Our Lenses

Fujifilm started out with 3 X series lenses - all fixed focal length primes.  Then came a “kit” zoom that was anything but “kit” in terms of quality.  The knobs and dials on the camera bodies, as well as the manual aperture rings on the lenses pulled at my heart strings, but it was the review of the lenses - the fact that every lens they released was superb - that made me decide to invest in Fujifilm.  And that we have.

From those three lenses, Fujifilm now has quite the lens line-up and we own our fair share of them.

For the most part, Ann and I have focused on prime lenses, in part because of the exceptional quality of the lenses, but also because they make you work more for the image.  And they are relatively light compared to most of the zooms.  And, of course, we thought we would simply share lenses, since we were using cameras from the same system.  That idea went out the window once we realized that we’ll often be a quarter mile apart when working . . . too far to walk over to ask, “Hey, Hon, can I borrow the 23mm lens if you’re not using it?”

Thus both Ann . . 

and I . . .

have very similar lens line-ups.  Though as you can see, not exactly.

The primary lenses I use are the ones (with one exception) that form the core of the fairly “normal” lens range - from wide to moderate telephoto in the Fujifilm X-series lens line-up. Ann tends to stick within that range as well, perhaps even more so (I think she’d be happy with just her 35mm and 23mm 90% of the time).

Our key lenses are the 16mm, 23mm, 35mm, 56mm and 90mm lenses. Though I confess, Ann has the 35mm f/1.4 that everyone (to include Ann) says is special (and I agree, it does have a certain “look” in how it renders); I opted for the smaller 35mm f/2 that’s perfect for the X-Pro 2 (though I have my eye on the near optically perfect 33mm f/1.4 (there goes that gear lust again)).  To that lens lineup I tend to have the 55-200mm zoom lens in my bag for when I really need to reach out there.

As you can see in both of our “bags” pages, we can take most of these lenses with us when we’re out.  Here’s my bag, with the above-mentioned lenses ready to go.

Now, if you’ll notice, there is an extra lens in there, the one on my camera.  Just before moving to Portugal we both invested in a relatively new zoom lens that pretty much covers the range of fixed focal lengths I usually work at - the 16-80mm zoom lens.  It’s the one on my camera in the photo above. I used it a lot during our trip to Madeira.

It’s a good lens, but I’m not sure I’m ready to use only it instead of my primes.

Ann and I truly do share a few lenses.  We have a couple of macro lenses, the 60mm macro that Ann purchased early with her X-E1, and the 80mm macro (which can produce a true 1:1 macro) I purchased a few years back in hopes of photographically “scanning” my older 4x5 negatives (see blog posts about how that’s gone so far . . .).  

And then there are a couple of zoom lenses we share.  First is the 10-24mm wide angle zoom, which goes really, really wide.

I think I’ve asked to use that lens maybe twice in all these years.  Face it, I just don’t see that wide, though perhaps I should stick it on my camera some day, tape the zoom to 10mm and force myself to learn that focal length.  Ann used that lens almost exclusively for a long time.  It’s a great lens that most landscape photographers love.

The other zoom is one we have used quite a bit.  It’s one we keep up front with us in the rig because . . . it’s great for shooting out of the window with.  Particularly in the Lamar Valley (think photographing wolves running in line on the other side of the valley).  It’s the opposite end of the 10-24mm zoom.  Needless to say, the 100-400mm is a beast of a lens . . .

But when you need it, you need it. That’s why we also keep a bean bag with the lens to use as a window rest/stabilizer when we’re shooting from the vehicle.

Well, that’s our lens line-up.  It’s good glass and it’s lasted through all of the different camera bodies they’ve been used with.  We have no complaints!