Fuji X Series

Barks · 17 Jun 2016 at 07:44

Actually maybe I'm being silly. The kit lens goes down to 16mm so that's probably fine if I'm just taking family photos at parties/events where I need the wider angle. With photos like these I don't really care about the technical side of the photograph, they're mainly for memories.

The XF23mm looks incredible but very expensive.

Richdog · 17 Jun 2016 at 07:53

Barks said:
I picked up my X-T10 yesterday (coming from a Canon SLR) and I'm absolutely gobsmacked. I had a Nikon J1 a few years ago which was dreadful but the X-T10 is just astonishing. I've got the kit lens on it at the moment.

I'm going to buy a 12mm Samyang for night stuff/wide angle but I'm really struggling to decide which prime lens to put on it for daily use.

Narrowed it down to XF 35mm F1.4R, XF 27mm F2.8 (pancake) and the XF 23mm 1.4R. Which of these would you guys recommend for day to day use? Want something which is going to give beautiful bokeh but still wide another to be able to sit on the camera 90% of the time.

I'm wondering if I should just buy two, one for street photography and a wider one for family stuff/indoors/parties etc.

Fuji are making a 23mm F2 WR for the Summer, it may be worth hanging on for. The Fuji 35mm F2 is also very well regarded.

Barks · 17 Jun 2016 at 07:58

In reality am I likely to lose out on not having the 1.4 aperture?

Thanks for the heads up!

Richdog · 17 Jun 2016 at 09:38

Barks said:
In reality am I likely to lose out on not having the 1.4 aperture?

Thanks for the heads up!

APS-C lenses from Fuji/Nikon have the equivalent 1.5x aperture FOV of a full frame lens one stop higher. So an f2 lens on Fuji/Nikon would be similar FOV to an f3 (f2.8 in reality) on full frame Nikon.

If you want crazy DOF action then clearly the lower the better, but if you do some Googling for images produced by the F2 Fuji lenses they are very good and also have nice bokeh.

Fuji are likely going to now be focusing on cheaper and lower aperture lenses as those are the most profitable so sadly we may not see weather sealed 23mm f1.4 or 56mm f/1.2 lenses, however weather sealing has never been an issue for me for these kinds of lenses.

There was also rumoured to be a 33mm f1.0 in development, but I will be surprised if it sees the light of day as it would be a pretty niche product.

ethan · 17 Jun 2016 at 10:39

Barks said:
In reality am I likely to lose out on not having the 1.4 aperture?

Thanks for the heads up!

I don't regret the 1.4 (35mm) over the f2. Both are beautiful and there are some comparisons if you Google. Second hand might be an option. You won't regret either one. Love the 60mm macro which doubles for portraiture too.

CGrieves · 17 Jun 2016 at 11:22

I use the 23/1.4 more than the the 35/1.4 but that's more of a field of view decision. Both are startlingly good lenses.

I forced myself to use the 35/1.4 last night for an evening/nighttime staff party and have kind of fallen back in love with it. Autofocus (X-E2 with 4.00 firmware) doesn't feel as quick or accurate as the 23, I have no data to back that up.

35mm is available widely secondhand, cheaper in retail terms, considerably smaller and somewhat lighter. As it's a longer focal length it obviously makes it easier to throw backgrounds out of focus.

The 23mm is arguably a more general-purpose focal length. The lens itself is technically stunning. Rarely any need to stop down, especially now I have the electronic shutter option.

It's hard to give advice as lens choice is such a personal, subjective thing, and Fuji don't really make any dud lenses. The best way to decide is really what focal length is going to be of more use to you.

As an alternative setup, maybe consider Samyang 12/f2, Fuji 18/f2 and Fuji 35/1.4. I personally think the 18mm is a really underrated lens, gives great output, bright enough, compact, light and cheap.

Richdog · 17 Jun 2016 at 11:40

CGrieves said:
I use the 23/1.4 more than the the 35/1.4 but that's more of a field of view decision. Both are startlingly good lenses.

I forced myself to use the 35/1.4 last night for an evening/nighttime staff party and have kind of fallen back in love with it. Autofocus (X-E2 with 4.00 firmware) doesn't feel as quick or accurate as the 23, I have no data to back that up.

35mm is available widely secondhand, cheaper in retail terms, considerably smaller and somewhat lighter. As it's a longer focal length it obviously makes it easier to throw backgrounds out of focus.

The 23mm is arguably a more general-purpose focal length. The lens itself is technically stunning. Rarely any need to stop down, especially now I have the electronic shutter option.

It's hard to give advice as lens choice is such a personal, subjective thing, and Fuji don't really make any dud lenses. The best way to decide is really what focal length is going to be of more use to you.

As an alternative setup, maybe consider Samyang 12/f2, Fuji 18/f2 and Fuji 35/1.4. I personally think the 18mm is a really underrated lens, gives great output, bright enough, compact, light and cheap.

Thanks for that useful overview. Have you tried any of the zooms at all?

CGrieves · 17 Jun 2016 at 14:54

Richdog said:
Thanks for that useful overview. Have you tried any of the zooms at all?

I've handled a few (even the cheap ones feel great). but apart from the 18-55 f2/8-4 in a shop, never shot with one. Fuji was my gateway into prime photography....

olv · 19 Jun 2016 at 17:02

Barks said:
Actually maybe I'm being silly. The kit lens goes down to 16mm so that's probably fine if I'm just taking family photos at parties/events where I need the wider angle. With photos like these I don't really care about the technical side of the photograph, they're mainly for memories.

The XF23mm looks incredible but very expensive.

I've had good results from the 16-50mm kit lens and have several prints at 20"x16" which stand up. I predominently use the 35mm 1.4 which is just stellar for the price. I can't bring myself to get the 23mm as its just so expensive compared to the 35mm and the results are so similar (I know they have a very different feel to them, I just got used to 35mm). I've only just added the Samyang 12mm and Fuji 27mm as they were bargains. The 27mm lives on the X-M1 and is tiny and performs well. Little bokeh though. The Samyang is great, very easy to manual focus on the XT-10 with a little practice and was invaluable for the stars in Yosemite recently.

ethan · 19 Jun 2016 at 21:10

olv said:
I've had good results from the 16-50mm kit lens and have several prints at 20"x16" which stand up. I predominently use the 35mm 1.4 which is just stellar for the price. I can't bring myself to get the 23mm as its just so expensive compared to the 35mm and the results are so similar (I know they have a very different feel to them, I just got used to 35mm). I've only just added the Samyang 12mm and Fuji 27mm as they were bargains. The 27mm lives on the X-M1 and is tiny and performs well. Little bokeh though. The Samyang is great, very easy to manual focus on the XT-10 with a little practice and was invaluable for the stars in Yosemite recently.

Any chance of looking at the Samyang shots? Thanks

Richdog · 20 Jun 2016 at 10:26

Bleurgh this 2-3 week wait for the XS-T2 announcement is passing like the temporal equivalent of concrete.

CGrieves said:
I've handled a few (even the cheap ones feel great). but apart from the 18-55 f2/8-4 in a shop, never shot with one. Fuji was my gateway into prime photography....

Ok, thanks! Regarding the primes, do you think the DOF/bokkeh is decent enough on the f2 WR lenses? I'm a bit annoyed that Fuji aren't phasing out the older f1.4 lenses and updating them with WR versions and I'm just wondering how great the difference between them is.

CGrieves · 20 Jun 2016 at 12:39

Richdog said:
Ok, thanks! Regarding the primes, do you think the DOF/bokkeh is decent enough on the f2 WR lenses? I'm a bit annoyed that Fuji aren't phasing out the older f1.4 lenses and updating them with WR versions and I'm just wondering how great the difference between them is.

Fuji vs Fuji did a good comparison:

http://www.fujivsfuji.com/35mm-f1pt4-vs-35mm-f2-wr/

So no disadvantage as such in terms of bokeh. The F2 doesn't really tempt me though, I'd really miss the extra stop of brightness.

I'll admit that until the WR lenses were announced, I'd always assumed my 23/35 were weather sealed. I'd never got them seriously wet, but at the same time never thought twice about using them in the rain!

Richdog · 29 Jun 2016 at 07:50

Fujifilm Patents XF16-55mmF2.8… with OIS! http://www.fujirumors.com/fujifilm-patents-xf16-55mmf2-8-ois/

Barks · 29 Jun 2016 at 08:54

Had a chance to use my X-T10 at the weekend in Wales (had a petrolhead driving weekend) and I'm just astonished by how good it is compared to my old 550D SLR. Even with the kit lens!

Can anyone here recommend a case/bag for it?

Barks · 29 Jun 2016 at 08:57

olv said:
I've had good results from the 16-50mm kit lens and have several prints at 20"x16" which stand up. I predominently use the 35mm 1.4 which is just stellar for the price. I can't bring myself to get the 23mm as its just so expensive compared to the 35mm and the results are so similar (I know they have a very different feel to them, I just got used to 35mm). I've only just added the Samyang 12mm and Fuji 27mm as they were bargains. The 27mm lives on the X-M1 and is tiny and performs well. Little bokeh though. The Samyang is great, very easy to manual focus on the XT-10 with a little practice and was invaluable for the stars in Yosemite recently.

Thanks for this mate, sorry for the delay in responding.

I think I'm going to grab the 35mm 1.4 and the Samyang. To be honest having used the kit lens at the weekend I'm still very impressed, but there seems to be a lot of distortion at 16mm.

olv · 30 Jun 2016 at 22:43

ethan said:
Any chance of looking at the Samyang shots? Thanks

Only just getting round to looking through the RAWs but here is a good example. The slight softness is due to shooting at ISO 6400 and my lack of experience shooting F2 at infinity focus.

ethan · 1 Jul 2016 at 00:32

Hmm what was the length of exposure? I'm sure some post processing would improve both the clarity and contrast if you haven't done so already? Would like to have seen that landscape

olv · 1 Jul 2016 at 10:14

I told a lie, that was ISO3200 and it was 30 seconds. I'm getting the feeling that 30 seconds is much too long for stars. Still lots to learn.

Richdog · 7 Jul 2016 at 07:42

Annnnnd the Fuji X-T2 is now announced and info collected here http://www.fujirumors.com/

Links to hand-on preview from Fuji X shooters http://www.fujirumors.com/fuji-x-t2-promotional-video-youtube/

Also dpreview preview http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/fujifilm-x-t2-first-impressions-review

I think from all of these reports that it looks like a highly significant upgrade to the original X-T1. Autofocus performance finally looks like it could be less of a headache, and the new button ergonomics look decent.

The new lens roadmap is disappointing, though I understand that new announcements will likely follow at Photokina.

September 8th is a long time to wait though...

Richdog · 7 Jul 2016 at 09:02

I just, erm, accidentally bought a Fuji E-X2. A local store were doing one for a special sale price. I also ordered the 35mm f2.

With the new firmware it's basically up to X-T10 standards http://www.fujivsfuji.com/xt10-vs-xt1-vs-xe2/

Plan is to use it for a couple of months, get used to the system and processing, and then gift it to my dad as a little treat when the X-T2 is released as he has been looking for a new camera and I know he would love the Fuji system.