Walking with a purpose. Seeing what I can expect from a GFX 50mm f3.5 lens for the GFX 50Sii camera. For a good reason.

 

One might wonder why I go out on long, repetitive walks and photograph all kinds of familiar and unfamiliar subject matter during all times of the year. I always have some different lens or camera body in tow. The basic idea is that it's a process that gives me the opportunity to test new gear, reacquaint myself with gear I've owned for a while but have not used lately and to separate truth from myth or unsubstantiated opinions about the equipment that I might want to use on paying jobs for commercial photography clients. Will a lens resolve well at f3.5? How does it look at f16? Where does diffraction kick in? Does diffraction really make a huge difference? Are the controls comfortable to use? Does a lens "ride well" on a particular camera? Do I have a fluid knowledge of where all the controls are on the exterior of a given camera? Can I find a much needed control setting in the menu of a camera that is new to me? Or on a camera that I've haven't used in months?

For a person who makes a living from blogging, or for the hobbyists whose only downside in not being able to deliver the goods is personal dissatisfaction, the performance over time  of one piece of gear or another is not a huge speed bump. A huge proportion of my readership here, and the readership on most photography fora or other blogs, are not using their cameras in order to do an imaging business or to make money. They pursue photography for fun, for their satisfaction, as a delightful way to spend time. 

I get that since my hobby is also photography but, as I remind a number of my friends who've long since given up working real jobs, I'm still actively working at the profession of photography as well and my clients depend on me to know my gear and to know how to use it...well. I never want to find out while on a job that a certain lens just isn't capable of delivering. 

In order to get current and stay current with the gear I combine a quiet, walking meditation (no fellow walkers, no phone, no conversations) with a thorough dive into one camera and one lens at a time. I've never wanted to take a bag of lenses with me and methodically shoot each one while aiming at a brick wall. I want to do deeper dives on one piece at a time. Change too many variables and you just get confused. 

I tested the GFX 35-70mm zoom lens over the course of the last several weeks and found it to be very, very good. That gave me the confidence to use it on our shoot last Thursday at the Capitol Area Food Bank. We got a lot of good work done there and the art director, having gone through the final files, feels that the images will do an excellent job when sized up for large truck "wraps." But I would not have proposed using that lens if I wasn't familiar with it. If I had not tested it. If I had not worked through its profiles in Lightroom and Photoshop. 

We have an even bigger job coming up on the 6th and 7th of September. I'll be working with a video crew on two days doing behind the scenes photographs, portraits on set, food photography and maybe even a bit of "b-roll." The cameras that will get the lion's share of use will be the two Leica SLs and the Leica SL2, along with the Q2 for quick grab shots. I'll lean heavily on the Leica 24-90mm zoom and a 50mm APO Summicron but I wanted to do any hero shots of plated food with the Fuji GFX and two different lenses. The 50mm f3.5, which I have. And the 45-100mm f4.0 GFX lens I've ordered. 

Today seemed like a good day to get up to speed with the 50mm, which is like a 40mm on the MF camera. Even a bit longer if you constrain the frame to a square aspect ratio. I'll test the new zoom when it gets here early next week. 

I headed downtown around 9 a.m. It was still in the upper 80's. I walked a slightly different route of about three miles. Instead of going through the middle of downtown I went across the pedestrian bridge that divides north and south Austin, headed east on the Hike and Bike Trail then wended my way around.

The 50mm f3.5 lens is the smallest and lightest of the Fuji MF lenses and I wanted to make sure it at least matched the optical quality I've been getting out of the 35-70mm lens. I shot the 50mm all morning long and at f-stops from 3.5 to f22. I photographed things close up and things far away. All in all it's a great lens and very nice to use. If you stick with medium apertures (f5.6 to f16) and keep the shutter speeds at appropriate settings you'll walk away with tremendously detailed images. And the lens is very neutral in its color rendering. 

I chose to photograph in the square format today; just to make things more interesting for me. I like working in the square and this is the first digital camera I've used that makes generating 38 megapixel, 1:1 files easy and with a natural operational feel. 

If you click on the images you can see them bigger. They start life as 6000+ X 6000+ files and I drop down the resolution to 3200 by 3200 for Blogger. 

I have become much more conversant with the 50S camera. There are some things in the menu which could have been grouped more effectively but it's just a matter of memorizing where the important stuff sits. Really, when you think about it, after you have a camera set up for the way you like to shoot there are only a small number of additional tweaks you might need to make for different kinds of jobs....

I now have four batteries for the camera so I'm confident of getting through a full day of commercial shooting with this supply. On BTS shoots, and as the still photographer on a video production, you can anticipate shooting at least 1,000 shots per day. Batteries become critical.

That's all for now. Today and tomorrow are supposed to be miserably hot and then, all next week, the prediction for our zip code is all days under 100 degrees. It will seem almost like the coming of Fall.

Texas Grass Tanning. This property still has a ways to go. I see patches of green on the ground to the bottom left of the frame...

Window Art at Mañana Coffee. 

the downtown, Saturday morning, Farmer's Market. At Republic Square. 

the downtown, Saturday morning, Farmer's Market. At Republic Square. 

Stephen Shore-ing my way through life.

The Lamar Boulevard Bridge. From the Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge.

Looking West in the morning.

Testing gear is a tradition I don't want to give up. We use most of the gear I write about here on jobs. The jobs vary so the gear varies. Sometimes I switch gear around just to keep things interesting. 

Seriously considering looking at one more camera. The Hasselblad X1D2. On sale right now. Everyone raves about how great the color science of that camera is.... maybe? We'll see.