Weather sealing Fujifilm X-pro2, Lensbaby Edge 80 + Zhongyi Lensturbo II
vrijdag 8 juli 2016
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| fujifilm Xpro 2 + lensbaby Edge 80 |
And on top of it, the Fujifilm X-pro2 has really proven itself to be weather sealed. It was raining very hard so we hide under the trees and kept shooting. No problem for the X-pro2. And even my Lensbabies were outstanding. Not one drop has leaked into my camera or Lensbabies. The second image was shot with the Canon 5D MK III. Just after the rain has stopped. I was too afraid of using it during the rain. But that's maybe something to try out the next time ;)
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| Canon 5D mk III + Lensbaby Twist 60 |
Street photography in Valencia with the Fujifilm XT1, Fujinon & Lensbaby
maandag 4 juli 2016
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| Lensbaby Edge 80 |
For this 3 day trip, which is actually to short to visit this gorgeous place, I brought my FujiFilm XT1, the Fujinon 16-55 F/2.8 and the Lensbaby Edge 80. The XT1 was a rental since my 60 pound dog jumped on my own XT1 a few days before my trip and left me with a cracked LCD. I can't tell you how heart broken I was after I saw that my beautiful and beloved Fuji was mashed up by my dear dog. I will never know why he jumped on the table where my camera was. I guess he thought that he had turned into a cat but luckily my dog didn't get hurt. A camera can be replaced, my dog can't.
Anyway.. Thanks to the fantastic Fujifilm Customer Service in Europe, I had a spare XT1delivered the next day and my broken Fuji was taken care of. :) This is one of the things why I like Fujifilm so much: If you have a camera or lens problem, they'll fix it sooner than you can spell "Fujifilm".
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| Fujinon 16-55 F/2.8 - Streets of Valencia |
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| Streets of Valencia at noon. Fujinon 16-55 F/22 |
To bring the XT1 (the Xpro2 wasn't out yet) along with the Fujinon 16-55 and the Edge 80 was a good choice. I don't like to bring to many lenses while I'm on a city trip. Too many lenses gives too much noise in my head of what lens to use. I rather focus on my vision and image than to be busy with making choices and changing lenses. This distracts me from my actual goal: to capture life how I see it.
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| Museum of Art & Science - Lensbaby Edge 80 |
In my previous trip to Paris, the 16-55 has proven to be a good choice and in Valencia it showed again that this lens is a real work horse! Normally I only use primes but for city trips, my go-to lenses are one zoom and one prime. The Fujinon is fast, accurate focus, amazing colors and tack sharp. It's a bit bulky but I've taken it for granted because of the amazing IQ. The Lensbaby Edge 80 has always been one of my favorite Lensbabies, so this was an obvious choice to bring along with me (since the Twist wasn't out yet). The Lensbaby helps me to create more artistic images.
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| Little Venice - Fujinon 16-55 |
I will certainly go back to Valencia to shoot some more but here you have a little impression of this fun city trip.
For now, I'm going to pack by bags and gear because within a few days my Fuji Xpro2 and me will take off to Mallorca to shoot some underwater scenes. I'll keep you posted. ;)
Have a great and wonderful summer!
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| The beautiful paintings in the Cathedrals at Valencia |
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| I really love the architecture of the cathedrals |
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| Museum of Art & Science - Lensbaby Edge 80 |
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| The streets of Valencia. Even here you see the police on every corner of the streets. |
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| This is a different kind of art. Sand castles at the beach |
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| Every where you look there are growing oranges in the trees. |
Fujifilm X-pro2 & Fujinon 90mm F/2.0 natural light photography
zondag 3 juli 2016
Fujifilm X-pro2 combined with the Fujinon 90mm F/2.0. What an amazing set! That bokeh, that sharpness and that amazing flare! Do i need to say more? Love this combo!
The 90mm F/2.0 is fast, tack sharp and the creaminess of the bokeh is so yummy! The moment you snap a shot with this lens, you will forget the size of the lens.
If you're still in doubt of buying this lens, don't! In my opinion it's the best Fujinon lens there is, especially for portraiture!
Fujifilm X-pro2, Zhongyi Lens turbo II and the Lensbaby Twist review
zondag 26 juni 2016
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 ;)
Lensbaby twist review - Workshops photography by Willie Kers - the Netherlands
donderdag 16 juni 2016
I still love the Edge 80 but it has moved to my second favorite Lensbaby since the Twist arrived! Oh my gosh.. What a lens! The look, the feel, the images it creates, the amazing sun flare and definitely the wonderful swirl! From the first moment that I attached the lens to my camera, I was in love! And it hasn't left my camera since!
This is not an in depth review, just my experience out in the field of this gorgeous little lens.
The Twist reminds me of the analog Petzval lens I have. It has the same swirly bokeh. Only the Twist is way easier to create and to use. The Petzval is still amazing but it has aperture blades instead of an aperture ring like the one on the Twist. The aperture ring makes on the Twist makes it easier and faster to shoot. The Petzval is twice the size of the Twist and really heavy and bulky and the Twist is small en light.
The next thing I noticed when shooting with the Twist is that the colors and contrast are amazing! And it's tack sharp! In my opinion the Twist is the sharpest Lensbaby ever. And than the swirl! Oh my... That yummy swirl! Under the right conditions and on a Full Frame camera, you get a swirly bokeh like you've never seen before! Although it's a manual focus lens, it's really easy to focus, unlike the Petzval.
The Twist is well build and looks really pretty! If you are shooting with a mirrorless camera, you won't get the best out of the swirly bokeh because of it's crop factor. But there are several adapters that can fix this "problem". Since I'm a Canon shooter, I had to find an adapter that converts my Canon lens to be used on my Fuji Xpro-2. And I found it in the Zhongyi Lens Turbo II. With my Canon Lensbaby Twist attached to the Lens Turbo, the Twist works like a Full Frame lens on my Xpro-2. And that is really great so now I can even bring a smaller bag with me on my daily field trips.
The Lensbaby Twist is a 60mm lens and you can set the aperture from F/2.5 - F/22. If you want to see or read more about this amazing lens, please visit Lensbaby to get some tips & tricks and to watch the beautiful image gallery of my talented friends around the globe.
Here are a few of my examples that I've captured with the new love of my life: the Lensbaby Twist!
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