As long as I follow these kind of discussions, as far out of the most important questions about taking a picture ist seems to seduct.
Clearly any focal length has its own, BUT how to use it under which conditions and circumstances AND what should be told or explained with the picture to be made, THESE are at least for me the by far more interesting questions for my personal (and most) photographic goals.
Secondly and for my perspective as important as the above is, to really proof Yourself - BEFORE You start "shooting" - which is YOUR OWN inner approach to Your motive and are You shure and honest with the way to go and as well Your REAL capability to handle this particular focal length properly, not to "zoom and fool arround".
If these aspects are not of any interest, I doubt she or he will feel a real difference between a zoom and a prime and a 23 or 27 or a 35.
This does not mean, there won't be taken good pictures by those photographing people, but my quite long experience with myself, my rather often quite shaky learning-curve and the people I teach once in a while, showed me more often than not: one good lens and two good hearted eys are by far better and more important for taking really good pictures than two or even more lenses and two or "even more blind eyes".
A good picture of what or whom or where ever one can only "smell", "feel", "sense" or however one will call that - and it will be mostly generated inside Yourself. The camera and lens "just do the job then".
So in my opinion one should let your inner eye tell You THE LENS and maybe one for the contrast scenarios .... and that´s it.
.... and in our times, especially with nowadays FUJI the quality of lenses is out of discussion - the quality of taken pictures not at all .... and the digital age has not improved that a single millimeter ......
Apart from that I myself do love the digital cameras I used (Nikon, Canon, Hasselblad, Mamiya-Leaf and Fuji) but far more important was how close I could come to my lens to frame my subject/object properly for my goal - not if to take it with a Leica or a Hasselblad (the question of MF vs. FX vs. APS-C is here not to be addressed)
So I´d like to state: We all have to get our "inner eye" honestly close an "in artistic love" at least to ONE prime lens before we even think and experiment to much around with anything more - if not so, the quality of our work and/or joy won't develop anyhow!
Loving Fuji, the lenses, the sensor, the colors, the size, the weight and the fun, joy and perfection I feel with these great tools !!
Good Night
Wolfbastien
attached a pic (with just the banal 35/1.4 sooc on a sunday afternoon - just so .... and of course a bit cropped to square )
I have been looking at this forum for some time and thought it was about time that I gave something back.
I am a retired computer engineer living in the Midlands of England. Being 'ancient of days' I come from a film based background. I still have a darkroom but I haven't used it for a long time. Photography was put on the back burner when my wife became ill. Then in 2012, after her passing, I started in earnest again. I had a Sony A99 which was a fine camera but most of the lenses I had were old Minolta lenses. I also had a Mamiya 645 Pro (film). In 2014 I decided to go on a photography workshop in Romania and I realised that I didn't want to carry the big kit, So I bought an X-E2 with the 18-55mm, a 14mm and the 55-200mm. I was so pleased with it that I sold the A99, the Mamiya, and all the lenses. Then when the X-T1 came out I bought it. Later I had the X-E2 converted to infra-red by ACS. I have had an X-T2 for a couple of weeks now and have some things to say about it. So standby for a post on that. I attach what is one of the best images I took in Romania.
It would be nice to know a little bit more about other members so perhaps those who are willing could post here.
I'll start. I'm olli, orginally from Northern Ireland, now a serial expat, currently located in Pasay City, part of Metro Manila in the Philippines. I've been shooting seriously since around 2008 with a variety of cameras but switched to Fuji just over six months ago. I have the X-E2 with 18-55, 55-200, 23 and 35 lenses. I describe my kind of photography as 'urban documentary', which means I wander around the streets taking pictures of things. I have a website at photography by olli and I photoblog at Manila Days.
