Tom H.

LOL, this

I use a cheap Sekonic 308s for studio work. It's more than good enough for Fuji.

I did that same walk round Ubud in 2011. Stunning sights all around. Wish I had my Fuji's with me back then. The Canon was just way too heavy in those temperatures.

For 30 bucks only, best bet will be a local flee market I think. As from 100 bucks you can find decent ones already, but 30 is quite low. I still use a Hasselblad 503CW from time to time and I just picked up a Hasselblad Xpan. Both of these I bought for a fraction of the price you'd pay at a dealer. But then again, I only got lucky after years and years of finding only crap And the Hasselblad back still needs servicing, which isn't cheap...

The only thing they are doing horribly wrong is not producing that digital version of their glorious TX-2, better known as the Hasselblad XPan 2. Dammit Fuji, build me one while I still have healthy kidneys for sale!

Some more Mira, at the end of the shoot, before she went home. Did some natural light shots on our stairs. Fuji X-T1, 56 1.2 APD.

Some more Mira, different shots of this set in the Noir topic, this one didn't quite fit into that set. Fuji X-T1, 56 1.2 APD.

Cheeky kids! I love it

50-140 is perfect. All others I have seem too loose for my taste. I often change grips on the camera and that tends to shift it... Same on 56 and the 16....

Yes, we all go through the stages of GAS... I finally have mine under control. Since doing portraits and lighting, I realised that no better gear will make my crap lighting, framing or creativity go away... So I just started focusing on that, instead of gear. And it has done wonders for my shooting. I had a look back, and last year I shot 90% of my shots with the X100T and the X-T1 with 56 APD. My 16 1.4 is new, but I haven't even used my 50-140 since my 56 got repaired. I did start shooting some film again from time to time, just to keep me sharp. 120 film is too expensive not to try to get it right in one shot. It's a good exercise that I would recommend to anyone suffering from GAS :-) Being stuck with manual focus, iso 400 and no metering also makes you appreciate just how amazing digital cameras really are.

You want simplification for your gear? Ditch everything, your Fuji, Pentax and Nikon stuff. Get a Sony a7r II and the Batis 25 and 85, the 35 1.4 and the 55 1.8. Consider the 35 2.8 for shots where you don't need a big aperture, since it's so small. That would be my kit for everything. If.... I liked Sony. Which I don't. I just really dislike their control layout, colour rendition and looks. I also don't like that some of their glass is magnificent, while others are just plain crap. I tried their zooms and they are rubbish... And I bet a new, better one is in the works, but it will be huge, heavy and bloody expensive... And worst of all, probably white...

One from last night. Coming back from Berlin. Fuji X-T1, 56 1.2 APD, Velvia.

A7R II with some Batis lenses looks great. But it's also hugely expensive... And not a rangefinder... And renders in those typical Sony colours... For what in the end? One, maybe one and a half stop more ISO performance? Huge files that eat hard drives and memory cards for breakfast? Compromises in lenses, either small and light but crap image quality? Or expensive, huge and heavy, but superbly sharp? And a body that looks very plasticky and not at all like the old school film camera looks we usually like...

Still awesome Keep shooting!

I also still use 6x6 film, but for quality portraits, I grab my X-T1 and a good old manual flash if I need more light. The dynamic range of digital nowadays is just as good, if not better. Sharpness is miles better than my Hasselblad lenses can render and ISO? Seriously, you want a Contax lookalike but need ISO 12800 performance? If you are used to film, I would consider clean ISO 1600 already a godsend, something which almost any aps-c camera nowadays will give without even resorting to noise reduction... I would love to see a portrait where you need that high ISO performance to begin with? If you like what you hear about Sony, feel free to go have a look. But if you already think the Fuji bodies are not to your rangefinder liking, prepare to be disappointed...

And another...

Some work from last Monday. Still have some more to process, but these are my favourites so far. All shots taken with the Fuji X-T1, 56 APD and some speedlights & modifiers.

Point taken, but not going to happen, the shoot is over More of her to follow.

Had a productive day with a nice model and a great make-up artist. Fun at home during the worst summer storm in years :-) More from this set to follow as I process them. Fuji X-T1, 56 1.2 APD. Classic chrome and some skin minor editing in Photoshop, although the sooc also looked perfectly acceptable.

Love it! Nice work.

f2 is a bit slow, make it f1.4 please.

I still think my 56 APD has the better bokeh, but all is subjective The 50-140 is very neutral and crisp. The 90 samples I've seen do remind me of my old Canon 135 f2, but I haven't tried it myself.

Yes, last one rocks!

For portraiture, most often some form of clean up in post may be required, so RAW is the go to mode for me. But I have used the sooc jpegs on occasion. For more "realistic" portraits, they can be just fine.

Provence can still be scorching hot at that time of year. So take plenty of water and sunblock. I'd try to keep the weight down as much as possible, one zoom or a wide angle/fast prime combo should be more than enough. The 18-135 would be a good option I think, since you may want to zoom enough to get rid of distractions like powerlines etc... My money would be on the 23 and 56 combo though. You can always make panoramas if you need wider. Don't just buy lenses, unless you know why you need them... My 2 cents.