Fujifilm X-pro2, Zhongyi Lens turbo II and the Lensbaby Twist review

As I mentioned earlier in my previous blog post, I'm the proud owner of the Lensbaby Twist. It's by far one of my favorite Lensbabies. I'm a real Lensbaby freak since I have all of the optics they have ever made! The Twist has an amazing swirly bokeh like the Petzval does! But to get that amazing swirly bokeh, you've got to shoot on a Full Frame camera to get the most out of it. On a crop sensor like the Fuji X series, most of the swirl will not be visible because of the size of the sensor. But there's a solution: The Zhongyi Lens Turbo II or the Metabones Speedbooster!
These adapters are made for several brands and let your FF lens behave like an FF lens on a crop sensor camera! The images on my previous post are all captured with the Canon 5D mk III, a Full Frame camera. In this post I will show you what the Lensbaby Twist does on the Fujifilm X-pro2 with the Lensturbo II. As you can see in the images below, the Lensturbo gives an amazing swirly bokeh! The same as on my Full Frame camera. I prefer shooting with the X-pro2 because it has Focus Peaking. Focus Peaking is amazing when you shoot with manual focus lenses like the Lensbabies, Helios or other vintage lenses. It really helps you to get your subject tack sharp in focus because it adds a white, blue or red line around your subject when it's in focus. And the X-pro2 is so much smaller than my bulky and heavy Full Frame. The Fujifilm camera's are excellent for everyday use and even for professional use! 

Of course it's not all glitter and gold. Although the X-pro2 is fast, it's not as fast as my Canon. By that I mean that there's a delay in showing you the image when you use the electronic view finder on your Fujifilm. When you're shooting fast moving subjects like sports or in this case, my very enthusiastic little girl blowing bubbles, The delay can be very annoying because you can miss a very decisive moment. And than that moment will be gone for ever. 

Anyway, back to the story I was about to tell of how I captured these images. 

We live in the Netherlands in an area called the Hoge Veluwe. It's a very beautiful environment. We've got a big forest, the moor, a small desert, deers, foxes, snakes and a lot of wild hogs! 

Last night we went out spotting deers and wild hogs. It was a beautiful evening with an even more beautiful sunset! We spotted a lot of wild hogs and deers, behind a safety screen of course because we wouldn't take the risk of getting chased by angry wild hogs. They can be very aggressive when they have little babies and they don't look that pretty. Besides that, they smell very, very bad. To give you an impression: they smell like a pair of old socks filled with mud which have been laying in a trash can for three months! 

Despite the fact that my camera doesn't capture any smells, I didn't photograph the wild hogs and deers because sometimes I just want to make a memory with my eyes, heart and brain instead of capturing images with my camera. I was to busy enjoying the excitement on my daughters face with her way too big goggles on top of her nose when she saw all of the deers and wild hogs with there little babies. 

We had some time left to watch the sunset. While watching the sun going down, she pulled out her  "Darth Vader bubbles" to create some big bubbles. My heart skipped a beat because of the backlight that was falling behind her. It was reflecting through the bubbles and her gorgeous blond hair. So I grabbed my X-pro2 with the Lensbaby Twist and start shooting. This is what photography to me is all about, a beautiful sunset, gorgeous light, a great camera, a small lens with a yummy bokeh and most of all, my own sweet and precious little girl... <3

Here are some images that i captured of her (and one of my son that i took earlier this week). All images are captured wide open at F/2.5 with the Fujifilm X-pro2 and the Lensbaby Twist + the Zhongyi Lens Turbo II.

(A little note: I'm not sponsored by Fujifilm, Lensbaby or Zhongyi to praise their products. This is just my honest opinion of how I feel about their gear and how it works for my type of photography). 

And the last one, just for the fun of it ;)