robvisual - photography

  I did it. After selling my whole Fuji rig last year in trade for a GFX50r combined with the 62mm 2.8 it was followed by the 50mm 3.5 and now the 100-200mm 5.6. Without a telephoto lens something is missing for me. Sometimes you need the compression and the depth of field provided by such a lens for portraits, architecture, landscapes and for things far away. In future I also want to buy the teleconverter to beef up the focal length a bit more. There are so many scenes that cry for a telephoto lens. Believe me! :-) My first impression was like expected for a Fuji lens in that price range, the resulting images are sharp with lots of detail without any compromise in color rendition. The bokeh is pleasing and the lens just does the job. There is no tube sticking out of the lens body wich makes the whole thing a bit heavy (but weather sealed) and bulky, but the quality of the results are worth the cramps and muscle pain. This is the hard work that photography was always about with hea...

Disclaimer: This is my personal opinion and the camera might work for you. This is not a Fuji is better than everything post :-) I've tried to love the Ricoh and have a little list with pros and cons: The good Size - If you need an APS-C sensor pocket camera, this is the one! The lens is superb and walks back into the body making it a super duper small camera! Image quality - the files have a great range and a neutral color reproduction. Nothing to complain. Craftmanship - the camera body is sturdy. Even the moving lens works flawless. The bad Menu - the menu system is not as easy as I know it from my Fuji gear. There are some nice ideas like the custom settings that can be tied to the mode-wheel, but overall I was not satisfied. Shutter button - a soft mess for me. It failed for me when it comes to a half press lock many times. It doesn't feel right for me. Display - in bright sunlight you are lost. I've also missed the possibility to review a photo through the EVF in brig...

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...

There is very little information about this new software, but the main purpose is to use the specialized image processor of the camera to process you images via a USB connection in-camera. The resulting images have that superb Fuji quality. So the software is more of a remote control for something you can still do today. Maybe it has more options and you have the bigger (calibrated) screen of your desktop or notebook to operate with. But what is it good for? I think this will be a great solution for photographers who are on the go. Imagine using a light notebook together with your camera to process some images you took as a travel photographer. Just go back to your hotel room and work on the final images without compromising image quality. I don't know if I want to connect my camera for hours to process more than ten images, so I'am curious about the concept and the use cases Fuji will present to us in the near future. What do you think about this new software solution...

Adobe is trying to gain more money by selling software only bundled with subscription. That is not really my cup of tea. They also don't speed up the whole software and it runs not that great on my up to date Mac mini. I love my LR workflow, but I made the switch from Aperture (bye bye you great outdated piece of software) and it wasn't that hard. And having a look at some demo software is not that difficult. I installed the latest ON1 raw software (2017.5) on my mac and fed it with some sample images. I only want to share my first experiences with that software. So bear in mind that this is not a detailed review. There are great reviews on YouTube if you want to see this software in motion. Fuji The first thing I wanted to know was the handling of Fuji files. So I took a photo with my old XPRO1 at 6400 ISO with some patterns (carpet) and a colorful thing in the middle. The image above was edited and exported with ON1. First I was quite surprised how nice the i...

After selling my X-T1 and X100S I bought the XPRO2 and the X100F to work with them in different situations. I love the form factor and the OVF of the XPRO2 and the size and the silent operation of the X100F. With this lineup I can choose the right cam for nearly every situation (I am not a sports photographer). This can happen when you go for a nice reflection-shot (35mm f1.4/XPRO2) How are my feelings after using the XPRO2 for one year and the X100F for three months now? I know that there is no tool in this world that will serve all your needs without a little drop of bitterness. Perfection is a lie and I don't expect a camera (and anything else in life) to be perfect. So I try to be fair and only write about things without falling into that ranting scheme that is all around the web. XPRO2 I love the size and the possibility to use the OVF that allows me to see what is coming into frame. I can also use the 18mm with zone focusing to concentrate on the decisive moment...

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 ...

As I reported some days ago I had a serious problem with my new X100F. The AF switch was broken and the camera could not be set to AF-S via the switch on the left side. The camera is now repaired and works fine again. There is only one minor thing that bothers me a bit. Back in the days Fuji pulled my camera via UPS for free and now you have to send the camera in on your own bill (except you are a pro how owns more than two cameras). I think that this is okay if your camera is older than two years, but my camera was freshly bought and near mint. The guy I phoned with at Fuji repair was not really cooperative and I had to add another amount of money (delivery with insurance) to the pile of money I've spent on the camera. Sad but true. I don't think that this is the right way to treat customers who bought a premium product. UPDATE 17/05/12: My camera has a new problem now. The silver cell that keeps the settings when you change the battery is now dead. After one to thr...

When you're on the go with your digital camera you might enjoy the wireless LAN features it offers these days. Today's cameras have a superb JPG support inside producing great results in-camera. Fuji is well known for their excellent in-camera processing in terms of sharpness and color reproduction. I want to share my workflow with you. RAW At first I want to mention that I shot RAW and process the final results in-camera afterwards to get the final JPG file. That gives me more control about the applied color profile, sharpness and other aspects of the image. Maybe the image needs some shadow recovery or reduced highlights. You can't do that with a JPG file because there is no headroom in it that allows that kind of editing. my apps I use an android phone in conjunction with Snapseed. There are no other apps involved because I want to keep the editing process simple and get the most out of one app instead of creating more clutter. Snapseed is an easy but powerfu...

Everyone is talking about the new Fujinon 50mm f2 that is available now. I know, this lens is weather resistant and has a fast auto focus mechanism. Are these tech specs convincing for a photographer who already owns the 60mm f2.4? fake GFX 50s medium format panorama out of two images For me there is no need to buy the 50mm. I don't need a WR lens, because I never had any problems with light rain and I also have a super duper mini umbrella in my bag and the XPRO2 (or X100F) can be used one-handed without a problem. The auto focus speed is also not a real problem for me. The 60mm is still fast enough in most occasions (even with moving objects / look at the dog below). And don't forget that this lens is a macro lens which can be use to get real close to the subject. And the best thing is that this lens is a sharp beast (even wide open). It produces crisp and clear images with great color and contrast (read about it here at photozone ). The lens is also very compact...

Fuji did it again: a massive firmware update has arrived! As an old Nikon shooter I have some inhibitions to criticize Fuji, because I never got new features and bug-fixes through fw-updates from Nikon or Canon back in the days. I had a petition running because my Nikon had no light metering in conjunction with manual lenses back in the days. Even with many subscribers I never received an answer or an update from the manufacturer. Sad but true. waiting for KaiZen... So this is why I am happy about a camera manufacturer who is still supporting his customers one or two years after the product was launched. I follow some X-Photographers and they reporting quirks and improvements to Fuji. Sometimes you don't get what you expect when Fuji releases new software, but they are still moving their asses instead of sitting on it. My thoughts about some features of the new firmware-update that caught my attention Minimum Shutter Speed I love the addition of the new "AUTO...

I want to share my further experiences with my new Fuji X100F with you. I had a long weekend in Munich last week and my new camera sniffed some Bavarian air. I tried to capture my daily experiences and the places we went to. Here is a little commented selection of the resulting images. All photos are out of camera with some retouching done with snapseed on my phone. This combination is great to create some great images on the go without the need of a software like lightroom. I don't need to mention again that all Fuji camera have great color profiles that produce great results (even without editing). At my first day in Munich I convinced my wife and friends to go to a third wave coffee place called Gang und Gäbe . We had some great roasted beans from Ethiopia, Honduras and Guatemala and I asked the owner for a portrait and the result can be seen above. I only had a few seconds to take the shot and I wanted to create a little sense of depth by using an open  aperture at f2. The...

Time to share my further experiences with Fuji's new model of the X100 family with you. As I wrote in my last X100F article I was coming from the older X100S and the changes for me were huge in terms of the auto-focus, the sensor and the overall speed. a lung-bun (Lungenbrötchen) as we say in Germany  After one week of taking this camera to different places I want to show you some images and share my views about the changes Fuji made in the product line. Auto-focus and EVF/OVF If you're coming from the X100S you will notice the difference, because the auto-focus was really bad back in the early days of this product line but I managed to deal with this flaw. Now it feels fast enough, more accurate and serves my needs as a documentary and street photographer very well. There are faster systems out on the market but this is not the aim of this camera. Most of the time the auto-focus delivered just the way I expected it, even in OVF-mode. EVF is bliss! It is fast ...

Despite the fact that the bigger sensor delivers more pixels for larger prints and higher ISO with less noise, there is no real noticeable improvement in image quality in most occasions. Who will pixel-peep at 100% into every photo? It is the overall look to the photos that does the magic. And this magic is still there since the x-trans-sensor was introduced to the photographic world. I was recently invited to a birthday party that was celebrated in a billiard pub and I took my X100S with me to capture some photos of this event. This small and quiet photographic tool helped me a lot to be invisible most of the time. Back at my mac (nice rhyme) I took the raw photos and applied my black and white tone curve to them. And after turning off any noise reduction I saw the magic in front of my eyes: the sensor noise looks so organic! It looks like an grainy high ISO black and white film. There is no need to reduce that kind of noise. You want it. Trust me! But how about color photog...