The Fabulous Fuji X owners thread

The new TTArtisan 23mm f/1.4 lens - a mini review

I bought this lens about a week ago and took it on a photowalk to check it out. I usually shoot street, and although I use my Fuji 27mm pancake lens quite a bit my preferred focal length is around 50mm, and it took a while getting used to a lens as wide as 23mm. I haven't compared the 23mm shots to my usual 27mm shots yet as I've been too busy. But in my hands the 23mm felt quite a bit wider than the 27mm to the point where I was finding it a little harder to find subjects to shoot, and when I found them I had to walk backwards and forwards to get the framing right - something which comes instinctively now with the 27mm.

I had the shutter speed and ISO set to Auto for the first test, then went to full manual later on in the day. The photos I've included here were the first three shots that came out sharp enough - and that was another problem all day long: whether using zone focusing at times or manual focus assist (peak) I found it difficult to get well-focused shots. I think I just need more time with the lens. The 23mm also seemed to get darker shots than I'm used to, so I've bumped the brightness up a bit with the first two, but that's the only processing they've had.

I made sure that the three example shots were mixed subjects: architecture, plant life, and street with a human subject. They're shown here at 1024x683. Feel free to click through to Flickr to see them at different sizes.

Edit:

There’s something else I remembered about why it was so difficult to get good focus on this lens while using zone focusing, and that’s the focus ring’s short travel. It seems to have a steep thread, and so you don’t have to turn it far to reach either end of the focusing distance. In fact, the distance scale only goes something like a quarter of the way around the lens body (I don’t have the lens in front of me right now to check exactly how far it goes). On my Takumar 55mm lens, the distance scale is internal and the focus ring revolves almost 360 degrees, making it a lot easier to get the distance right. I wish all manual focus lenses were like the Takumar.

Buildings on the Mall
ISO 200 1/2000
This one shows how easy it is to miss focus, but the lens still produced what is - to me - an acceptable shot. It also shows light and focus fall-off in the corners, something which - again, to me - gives the lens some character.

Buildings on The Mall by Garry Knight, on Flickr

Catkins in St James's Park
ISO 200 1/2200
You'll notice corner fall-off, heavy fringing, unusually at the centre of the photo, and another acceptably sharp shot. I'll see if I can find one with visible bokeh later on, but it was dull light that day.

Catkins in St James's Park by Garry Knight, on Flickr

Your Name in Lights
ISO 200 1/14
Zoom in to 100% and you'll see, especially with the text at the bottom right, just how sharp this lens can be when you get the focus spot-on. Also note that the shutter speed went right up to 1/14 of a second.

Your Name in Lights by Garry Knight, on Flickr
 
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garryknight said:
The new TTArtisan 23mm f/1.4 lens - a mini review

I bought this lens about a week ago and took it on a photowalk to check it out. I usually shoot street, and although I use my Fuji 27mm pancake lens quite a bit my preferred focal length is around 50mm, and it took a while getting used to a lens as wide as 23mm. I haven't compared the 23mm shots to my usual 27mm shots yet as I've been too busy. But in my hands the 23mm felt quite a bit wider than the 27mm to the point where I was finding it a little harder to find subjects to shoot, and when I found them I had to walk backwards and forwards to get the framing right - something which comes instinctively now with the 27mm.

I had the shutter speed and ISO set to Auto for the first test, then went to full manual later on in the day. The photos I've included here were the first three shots that came out sharp enough - and that was another problem all day long: whether using zone focusing at times or manual focus assist (peak) I found it difficult to get well-focused shots. I think I just need more time with the lens. The 23mm also seemed to get darker shots than I'm used to, so I've bumped the brightness up a bit with the first two, but that's the only processing they've had.

I made sure that the three example shots were mixed subjects: architecture, plant life, and street with a human subject. They're shown here at 1024x683. Feel free to click through to Flickr to see them at different sizes.

Buildings on the Mall
ISO 200 1/2000
This one shows how easy it is to miss focus, but the lens still produced what is - to me - an acceptable shot. It also shows light and focus fall-off in the corners, something which - again, to me - gives the lens some character.

Buildings on The Mall by Garry Knight, on Flickr

Catkins in St James's Park
ISO 200 1/2200
You'll notice corner fall-off, heavy fringing, unusually at the centre of the photo, and another acceptably sharp shot. I'll see if I can find one with visible bokeh later on, but it was dull light that day.

Catkins in St James's Park by Garry Knight, on Flickr

Your Name in Lights
ISO 200 1/14
Zoom in to 100% and you'll see, especially with the text at the bottom right, just how sharp this lens can be when you get the focus spot-on. Also note that the shutter speed went right up to 1/14 of a second.

Your Name in Lights by Garry Knight, on Flickr
Click to expand...
Interesting that so few mm can make such a difference to your experience, Garry.
I have literally just come home after using my 27mm pancake for the first time on a serious street run-out. Haven't even had time to go through the shots yet (coffee first). For me, using a fixed focal length is a totally new experience and one that is increasing my photo interest as it is making me think all the time about where I am in relation to the subject.
I actually took my new Viltrox 56mm f/1.4 in my pocket and totally forgot to use it! Duh!
 
saltireblue said:
Interesting that so few mm can make such a difference to your experience, Garry.
I have literally just come home after using my 27mm pancake for the first time on a serious street run-out. Haven't even had time to go through the shots yet (coffee first). For me, using a fixed focal length is a totally new experience and one that is increasing my photo interest as it is making me think all the time about where I am in relation to the subject.
I actually took my new Viltrox 56mm f/1.4 in my pocket and totally forgot to use it! Duh!
Click to expand...

Prime lenses can affect your thinking in all kinds of ways. The 27mm pancake and the Viltrox 55mm are my favourite combination. You might like to try them with manual focusing at some point, just to make things more interesting.

I’ve added another paragraph to my previous post, about the 23mm lens’s distance scale.
 
garryknight said:
Prime lenses can affect your thinking in all kinds of ways. The 27mm pancake and the Viltrox 55mm are my favourite combination. You might like to try them with manual focusing at some point, just to make things more interesting.

I’ve added another paragraph to my previous post, about the 23mm lens’s distance scale.
Click to expand...
Good thought, but one thing at a time. :) I need to get used to the lenses first. Todays results were not bad fora first outing, so will be out again asap.
 
Don't get me wrong, I really like my newish X-Pro3 but it's a bit slow to find focus - am a long time canon user and have been through the 5d's and now have an r5 which is astonishing, so perhaps I'm judging it against something unfair, but I've missed a lot of shots with the lovely fuji because it's a bit slow to find target.

Am I being unfair? Should I just accept that it's not as good as the canon or is there a magical set of settings for fuji's that I should be using to optimise the focus?

current set up:
wide/tracking
set1
pre-af: on
face detection on
focus check off
release/focus priority: release

and it's on continuous focus, with drive set to 8fps
 
I've got a trip planned in a few months, what would be the the most efficient/cost effective way of backing up my photos during that trip?

I won't have a laptop to back up to. One thought was transferring them to my phone then uploading to onedrive or google drive. I've seen one drive offer a free one month trial with 1tb storage. Would i get original file size to my phone? would the fuji app transfer jpeg plus raw or just jpegs?
 
Tom30 said:
I've got a trip planned in a few months, what would be the the most efficient/cost effective way of backing up my photos during that trip?

I won't have a laptop to back up to. One thought was transferring them to my phone then uploading to onedrive or google drive. I've seen one drive offer a free one month trial with 1tb storage. Would i get original file size to my phone? would the fuji app transfer jpeg plus raw or just jpegs?
Click to expand...
Dropbox would work as long as you have internet or wifi!
 
Tom30 said:
I've got a trip planned in a few months, what would be the the most efficient/cost effective way of backing up my photos during that trip?

I won't have a laptop to back up to. One thought was transferring them to my phone then uploading to onedrive or google drive. I've seen one drive offer a free one month trial with 1tb storage. Would i get original file size to my phone? would the fuji app transfer jpeg plus raw or just jpegs?
Click to expand...

With the low cost of cards these days, just buy extra cards, and swap them out every few days. To be honest, I never go on a trip, overnight or longer, without a laptop and my portable drive.
 
Tom30 said:
I've got a trip planned in a few months, what would be the the most efficient/cost effective way of backing up my photos during that trip?

I won't have a laptop to back up to. One thought was transferring them to my phone then uploading to onedrive or google drive. I've seen one drive offer a free one month trial with 1tb storage. Would i get original file size to my phone? would the fuji app transfer jpeg plus raw or just jpegs?
Click to expand...

I just had a google, and found this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Verbatim-Store-Portable-USB3-0-53421/dp/B07DMJ5DDQ
Bo idea if it`s any good for your needs though, and you might need a power bank to run it.

or this one, plus a usb card reader https://www.amazon.co.uk/SSK-Portab...p/B07TV2B561/ref=psdc_430544031_t1_B07DMJ5DDQ
 
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Jelster said:
With the low cost of cards these days, just buy extra cards, and swap them out every few days. To be honest, I never go on a trip, overnight or longer, without a laptop and my portable drive.
Click to expand...
I agree with Steve, more cards if you can't take a laptop and extra drive. Like Steve I never go on a trip of more than one day without my Laptop and extra drives, additionally I don't clear my cards until I am home with everything in my main drives (if at all possible). Fortunately my Fujis which are my main cameras for travel/landscape have dual card slots so I have 2 of everything, if I am running out of card space I can clear one of the pair to get fresh space.
 
Tom30 said:
I've got a trip planned in a few months, what would be the the most efficient/cost effective way of backing up my photos during that trip?

I won't have a laptop to back up to. One thought was transferring them to my phone then uploading to onedrive or google drive. I've seen one drive offer a free one month trial with 1tb storage. Would i get original file size to my phone? would the fuji app transfer jpeg plus raw or just jpegs?
Click to expand...

Topsy said:
I agree with Steve, more cards if you can't take a laptop and extra drive. Like Steve I never go on a trip of more than one day without my Laptop and extra drives, additionally I don't clear my cards until I am home with everything in my main drives (if at all possible). Fortunately my Fujis which are my main cameras for travel/landscape have dual card slots so I have 2 of everything, if I am running out of card space I can clear one of the pair to get fresh space.
Click to expand...

I would recommend changes cards daily even if they are not full (or backing up to an external device), otherwise you may come home with nothing (as I found out in my GFX incident!)
 
Mr Perceptive said:
I would recommend changes cards daily even if they are not full (or backing up to an external device), otherwise you may come home with nothing (as I found out in my GFX incident!)
Click to expand...
Yep, I'd agree with that. When I travel I take loads of cards for just that reason, I can get 10 days without having to worry about running out.
 
Speedy136 said:
Dropbox would work as long as you have internet or wifi!
Click to expand...

Jelster said:
With the low cost of cards these days, just buy extra cards, and swap them out every few days. To be honest, I never go on a trip, overnight or longer, without a laptop and my portable drive.
Click to expand...

Paulie-W said:
I just had a google, and found this https://www.amazon.co.uk/Verbatim-Store-Portable-USB3-0-53421/dp/B07DMJ5DDQ
Bo idea if it`s any good for your needs though, and you might need a power bank to run it.

or this one, plus a usb card reader https://www.amazon.co.uk/SSK-Portab...p/B07TV2B561/ref=psdc_430544031_t1_B07DMJ5DDQ
Click to expand...

Topsy said:
I agree with Steve, more cards if you can't take a laptop and extra drive. Like Steve I never go on a trip of more than one day without my Laptop and extra drives, additionally I don't clear my cards until I am home with everything in my main drives (if at all possible). Fortunately my Fujis which are my main cameras for travel/landscape have dual card slots so I have 2 of everything, if I am running out of card space I can clear one of the pair to get fresh space.
Click to expand...

Mr Perceptive said:
I would recommend changes cards daily even if they are not full (or backing up to an external device), otherwise you may come home with nothing (as I found out in my GFX incident!)
Click to expand...


Thanks all!

Multiple cards look like a good shout. That first link from Paulie also looks like a really good option.
 
www.fujirumors.com

BREAKING: Sigma X Mount Lenses to be Announced in February - Fuji Rumors

For some reason the claim is spreading that FujiRumors said the X mount Sigma lenses would come on February 9, which now results in people accusing me of sharing fake/wrong rumors and being terribly disappointed (by FujiRumors and the lack of Sigma X mount lenses). Of course I never said that...
www.fujirumors.com www.fujirumors.com
 
Not an X, but as mentioned in an earlier post, I bought one of the first batch of Instax Mini Evo's from WEX (it actually arrived a couple of days before the release date of 01/02/22).
Thoughts:
  • Great fun, especially at events. Subjects love getting a print.
  • It's great to be able to review the images before printing.
  • Pretty easy to use (minimal controls) however, that does have limitations.
  • Most of the effects are just gimics - but then that's kinda the point.
  • The 4.9 megapixel jpg quality is pretty poor, with very little latitude to edit. (My 1 megapixel Kodak DC240 from 2000 produced better jpgs).
  • The requirement to print the photo before you can bluetooth it to your phone is a pointless, annoying restriction.
Anyway. here's an example of the quality (using the mirror lens effect). Noise reduction has been applied !

Captain America Cheerleader by Tim White, on Flickr
 
Last edited:
LC2 said:
Not an X, but as mentioned in an earlier post, I bought one of the first batch of Instax Mini Evo's from WEX (it actually arrived a couple of days before the release date of 01/02/22).
Thoughts:
  • Great fun, especially at events. Subjects love getting a print.
  • It's great to be able to review the images before printing.
  • Pretty easy to use (minimal controls) however, that does have limitations.
  • Most of the effects are just gimics - but then that's kinda the point.
  • The 1.9 megapixel jpg quality is pretty poor, with very little latitude to edit. (My 1 megapixel Kodak DC240 from 2000 produced better jpgs).
  • The requirement to print the photo before you can bluetooth it to your phone is a pointless, annoying restriction.
Anyway. here's an example of the quality (using the mirror lens effect). Noise reduction has been applied !

Captain America Cheerleader by Tim White, on Flickr
Click to expand...


I saw one up close last week as my mate who is a Pro photographer had one, smart and cute little camera.
 
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