robvisual - photography

I recently drove to Fehmarn an island in north Germany at the baltic sea to take some photos and enjoy nature together with a friend. I took my new 100-200m with me. I've ended up with a square photo challenge (the 50r is perfect for this kind of photos). The lens worked like designed. It is still a heavy bulky lens but on the other side there is no tube sticking out of the design and it is weather resistant. For me it is the perfect zoom like my XF 100-200mm I owned before. The OIS works flawless and bear in mind that even on larger sensor it is still a 200mm telephoto lens. You just get a wider portion of the image. In the near future I will invest some money into the teleconverter to get some extra focal length for more compression.

After using this camera for about four weeks I almost get used to the new format. What are the differences compared to a full frame or aps-c camera? The main difference for me is a physical due to the change in sensor size. You have to stop down to higher aperture values to get everything in focus. This leads to higher ISO values to get a decent shutter speed. So if you're coming from the aps-c world, you need to update your shooting routine. Despite this change it opens up a whole new world in working with a shallower depth of field when it comes to portraits etc. This means taking environmental portraits with the 63mm lens at a distance (full body portrait) that has that pop out factor. The quality of the resulting images blew me away. And just to mention it again. The quality of the glass is outstanding. Too less photo fanatics out there are talking about the GF lenses. For your money you get tack sharp lenses (even sharp wide open) that are all weather sealed. Fuji is produ...

The GF50 3.5 is on sale now. Fuji just cut the price in half, making this buy a steal. I bought the lens at my local dealer and had the time take some photos with it. After taking the glass out of the box I noticed how light and small it is in terms of medium format. The build quality is like the 63mm. After screwing it on my GFX50R the lens was ready to shoot. The first thing I noticed is a constant light buzzing noise coming from the lens when the camera is on shooting mode. I've asked Olaf Stzaba who owns the same lens and his lens is behaving the same. The 63mm is totally quiet. I guess it has to do with the linear motor drive inside. With an maximum aperture of 3.5 it this lens can't be considered as a fast lens. For normal street photography at daylight it is fast enough. The image quality is flawless and there are no visible distortions and vignetting (autom. corrected in software anyway). For around 500 bucks this lens is a real bargain. Go and get it. I...

Yesterday I've decided to take my new medium format tool with me and take some photos after work in Hamburg city. In winter times it gets too dark too fast, the perfect setup to test the low light qualities of the camera. The shot on the right was the result of a quick and dirty one second exposure at ISO 100 using a handrail on a bridge as a tripod. The level of detail is stunning and I am curious to reach deeper into the world of many pixels to squeeze out more details. I also discovered that some handheld images can catch a like shake if you can't hold the camera still enough, but the pixel density helps you out when it comes to cropping the whole image down to a smaller format. The resulting image still look tack sharp. The 63mm 2.8 performs well in low light situations. It would be even better if Fuji would have integrated OIS, but even without this technology you can get great results. My plan  is to get some faster lenses in future. There is an adapter for cano...

I've started with the Fuji X100 in 2012 and this was the begin of a long love story with the Fuji brand. After using bulky Nikon cameras for a long time (don't get me wrong, they were great) I had enough and needed a change. I found out that I am more of a street shooter who needs smaller gear that travels with me and the X-series came at the right time to start over with a new smaller mirrorless form factor. And now after more than six years of using Fuji cameras I sold my X100F, X-PRO2 and five lenses to trade them for a GFX50R and the GF 63mm 2.8 via a great camera store in Hamburg that is specialized in selling new and used gear. I was in the lucky position to get an almost unused GFX50R with lens coming back from a professional photo studio because they stepped up to a GFX100. But why did I sold my whole gear for a medium format camera? After being satisfied with my X-PRO2 I decided to challenge myself with a new experience. Medium format is different in terms of p...

A good question. Let us put the price beside and pretend you have enough money to buy every Fuji camera out there. Would you buy the GFX? It has a resolution of 50 megapixels and you can do different shots with a different depth of field and less noise etc. I know that there are some reasons to gain more resolution when it comes to product photography or fashion photography. But keep in mind that you can archive medium format like results for many occasions by using today's panorama algorithms. 35mm f8.0 / 50 megapixels by combining two images free hand - works even with street shots Just think out of the box. Aim your camera at a subject and think about the possibilities in post production. The next image was taken in London at the Barbican Centre (a nice socialist looking urban landscape) and I had my 35mm attached to my XPRO2. A wide angle lens was not at hand and I wanted more resolution so I can crop the images and print it on a larger scale. Barbican Centre London ...