It's Been A Year Now ...
Derek Smith • 4 January 2023
A Face in the Crowd - 27mm pancake
Photo By: Derek Smith
Mam Tor - 16-80mm zoom
Photo By: Derek Smith
Darcie - 50mm prime
Photo By: Derek Smith
Ladybird on Seed Head - 70-300mm zoom
Photo By: Derek Smith
It has been just over a year now when I sold all my Olympus cameras, and lenses, and bought into the Fuji camera system with the purchase of a second-hand Fuji X-T3, and a second-hand lens the XF 35mm f/2 Fujinon, both delivered on Christmas Eve 2021. Adapting from the Olympus system has taken a while, getting used to the controls, and the colours has been a bit of a learning curve, but I am very pleased to have made the switch of camera systems.
Both of my Fuji cameras are X Mount APS-C mirrorless cameras, and the lenses are interchangeable between them. I like to think of my lenses as “tools” to achieve a particular result, each of my lenses has a focal length, or characteristic to capture a scene.
Fuji X-T3 – This is my principal camera, always feeling great in my hand, it is my workhorse, I have got used to the 26 MP APS-C X Trans sensor now, although it was quite a learning curve in the beginning. The analogue dials on the camera make for a great user experience, before turning the camera on I can set the ISO, shutter speed, and aperture. The Manual, Single, or Continuous focus can also be selected via the front switch. As an example, during a recent photo shoot in a studio, equipped with studio flash soft boxes, I was able to set the ISO 160, aperture f/8, and 1/125 shutter before even switching the camera on. It was then a matter of adjusting the power on the flash units to obtain the correct exposure. The camera handles well, is water resistant, and dustproof. The features that I particularly wanted, that the Olympus didn’t have, was the focus point joystick, and the UHS II dual SD cards. Not especially worried about SD card failure, but it helps my image editing workflow to have the cards set to record .jpeg on one, and RAW on the other. The “D” pad on the rear of the camera, and the various buttons are all configurable.
Fujinon XF 16-80mm f/4 lens – This stabilised lens is nearly always mounted on my Fuji X-T3, it’s an extremely good camera / lens combination. With the lens having a versatile full frame equivalent of 24-120mm, and a constant f/4 aperture throughout the zoom range, the lens performs well, focuses close to a subject, and produces high quality images in all weathers.
Fujinon XF 70-300mm f/4 – 5.6 lens – My telephoto zoom, stabilised, with an impressive performance, producing near macro close focus images. The lens compliments the 16-80mm zoom, making an ideal “twin lens” kit with the Fuji X-T3, coping with most scenarios including landscapes, and wildlife, the lens is also weather resistant and dust proof.
Fuji X-T20 – My “backup” camera, with a 24MP APS-C sensor, so much of an improvement ergonomically over the Sony A6300 I previously owned. Using this in combination with the Fuji X-T3 / XF 16-80mm zoom lens, and a prime lens mounted on the Fuji X-T20 to avoid lens changes. On recent outings this arrangement has served me well, using a wide-angle lens mounted on the X-T20, and the zoom lens on the X-T3. The Fuji X-T20 is also a great travel camera, being physically smaller, and lighter than the Fuji X-T3, with a useful “pop-up” flash. Because the Fuji X-T20 has only a single SD card slot, I usually take images in .jpeg format, with auto ISO selected as it lacks a dedicated ISO dial. All the buttons, and dials are configurable, so I have the AF-L button set to turn on the WiFi for image transfer, and the AEL button set to control the ISO, the “D” pad is configured the same as on the X-T3 camera for ease of switching between the cameras.
Fujinon XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 lens – It may seem strange to have two 24 – 70mm full frame equivalent zoom lenses, but this is smaller, and lighter than the XF 16-80. This is the Fuji “kit” lens, but has far better resolution, and brighter aperture than most comparable “kit” lenses supplied by other camera manufacturers. The lens is stabilised and makes an excellent pairing with the Fuji X-T20.
Fujinon XF 50mm f/2 – In my opinion nothing beats a good prime lens, I enjoy my portraiture, and this lens is one of the best I’ve ever used. The lens is an unusual focal length, at about 75mm full frame equivalent, but I find this to be an ideal focal length especially for indoor, or studio shoots, I normally use this lens wide open at f/2 for natural light photoshoots. The lens is tiny, lightweight, and weatherproof.
Fujinon XF 35mm f/2 – Possibly my least used lens, nothing wrong with the lens, it’s a gem of a lens, tiny, lightweight, and weatherproof. Most of the photography experts recommend a “nifty fifty” 50mm focal length, and this 35mm is a full frame 50mm equivalent, and was the first Fuji lens I bought. I just don’t find that the 50mm focal length suits my photography, I had a 25mm (50mm equivalent) Olympus lens, but preferred either the Olympus pancake 17mm f/1.8 (34mm equivalent), or the Olympus 45mm f/1.8 lens (90mm equivalent).
TT Artisans 27mm AF f/2.8 – My newest purchase, an "autofocus" third-party lens, I needed a small “pancake” lens to make the Fuji X-T20 a truly “pocketable” camera. I have been delighted with the size, and performance of this lens, it’s not the sharpest lens I own, but at just £160 brand new I have no complaints. The focal length is just right at a 40mm full frame equivalent, and I’ve been able to use this for street photography. For travel as part of a lightweight system, I will have the Fuji X-T20, the XF 18-55mm zoom, and this the TT Artisans 27mm lens. I used the Fuji X-T20, and the 27mm lens, shot wide open at f/2.8, at the Buffet & Quiz night, obtaining some interesting “impromptu” shots of members, the images were very pleasing, taken in only the room lighting, the auto ISO of 3200 still produced a quality image, and that for me is a real testament of the Fuji camera system.
Samyang 12mm AF f/2 – I deliberated between buying the Fuji 10-24mm zoom wide-angle lens, or a wide-angle prime lens. I had a manual version of this lens with my Sony APS-C camera and was impressed with the image quality, just never used it much. I’m well pleased with this lens, at an 18mm full frame equivalent focal length, I have extensively used this lens for landscape photography, and it has been a real boon for the church photography project.
So that is the summation of my Fuji camera system, I’m very pleased with the image quality, and usability of the cameras, and lenses. Routinely I would select a camera, and lens combination to suit the task. The Fuji X-T3 camera, 16-80mm, and 70-300mm lenses for wildlife. For landscapes the Fuji X-T3, the 16-80mm zoom, the Fuji X-T20 with the Samyang 12mm. Portraiture, must be the Fuji X-T3, the 50mm prime, the 16-80mm zoom, and the Fuji X-T20 with the 35mm prime lens, giving options to suit indoor room sizes, or outdoor locations.
The big advantage of any interchangeable lens camera of course, is being able to tailor the lenses needed to suit the intended genre of photography.
Louth Photographic Society
I hope that everyone has had a very good, and healthy Christmas. For our Programme for the New Year, I shall be running a photo editing workshop on 4th February, I will provide each participating member with an SD card containing example images for us to work together in editing. I shall be using three photo editing apps, which are all free to download and use, the first of which is: FastStone – This is the software that our Society uses for displaying images during our PDI competitions. The software is excellent for reviewing a file of .jpg images, basic edits, and resizing of images. The software is unable to develop RAW images, but does show a thumbnail preview which can be useful for culling a set of RAW images. Microsoft Windows only. Canva Affinity – This is excellent for developing a single RAW image, processing Focus Stacking, and Bracketed Exposure images. The software also can be used for layering, and compositing of images. I will be demonstrating the Focus Stacking, Bracketed Exposures, layering and compositing of images. You will need a Canva account to download this free software which runs on Windows, and Apple Mac. RawTherapee – This is an extremely complex photo editor, but I firmly believe that the software can rival anything that Adobe produces without the bloat, and cost. However the software has a steep learning curve, especially with the masking tools. One of the best features for me is the preview ribbon of a set of images at the top of the screen, I also like the tabbed editing tools, it is also possible to batch process basic edits onto a RAW file using a RawTherapee pp3 file. RawTherapee can be downloaded to Windows, Mac, and Linux. To gain the best from the workshop I would ask members to download all three software apps to their laptops. In addition there are YouTube tutorials on the use of RawTherapee, which I would encourage you to watch, and that way we can work together to understand how to produce the best results from the software. Wishing all our members a very happy, and prosperous New Year.
Good Morning, All, We had a very good last meeting before Christmas, thank you to my partner Jane for her hard work preparing the buffet, also thank you to Tony for preparing the quiz, there were some very good questions with Robin and Heather coming out on top with a fantastic 48 points. Thank you to Harry as well for running the raffle and to everyone who donated a prize. We now start our Christmas break but if you get bored there are things that you could be doing. The first meeting back on 14th January will be a PDI competition, with the categories of "Insects" and "Open", you can start sending entries to Harry now, remember three insect entries and three open entries with an (R) after one entry which will be removed if there are too many entries, but you may use it some other time. Derek sent information regarding the individual LPA PDI competition, it would be good if a few members entered. They do like you to go along on the day of the competition as well if you enter or just go along anyway if you didn't. The Print Of The Year (POTY) competition is held in February, so it would be a good time to look through your prints and sort some out ready. For newer members it may seem a funny time of year but our camera club year runs from the beginning of May to the end of April, all rules are under competitions on our website but the main one is that your entry hasn't been in a print of the year competition before, there are six subjects plus best mono in competition, this can be from any of the subjects. The subjects are Landscape, Pictorial, Nature, Photojournalism / Street, Record and Portrait. Regards Graham
The buffet and quiz evening was one of the highlights of our calendar, it's the culmination of the year's events before the Society takes a Christmas break. The buffet was excellently prepared by Jane, who is Graham's partner, with plenty of delicious food, pork pies, sandwiches, plum bread, with cheese, quiche, mince pies, and cake. Tony Gaskins produced an esoteric quiz, and Robin and Heather scored the most points with 48 points, I scored a miserable 17 points, but we all had a lot of fun with the answers. The raffle raised £47, with some members collecting more prizes than others, amid lots of laughter and banter. Overall it was an excellent evening, enjoyed by all. A big thank you to Jane for the buffet, Tony for the quiz, and Harry for organising the raffle. Wishing all our members, and readers a merry Christmas.
Good Morning, All We did go to the sand racing again last week, the weather was a bit overcast but as no sky is required for this kind of photography, so good action shots are still possible. Last week at the club we held our monthly competition, of prints, with the categories of "People" and "Open". There was a very good entry with some excellent prints. David Whitehouse came first in the People section with Dave Turner winning the Open section. All the results are on our website under competitions with a blog on the evening as well. This week our Christmas buffet and quiz night will be held. The buffet will be provided for you but feel free to bring a drink along with you (a beer or glass of wine if you wish). Dave Mann will also be providing tea and coffee. Tony is doing a quiz for us all so bring a pen and paper if you remember, Christmas jumpers are optional. Harry will be selling raffle tickets, and if you would like to provide a prize please bring it along and give it to Harry. Regards Graham
A print competition was held last night with the categories of “People”, and “Open”. The judge for the evening was Dane Butler, this was his second time judging with us, and he is showing much more confidence in judging at photographic clubs. In the “People” category there was a wide variety of inventive images of people, from solo portrait style, to street, and groups of people, the highest placed print in this category was the “Pride Celebration (Cologne)” taken by David Whitehouse. In the “Open” category Dane had to judge wildlife, portraits, landscape, macro, and architectural prints, I thought he did a superb job, his choice for the top spot was “Cloud Inversion Summit of Snowdon” by Dave Turner. The website Competition page has been updated with the images, and results.
Good Morning All Last week at the club we viewed the Lincolnshire photographic Associations mono group presentation, Dave Turner who goes to the group talked us through the evening with Chris Birchmore and Richard Hildred talking about their photographs. There is a blog on the evening on our website, but inspired by the evening I thought I had better try a few mono photographs myself. This week, Wednesday 10th December, we will hold our monthly print competition, with the categories of "People" and "Open", to be judged by Dane Butler from Dunholme. There are good number of entries so should be a very good competition. The following week, Wednesday 17th December, is our buffet and quiz night, for new members the buffet will be supplied and anyone who would like to donate a raffle prize please give it to Harry. The evening is for members only. Regards Graham
Last night members were treated to a showing of the LPA (Lincolnshire Photographic Association) Mono Group presentation. Three of our members, Dave Turner, Richard Hildred, and Chris Birchmore are members of the LPA Mono Group. Dave Turner excellently presented this showcase of the Mono Groups work, many of the images presented were stunning, and inspirational. A simple photo of a padlock on a gate took on a different dimension when presented in monochrome, and landscape photography becomes dramatic in monochrome, especially with a moody sky. It was a very interesting, and well attended evening. Thank you to Dave Turner for presenting, and Dave Mann for the refreshments.
Good Morning All Last week at the club we held a committee meeting, with all committee members in attendance. Harry will once again run the Christmas raffle on our buffet and quiz night, if any member wants to donate a prize, Harry can now accept them, obviously if it's a perishable prize then bringing it in on the night would be better. We are holding a 70th anniversary exhibition next year at the Louth Museum, if any member has local prints that they think may be suitable to put in the exhibition you can bring them to the club any time now. Derek has done a blog on the night with more information. This week, Wednesday 3rd December, we are viewing the LPA mono groups presentation, Dave Turner is a member of the group and will talk us through what the group do and if time allows show us some of his own mono prints. Don't forget to bring your prints along this week for the print competition, with the categories "People" and "Open", to be held the following week, email your titles to Dave Turner in advance please. Regards Graham
We held a Committee meeting last night in place of a regular meeting. The Committee meets twice a year to discuss items pertinent to effective, and smooth running of our Society. The Society celebrates 70 years of continuous operation next year, and we intend to show an exhibition of photographs taken over those years at the Louth Museum. The LPA Battles print competition will be held next year, and consists of 3 rounds held at photographic clubs throughout Lincolnshire, with a final round held at Nettleham. Louth has been drawn to meet with camera clubs in Grantham, and Axholme, and as you can understand this will entail a far amount of travelling. There is a proposal to the LPA which is currently under consideration which would reduce each club entry to 10 prints and for the whole competition to be held at Nettleham in 2027. Our current annual project is “Prime Time”, that is one photo for each month of the year taken with a fixed focal length lens, a prime lens, my choice for this year has been a 45mm lens, which is a full frame 90mm lens. Members show their annual project photos in the January of the following year. The Committee has decided on the project theme for next year as “Water”, which should give members a chance to demonstrate some creativity, as can be seen from the attached image. Our Christmas social event will be held on the 17th December, a buffet will be provided, there will be a quiz, and a raffle, the door entry charge will be £3 for the evening.
Good Morning All Last week at the club we held our PDI of the year, it was a well-attended event and thanks to Harry's organisation skills it all ran very well. Congratulations go to all the subject winners: Pictorial, Harry Kerman, Record, Dave Evans, Portrait, Derek Smith, Photojournalism, David Evans, Landscape, Dave Turner and Natural History, Graham Harrison. The overall winner was Harry Kerman. Well done Harry a great photograph of a White Cosmos. All the top three in each subject are on our website Competition page. Don't forget if you are entering the December print competition, with the categories of "People" and "Open" send your titles to Dave Turner please. The prints need bringing in a week on Wednesday. This week, Wednesday 26th November, we are holding a committee meeting, committee members only for this one please. For newer members we hold two committee meetings a year to organise events and the smooth running of the club. Regards Graham
