try to avoid 16 slots for the Q menu. That can make it really busy. So, you can try going to a four instead and this is another place where you can put ISO. Some other things that you might want to put in here in the Q menu
11:24 include the film simulation and the white balance. You'll change the number of slots in the button dial setting menu and program it there also. Once you remove all of the controls and features that are unnecessary for you, the camera is going to become a lot easier to use. And with those obstacles out of the way, you will see improvements in your photography because you can start paying more attention to things like your composition, the light, and storytelling. All things that you can learn more about and improve in the courses that I will have linked in the video description, and you can save 20% on all of those courses with the code T20. Please let me know if you have any other ways that you can simplify these Fujifilm cameras or any other questions.
12:12 Subscribe for more great tips like this every week, and I hope to see you in the next video.
