I’m in the midst of catching up on the latest cinema and hybrid camera and lens announcements by Blackmagic Design, Fujifilm, Panasonic and others in between processing a backlog of photographs from our too-infrequent trips into the city of Sydney.
Tomorrow I’ll be attending a workshop at Fujifilm Australia’s Fujifilm House of Photography in Sydney and I’m hoping it will be an opportunity to take a look at the company’s recently-announced GFX 100 II and its three new GF tilt-shift lenses, the Fujinon GF 30mm f/5.6 T/S and GF 110mm f/5.6 T/S Macro, as well as a lens for all lights and seasons, the nearly perfect-normal 44mm-equivalent GF 55mm f/1.7 R WR.
Fujifilm GFX100 II with vertical battery grip, tilting viewfinder, two tilt/shift and one “lightweight cine-style prime”
Fujifilm GFX100 II with VG-GFX100-II Vertical Battery Grip and Fujinon GF 50mm f/3.5 T LM WR prime lens (40mm equivalent in 35mm). Image courtesy of B&H.
Fujifilm GFX100 II with VG-GFX100-II Vertical Battery Grip. Image courtesy of B&H.
Fujifilm EVF-GFX2 Removable 5.76m-Dot OLED EVF with FUJIFILM EVF-TL1 EVF Tilt Adapter for Fujifilm GFX50S and GFX100 large format cameras. Image courtesy of B&H.
Fujifilm Wide Eyecup EC-XH W. Image courtesy of B&H.
Fujifilm FAN-001 Cooling Fan. Image courtesy of B&H.
Fujifilm Fujinon GF 30mm f/5.6 T/S 24mm-equivalent tilt/shift prime lens. Image courtesy of B&H.
Fujifilm Fujinon GF 55mm f/1.7 R WR 44mm-equivalent “lightweight cine-style prime lens”. Image courtesy of B&H.
Fujifilm Fujinon GF 110mm f/5.6 R WR 87mm-equivalent “lightweight cine-style prime lens”. Image courtesy of B&H.
Linhof Master Technika Classic 4″x5″ “Snow” sheet film view camera. Image courtesy of Linhof.
While there is no guarantee that any of the three will be on display there is a chance and I’m particularly keen to see them.
Two of my key magazine editorial portrait styles grew out of using 4″x5″ sheet film view cameras mostly with a moderate wide-angle lens for environmental portraits and a moderately long aka telephoto lens for close-up face-only portraits.
All my hardware was stolen by a colleague after I moved to London and I’m wondering whether the current residents at 19 Chipstead Street, Parson’s Green SW6 3SR found it hidden in their basement? I can provide a list and it is extensive.
No matter: the analog era is well and truly over and I’ve been hoping that Fujifilm might some day make the gear to allow a similar approach be taken in this digital age.
Fujifilm Fujica GX680III 6x8cm format 120 roll-film camera. Image found on eBay.
Fujifilm’s promotional video for the 110mm T/S lens positions it for food, products, commercial and still-life photography but movements like tilt, shift and rotate are just as useful in portrait photography especially in close-up with a telephoto lens to rapidly and selectively focus on an eye and a lip, say, or an eye and a highlight on the tip of a nose.
Fujifilm used to make some of the finest view camera lenses ever though I never had the privilege of using them as they weren’t available here and the same applied to the company’s reportedly superb GX680 analog cameras for 120 roll film in 6cm x 8cm format.
They offered camera movements not unlike those in view cameras was well as a large collection of excellent lenses and were used for magazine editorial and other applications such as portrait photography by luminaries including Greg Gorman.
I would have loved one!
Rolleiflex 4.0 FT twin lens reflex telephoto portrait camera, special edition. Image courtesy of DHW Fototechnik.
Fujifilm’s GX680 series also apparently offered a choice of viewing options like the one in the photograph above as well as, presumably, a folding waist-level viewfinder with magnifier similar to the ones in Rolleiflex twin-lens reflex cameras and various brands of 120 roll-film single lens reflex cameras including Hasselblad, some models of which, incidentally, were made by Fujifilm as well as their lenses.
Another item I hope to see in action at Fujifilm House of Photography tomorrow is the GFX 100 II’s upgraded viewfinder with, I assume, optional EVF-TL1 EVF Tilt Adapter.
Since losing my 120 roll-film cameras with waist-level viewfinders the closest I’ve come is Panasonic’s Lumix GX8 flagship compact but pro-quality rangefinder-style Micro Four Thirds camera which I still often carry to supplement my Fujifilm X-Pro2 digital rangefinder camera when waist-level viewing is an essential to get the image I need without having to bend over or kneel on the ground.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 camera with tilting electronic viewfinder and Panasonic Lumix G 12-32mm f/3.5-5.6 Power OIS zoom lens. Image by Karin Gottschalk.
I’ve tried flipping other cameras’ monitors up to try viewing downwards but that’s next to useless in bright sunlight or cloudy days with lightbox skies.
The hinge of the GX8’s built-in tilting EVF could certainly be a little tighter but nothing that a left-hand thumb can’t keep in position tilted upwards at 90 degrees.
Waking about in city crowds with a little tilting EVF camera is not unlike a cloak of invisibility and allows me to be up close and unobtrusive as some of the images below show.
DxO PhotoLab Elite’s DeepPRIME XD denoising and demosaicing feature does an excellent job of resolving fine details from Micro Four Thirds and, for that matter, APS-C sensors but imagine what it could do for raw files from medium format aka large format sensors such as those in Fujifilm’s GFX cameras: 100 megapixels with DeepPRIME XD, wow!
Blackmagic Design’s Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 6K Pro aka BMPCC 6K Pro. Image courtesy of Blackmagic Design.
This week’s announcement by Panasonic of its SLR-style Lumix G9 II M43 hybrid camera with PDAF, improved IBIS and amazing video capability on par with its GH6 is impressive and I’m also looking forward to seeing one of those when they eventually appear in Sydney, but it makes me wonder if there will ever be a worthy successor to my beloved GX8.
Tilting viewfinders, like tilt/shift lenses, have a place in moviemaking as well as stills photography and it’s assuring to see that Blackmagic Design is continuing to offer an optional tilting viewfinder for its newly announced Cinema Camera 6K but Blackmagic’s EVF only tilts up to 70 degrees and not 90 degrees as I would prefer.
Panasonic Lumix DMC-GX8 professional hybrid M43 camera mostly at waist-level using its tilting EVF at ninety degrees
B&H Affiliate Link – Click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
DxO – website – PhotoLab, FilmPack, ViewPoint, PureRAW, Nik Collection – Our #1 choice in raw image processing and editing software.
FastRawViewer – website – “Is your RAW converter slow while building 1:1 previews or culling RAW files? Use FastRawViewer – a great time-saver and an ideal RAW workflow helper.”
Last Saturday provided another welcome opportunity to get back into the Sydney Central Business District and the ever-expanding Darling Harbour entertainment and exhibitions district so I chose to continue the monochrome cityscape documentary photography project I began on Thursday, July 27 2023.
The city of Sydney and its inner suburbs have changed so much since before the COVID-19 pandemic began in early 2020 and some places are almost unrecognizable compared to when I was photographing human rights protests up to and including the year 2019.
Sydney Metro train stations are just some of the new building projects going on throughout the city and inner suburbs and Darling Harbour itself is very different to what it used to be.
Even more so compared to the city throughout the twentieth century: the hoardings around current construction projects are often decorated with big blow-ups of historical documentary photographs of city streets and previous construction projects but is anyone documenting the city in all its many aspects nowadays?
I suspect not: documentary photography has never gained the strong foothold in Australia that it has long possessed in the United Kingdom.
The photograph at left and in the photo gallery above shows contemporary Sydneysiders walking past a big blow-up of an historical photo from 1941 depicting women, children and some men waving at an arriving or departing ship.
The white-hatted woman has an almost contemporary-looking face while the dark-hatted woman one over from her right, our left, appears to be gazing out of the photograph as if at the modern world.
None of the modern Australians walking past her paid the photograph any attention, and so I couldn’t resist making this photograph.
I’ve been working on The Robert Krasker Project website, noticing parallels between Australian culture and society back when Robert Krasker was alive between 1913 and 1981 and now: some things change but too many remain the same.
Conversely my contemporaries are mostly embedded within their own little virtual worlds via the cellphones that they stare at when walking, crossing busy intersections, stopping suddenly at escalators thus blocking anyone who is behind them and deaf to their pleas to move aside, and even more noticeably lurching out of shops to smash into the crowd.
Some street photographers I met a while ago declared they would never make another photograph depicting cellphone addicts but cellphone addiction is a dominant aspect of modern life and it is everywhere all the time, the same as disregard for others in all its forms.
Is Fujifilm Australia restoring its Saturday seminars at the House of Photography?
The reverse phenomenon, regard for one’s fellow citizens, is the reason I was so keen to photograph the Discover Fujifilm free seminars at Fujifilm House of Photography in Park Street, Sydney, until a change of management saw it move them to Thursday nights from 6:00 to 6:45pm.
Hours of travel to and from the city on Thursdays for the sake of a 45 minute seminar was impractical for us so we’re glad to see Saturday mornings being restored and will be attending these two at least.
“Fujifilm Australia supports local creatives by offering opportunities to meet, learn, improve on your skills, to hear from our X-Photographers, and try our range of X Series and GFX cameras and lenses.”
We’ve not met Fujifilm Australia’s new training manager yet so will find out if he will be as receptive to our photography of these events as former presenter Stephen Pierce.
Powerhouse Museum’s acquisition of The Australian Centre for Photography’s collection
I would love to see the Powerhouse Museum become a real centre for photography and moviemaking in all their aspects and genres and start to make up for the yawning gap in access, education and viewing that exists for both in Sydney.
Sydney’s Ultimo-based Powerhouse Museum, formerly part of the Museum of Applied Arts & Sciences (MAAS), now seems to have reverse-rebranded all of MAAS to The Powerhouse and has expanded from one location into four:
“The Powerhouse has four locations across Sydney, Australia.
Powerhouse Museum Ultimo, 500 Harris Street, Ultimo.
Powerhouse Castle Hill, Museums Discovery Centre, 172 Showground Road, Castle Hill.
Sydney Observatory, 1003 Upper Fort St, Millers Point.”
The Powerhouse acquired the photography collection of the new defunct Australian Centre for Photography in late 2022 but so far hard information about the new role of photography and other digital and screen-based media has been difficult to come by.
“Powerhouse Photography is a new initiative dedicated to amplifying Australian photography and lens-based practice. This program continues the important work of the Australian Centre for Photography (ACP).
For nearly 50 years, ACP was central to industry and community engagement with photography, which aligns with Powerhouse’s vision to promote and embed creative industries in museum practice. Powerhouse has acquired ACP’s photography archive and fund and will continue their legacy through Powerhouse Photography….”
So far the only mention of photography at the Powerhouse website is something called Photofields, running there during Sydney Design Week from 15-24 September 2023:
“Photofields is an industry-centred program that engages with contemporary issues and ideas at the intersection of photography, architecture and design. The program examines a range of image-making practices, and how they affect the way we relate to natural and built environments.”
Image notes
Photographed with Fujifilm X-Pro2, Fujinon XF 23mm f/1.4 R and Fujinon XF 14mm f/2.8 R then we processed the X-Trans raw files in DxO PhotoLab Elite with DxO FilmPack Elite and DxO ViewPoint as plug-ins using DxO’s DeepPRIME XD, the Fujifilm Acros + R film simulation and selenium/gold split toning.
Links
B&H Affiliate Link – Click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
DxO – website – PhotoLab, FilmPack, ViewPoint, PureRAW, Nik Collection – Our #1 choice in raw image processing and editing software.
FastRawViewer – website – “Is your RAW converter slow while building 1:1 previews or culling RAW files? Use FastRawViewer – a great time-saver and an ideal RAW workflow helper.”
Photo Mechanic Plus – website – “Photo Mechanic®Plus is the Ultimate Image Database for Photographers.”
Powerhouse Museum – website – “The Powerhouse is the largest museum group in Australia. It sits at the intersection of the arts, design, science and technology and plays a critical role in engaging communities with contemporary ideas and issues. It is custodian to over half a million objects of national and international significance and is considered one of the finest and most diverse collections in Australia.”
August is traditionally the coldest and darkest month of winter in Australia and today is typical. We’re grateful that this house is a rare exception in being fully insulated and with excellent natural lighting and ventilation so we’re not shivering or running the air-conditioning at full blast 24/7 as the occupants of the giant brand-new block-filling MacMansions surrounding us are right now.
Today is a good day to process photographs we made the last time we were in the Sydney CBD when it was sunny and rather warm for winter and we’re already feeling a little warmer on being reminded of all that lovely sunshine and clear blue skies.
Fujifilm Australia’s Fujifilm House of Photography has suspended its free Saturday morning Discover Fujifilm seminars, replacing them with 45-minute Thursday evening presentations that we have yet to attend due to the time and hassle of walking, busing and training into Sydney from the far-flung northern suburbs then back again so we’re seeking other reasons to visit the city on Saturdays or Sundays.
I’ve throughly enjoyed attending Fujifilm Australia’s seminars as they’re the closest thing we have in Sydney to some sort of gathering place for serious photographers, something I’ve badly missed from other countries.
Sydney’s Fujifilm House of Photography is smaller than the Fujifilm House of Photography in London, one room on one floor compared to many of each, but it is a place where I feel welcome and even more importantly, accepted.
One sign of that is that FHoP’s manager is female and other employees are also female while the newest employee is a graduate from the University of the Arts London’s London College of Communications photojournalism and documentary courses with experience in working for the press in several countries.
I’ve also throughly enjoyed documenting Sydney FHoP’s seminars in colour for Unititled.Net’s Photo Galleries and they’ve provided and excellent opportunity to try out a range of DxO colour negative and transparency film simulations in combination with different focal lengths for photographing the same subject matter in the same location but interpreting them in slightly different ways.
I’ve learned that some though not all colour negative film simulations are great for processing raw images shot under mixed light sources and that it is well worth breaking free from the colour reversal film simulations I usually choose based on having relied upon analog colour transparency films for years.
Digging into detail and darkness with monochrome and DxO
My first analog rangefinder camera was a secondhand Leica M-4P with a brand new Leica Summicron-M 35mm f/2.0 lens and using them with Kodachrome 64 and Panatomic-X film was a revelation, like opening a door into a whole new dimension.
Later I added medium and large format rangefinder cameras to my kit and pushed my urge for detail and rich high and low value image information even further.
Our Fujifilm X-Pro2 with Fujinon XF 23mm f/1.4 R stopped down to between f/8.0 and f/11 with the shutter speed at 1/500 to 1/1000 and Auto ISO selected is the closest I’ve been getting in digital to what I used to do in analog and I’ve been loving it.
I’m especially impressed by how dark I can go with shadows when processing my X-Trans raw files in DxO’s DeepPRIME XD while still retaining just enough information.
I’ll continue carrying our XF 23mm each time we travel into the Sydney CBD whatever our ostensible purpose so I can continue with this series but I’ll also be packing our XF 14mm f/2.8 R and XF 50mm f/2.0 R WR when colour will be more expressive than monochrome.
Image notes
Photographed with Fujifilm X-Pro2 and Fujinon XF 23mm f/1.4 R then we processed the X-Trans raw files in DxO PhotoLab Elite with DxO FilmPack Elite and DxO ViewPoint as plug-ins using DxO’s DeepPRIME XD, the Fujifilm Acros + R film simulation and selenium/gold split toning.
Links
B&H Affiliate Link – Click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
DxO – website – PhotoLab, FilmPack, ViewPoint, PureRAW, Nik Collection – Our #1 choice in raw image processing and editing software.
FastRawViewer – website – “Is your RAW converter slow while building 1:1 previews or culling RAW files? Use FastRawViewer – a great time-saver and an ideal RAW workflow helper.”
Time to reacquaint myself with the terrors and pleasures of colour transparency films or at least some of the excellent digital simulations of them by companies like DxO, after using colour negative film simulations for some time now.
Until Kodak killed off Kodachrome 64 it was my default colour transparency film for documentary photography and then I replaced it with Fujifilm’s Velvia 50 followed by Velvia 100.
Colour negative films loomed low as none of my clients wanted prints and good colour labs and printers were hard to come by, and now I’m often finding that I prefer colour negative simulations for documentary photographs featuring people.
Then, we began experiencing mid-winter days with strange light, odd weather and narrow beams of sunlight through puffy or misty clouds so I thought I’d see what some snapshots made recently would look like with simulated Fujifilm Velvia 100.
Will we see daylong cloudless blue skies and laser beam sunlight again sometime soon?
B&H Affiliate Link – Click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
DxO – website – PhotoLab, FilmPack, ViewPoint, PureRAW, Nik Collection – Our #1 choice in raw image processing and editing software.
FastRawViewer – website – “Is your RAW converter slow while building 1:1 previews or culling RAW files? Use FastRawViewer – a great time-saver and an ideal RAW workflow helper.”
Last Saturday I was in the Sydney CBD on a series of errands, had some time to spare so dropped into the Fujifilm House of Photography, borrowed a Fujifilm X-S20 and Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4.0 LM PZ WR with their kind permission, stepped out the door accompanied by a staff member who was keeping a keen eye on camera and lens, then rapidly snapped a short series of pictures of which these were the least awful!
Of course it helps if you are a little familiar with the myriad possibilities for setting up any given digital camera but time was of the essence and I wanted get a quick and effective feel of how both items might work when the files are processed in DxO PhotoLab Elite 6 and its plug-ins, all of which were updated to support the X-S20 the week before.
I processed the X-S20’s files to quick-and-dirty proof (not exhibition print) quality to reflect the strange light and weather that day, choosing my default colour transparency film simulation, Digital Films/Fujifilm Astia, for its excellent rendering of natural variations in skin colour.
Although this article is not a review of either camera or lens, the brief time I spent with both was enough to show that Fujifilm really is onto something special and I hope to be able to try them out in combination again in future.
In-depth reviews of the X-S20 are beginning to appear online now and I’ll be publishing some of them here after watching them.
Meanwhile the Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4.0 has been out for a while having been announced alongside Fujifilm’s X-H2S over a year ago in 2022 and despite some initial scepticism from first-look reviewers, still photographers and videographers who’ve spent time with it to understand its uniqueness have come away impressed.
I’ve long been waiting for a zoom lens like this one with its very decent 27-183mm focal range, lightweight plastic body, optical and mechanical design by Fujifilm’s legendary Fujinon cinema lens division and affordable pricing and it is top of my lens wishlist now for documentary photography and video production.
Fujifilm X-S20 with Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4 LM PZ WR, Fujinon X-H2S with MKX 18-55mm T2.9 and MKX 50-135mm T2.9, Image courtesy of Compact Camera Meter.
The Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4.0 balanced very well with the X-S20’s small and lightweight body and I’ve previously handled this lens while attached to a Fujifilm X-H2 and an X-H2S gripped and ungripped.
Although I prefer using heavier, battery-gripped hybrid cameras for handheld video production such as the X-H2S with Fujifilm VG-XH Vertical Battery Grip, cage and accessories as needed, the X-S20 gave the impression it would work well as a small, light and discrete video camera with the non-OIS Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4.0 or either of its two OIS kit lens options, the Fujinon XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 R LM OIS and the Fujinon XC 15-45mm f/3.5-5.6 OIS PZ.
I’ve rarely used telephoto lenses over 105mm (35mm sensor equivalent) except for the odd times I’ve had to cover packed press conferences with a borrowed 70-200mm or 80-200mm zoom, and I couldn’t find a personal use for the university art school’s Nikkor 80-200mm f/2.8 when I was studying then teaching there.
Fujifilm X-S20, x-Pro3, X-T5 and X-H2S with Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4 LM PZ WR lens. Image courtesy of Compact Camera Meter.
Normally I cover events like those at Fujifilm House of Photography with three Fujinon XF prime lenses and swap them about as needed but I’ve often wondered if I’d achieve more keepers and greater variety with a zoom lens like the Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4.0 LM PZ WR.
A crucial lesson I learned years ago from the late, great filmmaker and photographer William Klein was that one must constantly jump out of one’s comfort zone and a great way to do that is to use lenses and therefore ways of seeing that one normally would not.
Two legendary Nikon Nikkor manual focus lenses, 28mm and 180mm (18mm and 120mm in APS-C)
Nikon Nikkor Ai-S 28mm f/2.0 Nikon F-mount prime lens with “Hollywood 28” optical design licensed from Zeiss. Image found on ebay.
Nikon NIKKOR✱ED 180mm f/2.8 AI-s telephoto lens, manual focusing, made from 1981 through to 2006. Image found on ebay.
Accordingly I chose to bounce between the two extremes of the XF 18-120mm f/4.0 LM PZ WR’s focal range, 18mm and 120mm, or in their 35mm sensor equivalents 27mm and 183mm, during this brief lens and camera tryout.
I don’t recall the art school owning a Nikon 28mm wide-angle or 180mm telephoto lens though there was a 24mm lens in the store-room: it wasn’t my favourite focal length then or now, being too long for some things and too wide for others.
Leica Elmarit-M 28mm f/2.8 manual prime lens for Leica M-Series. This was my automatic go-to lens for documentary photography and photojournalism. Photograph courtesy of Japan Camera Hunter.
After switching from Nikon SLRs to Leica rangefinder cameras I bought an Elmarit-M 28mm f2.8 and felt right at home with it to the point where it permanently lived on one of my Leica M-4Ps, the one I carried all the time in a waist-pack.
If Fujifilm offered a Fujicron-style Fujinon XF 18mm f/2.0 or even f/2.8 compact lens sized to fit its X-Pro series cameras and smaller, then I’d be ecstatic and snap one up immediately.
The Fujinon XF 18mm f/1.4 R LM WR seemed like an excellent lens from my tryout of it at an event in 2021 but it may be better suited to DSLR-style and size cameras like the X-H2S, X-H2 and X-T5 and I don’t really need an f/1.4 maximum aperture as I use wide-angle lenses for their deep depth-of-focus and not their bokeh capabilities.
If bokeh is what you need and in abundance, however, consider the longer end of the XF 18-120mm f/4.0 when set at f/5.6 or f/8.0.
Using the XF 18-120mm f/4.0 at the opening of Sydney’s Fujifilm House of Photography in 2022
‘List of Fujinon XF Lenses that Get Maximum Benefit from Fujifilm X-H2 (and X-T5) with 40 Megapixel Resolution’ published by Fuji Rumors in September 2022.
I made both of these photographs with the XF 18-120mm f/4.0 attached to our X-Pro2 and despite this camera not supporting the lens’ extra features via firmware I found the lens easy and fast to use and the results excellent for the focal length range.
Although many reviewers have commented that they miss having more on the wide end, preferring 16mm to 18mm, I have no such desire and would simply carry our Fujinon XF 14mm f/2.8 R alongside the zoom lens.
The only downside to that is that Fujifilm rates the XF 18-120mm f/4.0 LM PZ WR as more suitable for 40 megapixel sensor cameras while the XF 14mm f/2.8 R is not on that list.
Time to update the 14mm lens, Fujifilm?
Links
B&H Affiliate Link – Click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
DxO – website – PhotoLab, FilmPack, ViewPoint, PureRAW, Nik Collection – Our #1 choice in raw image processing and editing software.
FastRawViewer – website – “Is your RAW converter slow while building 1:1 previews or culling RAW files? Use FastRawViewer – a great time-saver and an ideal RAW workflow helper.“
Fujifilm X Global – XF18-120mmF4 LM PZ WR, Make Moving Memories – “With a 35mm zoom range equivalent to 27-183mm, a close focusing distance of 60cm (23.6in) throughout, and near-silent zoom and focusing controls, XF18-120mmF4 LM PZ WR is perfect for a broad range of motion production applications. These extend even further when considering the lens’s minimal focus breathing, stepless aperture control, and constant F4 aperture. Pull focus, make precise adjustments to iris, or change focal length without causing any noticeable distractions to the recorded footage.”
Today has been a wonderfully sunny and warm day for a Sydney winter that has been the coldest on record for the last forty years and tomorrow, Saturday, was forecast to be equally sunny.
Then tomorrow’s forecast was updated to mostly sunny with some cloud and I was reminded of a project I shot in the Sydney CBD a year before the pandemic began, one where I made some of my favourite images for some years.
That day was mostly sunny with some cloud and there was always a soft edge on the sunlight coming out of a mostly blue sky, probably the same kind of mix of hardish and softer light that tomorrow may bring.
I much prefer hard-edge laser-beam sunlight for urban documentary photographs in summer and winter, particularly winter with its low-angled sunlight throughout the day, as those long shadows take on a life of their own and can act as counterfoils or echoes of the figures projecting them.
So I thought it might be a good idea to re-process this set of photographs from February 2019 that I made with an ungripped Fujifilm X-T3 and Fujinon XF 8-16mm f/2.8 R LM WR Red Badge variable focal-length aka zoom lens kindly loaned by Fujifilm Australia.
The sunlight wasn’t particularly laser-beamish, the specular highlights weren’t particularly sparkling and the sunstars this lens makes so beautifully rarely made an appearance, but there were quite a few people on the streets in a way that has become rarer since.
I re-processed these images with DxO’s Fujifilm Astia colour reversal film simulation for the sake of the skin tones and DxO PhotoLab Elite’s DeepPRIME XD denoising and demosaicing algorithm and while the full-sized JPEGs look amazing these 2048px-width JPEGs still look better than their earlier versions from 2019.
DeepPRIME XD seems to reveal even more detail with increased tonal and colour separation in the low values and I’ve tended to make my images darker in the low values than I used with earlier versions of DxO software.
This may be a temporary thing but I will see what I make of tomorrow’s photographs in the Sydney CBD where I may well use one of DxO’s colour negative film simulations instead.
Meanwhile I’ve just updated all our DxO software due to the new versions supporting Fujifilm’s X-S20 camera and I’d love to see what DxO PhotoLab Elite et al makes of X-Trans raw files from that camera and the Fujinon XF 8mm f/3.5 R WR ultra-wide lens.
I’m still learning what DxO’s latest versions can do and what they permit me to do that I couldn’t before.
Most of these photographs were made around 15mm, though, with a few at 8mm and I suspect I’ll be favouring our Fujinon XF 14mm f/2.8 R for photographs depicting people more than architecture, but we’ll see what ensues on the day.
The X-T3 was ungripped, having neither Fujifilm’s VG-XT3 Vertical Battery Grip nor MHG-XT3 Metal Hand Grip attached, and I recall having some misgivings about the lack of balance between the rather lightweight, smallish camera and the large and weighty lens.
It would be wise to try out the XF 8-16mm on an X-S20 with its pronounced grip for such a small camera as well as on the X-H2S and X-H2 with their very impressive built-in grips and even more impressive Fujifilm VG-XH Vertical Battery Grip.
Let’s see what tomorrow brings, but fingers crossed for no clouds and nothing but blue sky and laser-beam sunlight.
It might be a decent trial run in advance of the coming months if not years of El Niño.
Links
B&H Affiliate Link – Click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
DxO – website – PhotoLab, FilmPack, ViewPoint, PureRAW, Nik Collection – Our #1 choice in raw image processing and editing software.
FastRawViewer – website – “Is your RAW converter slow while building 1:1 previews or culling RAW files? Use FastRawViewer – a great time-saver and an ideal RAW workflow helper.“
Last Saturday’s ‘Discover Fujifilm’ Video Workshop at Sydney’s Fujifilm House of Photography was the last such event to be presented by globetrotting architecture and travel photographer/videographer Stephen Pierce and it came just days after the launch of the Fujifilm X-S20 and Fujinon XF 8mm f/3.5 R WR ultra wide prime lens.
Although some commentators have been referring to the X-S20 as a “mini-X-H2S” both it and its X-H2S sibling have differences enough to justify adding one of each to a serious stills and video production kit with the smaller, lighter X-S20 being the obvious choice for daily carry as well as entry point into Fujifilm’s APS-C X-mount camera system for those needing to lighten their load while still obtaining excellent image quality.
I processed these images in my favourite raw processing software system made by DxO comprising DxO PhotoLab Elite with DxO FilmPack Elite and DxO ViewPoint as plug-ins.
These Fujifilm House of Photography events are an excellent opportunity to try out a range of film simulations under similar lighting conditions and subject matter, so this time I chose DxO’s rendering of Kodak Portra 400, a colour negative film popular for portraiture and documentary photography.
As usual I chose DxO’s DeepPRIME XD demosaicing and denoising feature to obtain maximum detail and improved separation in the low values: the effect is incredible in full-sized exported files but even in these 2048px JPEGs above the boost in quality is noticeable.
For the past few months I’ve been doing my raw file selects and rejects in FastRawViewer then opening the selects in DxO PhotoLab Elite direct.
As opposed to most if not all raw image processors FastRawViewer is fast and efficient give it does not need to build previews from raw files’ JPEG previews and its histogram is based on raw files so provides an accurate assessment of your photographs and not just an approximation.
If only camera histograms were based on raw files and not JPEGs too!
The late Michael Reichmann of Luminous Landscape adopted in0camera raw histograms as one of his several digital photography hobbyhorses and we’re still having to guess at the state of our raw files from JPEG previews and histograms.
Another workflow enhancement worth investigating is Photo Mechanic Plus, the Digital Asset Management version of Photo Mechanic, the press photographer’s portable daily go-to for image ingesting, selecting and rejecting before processing.
I’ve used Photo Mechanic when working in press photography and have yet to try out its DAM-enhanced sibling but I’ve relied on other DAMs in the past that later became corporatized then financially out-of-reach for self-funded independent documentary photographers (and videographers) like me.
Tech notes
Photographs were made with a Fujifilm X-Pro2 and Fujinon XF 14mm f/2.8 R, XF 23mm f/1.4 R and XF 50mm f/2.0 R WR prime lenses.
I’d love to try out some other Fujinon cameras and lenses for documenting these events in order to expand the range of images I make of them. A Fujinon X-H2S with Fujinon XF 18-120mm f/4.0 LM PZ WR perhaps? Or a Fujinon X-S20 with Fujinon XC 15-45mm f/3.5-5.6 OIS PZ.
I’ve noted how Johnnie Behiri of CineD seems rather fond of both cameras and lenses for his documentary video projects and they may also work well for documentary stills. The same two-camera, two-lens kit might also be appropriate for producing documentary videos and stills for The Robert Krasker Project.
Another thing I’d like to try when documenting these events is to do it again with just one prime lens, the Fujinon XF 18mm f/1.4 R LM WR. There are three equivalent focal lengths I’ve used during the analog era in this way – 28mm, 35mm and 40mm – and I was rather pleased at how well the Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro worked as a single prime lens earlier this year despite its slightly longer 45mm equivalence.
I’d love it if Fujifilm released an 18mm f/2.0 or so Fujicron-style lens as it would go so well with X-Pro series rangefinder-style cameras as well as the X-S20.
Links
B&H Affiliate Link – Click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
DxO – website – PhotoLab, FilmPack, ViewPoint, PureRAW, Nik Collection – Our #1 choice in raw image processing and editing software.
FastRawViewer – website – “Is your RAW converter slow while building 1:1 previews or culling RAW files? Use FastRawViewer – a great time-saver and an ideal RAW workflow helper.“
Winter is settling in with its grey skies, threat of rain and flat light so I decided to try out some of the Leica camera sensor profiles supplied with DxO PhotoLab Elite and DxO FilmPack Elite as a plug-in.
I liked the Leica M camera sensor profile best as it remained me most of the warm colours and excellent microcontrast of the results from my Leica M System analog camera and lens days when photographing onto colour transparency films.
Photographing with a Fujifilm X-Pro camera and 75mm-equivalent Fujinon lens and processing their raw files as if they were coming from a Leica M camera?
B&H Affiliate Link –Click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
DxO – website – PhotoLab, FilmPack, ViewPoint, PureRAW, Nik Collection – Our #1 choice in raw image processing and editing software.
The Fujifilm House of Photography in Park Street, Sydney, is becoming a defacto friendly regular gathering place for photographers and videographers with its (mostly) twice-monthly free workshops on a wide range of aspects of photography and videography.
Attendees don’t even have to own or use Fujifilm cameras and lenses and there’s always plenty to learn regardless of which manufacturers’ gear you love and use or which genre of subject matter you favour.
I attended Fujifilm Australia’s X-H2S and X-H2 hybrid APS-C X-mount camera touch-and-try event and documented it with our Fujifilm X-Pro2 and a Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro “Fujicron”-style prime lens kindly loaned by the Fujifilm House of Photography, the lens equivalent in 35mm sensor terms to 45mm.
One of my ambitions for the photographic documentation of these events is to do them in a slightly different way each time whether via different cameras, different lenses or different choices in raw image processing software and film simulations or other colour grading treatments.
I’ve been intrigued by the 45mm-equivalent Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro since its release in late 2022 and the X-H2 and X-H2S touch-and-try event presented the perfect opportunity given the Fujifilm House of Photography wasn’t filled with as many attendees as usual.
That meant I could physically get a little closer and my usual medium-wide and super-wide lenses were less necessary in order to document the look and feel of the proceedings.
Using our Fujifilm X-Pro2 with a borrowed Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro lens
I’ve loved and relied upon “perfect normal” focal length lenses for many years now since acquiring one for my 4″x5″ sheet film cameras and equip new cameras with perfect normal lenses whenever possible.
Perfect normal is slightly wider than standard normal and it produces the most naturalistic perspective, the relationship between near and far that’s closest to human vision, of the two.
Despite the common assumption that “normal” is standard normal – 50mm for 35mm sensors, 33mm or 35mm for APS-C and 25mm for Micro Four Thirds – for me at least perfect normal is, well, more normal – 40mm to 45mm for 35mm sensors, 27mm to 28mm for APS-C and 20mm for M43.
That may be why some cameras and lens makers have chosen perfect normal focal lengths in the past, from Ernest Barnack when making the first three Ur-Leica cameras to Leica and Minolta for their CL and CLE compact 35mm rangefinder film cameras, by Zeiss and Yashica for the G1 and G2 35mm t film cameras, and before that by Minolta for its 35mm single lens reflex cameras.
Arithmetically 30mm in APS-C is a little longer than 40mm and a little shorter than 50mm but in practice its look and feel is closer to perfect normal than standard normal and the ease with which I used it for the images above is testimony to that.
Some APS-C & 35mm sensor perfect normal lenses or near enough to it
The legendary 28mm prime lens for moviemaking is the so-called Hollywood 28 and I’ve written about it at length here:
Given that available Hollywood 28-style lenses are almost always vintage, and are now unsupported by their manufacturers if repairs or maintenance are needed, is there a new equivalent or even near-equivalent?
Perhaps Cosina’s Voigtländer brand may provide an answer with the company’s Voigtländer 28mm f/2.0 Ultron Vintage Aspherical VM Lens Type II in combination with its Voigtländer VM-X Close Focus Adapter II for FUJIFILM X?
Vintage and vintage-style lens expert Phillip Reeve has an in-depth review of the Voigtländer 28mm f/2.0 Ultron and its variations:
Optics like the Voigtländer 28mm f/2.0 Ultron Vintage Aspherical VM Lens Type II are best described as “character lenses” as opposed to the more optically correct Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro and thus may be more suitable for narrative moviemaking than for documentary stills photography.
Some perfect normal lenses for APS-C & 35 sensor format cameras including 3 “Hollywood 28” primes
Fujifilm Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro prime lens. Image courtesy of B&H.
Fujifilm Fujinon XF 27mm f/2.8 R WR with Fujifilm LH-XF27 lens hood. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Australia.
Cosina Voigtländer Ultron 27mm f/2.0 for Fujifilm X Mount. Image courtesy of B&H.
Irix 30mm T1.5 cinema prime lens. Image courtesy of B&H.
Leica Summicron-C 40mm f/2.0 lens for Leica CL 35mm film camera. Image found on ebay.
Voigtlaender Nokton Classic 40mm f/1.4 MC for Leica M-Mount. Image courtesy of B&H.
The three legendary Minolta M-Rokkor prime lenses for the Minolta CLE: Minolta M-Rokkor 28mm f/2.8, M-Rokkor 40mm f/2.0 and M-Rokkor 90mm f/4.0. Image found on ebay.
Bundled lens set for Contax G1 & G2 analog film rangefinder cameras: Biogon 28mm f/2.8, Planar 45mm f/2.0, Sonnar 90mm f/2.8. Designed & made by Zeiss & Yashica.
Minolta MD Rokkor 45mm f/2.0 prime lens. Image found on ebay.
Minolta Chiyoko Super Rokkor 45mm f/2.8 prime lens. Image found on ebay.
Ernst Leitz Wetzlar Mikro-Summar 42mm f/4.5 brass-barrel triplet three-element perfect normal lens as used by Oskar Barnack in one or more of his three Ur-Leica cameras.
The Ur-Leica, invented by Oskar Barnack of Ernst Leitz Optische Werke in 1913, the first Leica 35mm rangefinder camera. Image courtesy of Leica.
Voigtlaender 28mm f/2.0 Ultron Vintage Aspherical VM Lens Type II. Image courtesy of B&H.
Voigtlaender VM-X Close Focus Adapter II for FUJIFILM X. Image courtesy of B&H.
Optical diagram, Voigtlaender 28mm f/2.0 Ultron Vintage Aspherical VM Lens Type I.
The legendary Hollywood 28: comparing the optical design and MTF curves of the Zeiss Distagon ZF 28mm f/2.0 ZF.2 with the Contax Distagon 28mm f/2.0.
Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 28mm f/2.0 “Hollywood 28” Nikon ZF.2 F-Mount. Image found on ebay.
Nikon Nikkor Ai-S 28mm f/2.0 Nikon F-mount prime lens with “Hollywood 28” optical design licensed from Zeiss. Image found on ebay.
Contax Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 28mm f/2.0 AEG “Hollywood 28” Contax-Yashica C/Y-mount. Image found on ebay.
The Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro’s field of view is close to that of the XF 27mm f/2.8 R WR “pancake” lens and our Panagor PMC 28mm f/2.8 Auto vintage lens, so much so that I visualized images, framed them then made the exposures quickly.
Usually when using an unfamiliar focal length it takes a little time to learn to visualize, frame then expose quickly but that wasn’t the case this time.
Compared to the other two lenses as well as our now non-functioning XF 27mm f/2.8, the XF 30mm f/2.8 was fast and sure in autofocus and manual focus modes and the focusing ring was easy to use with just a fingertip.
Fujifilm’s choice of a linear motor hence LM in the name was a wise one for the Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro and the company should extend that to all new lenses, especially those that’ll be used for documentary stills and video as well as photojournalism.
I concentrated on stills this time but am sure that the lens would be just as sure, fast and easy to use when making videos.
The XF 30mm f/2.8 is the first “Fujicron” lens to feature a lockable aperture ring allowing you to set it to A for auto and stay there without drifting off.
I’d like to see this as a standard feature for all of Fujifilm’s Fujinon lenses from now onwards.
Other features I appreciated while using the lens are its sturdy construction and tapered front but 43mm filter diameter that can be stepped up to 52mm for neural density filters.
I used it without its cylindrical plastic lens hood as that didn’t seem to be available at the time but its optics and coatings very effectively guarded against flares from in-frame light sources.
Fujifilm USA’s tech expert Michael Bulbenko recommends the Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro as “best choice for your first Fujifilm X-Mount prime lens” and I couldn’t agree more.
Although I didn’t use it in full macro mode at 1:1, just the fact that I had that option was comforting.
As the photographs above attest, it performed admirably whatever distance I was from the subject and I’d feel very comfortable carrying it day after day as my default prime lens especially on an X-Pro camera or the coming X-S20, for stills and video.
It wouldn’t be out of place on an X-H2S or an X-H2 flagship DSLR-style camera given its 40 megapixel sensor readiness.
Fujifilm X-H2S with Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro prime lens. Image courtesy of B&H.
Fujifilm X-H2s with Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro prime lens. Image courtesy of B&H.
Fujifilm Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro prime lens with bundled lens hood. Image courtesy of B&H.
Fujifilm Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro prime lens. Image courtesy of B&H.
Fujifilm Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro prime lens. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Japan.
Fujifilm’s flagship APS-C/Super 35 hybrid cameras, the X-H2 & X-H2S
Fujifilm X-H2S. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Fujifilm X-H2. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Fujifilm X-H2S with VG-XH vertical battery grip and Fujinon XF 16-80mm f/4.0 R OIS WR zoom lens Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Fujifilm X-H2S with VG-XH vertical battery grip and Fujinon XF 16-80mm f/4.0 R OIS WR zoom lens Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Fujifilm X-H2S with VG-XH vertical battery grip and Fujinon XF 16-80mm f/4.0 R OIS WR zoom lens Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Fujifilm X-H2 with VG-XH vertical battery grip. Image courtesy of Fujifilm Global.
Stephen Pierce makes photographs and videos for a range of prestige clients mostly located overseas in Europe and the United Kingdom with subjects ranging from architecture through travel to live performance and he relies on a number of Fujifilm cameras and lenses in the company’s APS-C/Super 35 X and medium format/large format GFX ranges.
He has often shared his appreciation for the large sensor size and high megapixels count of Fujifilm’s GFX cameras and the 40 megapixel sensor in the X-H2 and X-T5, allowing his clients the option of heavy cropping to suit a range of layouts and usages.
He also expounds the virtues of recording video in 8K and 6.2K when the option to crop is useful in post-production.
I’m yet to have the opportunity of using the X-H2S and X-H2 for video cannot comment on their capabilities there but have borrowed an X-H2 to document the first Fujifilm House of Photography workshop in January 2023:
As usual Stephen Pierce presented an in-depth run-through of both X-H series cameras’ capabilities and benefits, and if we had the means we’d have plunked the cash down for one of each.
I’m not currently working on commission from Australian or foreign clients as I used to, on stills or videos, but if I were then my core kit would comprise an X-H2S and an X-H2 for stills and video and two X-Pro cameras for immersive documentary stills photography as I find rangefinder-style cameras work best for me there.
I’d add vertical battery grips for both X-H series cameras for ease in shooting in portrait aka vertical orientation and for long battery life from all three NP-W235 batteries in this combination.
The form factor of Fujifilm’s compact aka “Fujicron” lenses works well with the X-Pro series’ optical viewfinder – which I rely upon for most of my documentary work – but Fujifilm needs to radically extend the range of focal lengths in this range and upgrade some existing compact lenses to Fujicron optical quality and mechanical functionality.
Given Fujifilm is now taking video production seriously the company needs to upgrade its Fujinon XF prime and variable focal length lens range to parity in stills and video performance, taking full advantage of the company’s legendary Fujinon Cinema lens design expertise.
Let’s see what Fujifilm has to announce in its coming X Summit in Bangkok!
FUJIFILM X Series – X Summit BKK 2023 / FUJIFILM – “May 24th at 9 AM GMT is the day of X Summit! This time X Summit will be held in Bangkok.”
Image notes
I made the photographs with a Fujifilm X-Pro2 digital rangefinder camera and Fujifilm’s Fujinon XF 30mm f/2.8 R LM WR Macro prime lens.
The X-Trans raw files were processed in DxO PhotoLab Elite with DxO FilmPack Elite and DxO ViewPoint as plug-ins, all using DxO’s DeepPRIME XD – for extra detail – denoising and demosaicing feature as well as the Kodak Portra 160VC – for vivid colour – film simulation.
Links
B&H Affiliate Link –Click here to research and purchase or pre-order your choice of cameras, lenses and accessories for stills photography and video production whatever your genre and subject matter.
Breakthrough Photography – Brass Step-Up Ring – We use and recommend this San Francisco company’s filters, accessories and especially its knurled brass framed step-up rings. Attaching wider filters to lenses with small filter diameters may require stacking two step-up rings but the coated brass rings do not bind like aluminium rings do, and the Traction frame knurling gives you plenty of solid grip.
DxO – website – PhotoLab, FilmPack, ViewPoint, PureRAW, Nik Collection – Our #1 choice in raw image processing and editing software.
Fujifilm X Global – Fujifilm launches FUJINON XF30mmF2.8 R LM WR Macro – “Its standard 30mm focal length provides the angle of view perfect for portraiture and snapshots that take advantage of natural perspectives…. It is designed compact and equipped with fast, accurate and quiet AF for high mobility.“
Fujifilm X Global – XF30mmF2.8 R LM WR Macro, Setting a New Standard – “Photography is constantly evolving. The modern creative requires a lens suitable for both stills and video across a broad range of applications. XF30mmF2.8 R LM WR Macro responds to these needs by offering a versatile focal length, 1:1 macro capability, fast inner focusing and minimal focus breathing, all in a compact optic suitable for daily use. This is the standard lens for a new generation.”
Fujifilm X Global – X-H2 – “Fifth generation imaging technology brings high resolution and speed to the next evolution of X Series. Equipped with a new 40.2-megapixel sensor, X-H2 offers unrivaled image quality for both stills and video, unlocking a world of creative possibilities far beyond what any previous APS-C format camera has ever done before.“
Fujifilm X Global – X-H2S – “Never miss a decisive moment. Featuring a stunning 5th generation X-Trans CMOS 5 HS sensor and X-Processor 5 in a beautifully designed body, photographers and filmmakers alike can now create at the pace of life and the speed of their imaginations.”
Mark Wieczorek – What I think about when I think about Focal Lengths – “Now that we know that 43mm is the true normal lens, perhaps we can re-think why we like the 50mm field of view so much — it’s ever so slightly telephoto.”
Mark Wieczorek – What is a Normal Lens — 35mm, 50mm, 43mm. – “The diagonal of a “full frame” sensor is 43mm. The diagonal of an APS-C sensor is 27mm (though APS-C sensor sizes vary). The diagonal of a Micro Four Thirds sensor is 22mm. The diagonal of a Fuji GFX sensor is 55mm. The diagonal of a larger Hasselblad sensor (there are several) is 67mm. Therefore the “normal” lens on each of these sensors would be about that focal length — 27mm for APS-C and 22mm for m43 and so on.“
Urth – We use and recommend Australian Urth brand filters, especially those in the company’s Plus+ range for professional work. We use their fixed and variable neutral density filters and circular polarizing filters which come in a wide range of filter diameters. Stephen Pierce uses a low-value fixed ND filter alone or in combination with a circular polarizing filter rather than variable ND filters.
Wikipedia – Normal lens – “In photography and cinematography, a normal lens is a lens that reproduces a field of view that appears “natural” to a human observer. In contrast, depth compression and expansion with shorter or longer focal lengths introduces noticeable, and sometimes disturbing, distortion…. ” – This entry used to define perfect normal versus standard normal but seems to have undergone heavy re-editing unsupported by citations lately.
UNITITLED.NET 