Fuji Guys Fujifilm Instax Mini EVO First Look (and My Personal Instax Love Story Unveiled)

My Instax Love story started in Chiang Mai, my favorite city in Thailand.

Chiang Mai is in the North of Thailand, far away from the wonderful islands of the South, which are stunning, sure, but also way more crowded than the North of Thailand.

My original plan, after traveling all the way from Cambodia through Laos (by local bus and motorbike, no plane) was to turn right to get to Vietnam after visiting Luang Prabang. But as every solo traveler might have experienced, plans are made just to be changed. And at the end I didn’t turn right to Vietnam, but I took a 2 days slow boat along the Mekong river – which claimed the life of my X-E2 as I briefly told here – to reach Northern Thailand.

I ended up in Chiang Mai, the most beautiful South East Asian city I have been to along with Phnom Penh in Cambodia.

So what has this to do with Instax?

Well, I arrived in Chiang Mai around New Year. I had an X-T1 and my Instax Mini Smartphone printer. New Year was amazing, with thousands of floating lanterns flying in the sky. A magical atmosphere.

I was alone and did what I love most to do: taking pictures. Mostly with my X-T1 and XF35mmF1.4 (as it survived my survival swim in the Mekong, whereas my XF18-55 and X-E2 died).

But this was also my first travel with an Instax Printer.

So here is what I did: I took pictures of the people celebrating New Year (without them noticing me taking pictures), and after I took the images, I printed one for them. Without saying anything, I just gave it to them as soon as the printer spit it out and walked away.

From the distance, I could see their faces looking at the film developing, and then being surprised and happy to see themselves in the image. I will share one of the images I took (and gave away) on that evening below for you guys.

So this is it.

This is where my love story with Instax started. And it never stopped. Giving away some little prints is one of the things I enjoy to do most.

Recently I bought the Instax Mini Wide, but I will also get the Instax Mini EVO once available here in Italy. Because it’s true that it’s nice to make a present to others with a little print, but it is also nice to enjoy the process of taking images and printing, and from everything I have seen so far, the Instax Mini EVO, with its vintage look and retro operation (push the lever to print, turn the lens ring to change settings etc), is what suits my taste best.

So what can you expect when you get the Instax Mini EVO? Well, Fuji Guy Francis is giving a first look to the Fujifilm Instax Mini EVO hybrid digital camera/printer.

  • very nice looking camera
  • 28mm f/2 lens with 3.2x digital zoom
  • lens ring around allows to navigate through various lens filters
  • FRONT OF THE CAMERA
  • LED flash
  • front shutter button
  • selfie mirror
  • TOP OF THE CAMERA
  • film dial allows to navigate through different film options
  • cold shoe
  • another shutter button
  • print lever: crank the print lever to print an image
  • strap locks
  • BOTTOM
  • tripod mount on one side
  • on the other side micro USB charging port and micro SD card slot
  • BACK
  • nice big screen
  • FEATURES
  • lens filter: access to 10 different lenses (like “half frame” and “double exposure”). Rotate lens ring to access the various options
  • film dial: rotate to navigate through various film filters (retro, vivid, blue tone, red tone, monochrome, etc)
  • rich mode (more vivid colors and natural mode (a bit more true to life)
  • you can force flash, turn off, or make it AUTO (camera evaluates if it needs to flash or not)
  • Macro: get as close as 10cm
  • you can use it also as a smartphone printer
  • you can also transfer the images you printed on your Mini EVO to your smartphone with an Instax border
  • the Instax Mini size is perfect for giving to other people, because it fits in their wallet and people can carry it home safely

Get Yours:

 

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Ein Beitrag geteilt von Fuji_Rumors (@fuji_rumors)

Fujifilm GFX100S vs Canon R6: Is Medium Format Worth It? This Guy Says “No” (and My Thoughts)

Alex Barrera wonders: is medium format worth it?

In an attempt to figure out the answer, he shared a blind test using the following gear:

In the blind test, all images marked with “A” belong to one camera and all images marked with “B” belong to the other camera.

I did my the test myself, and honestly, right at the very first image comparison (see image below) I thought “oh please let “A” be the the Fujifilm GFX100S“. And lucky me, camera “A” is indeed the Fujifilm GFX100S.

Megapixel had not much to do with my preference. It’s a compressed youtube video, how could that matter. Megapixel matter more when you work with the files in post, or when you print.

My preference had more to do with the output of the Fujinon GF80mmF1.7 lens itself, which is very similar in terms of shallow depth of field to the RF 50mm f/1.2 L, but the bokeh looked just more pleasing in my eyes. Then there are other subjective elements like the colors (Provia in this case) and so forth. Overall, I mostly picked A (GFX100S).

But what about Alex? Is medium format worth it?

No, it’s not worth it, and here is why:

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From FULL FRAME to Fujifilm APS-C: Six Years Later As a Full Time Landscape Photographer

Back in 2015 Andy Mumford, a full time landscape photographer, switched from using a full frame system to the Fuji X system and in this video he talks about what effect it’s had on his photography, both professionally and personally.

The video would be worth to watch also just for the stunning images he shares (including some from around my home in the Dolomites). So go check it out.

I feel he nicely brings to the point what it means to shoot with Fujifilm cameras. And I also agree that if you don’t print enormous images, then 16 or 26 megapixel are more than enough.

I do love to print my images, too, and so far the largest I have hanging at my home is a 90x60cm (35×23 inches) image taken with the 24MP Fujifilm X-E3, which looks absolutely perfect, even when watched in “photographers mode” (meaning not watching from the normal distance as every non-photographer would do, but by going very close to it and basically pixel peeping with the eyes ;))

Also Andy, who rarely prints beyond 1 meter (39 inches) is totally fine with the current resolution Fujifilm cameras offer.

As far as his thoughts go, here is is summary:

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Samyang AF 12mm F2 X ePhotozine Review: Excellent Performance at an Excellent Price!

The brand new Samyang 12mm f/2.0 autofocus lens for Fujifilm X is in stock since a few weeks now.

So how does it perform?

ePhotozine tested the lens and is extremely happy with it. Here are their Pros and Cons:

Pros

  • Outstanding central sharpness
  • Low central CA
  • Fast and virtually silent AF
  • Weather sealing
  • Close focus
  • Well-controlled distortion
  • Modest vignetting
  • Excellent price

Cons

  • Some edge CA
  • No OIS

You can read the full review here.

New – Third Party Fujifilm X Autofocus Lenses Group

Viltrox AF 13mm f/1.4 XF Review: Sharpest Viltrox Fujifilm X Mount Lens coming for $469 in 2022

The Viltrox 13mm f/1.4 is on the official Viltrox roadmap since April 2020 and yes, I know that based on hints I got I said that it should be announced in November. Well, that evidently did not happen and I apologize to all of my readers.

I guess also Viltrox struggles with the worldwide parts shortage and in fact in today’s video, Damian, who is testing the lens right now, confirms that Viltrox had to postpone the release for this lens once again. Viltrox now told him they pushed it back to 2022.

The good news: the review samples are now out, so I guess it can’t be that long of a wait anymore.

Speaking of review samples, Damian is the first to publish his first look on the Viltrox 13mm f/1.4 AF XF.

It’s a nice video which includes lots of samples and autofocus demos (for stills and video). So definitely check it out.

Personally I am happy to hear that Damian considers the Viltrox 13mm f/1.4 XF the sharpest (and best) Viltrox XF lens so far with excellent autofocus (also face detection) and very usable in the center even at f/1.4 (a bit less usable in the corners wide open). The clicked aperture ring is a bonus for me although I’d have hoped for a bit of lighter lens (it weights 420g).

It’s not free imperfections, like a noticeable vignetting wide open and some distortion and chromatic aberration, but considering that many will mostly use it for landscape photography (and hence stop down anyway) and especially considering the price of $469, to me it looks like a good value for money lens.

Now let me say this.

I generally prefer Fujinon X (or GFX) mount lenses, and not because they are better in terms image quality (if a lens is more affordable, then I can accept to give up a bit of IQ), but if there is one thing that I love about the X/GFX system, then it’s the colors I get from it (with Astia being my favorite all-rounder film simulation).

And in my experience, whenever I use third party lenses on my Fujifilm cameras, the colors simply don’t come out the way I am used to (and love it) from the Fujinon lenses. In fact, this is one of the main reason why my Fujinon XF10-24mm has basically replaced my Samyang 12mm f/2 in my camera bag. Not because the Samyang is bad, not at all (look, I have taken some of my most loved images with it). But sometimes I can be terribly lazy with post processing my images, and I know the XF10-24mm will nail the colors the way I love it more than my Samyang 12mmF2 would, and hence spare me some time in post.

In short: if you love film simulations, like I do, native Fujinon lenses will deliver better results, or let’s say results that more faithfully reproduce the vibe and tone Fujifilm intended to give us with the various film simulations.

Ah, speaking of colors, Damian says that the Viltrox 13mm f/1.4 XF colors are on the cooler side.

With all that said, I think Viltrox made a very smart move with this lens, as Fujifilm itself is not offering anything that can closely match the Viltrox 13mm f/1.4 in terms of focal length and aperture. The closest competitor at this point is the Samyang 12mm f/2, which is smaller than the Viltrox 13mm f/1.4 and also weather sealed (the Viltrox is well built, but not weather resistant). However, the Samyang is also slower and more expensive.

So overall a great addition for the X mount system and a lens that I am hugely interested in if it performs decently also for astrophotography.

We Got You Covered!

Some Images taken with my XF10-24mmF4 and Samyang 12mmF2

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