Moving from Canon to X-t3--lens suggestions for Fuji

buckeyevet wrote:

Apa Macam wrote:

buckeyevet wrote:

GreatOceanSoftware wrote:

If you post some samples, we could help diagnose the lens. As for the body, I believe the camera also has an internal battery that hasn’t charged, or isn’t accepting a charge. This happens to my bodies when I don’t use them for a long time.

I did read that on the forums the first time it factory reset which was the first day I got it. I assumed the internal battery was simply not charged enough. It did it a second time when I charged the battery outside the camera overnight.

Here are 2 of the best images. I don't have my metadata accessible on my phone to add at the moment. These are uncropped and I did minimal PP (slight tweak in color balance and highlights for dog picture, slight tweak of contrast in mermaid). They were both then converted from RAW to JPEG at 100 setting. All done in Capture One (the free version that came with the camera. I used LR 6 exclusively with my Canon gear, but understand LR6 doesn't play well with Fuji Xtrans).

Single focus point was the mermaid's face

Single focus point was my dog's left eye. She wasn't moving.

The mermaid photo was shot with with 1/8 sec and the dog photo was taken with 1/3 sec shutter speed. Was it done with handheld? If it was, that explains a lot....

Question 1, why did you used F22 for the mermaid photo?

A virtual photography class i took last year during lockdown said f22 was good when trying to get more of the subject in focus, which was my goal.

Thank you for being open. For starter, I suggest that you stick to F2.8 ~ F 5.6 for now, with maximum aperture at F8.
Photography 101, the further you are away from your subject, the deeper the depth of field, that's why even for landscape photography, you don't need F22.
The only 3 valid reasons I can think of on top of my head right now for F22 is for 1) Macro shot, 2) to produce starburst effect of street light and 3) to reduce light gathering during long exposure (I did this before for waterfall shot without ND filter).

Question 2, why did you fix your iso at 400 for both photo?

Same photography class that taught me the above, also said never to shoot above iso 400 to avoid noise, and it was too dim to go lower.

Well, never to shoot above iso 400 ONLY if you have enough light (eg. outdoor with bright sunlight). The dog shot obviously was done in indoor setting where light are insufficient. If you continue to stick to iso 400 to avoid noise, you will end up with mostly motion blur shots like what u did. The question is, which compromises you can accept? 1) a clean image with motion blur 2) a higher iso with a bit of noise but you get sharp image? Just so you know, our fuji camera are good with noise up to iso 3200,
For your dog shot, if you insist to shoot at iso 400 with F4, then the only solution I can think of is to include a speedlight.
I'm starting to think that there is nothing wrong with your XT3 nor the XF18-55. If you get the chance to shoot the mermaid again (with that bright sunlight), I would suggest you leave both the shutter speed and iso in auto mode and use F5.6 for your aperture setting with the OIS turn on, I can almost guarantee that you can get a tack sharp photo. Do give it a try.

I'm starting to think I should have saved my money on the class and stuck with my old way of doing things.

I don't really know what they taught you in the class, so I can't comment on that. For myself, I never attend any paid photography classes. All the knowledge I have acquired, I got them from Youtube university (quote Manny ortiz).