I have been lucky enough to be using a prototype of the XF16mm F1.4 since March and I have to say it is brilliant. I wasn’t entirely sure what I’d end up using it for, but as it turns out it is an extremely flexible lens and helped to produce some shots that would otherwise have not been possible.
This particular story has a bit of an unusual beginning. The location is the Kinabatangan River, Sabah, Malaysia, I was in this region with another photographer, Christian Loader from Scubazoo who I’m currently doing some work with. I have to thank Christian for some of the photos of me here. One morning, we headed up river briefly as our guide Osmon wanted to show us something he had spotted the previous night. We slowed underneath some low lying branches. Before I knew what had happened we had come across a relatively young python and… it fell in the boat! At which point I almost jumped out, much to the amusement of the other two who have handled snakes extensively before. The snake then decided to snuggle up to my Millican Dave camera bag! They calmly caught it and we relocated it inside the forest on a nice tree branch, in return it kindly sat still allowing us to take some pictures.
The close focusing capabilities of this lens really impressed me and allowed me to get some really close wide-angle shots, allowing me to fill the frame with the python and to also capture the environment.
I used the X-T1 with the XF16mm F1.4 attached as well as a Nissin i40 flash I used a rogue flash bender. But because this would involve getting very close to the snake I decided to put the camera on a monopod and used a wireless trigger set up to keep me working at a safe distance. To stress, the snake was absolutely fine and did not once try and strike the set up. The angled screen on the X-T1 was very helpful here as it meant that I could see exactly what was in the frame, regardless of slight angle changes to composition.
Here is the set up. Please excuse the ‘jungle hat’!
Because I was using the i40 flash in TTL mode, I couldn’t shoot above 1/180sec so I had to stop down to F8 for much of the photos. The location was very dark and flat as the vast majority of the tropical sunlight is absorbed by the canopy above. Thankfully the XF16mm seems to have very quick and accurate autofocus, even in these less than ideal conditions.
In an up and coming blog I’ll show the benefit of the F1.4 aperture when photographing Pygmy Elephants.
What an exciting week that was. We were at The Photography Show 2015 at the NEC from Saturday 21st to Tuesday 24th and it was a ROARING success. This is my first opportunity to sit down and write up a review of the show from our perspective. I hope it helps you get a feel for the show if you didn’t attend yourself, or brings back warm memories if you did.
Doors open…
The Fujifilm stand
…or “booth” if you’re from that side of the Atlantic. We had a big stand this year – about twice the size as last year – and even still we found it packed to the rafters most of the time.
Touch and Try
Everyone wants to get their hands on the latest cameras and lenses and the Touch and Try camera bar allowed people to do just that. Our staff worked extremely hard to answers all the questions thrown at them from the show visitors.
Visitors getting their hands on Fujifilm camerasOur Dale talking about the X-T1Something to point your camera at…
Camera loans
We know that there’s nothing quite like using a camera to get a real feel for it so we wanted to offer people the chance to test-drive Fujifilm X-T1 cameras plus various lenses for the whole day. Our free loan service allowed people to do just that and went down a storm.
Quick Maintenance Service
And it’s not only the new customers we were helping out. We were also running a free Quick Maintenance Service which allowed people to drop off their Fujifilm cameras and lenses for a sensor clean, quick MOT and to also have the latest firmware installed.
A Fujifilm camera getting some TLC
X-Photographer Gallery
All around our stand we were showing some amazing images taken by professional photographers that use Fujifilm equipment. Take a look at the gallery below:
Fujifilm Photowalk
On Saturday evening we took to the streets of Birmingham for a Street Photowalk with Matt Hart leading the way. We met up in Victoria Square and Matt shared a few of the tips he mentioned in his talk earlier that day before setting off to try to put some of the techniques into action. It was a great experience and was fantastic to meet so many people to talk to along the way.
You can see some other blog posts about the event here:
To me, the talks are one of the parts of the show that really make it a great place for visitors. Lots of different photographers from lots of different backgrounds, all under one roof and sharing their own experiences, tips, hints and advice about the widest variety of photographic subjects. We were able to invite a few of our ambassadors to come to the show and pass on their thoughts to visitors.
Here is a bit about each of the Fujifilm X-Photographers. We also recorded the talks and will publish them soon.
Matt Hart – Street Photography
Matt was on the Streetscape stage on Saturday and Sunday. He has been a professional photographer for many years and still likes to shoot film. He runs workshops and hosts talks and training to help people become better reportage-street photographers. In his presentation, Matt gave lots of helpful advice and techniques for shooting street photography. He talked about the distinction between “Street photography” and “Street portraiture” and believes that true street photography involves images captured without the subject being aware.
Bert is a commercial portrait photographer from Belgium. He believes that photographers need to limit the barrier between them and their subjects and part of doing this is to have smaller gear. Bert gave a brief talk about his own style of photography, what he used to be like and what he tries to be like now, before then doing a live portrait shoot on stage. On Monday he was shooting the lovely Hannah from Fuji and on Tuesday the equally lovely Jeannie (also from Fuji).
Bert Stephani talking on The Live Stage to a huge audienceBert Stephani live demo shooting the lovely Hannah from Fujifilm UKHannah from Fujifilm UK, shot by Bert live on stageBert likes to use whatever (and whoever) he can to block out disturbing coloured lights. From left to right, Kevin Mullins, Hannah from Fuji and me
Kevin is a professional wedding photography from Wiltshere. His style is very much reportage. He wants to provide his clients a “guest’s eye view” of their happy day capturing images that shows the real human events that take place at every wedding. In Kevin’s talk he focused on the importance of identifying potential moments and ensuring he can be in the right place to capture them without disturbing them.
Behind the Lens talk with Kevin MullinsKevin MullinsPacked house. Lots of people wanted to hear what Kevin had to say
Paul Sanders is a professional landscape photographer from Kent. His talk is about the way he used landscape photography as a form of therapy to help deal with his own personal emotional issues. It was very deep, personal and inspirational and it’s hard for me to give it any justice here in form of a brief text description. Check back for the video which we will upload soon.
As my camera was being used to shoot the video footage, here ars some lovely images by Anthony Upton who was also at the talk.
Don’t forget to follow this blog as we’ll use it to let you know when the videos of all of the talks will be online.
Until next year?
It really was a great few days and the best part is always getting the opportunity to meet so many photographers from keen enthusiasts right through to full-time working professionals. The Photography Show organisers have confirmed next year’s dates already – 19th-22nd March 2016. We hope to see you there!
The best thing about the CP+ show last month was getting access to people I wouldn’t normally have access to. One individual I was particularly excited about meeting and interviewing was Mr Soga – the man behind arguably the best part of the Fujifilm X system – the lenses.
We spoke about the new XF16-55mmF2.8 lens, as well as the roadmap update that was announced on the 10th February 2015. Here’s how the interview went:
Could you tell us what your job covers generally?
I am in charge of the lens product brand.
Ok, so are you responsible for the lens roadmap in general and final signoff to which lenses are added?
Yes, I am.
Starting with the newest lens to hit the streets, what was the overall goal when creating the XF16-55mm lens?
Our goal was simply to achieve the best image quality possible.
The cross section of the XF16-55mmF2.8
And what sort of photographer would you see using this lens?
The main images we expect to see shot with this lens are landscapes, portraits and fashion images.
Is there a specific reason why the lens does not have optical image stabilisation (OIS)?
Yes, there is a trade off relationship between OIS and image quality.
Lens shift caused by OIS can sometimes be seen in this focal length, 24mm-84mm (35mm equiv.). Since we aimed to develop our best flapship zoom, we have prioritised image quality and decided not to employ OIS for this lens.
Edit: added more information
OIS needs to move the lens inside to compensate for camera shake and as a result can cause loss of resolution in the edges of the image.
In long zoom lens such as the XF50-140mmF2.8, the angle of view is narrow enough to not show this negative effect of OIS in the edges.
However, the angle of view of the XF16-55mm, when set to the widest setting, is large enough for OIS to affect resolution at the edge of the image.
Considering this trade-off, because we wanted this zoom lens to start wide at 16mm and F2.8, and we wanted to best edge-to-edge quality throughout the entire zoom range, we decided to not employ OIS.
A question I’ve been asked a lot: was there a reason for the focal length overlap between the XF16-55mm and the XF50-140mm lenses?
We planned this product to be very useful lens for both landscape shooting and portrait shooting. 24mm (35mm equiv.) is good for landscape shooting. 84mm (35mm equiv.) is good for portrait shooting. We consider to include both focal length when developed.
Moving on to the products in the recent roadmap update, this new XF35mm F2 is a very interesting product. Is it aimed as a step up lens for an XC zoom user or would this be for the high-end Street & Reportage photographers?
This lens is aimed towards the professional or serious amateur photographer that wants to increase the mobility and speed of their photography. With the original XF35mm f1.4 lens, its speed was not as efficient due to its many lens elements moving together.
So this new lens would have increased focusing speed?
Yes that’s correct. We wanted to make a lens that could be the next step for a photographer who already knows and loves the quality of the XF lenses. We think of this lens as a mobility lens due to its clever design.
The new XF35mmF2 will be smaller and lighter than the XF35mmF1.4. It will also have faster auto focus due to there being fewer moving lens elements inside
I understand that the newly announced XF1.4x tele-converter is not compatible with all of the existing lenses. Is there a reason for this?
Due the ergonomics of the converter, it physically will not allow other lenses to attach.
The design of the XF1.4 X TC means that it will only fit on lenses that have enough space between the converter and the rear lens elements
Are there plans to create other sizes? For example a 1.6x or 2x?
This is very much a possibility, we may create a 2x converter in the future although this has not been confirmed.
Do you know what the aperture options are for the XF100-400mm?
Want a small, powerful camera that has features you actually want to use? The XQ1 might just be what you’re looking for.
Like many of you, I have my main camera (X-E2) that I use day in, day out. I know it like the back of my hand and could use it with my eyes closed – if you get my drift. The problem is, sometimes I just don’t want to carry a bag around – no matter how small it is. I want a pocket sized camera that I can forget about until the need takes me. Here’s the catch though, I don’t want a pocket sized camera that offers no control and is very noisy in low-light. This is where I think the XQ1 really shines, it just seems to tick all those boxes:
Pocket-sized
Manual control
High quality images, even at high ISO.
Being so used to my X-E2, I thought it would be a good challenge to use the little XQ1 for my day out to London. Not only that, but I could rid myself of the bag that I’m always carrying about, which was super!
So, like you do when you love photography & adventure, I starting taking pictures. I took the usual suspects at first; trains, train station & people randomly wandering about their business.
One of the first reasons I would class this as a photographers compact camera is simply that you can change the focus point manually. This is something I do ALL the time on my X-E2 to aid with my composition. With other compact cameras I have used, you either cannot set it or it’s not easy to access.
For our day out we headed to the Natural History Museum, this was a great location to test the ISO performance. Looking back at the photos there is clearly some noise & grain, but it has a very film-like quality to it that I think adds to the atmosphere of the shots.
Another point to make about this camera as I discovered on the day, was how quick it turned on. Now this may not seem life changing, but when you are with a bunch of friends that don’t do photography and want to move on to the next exhibit, speed is everything. It made many shots possible that may have otherwise been lost. This also translates well into styles like street photography – you see someone or something interesting and you need the camera to be ready immediately to capture it.
QUICK TIP: For ease of access, I kept the camera inside my inner jacket pocket (blazer style). With that, I pretty much never missed an opportunity to shoot what I wanted – no fumbling in bags, jean pockets etc.
Due to the size of this camera, it really is super discrete. I could get those moments that I may not have been brave enough to shoot with other cameras, with even my X-E2.
And when all is said and done, it takes a great dinner party picture!
I think for many photographers using DSLR’s or Mirrorless cameras, you get very accustomed with a level of quality to expect and because of this, many wouldn’t dream of downsizing to a compact camera. But, as hopefully shown in this blog, the XQ1 makes an exception to this. It shows that you can still be creative, still get excellent quality images and at at a size that literally allows you to take it anywhere with ease.
Any questions? Drop us a comment below – and yes, I cannot wait to try out the latest model, the XQ2 🙂 [WATCH THIS SPACE…]
I was lucky enough to receive the TCL-X100 for Christmas and have barely had it off my X100s since. My beloved X100s goes with me everywhere and this is why it is probably my favourite camera. Though the TCL does make it far less ‘pocketable’, it doesn’t detract from the enjoyable shooting experience. The jump from 35mm to 50mm equiv. doesn’t sound like much but it does change how you shoot with this camera. It is definitely better for portraits, where the narrower angle of view helps to isolate a subject.
This isn’t the best example, but if this was taken without the TCL then you would see a lot more of the barn, which might distract from the dog. For some reason I seem to have used lots of dog pictures as examples!
In terms of how this affects image quality and auto focus, I haven’t really noticed any difference, the images are still coming out wonderfully and auto focus doesn’t seem to have been affected in real world situations.
What is nice about this converter is that it is so simple, no electronics, just a well made metal barrel filled with beautiful glass. This is nice as it doesn’t add anymore complexity to X100 series shooting, which is so wonderfully simple and intuitive. Combined with the WCL-X100, this gives you a lens set up option of 28mm, 35mm or 50mm equiv. focal length, giving this little package a whole lot of usage options.
Though the original joy of the X100 series is that it is a fixed lens, the ability to simply screw on an adapter for a wider or narrower lens option makes this a really flexible set up.
The XF35mm F1.4 is a gorgeous lens but the benefit of using the TCL-X100 over the 35mm for portraits, especially using lights, is the leaf shutter which gives me flash syncing up to 1/1000 second! Yes I lose a stop from F1.4-F2, but generally for low light situations when working I would have the XF23mm F1.4 and the XF56mm F1.2 because they are wonderfully fast and sharp. I’m sure there are people who will still prefer the XF35mm F1.4 over this converter but for me it is going to replace it.
Have you had a go with the TCL-X100? If so then let us know what you think of it. Any questions please don’t hesitate to ask.
Issue 8 of the Fujifilm X Magazine is now available to 
What to shoot
Exhibition
Master the X-series
