Friday, February 20, 2015

Fuji 16-55mm f2.8

I had the good fortune to attend a dinner this past week in Lakewood, NJ celebrating the bar mitzvah of a friend's son. It was the same day that I received my much awaited Fuji 16-55mm zoom lens, so throwing all caution to the wind and without any practical experience using the lens I decided to do the bulk of my shooting at the event with this new lens. I also brought along my Fuji 14mm f2.8 lens for very wide angle shots. But as it turned out, that was not at all needed.

There are and will be numerous reviews of the new zoom lens, so I leave that task to more experienced testers than I am. In practical terms, I found the lens to be very pleasing to use. The extra mass (as in weight and size) was no hinderance to my comfort, the focus speed was absolutely zippy and silent, and the image quality was (and hopefully will continue to be) extraordinary.  I processed some of the shots, as I usually do, into b/w (see below).

I can say with confidence, even though I have yet to hit the streets of NYC with this lens (hopefully the temps will warm a bit), that between the 14mm and this zoom I have 95% of my area of interest covered. When I travel to the Middle East later this spring with these two and the 50-140mm lenses, all my bases will be covered. I'll be selling off my 10-24mm, 18-55mm, and 55-200mm zooms.

Here's the shots, the proud papa:



The bar mitzvah bocher:





The ladies sizing up the future husband(s):



Next in line:



The critics:






  

Monday, February 16, 2015

Fuggedaboudit!!!

Sometimes the moment is too good and I just have to take a chance on getting a shot. I didn't get whacked.