robvisual - photography

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...

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...

A review of the Zeiss 12mm? Better late than never. Fuji did a great job with their excellent lenses. So good that other manufacturers suffer from it a bit. Because you don´t need another brand when the original will serve outstanding quality and a wide variety of focal lengths. But after a small price drop for the Zeiss Touit 12mm in the past I decided to buy it to have a good ultra wide lens in my pocket. And I don´t regret it! The lens comes with an max. open aperture of 2.8 what gives you a lot of headroom in dimly lit conditions or for portraits with some "Bokeh" in it. The build quality is okay. I read some bad articles about the lose aperture-ring and the rubber like finish. I also wish that the lens could look more like the metal ones from Fuji, but I don´t care too much about this things. The image quality is way more important to me. Even the speed of the focusing system is not interesting for a 12mm lens. I mostly use this lens in manual mode and set it to...

Last week I bought the Fujinon 27mm prime to add more super slim primes to my rack. The 18mm was my low profile champion but it is a bit too wide in some situations. The 27mm fills the gap for me. Before I bought it I did some research on this little glass. Most reviews said that this lens is excellent in terms of resolution, sharpness and contrast. The focus should also be quite fast and reliable. So let´s see how this lens does the job in real life. 27mm @ f4 in action in the streets As a mainly street shooter I tried how this lens (attached to my x-pro1) will perform in the jungle. The photo above was tweaked a bit in lightroom (contrast, colors). But the colors, the contrast and the detail of the stickers on the gate were awesome as the unedited raw popped up in from to my eyes. The motion blur of the pedestrians was on purpose. I like how 3D the image looks. The girl really pops out of the scene. 27mm @ f4 / resolution test Does this lens deliver a good resolution for ...

Are you waiting for the X-PRO2? Full or medium format? Super-IQ? Sony has released a little beast of a mirrorless full frame camera some days ago. It can do nearly everything except a good cup of coffee. Do I need all this stuff? ISO 50.000 or 100.000 are always nice numbers written on a tech-sheet. In real life most photographers don´t need that in most situations. I don´t want to say it is useless. There are some use cases for better technology but it won´t make better photos. Many people are suffering from GAS (gear acquisition syndrome) and think that their "old" camera is not up to date. When I look at my Minolta XD-7 from the seventies a little smile will light up my face. Yes. You can do a lot more things with actual cameras. But a button to take a great photo is not jet invented. It is your imagination that creates the photo. The camera is just a tool. And you don´t always need the newest model. Taken with my trusty old Ricoh 500GX rangefinder camera (400ISO/BW...

http://www.fujirumors.com/game-over-for-the-zeiss-touit-lenses-no-more-touits-this-year-and-maybe-not-even-in-2016/ The linked  article is about the possible death of the "Touit" brand for Fuji cameras. I personally own the Touit 12mm and I'm absolutely satisfied with it. Yes there is that loose aperture ring without a real click-feeling, but for me a lens is about delivering good image quality. And this is a discipline were the Zeiss is shining. I think that Fuji is doing a great job with their own lenses but there no room for much competition. Only when it comes to the price. But Fuji x-series-shooters are not the ones who look for a cheap bargain. I can recommend my Zeiss 12mm. It is a great ultra-wide lens that delivers great even wide open. Give it a try after this price drop. You won't regret it.

Because there is always a better faster one around the next corner. I think it would be better to slow down the release cycles and focus on quality. And more on the quality of the lenses. Believe me, the glass is more important than the sensor. The lens has to deliver excellent micro-contrast, great colors, good resolution and a good auto-focus-performance. So Fuji is doing a good job by not releasing to much new models every year but throwing some awesome lenses on the market.