I know that I have I written about travelling and shooting with new gear – and I stand by it…today I’m going to write a little about shooting with a new 13mm lens I recently acquired.
This is in no way a review of the lens, but rather my first impressions and images using it…the following paragraphs are my feelings and photos over the last two weeks since I bought the lens. I had no issues and for the most part, because we all (I mean me) don’t take perfect photos every time the shutters pressed, that being said, I think it went pretty well! I’ll tell you now – I’m very pleased with lens, but please…read on.
Some explanation is due here…My main camera system for the past 10 years has been a full frame Sony, it’s served me well and I have always enjoyed picking up my Sony camera using it, for the most part, with older Minolta lenses. Yes, the lenses are older, but my subjects are not sport or fast-moving action and the lenses, older in design and slower to focus do their job and usually well. Old they may be but, they were built well, the optics are sound and the results are pleasing – old friends and trusted travelling companions for many years.
I have been shooting with Fuji cameras and lenses for the past 4 years now, starting off with an X-T1 and one lens – the cheaper kit lens and expanding very slightly over the past three years to three Fuji bodies and two Fuji lenses – the kit lens was replaced with the more expensive and faster version and also a 33mm F2.0 prime. I have written earlier, that my X-T1 no longer autofocuses, but used with old manual glass, it is still a tremendous camera. So, more camera bodies than lenses? I hear you ask! Not so!! My two Fuji lenses are part of larger arsenal of old, fast, vintage primes that I have and use with my camera bodies…and they give me great pleasure.
Since the days, long ago when I started shooting on manual film cameras, moving to auto focus, then digital, my camera bag – through all my systems, has always contained a good ultrawide lens – Olympus, Minolta, Nikon, Sony. This I have lacked on my Fuji system. It is the ultrawide, that has in part, defined my shooting style and something I missed greatly on my Fujis, as you all know – APSC has a crop factor of 1.5 on Fuji, so no prime vintage lenses that I own are wide enough to be called “wide”, let alone “ultrawide”!
Fuji, of course has its own ultra-wide’s, and from what I understand, they’re pretty good – if a little on the expensive side. There are more reasonably priced manual focus lenses, but no good autofocus primes… enter the Viltrox 13mm F1.4 – yes, it caught my attention.
It may well have been a few months ago, earlier this year, that I first became aware of this lens, I had seen the reviews of other Viltrox lenses over the past couple of years, but this one really caught my attention. There were a number of reasons – it being an ultrawide for sure, but also because it was receiving really good reviews…” the lens Fuji should have made.” Unlike its stable mates, that have smooth, click less aperture rings (great for video, but not for me), this one has a clicked ring…and then there’s the price – less than half of what an approximate focal length Fuji would cost! Very compelling.
What can I say about the lens, now that I have it and have shot with it over the past two weeks…well it’s a real shame that I didn’t have it over the whole summer when I was off and able to go out and shoot daily, if I chose to! But seriously, whilst that would have been great, I’m so pleased to have the lens, I do have far less time to shoot now, but I do when I can.
The lens lives up to all the hype, it is really good, without doubt its image quality is stellar, the handling is great, it feels really premium and I love shooting with it. The photos here of people have all been shot at f1.4, so I’m not going to excuse myself if a nose didn’t make it into focus! For the most part, when I was shooting people, the lens was practically in their face!
Not all the images here, in this blog, are taken close in, but most are, I want to show a good cross section of images from my first “outings” with this lens. Another factor I wanted to test/see was shooting really close at F1.4, with this ultrawide lens, what would be in focus that I wasn’t focused on. I haven’t had an opportunity as yet to get into Toronto and shoot buildings or street scenes, I hope I can soon. So yes, with face shots ultra-close at F1.4, noses and other bits are not in focus…I know!
Very early days for this lens and I, I’m very pleased to have it as part of my kit and I look forward to many trips with it. But for now, I hope you enjoy my first images with it and have learnt a little more about me and how I like to shoot.