Here's two examples of why the Funinon 18mm lens is just not quite wide enough. I was very close to both of these people when I took the shot. The expression in the first image happened because I was close enough for the man to react to me, but too close to get the top of his head. A little tilt up would have gotten that, but then I would have lost some of the image detail at the bottom, and that line of the edge of the planter is important to balance the line in the street to the man's left. At a 35mm equivalent, the 18mm is actually a 28mm lens. The 14mm would be a 21 mm equivalent. When I was shooting with my Leicas, I always had the 21mm f2.8 lens and 21mm viewfinder on my M4. I swapped lenses only on my M6.
With the wide angle 14mm lens on my X-Pro1 I would have been able to get more of the street scene unfolding around this unhappy woman. I think the image works as it is, but I would have been more satisfied to have more of the man on the right in the frame.
In any case, the image quality of the Fuji 18mm lens is outstanding, comparable to anything I could have gotten with my Leica glass on the XP1, and better than what I could have gotten with Leica glass on my M6 shooting Fuji Neopan 400 film.
I agree about the Fuji lenses, can't wait for the 14mm. Used to own Leicas and a lot of glass, but the Fuji is at least as good. Just bought the zoom, and i use it all the time now. IS is excellent, quality superb. If I was offered a free Leica I don't think I would have it! Only problem is converting the RAW files, but the JPEGs are fine. By the way, really like your two photos, particularly the first one.
ReplyDeleteassessor, I agree that the Fuji is at least as good. I've been thinking about the zoom. Just may get it when I have some money to burn. I'm looking forward to the tele-zoom, since that's the focal length I use least I have no need for prime lenses in that range. I don't seem to have the difficulty many people find with the RAW conversions since I process almost all my images as b/w. I know the jpgs are fine, BUT I just can't justify throwing away 1/3 of the pixel data, and then doing my post processing on broken pixels.
DeleteYou forgot one more thing. Manually pre-Focusing with the distance scale. :)
ReplyDeleteYou're right. Manually focusing with tithe distance scale is definitely a plus.
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