Fujifilm XF23mmF2 WR: “One Of the Nicest Lenses I’ve Ever Used. Excellent Sharpness (except wide-open at close distances)”

Evidently Something compared the XF23mmF2 with the XF23mmF1.4. They really love XF23mmF2 WR and among the other say:

  • Really nice lens for street and video
  • Excellent Aperture Ring
  • Silent and Super Fast AF
  • excellent sharpness, even wide open in the corners
  • images get soft when focussing at close distance wide open
  • Bokeh of 23/1.4 is smoother
  • “one of the nicest lenses I’ve ever owned“.

– First Walk with Fuji 23 mm f2 – Mother of Lenses ! at hendriximages: “this IMO is THE must-have lens for every Fuji shooter – if you can only have one lens (like the “desert island lens”), this is it ! You get stellar image quality, it´s fast, silent, compact, light, water resistant & ain´t got no OVF intrusion – at a very reasonable price.”

– XF23mmF2: Kevin Mullins Initial Thoughts at f16.click: “The AF speed is incredible.  And I mean incredible to the point that sometimes I have to wonder if in fact the AF has done anything. […] The fact of the matter is, in the low light situations I find myself in a lot, I will end up resorting to the F1.4 lens. The good thing of course, is that for the rest of the day (which is about 90%), I’ll be using the smaller and lighter F2 lens exclusively. This lens is perfect for street photography and perfect for almost all of my wedding photography.”

Megan Lewis “Heels of Heart” at fujifilm’s youtube

Fujinon XF23mmF2 WR: USA: BHphoto / Adorama / AmazonUS /  CAN: AmazonCA / EUROPE: AmazonDE / AmazonUK / AmazonITA / AmazonFR / AmazonESP / PCHstore / WexUK / AUSTRALIA: CameraPro

Fujifilm Instax Mini Monochrome Reviews: “It’s fun, but it Has Green/Yellow Color Tint.”

Fujifilm Instax Monochrome Review

Fujifilm’s new Monochrome film just hit the market and it’s the Nr.1 best selling Film on AmazonUS.

And if you are considering to buy it, then you might check out the first reviews on the web. Amazon Customer MiRSD said here:

“While the film is Black and White.. I found it to not be true black and white. It has tints of other colors in it (most noticeable, a greenish tint). This sometimes happens when you have a contrast with the black and white but I do wonder if this is true Black and White film or if fuji simply re-worked the color film (as has been hinted at) which is causing this. I was a bit disappointed as I did want a true black and white film without any other color tints.“

This is confirmed also by Photography Concentrate with Lauren & Rob on their youtube channel here:

“When you are photographing scenes with strong yellow and green tones, you actually can see a bit of that yellow/green coming through“

Instax Monochrome In Stock Check: Adorama, BHphoto, AmazonUS, AmazonDE, AmazonUK, PCHstore.

 

DPReview Fujifilm X-T2 Review Online… and Gets the Gold Award

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Fujifilm X-T2USA: BHphoto / AmazonUS / Adorama / CANADA: AmazonCA / EUROPE: AmazonDE / Calumentphoto DE / AmazonUK / AmazonITA / AmazonFR / AmazonESP / PCHstore / WexUK / AUSTRALIA: CameraPro

dpreview just published it’s full and in depth Fujifilm X-T2 review here. It is, as usual, a very comprehensive review. Here are the Pros and Cons:

Pros

  • Excellent image quality in both Raw and JPEG
  • Superb JPEG color options
  • Direct controls give engaging shooting experience
  • Reassuringly solid build quality
  • AF point joystick speed up operation
  • Greatly improved autofocus, especially in terms of tracking
  • Dual hinged rear screen suits both stills and video shooters
  • Impressive 4K video quality and associated support tools
  • In-camera Raw processing lets you make full use of excellent JPEG engine
  • Simple and effective Wi-Fi system for image transfer
  • USB 3.0 for fast image and video transfer
  • USB charging is convenient
  • Supplied charger makes it easy to keep a spare battery charged

Cons

  • Excessive noise reduction can result in over-smoothed skin detail at high ISO [NOTE: in their X-Pro2 review, dpreview said: “there’s much less of the ‘waxy skin’ effect that we saw at High ISO settings on the previous generation of Fujifilms“]
  • Camera’s full AF capability only available with a subset of lenses
  • Subject tracking, while good, is not be dependable enough for professional use
  • AF performance drops significantly in low light
  • Phase detection region is somewhat small by contemporary standards
  • Choice of three Auto ISO presets more complex than necessary
  • Limited control over autofocus in video mode
  • Battery grip is required for extended video clips and audio monitoring
  • X-Trans color pattern not as widely or well supported as Bayer design

Vertical Booster Grip: USA: BHphoto / AmazonUS / Adorama / CANADA: AmazonCA / EUROPE: AmazonDE / AmazonUK / WexUK / AmazonITA / AmazonFR / AmazonESP / PCHstore / AUSTRALIA: CameraPro

New NP-W126S Batteries: BHphoto / Adorama /

“Honestly, Given its Lens Quality, it’s Surprising that Fujifilm isn’t More Popular! Best MILC System Out There” – PhotoZone 35/2 + 16/1.4 Reviews

35mmAfter months out of Stock, the XF35mmF2 WR is finally available again
XF35mmF2 WR: BHphoto / Adorama / AmazonUS / FocusCamera

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X-shooters know it: Fujinon lenses are just amazing…. and it gets better year after year.

But at the same we X-shooters know, that we are just a marginally niche in the photography world.

And just like Photozone, I also have a hard time to understand, why such an amazing system is not more successful. Photozone says at the end of their XF16mmF1.4 WR review:

“Honestly, given the depth and quality of their lineup, it is quite surprising that Fujifilm isn’t more popular. I, for one, think that it is the best mirrorless system out there (at this stage) and it just got a bit better again.”

You can read the Photozone XF35mmF2 WR Review here. From the conclusions:

“Center quality is great and the borders are also impressive. The corners aren’t quite as good but decent. It is worth mentioning that the quality, primarily the contrast, decreases at very close focus distances. This is probably also the reason why Fujifilm limited the lens to a min. focus distance of 0.35m (1:7.5) which is longer than usual. Lateral CAs are quite low. From a real life perspective, vignetting and distortions are also nothing to worry about. That being said, the Fujinon is slightly underdesigned. It relies on auto-correct to compensate its high original distortions and vignetting. […] the AF is now both very fast and silent.

Finally we have to answer the question how the Fujinon XF 35mm f/2 R WR compares to the Fujinon XF 35mm f/1.4 R. When looking at our ratings the answer is obvious. Yes, the f/2 lens is sharper at all overlapping apertures. The weather sealing as well as the faster AF are also on the plus side. Yet .. nothing beats speed but more speed. If you simply require an ultra-large aperture as well as a superior bokeh, the XF 35mm f/1.4 R is still the better choice – also because it isn’t that much more expensive nor much bigger.”

The XF16mmF1.4 WR Review can be read here. From the conclusions:

“The Fujinon XF 16mm f/1.4 R WR may not knock your socks off like the XF 90mm f/2 R LM WR but it is a capable performer nonetheless. The center quality is just fine at f/1.4 whereas the corners show some softness – emphasized by field curvature. However, how often do you require sharp corners at such a setting anyway? Stopping down to f/2 lifts the quality substantially and it’s impressive from f/4. Lateral CAs are negligible but we spotted a bit of purple fringing in extreme scenes. The amount of vignetting is good unless you disable auto-correction. The (native) amount of distortions is very low for a 24mm lens. The bokeh is surprisingly decent for a lens in this class albeit not without weaknesses.

The AF is speedy and noiseless.

XF 16mmF1.4 WR (save $200): BHphoto / Adorama / AmazonUS

*** ALL USA X DEALS HERE *** ALL EU X DEALS HERE ***
Reminder: Price increase on X-Gear coming in September (EU)

16mm

Fujifilm X-T2… Do You Know the Answer to These 10 Questions?

Fuji XT2

 

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Do You Know the Answer to These 10 Questions regarding the Fujifilm X-T2? (I get some of those questions also quite regulary via email).

  1. Sony A6300 and Fuji X-T2 EVF Live View… what’s the difference?
  2. Endless Buffer: how can you shoot an endless stream of full-size FINE+RAW images at 5 fps?
  3. What Trick did Fuji use to eliminate Moiree and Artefacts when shooting 4K video?
  4. Why is there less rolling shutter on the X-T2 compared to the X-T1?
  5. X-T2 has dual UHS-II card slots… but are they really fast the same?
  6. What’s the difference between the X-T2 in-camera Boost and the Vertical Grip Boost?
  7. How can you easily expand the dynamic range of the X-T2 by up to 7 EV with just two (2) shots?
  8. AF Subject Tracking: Which are the Secrets behind the massive Improvement?
  9. Can we hope to ever get the Zebra Function on the X-T2?
  10. DR50% is possible (in addition to DR100, DR200, DR400). But how?
  11. …. and many other questions

You don’t know the answers? Then this means you didn’t read Rico’s Free eBook First Look Review about the Fujfiilm X-T2 here.

No, I won’t give you the answers in this post. But you’ll get them all (and a lot more) at Rico’s 12,000 words and 100+ samples monstrous Review!

have a good read,
Patrick