I got the Fujifilm GFX50Sii with one lens. It was the 50mm f3.5. It's a really great lens. So far I like every photograph I've made with it. Well, I mean I like the technical qualities of the lens but maybe not always the subject matter. But so many readers and friends emailed me after finding out that I'd stuck a whole foot back into the Fuji camp to tell me just "how great" and "what a bargain" the "kit" lens was that I just felt dumb not acquiring it immediately. Turns out that my friends were right. It's a fine lens. Even though it's slow it's very sharp and seems perfectly corrected. No stumbles on focusing and no artifacts that I have to work around.
Much as I like futzing around with cheap, all manual lenses I have to admit that it's nice to have lenses that autofocus and can be used with all the autoexposure programs on one's camera. For outside use, on a bright, sunny day with a visibility of 28 miles, I'm using f8.0 as my go to aperture. That's nice and sharp. The first image (top) was shot at f11. That's sharp as well.
The 35-70 is a collapsible lens; it trumpets trombones in. That makes it smaller for times when you want to dump the whole rig into a camera bag. There's a big warning on the LCD reminding you to extend the lens when you turn on the camera. There's not much else to say about it in particular but I do have one thought about "testing" short range zoom lenses.
It's this. There is a psychological tendency (at least in my brain) to shoot images at both the widest zoom setting and the tightest zoom setting, of the same subject, to see if one angle of view works better than the other. Kinda dumb since I already can see that I have a preference for the middle ground. But as you look through these pix you'll find some "sets" of images shot from the same spot but with one at the wide angle setting and one at the telephoto setting (if you can call 50mm 'telephoto'.").
These images were submitted via email the Tate Gallery and the Museum of Modern Art. They were roundly rejected. But at least the MOMA sent a nice note along with their 'cease and desist" notice. They said, "Only William Eggleston and Stephen Shore can send us boring test shots and expect to get this kind of banal stuff exhibited. But we admire your courage in actually sending along this crap...." The note was unsigned. Oh well. I gave it a shot. I'll see how it does on YouTube....
35
50
Happy Aspect Ratio. Happy focal length.
Some day in the future someone will think this is an interesting relic of the late 2010s.
35
50
a shutter speed fast enough to stop a fast moving passenger train.
But the train was actually standing still....
All images are straight out of camera jpegs.
Nothing fancy here.
After endless hours of deliberation I've decided to keep the lens.
Not sure if the lens trumpets or not, but it definitely trombones :)
ReplyDeleteThat bottom picture really stinks:-}
ReplyDeletePlease stop harassing MOMA and the Tate, you're just messing things up for the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteit's Yasufumi Nakamori at tate modern for photography, he worked at an american museum or two before this
ReplyDelete