Overpowering the sun

Here are two of the many great things about the Fuji X100: 1) its leaf shutter will sync with external flashes at up to 1/2000th of a second, and 2) its built-in ND filter will cut three stops of light from your exposures.

Put them together, and you have the option of taking flash-lit pictures in full sunshine at the camera's maximum aperture of f/2 with a great deal of control over the ambient light. That's pretty amazing.

I tested it in my back garden today in blazing sunshine, with the camera at maximum sync speed and aperture and a Canon 550EX cranked to full power in a softbox.

Please excuse the somewhat unfortunate self-portrait, but having proven what the camera can do I'm looking forward to taking pictures of someone who actually enjoys being in front of the lens using this technique soon.

Oh, and here's a second shot to give you an idea of the ambient light - (1/600 at f/2, ISO200): ow my eyes!