A Further Adjustment

It's been over a year since my last equipment post and during that time I've been quite happy with the simplicity of my lens choices with one exception.  I've found I missed having a wider lens pair to choose for certain situations or as the occasional change of pace.  As such I decided to bring back the 16mm f2.8 WR and 35mm f2 WR combo.  (This translates to about 24mm and 50mm in full frame terms.)

The 16mm is quite simply fun to use.  It gives just a touch of ultra wide angle distortion without it becoming the dominant quality of the image, or in other words, without feeling like a gimmick.  However, by tilting the lens up or down or getting rather close to an element in the scene you can increase the perceived level of that distortion significantly.  Conversely, by keeping the sensor or film plane level and being careful with what's in the corners and edges it's also possible to make images with this lens look almost normal while still adding a feeling of expansion to the space you're in.  All quite different than my other lenses.

Fujinon 16mm R WR f2.8

I am an admirer of the photographs of David J Carol who uses the full frame equivalent (24mm) along with a slightly wider lens. The popular Alan Schaller is another photographer who uses this angle of view as his primary lens.  And of course it's been a staple in landscape and architectural photography for decades.

I typically photograph with two lenses on two bodies and I've always found the 35mm to be a perfect companion for the 16mm.  For years the full frame equivalent (50mm) was the standard lens that came with rangefinder and SLR film cameras and was favored by photojournalists and street photographers such as Henri Cartier-Bresson and Elliot Erwitt.  It was my favorite focal length when I started photographing in the late 1990s through my time using view cameras and held that position until only five or six years ago.

Fujinon 35mm R WR f2

At some point along the way I began to think of it as my "dream lens."  The images it draws create a normal perspective (the distance and relationship between things look about like they do to the eye) but being a rectangle cut from the image circle of a single optic it creates a much tighter frame. There is something about that combination of normal perspective and single, abbreviated angle of view which gives me the feeling of images plucked from a dream.    

Finally, I mentioned before that having four cameras after determining I couldn’t manage without IBIS felt unnecessary and extravagant while also creating an additional decision before photographing. I decided to sell all four and replace them with two X-S20 bodies. It retains the same sensor as the previous cameras but adds the new double speed X5 processor which, among other things, significantly improves autofocus. Focusing was the only real weakness in previous iterations and the primary reason for this change.

There are a few other benefits such as a new battery that lasts twice as long, a higher resolution screen, a longer buffer, and improved stabilization. I was actually able to make a sharp image handheld at a shutter speed between 1/2 and 1 second. Impressive technology which allows me to shoot at base ISO 160 or ISO 800 in darker situations greatly improving dynamic range compared to using higher values.

So it's two cameras and six lenses for the foreseeable future, plus my iPhone of course...  Seems reasonable for someone who's primary interest in life is photography.