image courtesy: jonasjacobsson (Review PART 1)

XF 50-140
USA: BHphoto / AmazonUS / Adorama / EUROPE: WexUK / PCHstore / AmazonUK

In PART 1 of his review, jonasjacobsson tested the autofocus speed of XF 50-140 (on a X-T1). The subject? A dog running full speed in any direction. So how did it work? From the conclusions.

“The toughest test was for sure the first one, when he came towards me, resulting in 5 missed shots. Otherwise, for the most part, the lens performed admirably. Fast and accurate. And like I stated above, some of the missed once are a result of me not being used to shoot fast-moving dogs and it was really hard to predict the movement sometimes, so do keep that in mind. Without a doubt this is the best lens suited for action and sports among the Fuji lenses. In terms of autofocus speed the XF 50-140 is miles ahead of the slower XF 55-200, along with many other advantages like weather sealing and a fast constant aperture of f/2.8. It is however also almost 2.5-3 times as pricy as the older sibling. Once you lock on target the lens tend to keep that focus very well unless you do a some drastic movement that might interfere.”

In PART 2 of the 50-140 review, jonasjacobsson judges the IQ of the lens.

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Also engaged tested the XF 50-140 and they say:

“Image quality is fantastic throughout regardless of focal length, with pleasingly sharp details and accurate focus. Without Fuji’s current speed king, the X-T1, I wasn’t able to test out the upper end of its autofocus abilities, but it performed quickly enough on my trusty X-E2. As for bokeh, out-of-focus background elements were generally smooth and not distracting, meaning this should be a solid portrait lens if that’s your thing.”

Novoflex BALPRO T/S adapter review Part 3
Fun with the BALPRO T/S

guest post by Nathan Wright (ohm-image.net)

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In part 1 of this review, I covered the design and operation of the BALPRO T/S. In part 2, I discussed how its controls apply to professional work, and to what extent it can replace, or augment larger bellow systems.

This part is all about images. Images taken when hiking. Images taken when touring around Japan’s country side .Images taken whilst drinking from high pylons overlooking Chiba Kun’s crotch.

I am not a landscape photographer. I’m not even an artist. So the images in this section should be treated as simple, sophomoric attempts at fun. And fun they were.

Every image in this part of the review was drawn by a fantastic Fujifilm wide-angle large format lens. Its spec goes like this:

135mm f/5,6
Copal 0
Fits in an iPod sock

One of the reason I love large format lenses is that they are so small and light. And they can make great images. This Fujifilm isn’t the sharpest when put on small format sensors, but it has lovely, painterly bokeh. No, not ultra smooth, but ultra brushed-on, and full of ultra earthy tones.

I has a 52mm front thread, making it instantly compatible with all of my Nikon 135 format film lenses and caps. It is sharp when shot straight on, with little tilt or shift applied. It is less than sharp when the film plane is skewed in one direction or another.

But I’m of the mind that when not being paid for producing it, sharpness isn’t that important.

Here’s how the BALPRO T/S and Fufjilm 135/5,6 combo makes a scene look toyish:

Here it is making a tree look scary:

This image was taken at a polluted reservoir made famous by Kent Shiraishi’s OSX desktop image. It is a ridiculous attempt at creating something unique when in my brain, all that burned was Blue Pond:

FR-reader John received his copy of the HS-V5 tethered shooting software (it’s available in Japan) and sends us his very first impressions after spending 20 minutes with it. A more detailed review will come soon.

Thanks a lot John… and here we go:

“Initial twenty minutes.

Having used the Canon dedicated software and Adobe Lightroom tethering solutions, I can say that Fuji is spot on.

I set the import folder in Fuji, to be the same as the one I normally use for my eye-fi card and used a dedicated usb male to micro usb 2.0 cable from “Tethertools”. This allowed me to use Adobe Lightroom and compare speeds. I loaded the software onto a Microsoft surface Pro 3 with a docking station by use of an old iomega external drive.

The CD comes in a hard case with instructions on how to quickly setup and use. It’s simple and easy. Fuji got it right first time. You must first set your X-T1 USB settings to PC Auto. I discovered this from a few minutes of trial and error, I wanted to see if a non techy could do this without extensive knowledge of tethering. After you open the Hyper Utility, which is really cool itself, you click on the dedicated tether icon, the simple instructions in the case tells you to do this. The software immediately recognizes the camera. I immediately chose the camera option and depressed the camera’s shutter, nearly instantaneously, the photo appears on the monitor.

I minimized the Fuji software, and yes it was sitting right there in Lightroom too. You can now use LR without that bothersome tether icon floating around. Adobe prefers that you have this software as a compliment to theirs. I can say to those that don’t have it, you will wish that you did. I will send you a more detail review after this weekend.

Your reader, John”

The HS-V5 has already been released in Japan and should be released elsewhere within February (that’s the information that came to me from a new source).

MTF Charts at ephotozine

XF 56mm f/1.2 APD
USA: BHphoto / AmazonUS / Adorama / DigitalRev EUROPE: AmazonUK / PCHstore / WexUK / DigitalRev AUSTRALIA: CameraPro / DigitalRev

MUST READ: Rico’s X-pert corner comparison XF 56 vs XF 56 APD

ephotozine published the XF 56 APD reivew. They end up highly recommending this lens, saying that it is “incredibly sharp with impressive background blur“! The CON is a “slight loss of light due to APD filter makes the choice of this lens a creative decision over the standard lens“.