SpikeHK

Thanks. Hopefully it is just a minor setback. My favorite place to go is a small shopping mall called Sim City. It is on Shantung Street off Nathan Road in Mong Kok. It's a 3 floor mall which, despite the name, is more than 50% camera shops, selling both used and new stuff. On the new stuff, most of the places will have two prices - one for manufacturers warranty and one for grey goods. Be sure to specify which you want. It's also a good place to look for accessories like bags, straps, filters, etc. On Hong Kong Island, I go to the Wanchai Computer Center, which is on Hennessy Road right next to the Wanchai MTR. There are a few camera stores in there, they know me there and it's close to where I live in HK, so I probably go there more often. But Sim City is more fun. If you're buying mainstream stuff (like Fuji) and you want the manufacturers warranty and you already know what you want, you could also go into any of the major electronics shops like Fortress or Broadway. They all charge pretty much the same price. Check a site called price.com.hk - it's all in Chinese but Google Translate handles it pretty well. You can search for anything there and it will tell you the shops with the best prices for both "water goods" - parallel imports - and "hong goods" - manufacturers warranty. DCFever.com - also all in Chinese - is the mega trading site for used camera gear in HK. I've bought and sold a lot of stuff through that site.

A lot of info and extremely useful - thank you! As for what I will buy next, the company I work for was sold two months ago and last week the new owners started handing out redundancy notices, so at this point I need to sort out employment before i buy any more photo gear!

Thanks. I think when it comes to prime lenses I prefer the wider apertures when available (and when I can afford them!).

So far the 23mm has been my most frequently used lens. Your comments on these other lenses are all interesting to me - and making me wish I had an unlimited budget for this kind of thing.

Good point - I've only tried that feature out once or twice so far and need to spend more time with it, thanks.

Nice, thanks for sharing your experience with this lens!

Thanks. I think my eyes are no longer good enough to do critical manual focus so I'll take this as 3 votes for the 16mm.

Another vote for the 16 - thank you!

Good to know, thanks! The 16 moves up a few notches on my list!

I do hope to have the full range eventually, it's just what order I buy them in! I can't do eBay or Amazon. On top of international shipping charges, 30% import duties in the Philippines (which also impacts the prices of new gear in retail shops). I do all my buying in Hong Kong, which is duty free and tax free. Fortunately I get there at least once every two months. (As one example, the price of the X-T2 and kit zoom lens was lower in Hong Kong than the price of the X-T2 alone in Manila.)

Thank you Larry, a lot of food for thought there and I appreciate your pragmatic approach in your response. I am going to give more thought to both the 35 and 16.

I hadn't thought about non-Fuji lenses but definitely interested to learn more. But I think the 50 is too "close" to the 56, no?

Of course, when someone asks that question, the proper response should be, "I don't know, what do you have now and what do you shoot?" I'm not a professional - though I did some pro work in the past, and for seven years was one of the co-owners of Hong Kong's PASM Workshop photo studio, shooting musicians, models, head shots, and events. I'm someone who recently sold off all my Nikon gear and went with Fuji and I'm not looking back. The most demanding stuff I shoot these days is bands - mostly independent musicians playing in small dark clubs in Hong Kong and Manila. I also love to shoot just general purpose walking around in Manila and Hong Kong kinds of stuff, and also portraits of friends. I have the X-T2. So far I have 3 prime lenses - 23mm F2, 56mm F1.2, 90mm F2. I love them all. I also have the "kit" lens, the 18-55mm F2.8-F2.4. I wanted to get the 16-55mm F2.8 but was trying to save some money and concerned about the weight. The 18-55 has consistently surprised me (in a good way). What I'm thinking about: 27mm F2.8 lens because it's tiny, relatively cheap, and while not in the top range of Fuji's lenses would likely be "good enough" for my purposes - something small and compact, making it easy to toss my camera in a day bag for walking around. 60mm F2.4 because a macro lens would be useful for me - I've got a lot of collections of little stuff that I'd like to document. 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 lens so that I'd only take one lens with me when traveling, albeit a big one. Any thoughts on any of these choices? Are there other lenses that I should be considering? I'd love to have the 16-55 F2.8 and 50-140 F2.8 but those are both out of my budget for now. Thanks!

It really depends on your shooting style but I would say that if you're looking to really separate your subject from the background, going from F2 to F1.2 will make a difference. Attached are two portraits I shot today, Fuji X-T2 with the 56mm @ F1.2 - these were loaded into Lightroom, (a tiny bit of sharpening but no other adjustments) and exported out again, basically to resize them so they'd fit here. (My first time posting here!) I just bought this lens a week ago and all I can say is that I'm sorry I didn't buy it sooner!