FR-readers zone: travel-X, switch to the X and manual focusing with Fuji X-E1 and 35mm

It’s Sunday! Time to share some of your great images and stories you sent me via email at fujirumor@gmail.com, facebook and twitter. Keep it up!

let’s take some awesome pictures today ;)

Mehrdad

Dear fujirumor Team,

my name is Mehrdad Samak-Abedi and I am a semipro photographer based in Berlin, Germany. I found to Fujifilm in 2011 with the x100 and since then I realy appreciate the hightquality image quality the x cameras offer me. I own a x-pro1 and a x100s and prefer landscapes-, street- and urban-photography.

My [shoplink 16850 ebay]Canon 5D MkII[/shoplink] is finds the way into my bag only when I do studiowork and some of my professional stuff but the x cams are alwways with me and I really mean always.

Anyway, I wonder you might be interested in some of my free works and I would appreciate when you are considiring posting some of my pics via your rumorsite or facebook?.
My website
www.qimago.de

My 500px.com sets
http://500px.com/MehrdadAbedi/sets

95% of the shots in my profile/sets/stories are shot with a Fujifilm x camera.

By the way I frequently visiting your rumors site. Gooooood job!
And keep on posting news etc.!

Cheers

Mehrdad

Giacomo

Hi there,
I just wanted to share my flickr account, I’ve been shooting for the last 2 years with Fuji Cameras, first with an X100 and starting last Jan with an X-E1+[shoplink 12889 ebay]35mm f1.4[/shoplink]

http://www.flickr.com/photos/90193008@N04/

hope you enjoy it

regard

Giacomo

Geoff

Hi Patrick. A great resource you are providing in the Fuji Rumours site. Like others have stated, I too check back often, in fact daily. I bought into the Fuji system in January 2013 and have in the last month decided to sell off my FF Nikon and associated lenses as they had not been used in 7 months. I have a web presence dedicated to the imagery from my X system. www.xtographer.weebly.com

Geoff (XF 14mm)

Photo Sama

Manual focusing with Fuji X-E1 and [shoplink 12889 ebay]35mm f/1.4[/shoplink]:

“Hello, First of all thanks for your work on fujirumors… it’s realy helpfull. I contact you because I wanted to share with you my first samples with Fuji-XE1 and 35mm f/1.4 used in full manual. http://www.meghiref.com

I’m a canon user for years now with lenses from [shoplink 16844 ebay]17TSE[/shoplink] to [shoplink 16846 ebay]300mm 2.8[/shoplink], I also owned a [shoplink 16847 ebay]GF1[/shoplink] for the same raisons I decided to go for a fuji. And honestly the only missing steps for fuji today, is full frame and a true 35mm (like 23mm f/2). For marketing and investment return reasons, they will not reach my expectations soon. For 23mm if they launch a 23mm/2 they kill the Xhundred market, so it will be a near 40mm f2.8 (I can live with it), just as I can live with a [shoplink 16848 ebay]Cosina voigtlander 25mm f/4[/shoplink]. Witch is for me the best compact solution today with a 38mm f/4 equivalent.

OK let’s go back to our topic the 35mm in full manual mode, (applicable for street photography )

Why use manual focus when AF work well, (and improved since last firmware)? Because even the fastest AF ever will never be as fast as no AF. For me the goal of street photography is to be able to freez the moment without interacting with the scene. The main rule, what ever you shoot with, is anticipation. When you have to pre-focus (lock the af on your subject, you have to select the right AF point, to point the contrasted zone in your subject, then go back to the scene to compose and wait for the right moment. All this steps are sources of fail, and the one that make you 80% of time change the course of the scene, is when you turn your point your camera to the people you want to focus on.

Here is the process with full manual. ISO is auto, aperture is fixed, shutter speed also. Now compose you scene, and open both eyes to evaluate the distance of your subject wait the right moment and shoot, with this method you miss less than the half of your shoots, and people don’t even care about what you’re doing.( A positive point for X-E1 with his retro look you are considered as a film shooter…)
So now the point is that the 35mm 1.4 is not the most comfortable manual focus lens I had. the number of ring turns between to distances is too high. but here again it’s not impossible see pictures in the top link.

The easiest way is to set aperture to 4 or more, then set the distance between 5 and 10 meters, and shoot, shoot, shoot every thing will be in.
An other point is battery saving mode that turns of you camera… for this point practice the half shuttr button speed, when you feel the moment…
Last point, don’t be too attached to sharpness, you never watch a picture with a magnifier it’s the content (the moment) and the message that counts…

A special message for pixel peepers, … have break take a kitkat, and try manual focus without 100% zoom. you’ll sped more time living the moment ! Here we are hope this could be helpful for any one.
See you.

Photosama