Hot Air Balloon Regatta (and landscapes)

[Fairyrose]

Hi, I’ve been taking pictures with my new Fuji X-T20 for a few weeks now. I have the 18-55 kit lens.

I’m thinking of going up to London at the weekend when there’s the Mayor’s Hot Air Balloon Regatta and see if I can get a few good shots of that. Hot Air Balloons over the Houses of Parliament sounds intriguing..... I’m not sure my lens will be up to that though.

On a related note, when in Dorset a few weeks ago I sometimes file the lens wasn’t ideal (not wide enough for landscape and not enough zoom for taking pictures or my son on the beach and in the water).

Any suggestions as to lens options? Or what I might do if sticking with my current setup and save myself some money?

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Cagey75]

It depends, you might be judging the wide end solely on that one experience, many people manage to get great landscapes with longer lenses, width isn't everything. But you could look at something like the Samyang 12mm F2, so long as you don't mind manual focus. There is the other, cheaper kit lens, the 16-50, you gain a little width over your 18-55, but you lose about a stop of light on either end. For the balloons, on a budget, you could do worse than the 50-230mm - they can be got pretty cheap used, and it's a decent enough zoom in good light.

I would hang on to the 18-55 if I were you, and add the 50-230 for those times you just need more reach. The 18-55 is a great lens, I would say it's plenty wide enough for landscape, you might just have found it a little tight that one time, take it out for a day and try different locations. If you still find it restrictive, then consider investing in something wider. There is the supposedly great 10-24mm, but it certainly is not cheap.

 

[Fairyrose]

Many thanks, that’s very helpful.

I’m afraid I don’t think manual focus suits me - I need to be able to be relatively quick. Any alternatives to the Samyang you initially suggested?

 

[Nod]

The 18-135 will give you a fair bit more zoom at the long end but is a little slower than the 18-55. If you need wider, the 10-24 is pretty damn good but has a price tag to match! For longer zoom, the 55-200 (or 50-230) will both stretch it a bit but for real length you'll need the 100-400 and maybe a teleconverter as well. Again, not cheap (but well up to Fuji's standard of XF lenses.)

There's always the option of a mount converter so you could use non Fuji lenses but they would be manual focus and manual aperture so less easy to use than "native" Fuji lenses.