Fuji X Series

Lovely shots! Just shows what the lens is capable of in the right hands!
I have only had a chance to take some further test shots around the house today but without getting into too much detail now or bogging the thread down with more uninspiring test photos my early synopsis is this lens is every bit as sharp as my 55-200 - and I believed my copy of that 55-200 to be super sharp as I have mentioned in this thread a few times I'm sure.
I'd say the 70-300 has better corner sharpness however there are too many variables with the test shots I have taken so far but as I say early signs are that optically the lens is at least on par with the 55-200.
 
Ok first issue discovered. I tried the lens on my X-H1 and the IS is all over the place - it's actually better with the IS off altogether. I had absolutely no problems with the lens on my X-T3 nor do I have any issues with the 16-80 on my X-H1 which utilises the same 'smart' IS detection i.e. no OIS switch on the lens itself. So it seems there is an issue somewhere with the X-H1/70-300 combo.
Has anyone else experienced anything like this with other lenses/bodies?

I imagine I would need to refer this to Fujifilm themselves in case it is a widespread issue, perhaps a firmware update would fix it?
And just to note all my body and lens firmwares are up to date.

I uploaded a recording to Youtube that hopefully demonstrates what I am talking about:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d6oXNNCasHs
 
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Hopefully they can get an update out quickly to sort it out for X-H1 users. I am really liking the lens so far, I took a risk and sold my 100-400mm before Christmas as I just was not using it due to the size / weight, at this point there was no date known for the 70-300mm but the risk was worth it as I know already I will use this lens happily as its so small / light.

Took a few handheld shots of the moon tonight:

 
So does anyone fancy helping me with a spot of astro/long exposure. I attempted my first series of shots last night, and although diabolical :D I've managed to capture plenty of stars. It was a cold clear night last night, so perfect conditions, although because I was in my back garden there was some light interference too.

Tonight I plan on a quick trip to a darker part of the beach.

Settings wise on my XT3, I'm using the Samyang 12mm in manual. ISO 1600 or anything else :D, F11 or anything else :D and a long exposure of anywhere between 10-30 seconds. I know it's subjective, but is there a general go to for settings? I've been doing a spot of research, and there are lots of opinons, so I've just been playing, but it would be good if I knew what I was doing.
 
philstanbridge said:
So does anyone fancy helping me with a spot of astro/long exposure. I attempted my first series of shots last night, and although diabolical :D I've managed to capture plenty of stars. It was a cold clear night last night, so perfect conditions, although because I was in my back garden there was some light interference too.
Click to expand...
You and me both. I too tried some quick back garden snaps last night which, as you say, was a nice and clear and I thought since moonrise wasn't until some time between midnight and 1am the skies should be plenty dark. However, no matter what I tried last night I couldn't get any Milky Way to show in the photos. Much like yourself I got plenty of wide shots with lots of stars but not much colour or MW.
I've shot the MW plenty of times (even from the back yard) but it was nowhere to be seen last night. I wonder was there something I didn't take into account? Even if the moon hasn't risen where I am can it still affect the sky?

As for settings my go to with any of my Fuji's with the Samyang 12mm were ISO 800-1600, wide open at f2 and anywhere between 13-20 seconds of exposure.
The only difference was I was using my 10-24 f4 last night as it was my first opportunity to do some astro shots with it but I compensated for that by using a 30 second exposure so that shouldn't have affected my results I wouldn't have thought.
 
I've taken some half decent Milky Way shots with my Samyang 12. Keep it wide open (f2)- the lens is plenty sharp enough, so stopping down and ending up with a longer exposure just brings the star trailing problem into play (unless you want trails, but that's a different technique). The limiting factor, as I suspect you're finding, is balancing high ISO noise, the light polution/moisture scattering (unless you can find truly dark skies) and seeing if you can tease the light from the Milky Way out. So keep trying and remember what looks crap on the LCD might have a lot of detail you can bring out in post, so keep everything. Really, as with any astrophotography, reducing light pollution is the factor that makes everything else a thousand times easier! And depending on where you live, you may find you don't have to go far to make a massive improvement.

Bear in mind that if you want to capture the foreground environment well exposed, it's a whole other level of complication. Most of the amazing milky way shots you see in canyons etc are either composite photos, or the tog has used a lighting rig/flash etc.

Also bear in mind that the focus scale on most Samyangs is way off. I spent 20 minutes making an accurate f2 infinity mark on mine. Keep in mind this drifts slightly with aperture and temperature (although with it being 12mm, it's not mega critical).

Don't get tempted to buy into filters, tracking mounts etc at first- you can get good results with a sandbag, camera and lens.
 
philstanbridge said:
So does anyone fancy helping me with a spot of astro/long exposure. I attempted my first series of shots last night, and although diabolical :D I've managed to capture plenty of stars. It was a cold clear night last night, so perfect conditions, although because I was in my back garden there was some light interference too.

Tonight I plan on a quick trip to a darker part of the beach.

Settings wise on my XT3, I'm using the Samyang 12mm in manual. ISO 1600 or anything else :D, F11 or anything else :D and a long exposure of anywhere between 10-30 seconds. I know it's subjective, but is there a general go to for settings? I've been doing a spot of research, and there are lots of opinons, so I've just been playing, but it would be good if I knew what I was doing.
Click to expand...
What aperture is your samyang 12mm?

Use the 500 rule to give you a base line for your exposure settings, so 500/12 = 41 seconds before you start getting trails in your images.

Shoot at the widest aperture possible, try ISO 3200/6400 to begin with and lower until you’re happy.
 
I'm going to try the back garden again soon. I went down the beach earlier to get some sunsets, and they've come out awful. Which is really odd actually. I've also got a water mark or something on the lens which I need to look at. I'm going to use F2, ISO 3200 and 30 seconds.
 
Okay, so I've got a couple of shots from the back garden, there is some street lighting, it's not too bad but I have stars. There's a lot of noise - is that because there is too much light interference? I've kept the corner of the house in the shot for reference. One thing I didn't expect - the stars are all different colours. I think the focus is spot on.

F22, ISO 3200, 30 seconds.

At F2/F2.8, the image at 30 seconds is bright white!

51090495636_e098747cc5_b.jpg
 
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Yep, stars are colourful! At low luminosity the human eye sees mainly in black and white. No such limitations for Fuji! :D

To get the Milky Way you're going to need a lot less light pollution I fear. I'll have to dig into my photos, but from memory I was using 15 seconds ISO 1600 at F2 before it was visible. With your settings you're going to get a few of the most prominent stars, and that's it....
 
Irritatingly, I can't find my XT-3/Samyang Milky Way photos, but here's one from the X-E2 with the Fuji 23mm 25 secs F1.4 3200ISO

wN9rh4eaquf3nohn4f5CYVH6yr-blaIvVtbSK_o2E_QPbGjXpQe3WKnnn2lMiYswAqUOb7RD2djClKBTHm_kSwBmQ45bBjEeqrHb7N2Nk_mXH_gdJhJ9VkoWsbG4tCDwNKIo58q3RPc=w2400
 
Quality thanks. It’s fine about the light I’m actually quite impressed I’ve got a good a picture out the back. I’ll get down to the beach one evening where it’s pretty much pitch black
 
Here’s one I took a few nights ago, a lot of light pollution from my garden as you can imagine living in the city.

I’ll get the settings when I’m at my computer later on.

 
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