Which lens should I buy for Fujifilm XT30

Would be grateful for some advice on which first lens to buy, based on the following:

- Currently have a standard kit lens 15-44 which is fine for day to day stuff.

- I photograph mainly people, quite a lot up close (family, child), plus community events and street photography.

- I sometimes like to get nice Bokeh on portraits

- Secondary to this, I like landscape photography, but I think I'll deal with this another time as I find the kit lens adequate for what I'm doing.

- I like the idea of manual focus, but not sure if that reduces my options a little?

- Budget wise I'd like to keep in the low hundreds / within 500 if poss. I am happy to buy second hand if decent condition.

Should I get a Prime, or focus? an adaptor for cheaper lenses, or native lens?

Many thanks in advance.

skrimfish said:

- I photograph mainly people, quite a lot up close (family, child), plus community events and street photography.

- I sometimes like to get nice Bokeh on portraits

- Secondary to this, I like landscape photography, but I think I'll deal with this another time as I find the kit lens adequate for what I'm doing.

- I like the idea of manual focus, but not sure if that reduces my options a little?

- Budget wise I'd like to keep in the low hundreds / within 500 if poss. I am happy to buy second hand if decent condition.

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Start by looking through the pictures you have taken so far with the kit lens.

Do you often find that you were too far away from your subject? In that case a longer focal length would be a good idea.

Do you often find that the widest aperture is not bright enough, so you end up using very high ISO or you get motion blur from long shutter speeds? In that case a faster lens (wider max aperture, smaller f:number) could help. Or maybe a better flash gun?

Do you want shallower depth of field to throw backgrounds more out of focus? Then you might need a faster lens and/or a longer focal length.

They seem to be the most likely problems given what you say, but maybe there is some other issue?

I certainly would not recommend adapted lenses for you at this stage. As a beginner you will have enough other things to worry about without having to faff about with manual focus. And I'm someone who uses adapted lenses a lot. You can always start to learn manual focus with a native fuji lens.

Overall, based on what you like doing I would guess that the Fuji 50mm f:2 prime would be a good idea.

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Albert the lazy photographer
Having fun with my cameras in Scotland

Outstanding post by Albert

For street photography and landscapes I also like the 23mm f/2. Note that I mean street scenes, not street portraiture.

Kelly Cook

Many thanks, really useful advice.

How about an adapted lens?

A cheap adapter costs you about $8. An adapter works on one type of mount, so you could adapt multiple lenses if they have the same mount.

For example, 50mm f/1.8 and 135mm lenses are really abundant, and prices are low. In addition you could look at a Helios-44; that is a 58mm lens.

Those will get you longer focal lengths, they won't break the bank and you'll have your manual focus. In addition you win two stops of light.

techie takes pics said:

How about an adapted lens?

A cheap adapter costs you about $8. An adapter works on one type of mount, so you could adapt multiple lenses if they have the same mount.

For example, 50mm f/1.8 and 135mm lenses are really abundant, and prices are low. In addition you could look at a Helios-44; that is a 58mm lens.

Those will get you longer focal lengths, they won't break the bank and you'll have your manual focus. In addition you win two stops of light.

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After the best part of 60 years of manual focusing practice I still get far fewer keepers with my adapted lenses than with native autofocus optics. It's not a problem with fairly static subjects but moving ones can be a definite challenge. It's not a route I would recommend to a complete beginner interested in family photos.

AlbertTheLazy said:

It's not a route I would recommend to a complete beginner interested in family photos.

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I highly value your posts and if I'm ever in Scotland I'd gladly have a beer with you.
I merely suggested this because the TO stated he wasn't particularly afraid of manual focus, and the wide open apertures would provide him with a lot of extra light to play with.

techie takes pics said:

AlbertTheLazy said:

It's not a route I would recommend to a complete beginner interested in family photos.

Click to expand...

I highly value your posts and if I'm ever in Scotland I'd gladly have a beer with you.
I merely suggested this because the TO stated he wasn't particularly afraid of manual focus, and the wide open apertures would provide him with a lot of extra light to play with.

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Thank you, and you are welcome any time. I agree about the extra light, but I do feel that a beginner has enough to worry about without adding MF. I've trained a fair number.

On the shoot below I was partnered with another photographer who had the usual f:3.5 -5.6 kit zoom. They got zero usable shots whereas I had three exhibited . The big difference was an f:1,4 lens.



















--
Albert the lazy photographer
Having fun with my cameras in Scotland

Thanks all. I think the comment re. MF, and me having enough to think about, is a fair one. I'm trying to feel my way through what will be useful and fun at this stage, and all your comments are very useful.

With that in mind, can I ask about the 56mm over the 50mm? If I found a way to afford the former, would others recommend this? It has amazing reviews on this site. Is it for close portraits only or for some more general people shots? Bearing in mind that eventually I will get myself a nice wide angle lens (perhaps the 23mm which someone suggested) to complement the other two.

Thanks in advance.

Stefan

For wide angle the 16 f1.4 is amazing, quite possibly the best Fuji X lens. The 14 is also worth looking into if you shoot a lot of wide angle landscape shots.

As for the 56, it’s a specialist portrait lens but like any lens what you shoot with it is what type of pictures it takes. The 50 is also a fantastic lens with one of if not the fastest autofocus of the entire lineup, but it’s a bit less specialized as a portrait lens and more a general photography lens. Also worth checking out is the 60, which while it’s listed as a macro lens it’s more of a general photography lens that can also do macro.

There really is no “bad” Fuji lens so I would suggest finding what focal length you enjoy the most and get a prime of that.

Their 23WR is perhaps the best looking lens in existence.