Lens for travelling on low light

[spilla]

As you have the kit lens I would suggest to check first the focal length. You can do it easily with your lens:

Fix 23mm on your lens with some tape and try this focal length for some days (without changing the focal length on your lens).

After that try this with 35mm and 27mm.

 

After that you will notice which focal length fits your needs best.

 

After that you can decide what lens you have to choose.

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Very much agree with this suggestion. The 23f2 and 35f2 would both suit your travel sized and low light needs, but are very different focal lengths. You need to decide what sort of perspective suits your shooting.

[konzy]

Hello DashingElegance,

 

I agree with what spilla said above. If your main concerns are (1) travelling light and (2) being in low light situation, here is my advice:

- 18mm f/2: good image quality, great for landscapes, and not bad for environmental portraits/street (though some might find it a little too wide).

- 23mm f/2: my favourite focal length, good for most landscapes (but sometimes too narrow), great for street photography and environmental portraits. I use this focal length and aperture on my X100T, and I'm happy in most of the situations.

- 35mm f/2: great image quality, very sharp, very fast autofocus, great for portraits and street, generally not so good for landscapes due to the narrow focal length (unless you need a detail shot)

- 35mm f/1.4: it's a bit more expansive and has a slower autofocus than the f/2 version, but the image quality is great.

 

All lenses are fast (f/2, f/1.4), small and light, some are weather sealed (23, 35 f/2) (but it's half-useful since the X-T10 isn't weather sealed).

 

If price is also a criteria, you can find the 18mm and 35mm easily on the 2nd hand market. The 23mm is more recent, so more difficult to find.

 

I wouldn't go with the 27mm: even though it's a nice lens, it's speed won't be much of an improvement (f2.8).

 

So to me, the only question is the focal length: what will you photograph? 

- Mostly landscapes: 18mm f/2

- Mostly street: 23mm, 18mm, 35mm (actually everyone has his own preference, but a majority of people prefer the 23mm)

- Mostly portraits: 35mm, 23mm

- A bit of everything: 23mm or 18mm

 

Hope this helps!

 

Konzy

Edited May 13, 2017 by konzy

[DashingElegance]

Thank you all for your great suggestions. I think I'm gonna go with 23mm f2. Tried it in fuji store and though I like 35mm f2 also, I'm afraid it's too narrow for portraits and landscape in the background.

Not going to buy it right away, will wait for a sale.

 

Thank you.

 

 

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[RogerB]

Thank you for your reply.

 

If comparing the 27 pancake vs 35 f2 vs 23 f2. Which one is best for travel in night? I'm not going to shoot in very dark alley but more like in Disneyland or at events in the streets. I might want to shoot some nice portraits (me and friends) with the view behind me.

 

One thing to think about on your night shots is that the lights on the buildings (esp. at Disneyland) are quit bright compared to what we typically think about for "night shots". If your faces are very dark then the correct exposures for those lights will leave your facial exposures very dark. These are often situations where fill light add a great deal to the photograph. I know people shy away from the harsh light of strobe, but when done properly a bit of added light can make a huge difference to the definition of faces in the resultant images. If you take that approach any of the lense you talk about will do just fine as you will be using them at apertures that are smaller than maximum. 

 

For truly low light images, one of the ironies is that although the 23mm f/2 focus quite fast in daylight as you reduce the light levels to dim, then the 23mm f/1.4 lens with it's greater light gathering power, starts to outperform it in the focus-speed category.

 

If you are taking a trip to disney*, I'd strongly suggest you also practice now with any lens and a night time fill strobe, typically with a slightly raised ISO (say 800) and a power reduced strobe (say -3ev). You may like what you get and then again, this may not be your cup of tea at all. However, it could save you the cost of a lens because all the apertures and focal lengths we are discussing here are on your current zoom.

 

Roger

[DashingElegance]

One thing to think about on your night shots is that the lights on the buildings (esp. at Disneyland) are quit bright compared to what we typically think about for "night shots". If your faces are very dark then the correct exposures for those lights will leave your facial exposures very dark. These are often situations where fill light add a great deal to the photograph. I know people shy away from the harsh light of strobe, but when done properly a bit of added light can make a huge difference to the definition of faces in the resultant images. If you take that approach any of the lense you talk about will do just fine as you will be using them at apertures that are smaller than maximum.

 

For truly low light images, one of the ironies is that although the 23mm f/2 focus quite fast in daylight as you reduce the light levels to dim, then the 23mm f/1.4 lens with it's greater light gathering power, starts to outperform it in the focus-speed category.

 

If you are taking a trip to disney*, I'd strongly suggest you also practice now with any lens and a night time fill strobe, typically with a slightly raised ISO (say 800) and a power reduced strobe (say -3ev). You may like what you get and then again, this may not be your cup of tea at all. However, it could save you the cost of a lens because all the apertures and focal lengths we are discussing here are on your current zoom.

 

Roger

Are you saying that my current kit lens already can shot just fine as long as I use a flash?

I'm a newbie and not sure I fully understand.

 

Thanks you.

 

 

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