Phil

I was going to suggest either the 16 or the 90, depending on which way you lean.
 
The 16, 23 and 56 is going to be an excellent kit for you and cover anything you'll likely want to shoot.  Enjoy...

I haven't posted in a while, but my wife and I saw Enter Shikari in London ON a couple months ago, and I brought my X-E2 with the 18mm and 35mm. I figured the smaller size might help get me into the venue in case they didn't like cameras. No one batted an eye, and in hindsight, I probably would have gotten along with the 23mm better, if anything for the more consistent low light AF. Between the low light and backlighting, both the 18mm and 35mm were struggling.
 
DSCF0114 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0123 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0386 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0137 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0157 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0383 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0465 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0524 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr

A couple of my newest guitar. Taken with the X-T1 and 35mm.
 
DSCF0007 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0012 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr

I haven't posted in a while, but my wife and I saw Enter Shikari in London ON a couple months ago, and I brought my X-E2 with the 18mm and 35mm. I figured the smaller size might help get me into the venue in case they didn't like cameras. No one batted an eye, and in hindsight, I probably would have gotten along with the 23mm better, if anything for the more consistent low light AF. Between the low light and backlighting, both the 18mm and 35mm were struggling.
 
DSCF0114 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0123 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0386 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0137 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0157 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0383 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0465 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0524 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr

Not sure if this should be in People or Misc, but what if it's a shot with no people? I don't have many concert photos, but have been wanting to get into it more and would love to see what everyone else has.
 
That Dirty Racket by philbabbey, on Flickr
 
That Dirty Racket by philbabbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0150 by philbabbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0077 by philbabbey, on Flickr

John B&W by philbabbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0086bw by philbabbey, on Flickr
 
Dave b&w by philbabbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0128 by philbabbey, on Flickr
 
Cory by philbabbey, on Flickr
 
That Dirty Racket by philbabbey, on Flickr

Moroccan Desert , 2016 x100t 

Here are a few I forgot to post from the last few months. All with the 35mm.
 
DSCF0006 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr
 
TBHeadshot by Phil Babbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0084 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr

I shot staff portrait's for my friend's hair salon on Friday. This is X-T1 with the 56mm, a Yongnuo in a 24x36 softbox as key and a bare Yongnuo as the rim light.
 
DSCF0158 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0012 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0145 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr

Definitely the 18mm (I'm not counting the 50-230mm because it's one of those "when I need it" lenses, for the odd time I want to shoot sports or wildlife).
 
The IQ is perfectly fine on the 18mm, but it is noticeably worse than lenses like the 23, 35 1.4, and 56. My biggest complaints are the f/2 aperture and the external focusing.
 
f/2 is still fast, but when you get used to 1.4, it's hard to go slower (especially at night or indoors). Another benefit to my other three primes is that I can keep both of my bodies at the same settings - this makes things less confusing when I'm switching between them on the go, and helps make sure I get a consistent look between cameras.
 
AF is my other main complaint. It's fast enough, but hunts a bit more than the newer primes. I don't like the external focusing, though. For work, I primarily shoot weddings and events, and like shooting concerts when I can. Both of those situations can be hard on gear, and having a beefier lens with internal focusing and less moving parts on the outside helps give me some peace of mind. At a wedding earlier this year I dropped my X-T1 with the 23mm onto a carpeted floor, and it landed lens-first. The camera and lens both seem to be fine, but I feel like if I'd dropped the 18 or 35, they probably would have been damaged. That's the main reason I'd like to upgrade to the 16mm this summer.
 
It's a bummer, because I really like the focal length. For portrait-oriented work, I prefer the 23/56 combo, but for events and everyday life, I find 18/35 to be more natural. My dream combo would be an 18mm 1.4 and ~35mm 1.0.

Hi folks,

Finally, after a long wait, I had the opportunity to meet and take pictures of the beautiful and enigmatic Little Owl (Athene noctua), one of my favorite European birds, and probably the cutest bird I’ve ever seen.

This little fluffy raptor measures around 21 cm in length with a wingspan of 55 cm (both male and female). Its weigh is about 170 grams. Its plumage color is brown and grey spotted with white. Its big yellow eyes stand out giving the bird a funny frowning expression as you can see in my new article on my website: Come check it out here: Little Owl Photo Hide

I show you one of the pictures of the article. You can see the rest of them on the article.

Little Owl - XT-1 + XF100-400mm f4.5-5.6 LM OIS WR 

.In the sky, another species of raptors came down too. Black kites and Red kites started fighting and chasing each other’s in order to defend their air spaces, trying to dominate the other species. It was absolutely beautiful, as I could see how dominant Red kites are. A couple of Common buzzards came down too, but both were chasing and tried to be expulsed by Black kites, while Red kites were trying to expulse Black kites, what a strategic air flight!...
 
Come check out my site and follow my work here: www.josecarpin.com
 
Equipment used: Fuji XT-1 + Fuji XF100-400mm f4-5.6 OIS WR
 
Thank you
 

 

Hi folks,
 
Last sunday I was shooting big raptors such vultures, kites and eagles. We left some carrion in front of the photo hide to attract them. 
 
Suddenly two beautiful young foxes came from the bush and ate some carrion. After this they started playing in front of me. They were about 15 meters far from me. Fortunately I was shooting with the Fuji XF100-400mm, so I got enough close to them.
 
You can see more pictures on my website: www.josecarpin.com
 
Equipment used_ XT-1 + XF100-400mm
 

 

Here are a few I forgot to post from the last few months. All with the 35mm.
 
DSCF0006 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr
 
TBHeadshot by Phil Babbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0084 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr

Here are a few I forgot to post from the last few months. All with the 35mm.
 
DSCF0006 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr
 
TBHeadshot by Phil Babbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0084 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr

Have you got the Preview Exposure and White Balance setting on or off? On gives you a "what you see is what you get" image preview as you're looking through the viewfinder, and Off gives you an optimal brightness for viewing, regardless of your exposure settings.
 
Is the picture consistently dark? Try shooting with all manual exposure, then change settings and see if the brightness of the photo changes.
 
My guess is you've got some setting changed in the Image Quality settings. That controls your JPG settings, but even if you're shooting RAW the camera will display a JPG with whatever settings you have it defaulted to. So basically you could have the camera set to burn photos down (-1/3EV, -1EV, etc). That's in one of the first menu pages. If you have that and shoot a JPG, it'll be darker. If you have that and shoot RAW, the RAW file won't be affected, but the JPG displayed on the LCD will look darker.

Here are some headshots I've taken, all with the X-T1 and 35 1.4. I really like the 50mm equiv. for headshots. I find there's not too much perspective distortion on most faces, and it feels more dramatic and personal to me.
 
Jeff BW by philbabbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0086bw by philbabbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0070bw by philbabbey, on Flickr
 
Dave b&w by philbabbey, on Flickr
 
Dave by philbabbey, on Flickr
 
Josh by philbabbey, on Flickr
 
Dawn by philbabbey, on Flickr

If I'm shooting a job and being battery conscious (EVF + eye sensor and turning the camera off when I don't immediately need it) I can consistently get 600 shots off of a battery with my X-T1. What I usually do is switch out the grip battery as needed and keep the in-body battery as a backup. If the X-T2 has similar battery performance, that should mean an easy 1500-2000 shots.
 
What I'm most excited about are the joystick on the vertical grip and (what looks to be) an extended horizontal grip that the vertical grip adds.

While a slight increase in capacity would be appreciated, really Fuji should be designing cameras with batteries that are twice as big.
 
Really all these mirrorless cameras should be "L" shaped with super large batteries in the grip, having a large grip sticking out the front doesn't actually impact portability because lenses always stick out at least an inch or two anyways.
And it would make the cameras much more comfortable and secure to hold, I'm really surprised so many flat faced cameras made it to market, keeping the grip flat doesn't improve the user experience in any way.

Huh? I worked for years as a photographer... nobody ever gave me lenses.

I have the xp1, the xt1, and the xp2. With each new release the autofocus improved dramatically. Perhaps when you shot with the xp2 the diopter adjustment was off.

X-T10, 35/1.4
 

Here's a stitched panorama of my wife. X-T1 + 56mm @ 1.2
 
DSCF0280-Edit by Phil Babbey, on Flickr

Here's a quick edit from my friends' wedding yesterday.
 
DSCF0931-5 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr

I did a shoot for a salon who did hair for a local charity event. It was mostly candids, but I took a few portraits of the event competitors. It wasn't great, because I only had 30 second or a minute to get three or four of each competitor before they went out, but I got a few I'm happy with.
 
DSCF0138 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0146 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr
 
DSCF0176 by Phil Babbey, on Flickr