Let me get this down, whilst it’s still fresh in my mind…and before I’m distracted by something else ~ though, by the time this post is published, two months will have passed and I’ll be back in Canada, after my trip to England and Portugal. I don’t really write about gear, but I thought I’d share this last’s week experience with you. This is not a gear review!!!
As I write this it’s July and in two weeks, I’ll be off to London, England and also to Lisbon and the Algarve in Portugal. I’ve probably mentioned in a previous post that I am making this trip with my family and I’m not planning on carrying much and certainly not any heavy gear! I’ll be taking my two Fuji bodies and three – now four lenses with me. My main travel lens, and one that has been a good performer, is now, sadly, giving me problems with it focusing motor and all too often it’s un-usable. I cannot rely on it. It probably isn’t worth repairing it and I don’t have the money to replace it, but I would like another lens and about ten days ago I got a deal on Amazon on a lens I thought might be interesting. It’s a TTArtisans 27mm F2.8 – a fraction of the price of my ailing Fuji 18-55mm F2.8 – 4 (a great travel lens), a different lens all-together, not nearly as versatile, but a focal length I can work with. The lens arrived six days ago.
Over the past few weeks, I had seen a good few Youtube videos on it, many of the reviewers mentioned it’s short-coming ~ and the lens is far from perfect, but I don’t feel I have the same approach as many of these reviewers. Many of the short-comings I can deal with…yes, the aperture ring is close to the back of the lens, it would have been better placed at the front, the lens does vignette, but is easily corrected. I didn’t find the lens flare, mentioned in reviews, an issue, but I’ll come back to that and focusing was fine – not fantastic, but pretty good.
The day after the lens arrived, I took it into the woods, mounted on my X-T20 ~ using the aperture ring on that small body, with a hand grip attached was very tight and I had to modify the way I held the camera slightly, but it was completely usable. The woods weren’t an ideal place for testing the feel of the lens, so two days ago I took it to Toronto.
There were a few things on mind for that trip ~ yes footwear again ~ shoes and socks, my stamina, how I would fare waking around all day…and off-course the lens. I will mention now that when I bought the lens, I also bought a better lens hood for it, as people had mentioned lens flare and for the most part, lens flare was not an issue for me with this hood. The plan was to take the lens on my X-T20.
A last-minute thought, the night before…I decided that I would mount the lens on my X-T3 instead, wanting to travel light and with a smaller bag I took off the battery grip from my X-T3 ~ small lens and body, a nice tidy package! It was a comment I had heard on one of the reviews that I had watched that the lens may focus quicker on a newer body, so I decided to try it out, that’s why I took the X-T3 instead.
Well, I did say, this is not a gear review…and it’s not, but yes, the lens was better on my X-T3, the body being slightly larger than my X-T20, the aperture ring, was easier to use.
As to the day and my shooting…well, I think it was a good day, the first person I asked if I could shoot their photo declined, though she was shooting with her camera phone (I was in Kensington Market). A few people declined, but as you can see some people were game, and I had a few interesting conversations with the people I met, it always makes for a more enjoyable photographic experience.
I did enjoy using the lens…as with anything, being familiar and comfortable, getting to know your gear goes a long way. Also given that I was forearmed with a bit of knowledge from having watched a few videos on the lens, helped in a quick learning period with the lens. For a cheap auto focus lens, it’s absolutely fine and I know that I can use it to capture strong images, which is the most important point.
An observation…shooting in Toronto does seem to have changed, the city doesn’t as “friendly” as it used to be, as it really is “run-down” ~ though the latter does not bother me and can make for more interesting photography.
You may have read a previous post: “Asking or expecting too much of yourself”, as I write this one, that one is not yet published, it will be out on 27th July 2023. The difference, between the two days, was probably just me and also the locations I choose on both occasions. Both times, I was using a lens I hadn’t really used before, not in the city anyway. However, I didn’t go out hell bent on taking photos, I took my time, there was much more engagement with people…and the images came. The morning was spent at Kensington Market, and the afternoon along Queens Street, where I didn’t feel like shooting at all…in the past it has been a good location for me. Just not that day, perhaps, though by the afternoon I was a little tired!
Whereas on that day back in May, I left Toronto feeling a bit dejected from a seemly lack of good images (and interactions), I didn’t feel so last Wednesday, it was a good day.
Here then, are a few images from that day. I hope you enjoy them.
Although I had set out to try a new lens…once I was shooting, I wasn’t thinking about my gear, all thought of it was gone from my mind. I was simply in the “zone” and concentrating only on looking for and capturing images, enjoying interactions with people, which greatly help…and by-the-way, I managed over 21,000 steps that day!