Truman Prevatt wrote:
Ambulater wrote:
Kali108 wrote:
Truman Prevatt wrote:
Kali108 wrote:
Truman Prevatt wrote:
Ambulater wrote:
In regards to your questions about the 90mm, it's an absolutely awesome lens. It really does produce jaw dropping IQ and is arguably Fuji's best lens.....which is why I thought I just had to have it. Now that I've shot with it for awhile I'm realizing what a specialty lens it really is. If you do a lot of fairly tight portrait work, especially well lit portrait work, then this is the lens for you. If I shot a lot of portraits in a studio with good lighting or even senior pics on bright afternoons then I would get a lot of use out of this lens.
However, at 90mm with no OIS, if you're going to hand hold, you need to shoot this lens at a SS of at least 1/180s to get good sharp shots. It get's more consistent at 1/250s or better yet 1/500s. So, even though it's pretty fast at f/2, you often need that wide aperture to keep SS up. So, if you're used to shooting street photography at f/5.6 or f/8 for decent depth of field, don't assume you're going to go into dimly lit areas and shoot at that aperture and still get good sharpness handholding a 90mm lens. You might have the technique to do it, but it's tricky.
Given all of the above, I purchased the OIS 50-140mm and am selling the 90mm, but that's really just about my personal needs and preferences. The 90mm is a fantastic lens on it's own terms, just know what it's going to be used for.
The 90 is by far the best lens in the Fuji stable. However if are having to shoot at 1/250, then maybe you need some practice. This lens is not only good for portraits it works for all tightly composed compositions including street and even landscapes.
A typical racehorse is traveling between 35 to 40 mph these were no exceptions. No problem shooting them at 1/500. However I know how to work and move the camera to pull it off. A lot comes with practice.
The 90 could use IS - many woul appreciate it. However, if the OIS version was not as optically good as the current version -I'll pass.
While you may be that rare bird with vise like hands....MOST will find 1/250 to be the minimum SS for reliably sharp images.
If you can't hand hold this lens at 1/250 I would suggest taking shooting (hand gun) lessons. Shooting this lens at 1/100 is no different than hand hold a FF 50 or ASPC 35 at 1/30. You should be able to do both although that is probably the limit.
Hand gun lessons...I think that's a great & unique suggestion for training. That said, the rest of your perspective is just plain wrong. Hand holding an equivalent 135mm FL at 1/100 SS ? It's "no different" than hand holding a 50mm?? That's nuts. Flat out, undeniably ... wrong. I say this as someone who made a living as a pro photog for almost twenty years, shooting 35mm, 645, 6x6, 6x7, 6x9, 4x5 and digital too since 2004....and I'm not / wasn't an action shooter at all! Everyone can have an opinion...and on dpreview..."opinion" takes on new meaning.
A common perspective, expressed below by Damien Lovegrove:
From: http://www.prophotonut.com/2015/10/04/fuji-xf90mm-f2-or-the-fuji-xf50-140mm-zoom/
A note on the minimum shutter speed for acceptably sharp hand held pictures with non IS lenses. As a rule of thumb I suggest you use 4x the focal length as a minimum shutter speed however you may be more steady than me and get away with 3x the focal length. Obviously subject movement needs to be considered too. Where people are moving I use 1/500th second to get sharp pictures. I usually select 1/1000th second if they are moving really fast, doing sport etc.
16mm – 1/125th but I could shoot at 1/60th depending upon subject movement.
23mm – 1/125th
35mm – 1/125th
56mm – 1/180th
90mm – 1/500th but I can shoot at 1/250th at a push but 1 in 3 shots will have camera shake.
50-140mm – 1/125th but I could shoot at 1/60th at any focal length depending upon subject movement.
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And there's more. Read it. His experience reflects my own and I could name drop but won't. It's common wisdom. And Damien, like me, is very predominantly a studio shooter...not an 'action' shooter.
Hey...I love the 90mm. It's on my "buy soon" list. My mono-pod, tripod and the 90mm will become best of friends.
I would say my experience with the the 90mm is consistent with what Damien Lovegrove is saying:
"90mm – 1/500th but I can shoot at 1/250th at a push but 1 in 3 shots will have camera shake." - Lovegrove
Admittedly I sometimes shoot the 90mm at 1/180th, but he's no doubt right that 1/250 would be better and 1/500 would produce more consistent sharpness. He's one of the top portrait photographers in not just the UK, but internationally so I give his experience a lot of deference.
Back in the late '70's early '80's when I was teaching night courses at a remote campus for a Baltimore art school at Ft. Mead, Md I ran into an interesting student. Ft. Mead Army is a large complex South of Baltimore which was the home of among other things the Army MP training center and one of the Army sniper schools. There is a large DOD civilian agency - a highly technical agency - also located on the Ft. Meade complex.
The students would submit a folder of prints on a particular topic. I would go over them with each student - pulling them out of the darkroom to discuss their work. Then I would hang various prints up in class so we could all discuss the work.
This one guy had some really nice work. It was low light and when I looked at the sheet that described the prints I found them shot with a 50 mm lens on a Canon at 1/16'th second. The prints (8x10) were tack sharp. I asked him how if he used a tripod (since it was not noted) and he said no they were hand held.
Long story short he was a Army first sergeant and was the head of and head instructor of the Ft. Meade sniper school. Ft. Meade had one of the two or three sniper schools. He said something like, "if I can put a bullet in someone's ear at a 1000 meters, I can surly hold a camera steady for 1/16 th of a second. I was curious about that statement. Also at Ft. Meade was a large DOD agency where I did my day job. Because of the project I was working on at the time where we regularly collaborated with off site organizations we had to carry classified material back and forth. So the four of us on the team at Ft. Meade had to get courier credentials which meant firearms certified.
I told the sergeant that I was fire arms certified and would like him to take me to the range and show me what he was talking about. He agreed but said I needed to take a Yoga course given on the base. I asked why. His answer was that there are two major issues to good shooting - be it a hand gun, rifle or in his opinion a camera. The first is most people can't truly relax and quieten their body and most people don't know how to properly breath to relax. He made all the students in sniper school take Yoga as part of their training.
We went out to the range, this guy was good. He could empty the 8 round magazine from his 45 1911 ACP in 15 seconds putting all 8 within a 1 inch grouping in the center of the target at 25 meters. I was okay but my this guy - I want him as my wingman;-).
After taking the Yoga and going often to the range sometimes with him and sometimes on my own, I developed the muscle memory, relaxation and breathing skills that unloading a mag in 15 seconds for me in a 4 inch grouping was second nature. I could literally do it in my sleep.
I also noticed that after I got proficient at shooting, I was able to hand hold my Leica with a 50 mm for 1/32 shots ( a bit faster than the 1/f rule of thumb) and produce sharp prints. I could never quite match the sergeant but it really did help. As the sergeant said, muscle memory, relaxation quietening the body and breathing are the keys.
This has been written about more than once. Here is an example I found.
http://www.pentaxforums.com/reviews/long-exposure-handhelds/introduction.html
At the end of the day if you want to hand hold securely you have to develop the correct technique and then do what you would do to get to Carnegie Hall - practice, practice, practice. The mechanics have to get embedded into muscle memory - coming from the spinal cord. It is the same way a major league baseball player hits a 100 mph fast ball - from muscle memory. That includes the relaxation, quietening the body and synchronizing your breathing.
I can still put a 4 inch grouping up in the center of a target from 25 meters with my 45 1911 or any other hand gun for that matter. I have no issues hand holding my X 90 at 125 and might even venture down to 1/100, although I would rather not. Of course that depends on the subject. For a portrait - with that lens that is a little slow not because of me but there is a risk of slight subject movement.
The shot below is of the husband of a good friend's daughter. Dan is a former Marine (two tours in Afghanistan) now working on his BS in computer science in cyber security. He is an excellent shot - we've gone out a couple times to the range - but I'm better with a with a 45 but he's better than me with a 9 mm.
This was shot with the X 56 f1.2 at f1.2 (135 format equivalent of 84), indoors with a shutter speed at 1/59, ISO 320.
However, at the end of the day - you have to shoot how it is comfortable for you to shoot. If you don't have the confidence to push the shutter speed - then by all means don't. You will tense up and it will become a self fulfilling prophesy. At the end of the day - there are no rules just guidelines and everyone's are going to be different depending our you skill, you technique and how you practice and refine your skill.
Ooh Rah!
I'm not saying the shutter speeds / FL combos you're suggesting make creating sharp images impossible, simply it's the EXCEPTION. I can provide similar "exception" examples from my own work. Providing examples of "exceptions" does not alter the rules most (most=98%) will find reliable for determining shutter speeds for sharp images. It's a disservice to photographers. Why you find it important to share your exceptional "skills" for hand holding is beyond me. Is there some advantage of shooting a 56 f1.2 at 1/60 that I'm unaware of? It's a last resort scenario, where you appear to be advocating it as "best practice" ? I don't "get it".
