konzy

It's my first wedding with my Fuji. I'm a guest, so no pressure, but the bride asked me to film the ceremony and take some pictures afterwards. I've got a bunch of lenses but I'm not sure which one to take, to serve both the video and photography needs. I'd love some good advice from experienced wedding shooters! Cameras: - X-T1 - X100T Lenses: - 14mm f/2.8 - 23mm f/1.4 - 35mm f/2 - 60mm f/2.4 macro - 80mm f/2.8 macro - 135mm f/2 (Samyang, manual focus) - 18-135mm Also, I love the Samyang and how good it is for portraits. I'd love to take it with me, but I'm concerned about using a MF lens during a wedding. Is it hard? Thanks for the precious input! Konzy

Here is a reworked version!

Looks like I'm getting better at every post Here is another shot of Orion's nebula, taken in Switzerland on Christmas eve. It's much better than my first attempt, a few weeks ago! The mountain skies were much clearer and less polluted than the city center where I live. Gear and settings: - Fuji X-T1, tripod and Samyang 135mm f/2 at f/2.8 - 150 "light" exposures of 1 second each, ISO 1600 - 60 "dark" exposures at the same settings (to remove noise) - RAW files converted to TIF in Lightroom - TIF files aligned and stacked in DeepSkyStacker - Final TIF file cropped and adjusted in Lightroom (curves, saturation)

Indeed, I was actually surprised, as I thought the device was USB 3.0 compatible. But it's not, and sadly, it bottlenecks the transfer speed. However, I still find the device very usable and the transfer speed decent. I did the following "real life" test: - 1164 files transfered (582 RAW files ~33 Mb each, and 582 JPG files ~3-5 Mb each) - 19.6 GB in total (21.1 billion bytes) - From a SanDisk Ultra SDXC, Class 10 UHS-I(80 MB/s), to a Samsung USB 3.0 thumbdrive - The transfer speed was about 37 minutes long, so about 8-9 MB/s. 37 minutes for 20 GB of data and 582 pictures, I think it's okay! Of course I'd love having USB 3.0 to reduce the transfer speed, but while traveling, I think it's not a problem as you often have 37 minutes to spare!

Great review! I'm glad to read you enjoyed your trip and have no regret about your gear selection

Yes, I believe that's why photography is an awesome hobby: the artistic possibilities are endless, and the technical aspects can also be a challenge. Some people like to shoot automatic, some don't; some people spend hours on post-production, some shoot in JPEG. Some crop, some move their butt. I guess there's no bad or good thing, but endless possibilities and, finally, the freedom to enjoy photography! I can't help but wonder how the greatest photographers of the past century would react and what they'd think today, seeing how the technology evolved, what we can achieve and how popular photography has become

Yeah, I hear that often, like "if you ave to crop, you weren't close enough" or "you're photo wasn't good enough"... This is, IMO, a statement from another time, that doesn't apply anymore today. Point a camera to someone 50 years ago, and you obtain a nice Magnum-like candid street portrait. Point a camera at someone today, and most likely you'll have a macro shot of his hand and a "Go away, you creep" thrown at you. I have the feeling that only the poorest countries of this world still have the curiosity of the camera. Most of street candids I see on the Internet are from poor countries in Asia or Africa, often children. Here in Germany, I think people would call the police if you try to take their portrait... Anyway, I noticed this statement about cropping often comes from photographers who mainly do street photography in a very orthodox way. When you do macro or landscape, you can't always get closer or reframe the way you want, because the insect would be gone, or because a tree is blocking the view, or because there's a cliff. Even when you do street, sometimes you take what you see, and then you analyse your picture and wish that car wasn't here. Cropping isn't a bad thing to me, just like increasing the contrast or switching to black and white. It's just reframing the picture afterwards, because you change your mind, notice something else that wasn't worth being shown in the frame, or because the cropped scene just looks better to you. Who cares if it's cropped? The photo itself is a crop from the real world. Would it be a better photo to frame in 35mm, change your mind, put a 50mm on your camera, and take the picture? That's an advantage of 24mpix cameras over 16 or 12. If you crop, you'll have enough room for printing. I personally don't print anything bigger than a paper sheet, but some people might need it. I agree with what you said about better cameras. I saw a lot of people with expansive gear, producing not so great pictures. That's why I do more and more film: the cameras are certainly not the latest, so you need to move your butt and get a nice picture by yourself. Technology won't save you!

I have an X-T1. I'm a happy photographer! It has more features and muscles than the X-E1, some are very important to me like weather sealing and tilt screen. The X-T20 is also a great camera, one step below in the product range, but newer than the X-T1. I agree with milandro, most of the newest features of the X-T20/X-T2/X-Pro2 aren't that useful, if you don't have heavy autofocus and cropping needs. The X-T1 is still a very capable camera!

I use one of the drawers of my Ikea PAX closet. I like this system, because it limits the risk of dropping something on the floor. It's about 50x60 cm, so enough space for my lenses, bodies and accessories. The only thing I can't store are lens hoods, they are such a pain... They sit in a shoe box somewhere. I doubled the drawer with a thick felt dining set, that I cut to fit the drawer. For the lenses, I crafted some supports with cardboard and gaffer tape. These supports allow me to store the lenses horizontally, without them moving when I open/close the drawer!

Lovely shot! I used to live not far from the Sacré Cœur, it's really beautiful at night, dominating the city

Things that can drain your battery: - OIS: I don't know how power hungry the 80mm is, but compared to the 35 and the 16, it's certainly much more, since they don't have OIS! - OIS mode: check what MrT suggested, that might be the cause to your problems! - The cold, if you shoot outside - The "high performance" mode of your camera. If you're not shooting Santa's reindeers taking off, you probably don't need this high performance mode. - The LCD. When I want to save some battery, I just use the "Viewfinder + Eye Sensor" mode. Also, you can keep the brightness level lower. - Turning the camera on and off Mirrorless suck as regard batteries, but on the other hand, they're small and inexpensive. I always carry at least 2 when I'm out shooting! By the way, the battery indicator is a lie...

Thanks for your feedback! Richard, I wondered the same. I mean, the noise it makes is surprising, and make the lens look cheap...

I use a smartphone app called Star Chart, but there are tons of other similar apps available. Basically, it's a start map that shows you what you are pointing at. Then, you need to use your eyes to find the object in the sky (if it's visible), or nearby stars to guess where it is (for non visible objects). Usually I take a few test shots to center as much as possible the object in the photo. For the ballhead, I was using the one from my Sirui tripod, but I feared it would drift, indeed. So I bought a video "ballhead", that is also easier for astrophotography (https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B0711J4YFV/). If I need a little push on the left, for instance, it's far more precise than a classic ballhead, since you can control both directions independently. I'm glad you enjoyed it! It's a fascinating world, indeed, but you need motivation... Right now, I don't have any, it's way to cold in Bavaria at night! But a couple nights ago, I noticed Orion was out, in front of my balcony. I thought it could be worth a try, so I just got my tripod out, set up my X-T1 and the Samyang 135/2 on it, aimed around the belt or Orion and wow! A wonderful purple nebula (M42), clearly visible on the liveview. So I took a few shots, and I'm pleased with the result! It's a very basic setup, only a tripod, and I'll definitely try again with slower lenses. Luckily, the Samyang is a very fast lens (f/2), so that helped a lot, but I wonder what the other can do. Of course, it's a bit blurry, very noisy and slightly out of focus. But considering I did it with just a tripod, in a big city, on my balcony with a major street below, I'm quite surprised it's not that bad! I'm sure you can find some objects out there to photograph as well. Orion is very easy to find, and even with crappy conditions, you can get something nice

Here is another example at minimum focus distance, and 3 apertures: f/2.8, f/4 and f/5.6

Hey guys, I made a quick & dirty review with a few pictures (+exifs). You might want to check it out! I think I'll add the RAW files too. The out of focus area surprised me too. It's kind of swirly, less than these old Russian lenses, but still quite visible. The bokeh is onion-shaped on the edges. Meh. I'm not sure if I dislike it, or if it's just different and I'll get used to it eventually. I'll see! Anyway, for portrait photographers, that could be a deal breaker. Below are a couple examples of the onion and the swirliness. Regarding image quality, though, it's excellent! I still need to master the autofocus, especially in the 0,25-0,5m area, and test it again with the X-T1 firmware update I just installed. But so far, I'm impressed! Can't wait to test the lens on moving targets – bees, butterflies and spiders. Note: I used Iridient X-Transformer to process the RAF files, then a few adjustments in Lightroom (curves and Astia film simulation). Cheers! Konzy f/2.8 1/500 sec 80mm ISO 500 f/3.2 1/450 sec 80mm ISO 400 f/2.8 1/200 sec 80mm ISO 640 f/5.6 1/250 sec 80mm ISO 1600