Monday, February 11, 2019

Okay Fuji Shooters, where do you stand on the 50-140mm f2.8 zoom lens. I know it's heavy but is it good?


Let me know if you've used it and what you think. The 50-140mm f2.8 is on sale right now and I'm trying to help bolster the global economy. What's your take?

Gloria, photo taken with the Samsung Galaxy NX camera and the 50mm f2.8 macro. 


I always thought the best portraits came from situations where the photographer and talent had a quiet, private space. Gloria proved me wrong.


In 2013 I was invited to help launch the Samsung Galaxy NX camera at the NYC Photo Expo show. I asked for a bunch of space and a sophisticated lighting set up but what I ended up with was an "open air" 12x10 foot space tacked on to the bigger Samsung booth on the trade show floor at the Javits Center. Provided was a 24 by 36 inch soft box and a smaller, 16x20 soft box. My models were about six feet from the background and I was shooting tethered so the crowd at the booth could see the working (non-post processed/straight out of camera) Jpegs on a couple of 60 inch 4K Samsung TVs. 

As I worked with Gloria I had my back to dozens of photographers at any one time who were attending the Expo and huddling at the booth. They could watch me work, ask me about my settings and see exactly how I interacted with my subject and how goofy I looked while photographing. The trade show floor was noisy and chaotic but we were able to block that out and work just as I would normally work in the studio. 

I even had a headset on so I could narrate as I shot. I've never done that before or since. It was kind of stressful because even the best photographers screw up and make lousy images as they zero in on their settings. Most of us work by shooting and evaluating > changing settings > and then shooting again to see if anything really improved. 

I may be taking too much credit though because Gloria was a cool and calm professional model who was used to big production shoots in The City with lots of crew around her. She helped me to be a better photographer through the two days I spent being a booth novelty. 

It's my contention that the Galaxy NX was the camera that killed Samsung's passion to be in the market. The response, worldwide, to the totally (excessively) connected, big screen camera was so underwhelming that you could probably have heard pin drops in Samsung's marketing meeting around the world. The final Samsung camera, the NX1 was a great camera. Had they waited until the launch of this camera instead of putting a flawed concept camera into the market they'd probably be one of the big three competitors for professional camera sales in the market today. 

The NX1 had a great 28 megapixel sensor, killer 4K video, and was, by all accounts a solid camera. Where the company really shined was in lens development. I shot in the NYC demo with the 85mm f1.4 and the 60mm f2.0 macro and those two lenses were fanstastic; easily the equal to current Fuji, Canon, Nikon or Sony lenses and maybe a few clicks better. 

One thing I did learn in this Expo event was that we could make decent portraits in spite of the cramped space, the sparse lighting gear and a full, noisy audience looking over my shoulder. A fun challenge if you haven't tried it yet.....


Just playing with lenses. Wanted to see if I really liked the Fuji 60mm f2.4. I do.

Ben. In Studio. 

Saturday, February 09, 2019

New acquisition as a result of all the photography equipment I want being on sale... Hello new lens and memory cards.

Fujifilm 16-55mm f2.8. Big, heavy, pricey. But cheaper right now.

Just to put things in perspective, I have two different mid-range zoom lenses for my Panasonic cameras. I vacillate between using the Panasonic/Leica 12-60mm f2.8-4.0 and the (amazing!) Olympus 12-100mm f4.0 Pro lenses. They are each good at what they do and I just can't decide which one needs to stay and which one should go. 

Now I have two standard zoom lenses for the Fuji cameras as well. One is the well regarded "kit" lens and the other is the much vaunted, constant aperture f2.8, 16-55mm version (with a bit more reach on the wide side...). I started out with the 18-55mm f2.8-4.0 lens because it's competent, popular and, when purchased with a camera, well discounted. It's smaller and lighter (obviously) that its faster sibling and it also is equipped with OIS (Fuji's abbreviation for image stabilization). The 16-55mm f2.8, which I bought yesterday, is much bigger, much heavier and.....if you believe the "press" on the web....much sharper and contrastier at most points throughout its range. And, well, it's a constant aperture f2.8. Sadly though, no OIS.

Which to keep and which to send away is a bit more difficult here since two of my four Fuji cameras are bereft of in-body image stabilization and will need to be used lenses that have OIS if I want that feature available on an assignment. In the Panasonic system (GH5, G9s, GH5S) both the Olympus and the Panasonic/Leica lens will provide good image stabilization. On the first three Panasonic cameras the P/L lens will also provide dual image stabilization, using the stabilization methods from both the lens and the body. It's damn good stabilization too. 

With the Fuji XT3 and the Fuji XE3 I need the lenses to provide I.S.. if I require it. 

I'm just getting started with the new 16-55mm for the Fuji and am shooting my first portraits with it in about ten minutes. The casual shooting I've done with it looks great so far. I've been interested in this lens since I first started playing with the Fuji cameras but I was hesitant to drop the cash for one since it is normally priced at about $1200. A lot of Fuji product is on sale this month and the asking price at my favorite retailer was $899 (retail translation = about $900). Since the year has gotten off to a good start I thought I'd let my curiosity dictate my purchasing decision. Curiosity beat caution and here we are.

The 16-55mm is roughly equal (in angles of view) to a 24-85mm lens in the 35mm format. It has a big, fat body and a 77mm front filter size. The construction is something like 17 elements in 11 groups and a good number of the elements are aspherical while another generous portion are ED glass. When you look closely at the lens you'll see that it's beautifully built and a pleasure to use. Build quality, in my opinion, exceeds that of the similar lenses from Nikon, Canon and Sony by a good margin. 

Interlude

I was away from the keyboard for the last hour or so making a nice portrait of a guy named, Kevin, who arrived promptly, was well prepared and very engaging to converse with. Turns out we had a few things in common; his brother is a photographer and Kevin visited Iceland last year. But if you are ever at a loss for conversation with an Austinite you need only mention "traffic on Mopac" and you'll get some sort of response.... Anyway, I'm back and have now used the 16/55mm for a portrait session in the studio. 

On the XH1 camera it did a good job consistently locking focus when using the face/eye detect AF setting. The rest of its performance was just the same as all the other Fuji lenses I've shot with: sharp, contrasty and nicely detailed. I'll try some more engaging scenarios and have a full review of the lens in a while. It sure is big.....and heavy......and very professional looking. The red badge on the lens body is cute. 
They might have been able to do a better job with the lens hood. It's a bit...thin.

So, while I was out at Precision Camera happily hemorrhaging money I also came across some new memory cards; ones I had not yet seen from Delkin. These are called the Delkin "Black" cards. They are UHS-II, V60 SD cards with a write speed of up to 300 MB/s. They are advertised as being "unbreakable", "waterproof and dustproof", "three times stronger than regular SD cards", they have a lifetime warranty with a 48 hour replacement policy, and (ta da!) they have their own, unique serial numbers. 

I'm guessing the call them "black" to riff off the black American Express card which is seen as a status symbol in some circles but I'm also guessing that they made the cards black so we will never find them when they disappear into our black interiors of our camera bags and so they can dodge the liability of having to replace them. 

The last set of 128 GB UHS II V60 cards I bought (about a year and a quarter ago) cost me right at $225 each but these are now $124.99 each. I bought two because I like to use identical SD cards in the cameras that feature two card slots. I imagine it's because I think they'll be better matched and for that reason more reliable. I have no science to back up my conjecture. 

I'm not sure if $124.99 is a sale price or an everyday price but since they are almost half as much money for more features than the cards I bought from them last year I am definitely considering them to be virtually on sale. The XH1 camera likes these cards. The camera smiled and winked at me when I loaded them in and formatted them. Nice. 

I now have six 128 GB SDXC UHSII cards and I think, for the time being, that will keep me well situated even for the longer video assignments. tip: Never format a camera memory card in your computer or allow your computer to erase all the files on a card after downloading. Always format your cards in camera and you will be almost painfully happy with your lack of technical card issues. Follow this advice to the letter and you may even find that you can use cameras with only a single card slot....really!

Someone asked me if the fast UHSII cards are worth it. First, if you are shooting 4K video with high data rates you'll need them to prevent shooting issues. Second, if you are using them in cameras that are UHSII compliant you'll notice much faster buffer clearing. Third, if you are using a UHSII, USB 3.01 card reader you'll marvel at how quickly your files download into your computer. Three good reasons to make sure you are buying modern, decent cards. 

A few more photography notes; especially for Fuji camera users: Fuji now has a firmware update available for the XH-1. It prevents some occurrences where the camera exposures become unexpectedly brighter. I haven't seen this effect but am happy to prevent it, proactively. It's a recommended update. 

Fuji also has a firmware update for the XT3 cameras. The update is similar to one made for the XH1 back in January. It allows the camera to right continuous video files to SD cards 64 GB or larger. Previously the cameras wrote video files in 4 GB chunks which didn't affect the final products but required shooters to speed more time in video post production to string all the needed files together on longer projects. The update also fixes some unspecified, general camera bugs. Joy. 

I've updated two XH1 cameras and one XT3 cameras and all are working well. No update glitches I've discovered. 


Finally, and apropos of nothing important, I got some push back on my advice that everyone exercise as much and as vigorously as is safe and possible. Several people told me that they didn't have any time in which to exercise. None at all. I asked each person why. Some said their workday was too long. I suggested they quit their jobs and just walk full time until they were in perfect shape. I also suggested that they disconnect their cable TV (never had it, never will) and walk away from their programming addiction. I also suggested to one person, after learning that he "LOVES" to watch sports on TV that he substitute long runs in the place of broadcast football, basketball, baseball, snooker etc. programming. 
He was appalled. In one fell swoop I seem to have lost four or five VSL readers..... 

( I felt embarrassed for them and did not post their comments). 

I felt so badly about this that I headed to swim practice a bit early today so I could get in some extra yards. It was another freezing cold day but we had a full pool of mostly the same faces I see the majority of mornings at 7:00am. All in great shape, all dedicated to the 1.5 hour Saturday swim and all able keep their desire for watching golf and bowling on TV in check. (That last bit about golf and bowling was meant to be a joke. If people are actually spending time watching that instead of doing their own exercise then we just are on such different wavelengths that perhaps nothing I write here would make sense to them. Nothing). After swim practice a small group met for coffee. We talked about training theories and stroke efficiency. It was sublime. 

Dammit. I forgot the ads and links again. Oh well...

Friday, February 08, 2019

This afternoon's swim. Also, the commitment to staying in good health via exercise is not a "new year's" resolution but should be a decade by decade promise to oneself.

Warm ups at the master's nationals indoor swim meet at
the Jake Jamail Swim Center at UT Austin.
Ahhh, the luxury of an indoor pool.

I can't shake the image of a bunch of fifty and sixty year old men moving from debating about various cameras to debating the relative "charms" of an exercise treadmill. I think a whole bunch of people either spent too much of their lives chained to desks or they were too easy on themselves, underestimating how much good work a body can do and how invigorating and renewing (physically and spiritully) pushing one's fitness boundaries can be. I'm not suggesting that anyone who has been relatively dormant for decades at a time rush over to a pool and pound out a quick couple of miles in the next hour but I'm very much in favor of people pushing themselves enough to get out of their comfort zones for an hour a day. 

It was cold in Austin today. We woke up to temperatures under the freezing mark and scattered sleet showers. The wind gusted from time to time and the wetness of the day made it feel chillier than the mercury might suggest. A good day to make a cup of tea and hew to the easy chair to leaf through some books about landscape photography from the 1950's? Not on your life.

I worked in the studio until about 11:30 am. The place was in desperate need of a cleaning and with people coming in tomorrow for portraits I had already pushed my self-imposed deadline. With the last bit of vacuuming done I hopped in the new Subaru and headed out to the pool. I left a bit early so I could drop a check by my bank and then some letters to the post office. I got to the (outdoor) pool at ten minutes till noon and changed in the locker room. 

When I left the locker room the sleet was coming down hard and pelting me in the face. The sleet was also starting to stick to the cold ground. I looked ahead and thought I could see the first little icicles forming on the horizontal bars of the lifeguard's chair. When you are wearing a swim cap, a swim suit and a pair of goggles a sub-freezing temperature and biting windchill factor is ........ bracing. I didn't stop on the deck to chat with my fellow swimmers; we just jumped right into our respective lanes, did a quick couple of hundred yards to get warm and then read the workout that was written on the white board at the end of the pool. 

There was a thousand yard warm up followed by 12x100 yard swims on 1:30, alternating I.M.'s (individual medley = fly, back, breast, free) and fast freestyle. After that was a set of 12x75 yard swims alternating between one's best (or favorite) stroke and freestyle. After the two sets we had the option to warm down with a two or three hundred yard swim. So, about 3300 yards. 

During the middle of the workout the sleet storm went bonkers and ice pellets started piling up on the roof of the main building and all over the grounds. The swimmers laughed, plunged under the surface of the 80 degree water and then popped up and kept swimming. A little sleet is hardly anything to worry about. Now hail would be a completely different story. 

By one we'd finished with our midday swim and were heading to the locker room to change back into our street clothes. But I can still see the little drops that popped up an inch or so above the steaming surface of the pool each time a piece of sleet struck the surface. It was fun and kinetic magic. 

We swam a hard enough set and got in nearly two miles of swimming over the lunch hour. But this wasn't a "new years resolution" swim for any of us. It was another swim on a massive foundation of previous swims. An almost daily routine for the past 56 years (I started swimming in a year round club at six). It helps keep me right at 158 pounds, keeps my blood pressure and heart rate slow, keeps my joints and muscles happy and improves my general attitude by 1,000 %. It seems like a tremendous advantage to me. Not something I have to sell to myself. 

In a small business, as in staying in good physical shape, the key ingredient is the discipline to show up and do the work. If you do that everything else falls into place. 

So, what's the real cost of swimming in a six days a week, masters swim program? About $50 bucks for a Speedo Jammer Endurance swim suit and a pair of goggles. If you're good to yourself you'll refresh those basics every year. Then there's the $90 per month dues. That's a total of $1,170. per year. 

We have workouts that fit most people's schedules: 7-8:15 am, 8:15-9:30 and Noon to 1pm on weekdays and then 7:30 am - 8:30 and 8:30 - 10:00 on Saturdays and Sundays. You can choose one per day or come to all of them, the financial cost is the same. 

But focusing on one exercise exclusively is not the most productive way to go. I also try to run a five mile trail course a couple times a week and then walk through our downtown area with cameras two days a week. My idea of hell? Sitting at a desk and staring at my computer for eight to ten hours a day. 

63 is the new 25. You just have to reset your brain to accommodate for the bad habits of the past. Just about any medical problem you want to bore me with (bad backs, sore necks, insomnia, anxiety) might just be curable with enough exercise. But it starts with commitment. You have to want to make your life better. And who wouldn't?

How good is the Eterna Profile in the Fuji XT3? I thought I'd try it out and see.


There's a profile in the Fuji XT3 that's called Eterna. It's intended for use as a "straight-out-of-camera" solution for video shooters who don't have the luxury of shooting in a flatter, Log profile and then spending time in post production to color grade the resulting files. It's a flat profile but not in an unattractive way. I decided to see if it was a useable solution for two different shooting situations I encounter; shooting high contrast interiors (usually in a commercial facility) and also making portraits on bright locations. The test shot I am looking at today is from a quick, handheld interior test.

I was in the JW Marriott Hotel on Congress Ave. with my Fuji XT3 and the XF 14mm f2.8 lens and I walked into a room that had floor to ceiling windows on one side which gave me a view of several downtown office buildings; two in full sun and one (on the right side of the frame) that was in full shade.

The interior was unlit as the room was not being used. To add to the wide dynamic range of the scene the window supports were brushed aluminum with bright highlights. I switched the camera profile to Eterna and, with the camera set on "fine, jpeg" I proceeded to do a three stop bracket. When I got back to the office I opened the file I thought had the best histogram and took a look.

My take was that this profile did a good job maintaining color saturation while giving me a more expansive range of shadow detail (see the shadows of the chair on the table in the foreground or the carpet detail in the far corner) while preserving the highlights in the uprights between the window glass.  Given the correct, full daylight exposure on the building mid-frame I think this is a very good result.

I would not hesitate to use the Eterna profile in any overly contrasty situation. With a few tweaks to the midrange contrast I get images that seem well balanced and keep me from having to resort to less elegant "tricks" like in-camera HDR.

Next time around I'll show you how well it works in portrait settings.


Thursday, February 07, 2019

Reconsidering the Fuji XE-3. Bought as an emergency back up camera but winning me over as a general "walk around" tool.

I think my writing will be conceptually blurry today because I spent the first five waking hours at jury duty. No big murder case. No industrial treachery. Just a couple of people in civil court with their respective attorneys trying to convince the six person jury whether or not the plaintiff should have her (very inexpensive) medical expenses and lost work time paid for by the defendant.

It's interesting to come out of my comfortable cocoon to see what the real world feels like. It's not nearly as glamorous out there as I wish it was... I can't believe the jury worked for nearly five hours with nary an offer of a cappuccino or some fresh croissant. Call me spoiled but when the attorneys are getting paid, as are the judge and his staff, I think it's a bit much to ask taxpaying citizens to drop everything, rush to the courts and decide the futures of our fellow persons in exchange for nothing more than $10 from the state of Texas. Really? Would it take much effort for them to at least buy a nice coffee making apparatus for the jury? I don't think so...

But, as some bitchy reader out in the webspace instructed me to stop talking about anything not directly related to photography I guess we won't go into any more detail about the care and feeding of the people ensnared in the production and delivery of justice.  To the reader who "suggested" that I get back to writing just about photography I say, "Have A Nice Day."  

Housekeeping. See below for our standard policy on you directing my writing. It comes from the footer of the comments section:

Comments. If you disagree do so civilly. Be nice or see your comments fly into the void. Anonymous posters are not given special privileges or dispensation. If technology alone requires you to be anonymous your comments will likely pass through moderation if you "sign" them. A new note: Don't tell me how to write or how to blog!

Now, on to the topic of the day; that cute little APS-C camera from Fuji; the XE-3. 


Last fall I made the "mistake" of buying a Fuji XT-3. I say mistake because I liked the files I got from that camera and wanted to bring it along and incorporate it into a project that was already in progress. But I have a and hard and fast rule about not going on assignment without a back up camera that will take the same lenses. Even better, the same accessories and batteries. 

I trudged back to the camera store to spend more money that I really didn't want to spend and opted for what I thought would be only a dire emergency back-up camera, the XE-3. It had a very similar menu, the same battery and everything else that would make it a functional reserve camera so all the boxes were checked and it rode up mountain roads and into rough weather with us, unused until the end of the year. During the holidays I was looking for a camera that was small and light and unobtrusive enough to take everywhere and I rediscovered this one in the side pocket of one of the camera bags.

So, what is it? The XE-3 is a small, light, rangefinder-styled APS-C camera that trades a bit of functionality for a diminutive overall package. The camera uses the same 24 megapixel sensor you'll find in Fuji's XT-2 or the X-Pro-2. From what I can get in my research it also has the same imaging hardware as the bigger cameras in the Fuji family. You still get the exterior dials for shutter speeds and exposure compensation and you still get to control aperture via the ring around the front of the lens. You just get to do this with a camera that has a fixed rear LCD (the anti-blogger-cam) and a usable but fairly pedestrian EVF. That's pretty much it. 

If you are truly a minimalist and looking for the highest imaging performance in the smallest and simplest package (and one that's not too menu driven) then this camera, or one like it should be on your list of camera to evaluate. While it's a bit small for a heavy duty user camera (and I say this only because a camera this small is harder to hold at times) it absolutely disappears at the end of the camera strap; in a good way. 

There are a few indications that this is not meant to be your "flagship" camera, such as the top manually settable shutter speed is 1/4000th of a second, and the top flash sync speed of 1/180th of a second. The EVF is also a bit small and allows too much ambient light to interfere with comfortable viewing on bright days. The flip side is that, when used with the best Fuji lenses, the image quality is just as good as all the current higher end cameras. Well, maybe the XT3 is a bit better but if it is it's not by much. 

I started taking this camera out for walks in late December and have paired it with a number of different lenses. My favorite Fuji lens on this one is the Fuji XF 23mm f2.0. It gives me all the automation  needed and matches the camera for size and low weight. But the most fun for me is pairing the camera with the new generation of inexpensive but ridiculously fast-apertured, manual focus lenses that mostly come to us from China and Korea.

In the image above the camera is sporting the 7Artisans 35mm f1.2 lens and it makes for a nimble package. Since there is no in body image stabilization in the camera (or lens) there's no reason to set things like a focal length in the menu. I turn on the focus peaking and, when I really care if something is OCD sharp I use the back dial up near the top right of the camera to punch in to maximum magnification. In that mode it's pretty obvious when you get focusing just right. 

Another favorite is the 7Artisans 55mm f1.4. It's actually a good performer once we leave the maximum aperture and venture into the more useful ranges. But please note, while I have weird and cheap 25mm, 35mm, 50mm (Kamlan) and 55mm lenses that remind me of my misspent youth with Leica rangefinder lenses I am rational enough to have the Fuji XF AF 23mm, 35mm, 50mm and longer auto focus, auto everything lenses for those times when it's time to stop experimenting, and playing around, and I have to actually deliver results of which I know clients will approve. 

It's nice for all of us artistes to pooh-pooh sharpness with a Cartier-Bressonian dismissal when we notice that the corners of the images we're taking with the cheap, junk lenses aren't as sharp as we thought they'd be but when the petite bourgeoise are actually the ones writing the checks then corner sharpness may become much more valuable than manifesto.

The camera is small and light. Purists will hate that the SD card lives in with the battery. Fuji users will love that they camera's battery is the same as the battery in most of the rest of Fuji's serious cameras. Impatient users like myself will grouse about the start movie function being rudely hidden in the drive menu. Fuji lovers will continue to love the color and tonality of the files. 

If you want to join the ranks of indecisive camera owners with your own Leica M4 substitute you can pick up a new body at one of the usual camera stores for around $700. If previous gens are any indication then this is a body style that depreciates like all hell so if you're a cheap bastard just wait until the XE5 comes out and go to town in the used market. No predictions on how long you'll have to wait for that one. 

One more vital point: the camera fits with much room to spare in the center console of my new Forester automobile. And.....Subaru and Fujifilm are both owned by the same corporate conglomerate. Isn't that weird coincidence?