Here's a post I have been looking forward to making since I heard the X-T2 was coming into existence, and boy I was not left disappointed.

In the lead up to the release of the X-T2 there were a few things I was looking forward to seeing improved upon, one being a more competent auto-focus system that followed my instructions a bit better, particularly when shooting my beloved XF56mmF1.2 R. I am well aware that on an ~85mm equivalent lens,  AF speed and accuracy at F1.2 is not exactly an easy thing to achieve, and Fujifilm wasn't alone in this department when compared to Canon's 85mm F1.2 L behemoth.

Well, after almost 2 weeks shooting with the X-T2 and my XF56mmF1.2 R on numerous occasions and circumstances I can safely say that Fujifilm have made me a very happy camper. This new pairing is fast, accurate, and surprisingly tracks really well in continuous focus mode. That said, today's post is all about portraiture so you'll just have to wait for another day when I post about the X-T2 and its ability to capture action and fast paced, changing movement.

I had the pleasure of meeting the martial artist, model, actress and generally awesome human, Ann Truong, during some captures at my local Muay Thai gym. We met up in our local neighbourhood one Saturday afternoon recently for some impromptu portraits and I got to put my new camera through its paces, all whilst showing her and another friend some unique parts of the town centre. For this series I used the XF56mmF1.2 R with only a few noted shots on the XF35F2.
You can take a look at full size JPEGs at this link.

Fujifilm have improved their auto-focus system out of sight when comparing the new X-T2 to the X-T1. Yes, I loved my X-T1 (it's moved to a new home now) but at times it was like a disobedient child that you wanted to do one thing and it wanted to do... well, not what you wanted i.e. lock focus on this subject, not that piece of shrub in the background. The immediately noticeable difference is the focus acquisition speed and accuracy when shooting with all of my lenses, particularly the XF56mmF1.2 R @ F1.2. Even when shooting into heavily flared afternoon sunlight behind Ann, the camera and lens combo still hit the mark and didn't go off in the woods hunting! Hallelujah!!!!! In cases where I have shot between near and far subjects, it's quick to find focus and has proven to be a gem at this too during very dim light in my home environment. I will test this more in future though.

So what is there to be mindful of when using this combo?
Fujifilm have a great menu system that can readily be used to access features like face and eye detection. Heck! It can even be setup to choose left or right eye as a priority on the fly. So, if you've got a relatively settled/staged subject this feature is a god send for getting dead set focus on the eyes of your subject. Another thing to be mindful of is that this lens seems to really eat battery power. I am not sure what combo of the lens' motor and camera would cause this but I am certain that the camera would have to work overtime to acquire focus like it does at F1.2. Always pack an extra battery or two, or get the new vertical battery grip.
On a final note, if you're a Canon user and your 85mm 1.2 L is doing your head in with it's heft, awful purple fringing, and slow focus, seriously go and give this combo a test. If you're not this kind of person/user, just go and do it anyway!

UPDATE: You can see this amazing post featured here by Love My Dress UK.

Well would you look at these two sweethearts.
Danika and Colin came all the way from their new home of Cambridge, England, in order to have a wonderfully unique DIY wedding in Danika's home city of Adelaide, A.K.A 'RAdelaide'.
From the get-go it was an 'all hands on deck' approach, with wedding members pitching in during the lead-up to their big day helping create decorations and even the wedding cake! This was all topped off with amazing sets of venues like Tin Cat Cafe, and among its surrounds the Rundle Street Art Project that gave us numerous unique backdrops for photos. SO much so, that we ended up shooting other couples and guests during some down time with various pieces.

Danika and Colin are two of the most genuine people you will ever meet and their love during the wedding was certainly contagious. They're two scientists with a flair for life and great, unique experiences, and their day was certainly an extension of that shared by everyone who attended. If you've never cried at a wedding before this was definitely the event that would crack the seal, again, and again.

Ah the Fuji XF35 F2 WR and XF90 F2.
These two lenses are supreme and exemplify how FujiFilm continue to improve on an already outstanding level of quality with their X-series line up.
They absolutely slayed on a recent wedding in the streets of South Melbourne and are now my go to combos for portraiture. Yes, I still love the XF56 1.2, especially when light is hard to find, but these 2 lenses (as I've said before) are superior in AF speed and accuracy when compared to 'older' lenses from Fuji's X-series line up.

For this post I thought I'd share 2 recent shoots using these admirable lenses, as well as share some of my wife's snaps of Jess (the gorgeous blonde haired woman) with her favoured kit, the Sigma 35mm Art and Canon 6D. I may be a Fuji guy but the Sigma 35mm @F1.4 still produces beautiful images with a lovely artistic and hip vignette. The XF35 F2 was solely used on the train snaps with my wife.

Enjoy!

HOLY SMOKES! What a blast this wedding was!
Right from the beginning of the day, Nikki & Kesh set THE tone for a celebration of their love, great friendship and family, then wrapped it in generosity, incredible food, insane partying, and a desire for raw industrial wedding photos.

It's not every wedding where the couple says 'We want you and Nat to feel like our guests' and follow through by trying to get you to drink beer and special rum cocktails in the first hour of the wedding day. Emphasis on 'trying'. They also hounded us with food!
From the preparation, to the ceremony, and right through to the reception, there was such a genuine sense of love and respect between all of Nikki and Kesh's family and friends. Even their celebrant, Kay, was a great friend of theirs!

However, the most touching aspect of the wedding (aside from their marriage) was Nikki & Kesh's noble support of cancer research through a very beautiful gesture. Take a close look at the polaroid station. Each shot that guests took and placed was then matched with a donation by Nikki & Kesh to the Australian Cancer Research Foundation. Can you imagine if every wedding was this selfless?

Natalia and I cannot stress enough how much this wedding was an absolute pleasure to capture, especially since we've made acquaintances with so many people from the wedding too!
Lots of love to you both, Nikki & Kesh! Thank you!

What a way to finish up 2015.
Winnie and Elvin sure know how to celebrate their marriage, with not 1, but 3 weddings across 3 different countries. We had the honour of shooting their wedding in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, where the always lovely Winnie grew up.
The blending of east and west, and tradition with modern opulence were perfect, with an emphasis on family and respect for Vietnamese culture permeating throughout the day.
Winnie & Elvin, we feel privileged for the experience, and especially enjoyed the numerous local cuisines you lavished upon us while we were in HCMC.

You may have seen my earlier post about my First Day Impressions of the Fujifilm XF90,
 which details my Fuji fan-boi experience with the new kid on the block. One month on and a fair few more shooting experiences later, this lens has done nothing but impress and inspire me. At my favoured full-frame equivalent focal length of ~137mm, the XF90 fits me like a glove and allowed me to move completely away from my Canon system, which had always been a go to when I needed the sharp and speedy 135mm F2 L.

This past month with the XF90 saw me checking out temperate rain-forest waterfalls in Victoria's east, shooting in stunning Western Australian sunsets with my dear friend Dan at Matsu Photography, exploring the historical sites of federation era Australia, and shooting for Ormsby Guitars and the Melbourne Guitar Makers Festival. On each and every varied occasion the XF90 never missed a beat and I have been left pondering how FujiFilm will outdo themselves next in their world of supreme, high quality consumer photography lenses.

There's something really frustrating about the XF90 - it leaves many of its brethren feeling somewhat inferior (emphasis on 'somewhat').

What Fuji have managed to achieve with this lens and its new quad-motor system is a lens that is incredibly responsive, accurate, and works extremely well in tough lighting conditions, such as low light and heavy back-lighting. I couldn't believe how well it focused on my mate Dan (below) during sunset, or at night as I often put it through its paces targeting objects near and far. As much as I love the XF56 1.2, after using the XF90 it feels somewhat slow and outdated and simply doesn't perform anyway near as well. Also, the XF90's bokeh trumps it by a long shot. Sorry, I know that F1.2 is still a hell of a feature and I'll continue to use mine, but the bokeh it produces simply isn't as smooth and rich.

Something sports and action photographers are going to love about the XF90 is how well it plays with continuous focusing mode, zone focusing and bursts, even at F2. It's smooth, accurate and damned responsive! Overall, a consistently high focus hit rate on par with what I was used to when using my Canon 7D/6D and the 135mm F2.

Did I mention that the XF90 is sharp?

Take a look at the 3 pictures above. I'm not normally a 'here's a 1:1 crop guy' but in this case I had to provide a quick screen grab at that ratio from my LR module (post grain added). I'll just leave you with those snaps to ponder.

If you're considering this lens be aware of how beneficial it is to have a ridiculously close minimum focusing distance on a lens of this focal length. I have loved utilizing the 60cm min. focusing distance so often and cannot wait to try it on some detailed wedding ring shots soon. If you like getting out and shooting a bit of wildlife like me, it's also particularly useful for some more intimate nature shots or flower snaps that provide a beautiful level of compression at this focal length.

I'll keep my conclusion simple. If you're a Fuji X-series user, buy this lens.
If you're on the fence about coming on board to the Fuji-side, get this lens and an XT-1 or XT-10 and be prepared to be blown away.

Fuji, you're gonna cost me marriage. By all means of financial responsibility I should not have bought this lens on a whim, I simply never do that. That was the immediate impact and impression the new Fujinon XF90 left on me and it only got better as the day wore on. 

For some time now I have been bloody excited about Fuji releasing a roughly 135mm F2 equivalent lens. It was the first lens I bought for my Canon system a few years back when I started off and it has been a staple lens in my kit. Even when it was stolen from my house whilst I was home, I still had it replaced. I have always found the XF56 to be a satisfying and impressive lens since getting onto the XT-1  but as a focal length, it never quite fit like the old pair of undies that is the 135mm F2. Thank the good science-folk at Fuji, they have created a lens that surpasses the Canon equivalent and I am as happy as a pig in it's own filth with the new XF90.

(all photos are JPEGs in classic chrome with minor tweaks)

Something that immediately jumps out at you when grasping the XF90 is the build quality. All my XF lenses are certainly well built, but somehow the XF90 and the XF16 seem to be a step up from the previous builds. The aperture ring is just perfect! A wonderful balance of ease of movement and firmness. It just clicks into place confidently across the range.
I was concerned that the XF90 would be too large a lens to match with the XT-1 but it was thankfully not the case. It's actually a bit short and slight more rotund than the XC50-230, which I'm quite used to so it was very familiar territory with the XF90 going onto my XT-1.

So what about that new quad-motor thingy? Well i'll be damned, this thing focuses quickly and accurately and provides the high performance that I was used when using my Canon 135mm F2 L. Admittedly I had my doubts but Fuji have completely destroyed them. Something else that also really surprised me was manual focusing. HOLY SMOKES! This is definitely the best and most 'authentic' and easy to manually focus Fuji lens I have ever used. It's so responsive and easy to finely focus, which is particularly useful when taking advantage of how close the minimum focusing distance is on this lens of 60cm! Yes! 60cm! Where the Canon 135mm only focuses to a minimum of 90cm, this guy comes along and enables you to use the focal range in whole new ways. I couldn't believe how close I could get to the flowers I shot (below) and how damn good the images came up at F2. It ain't macro but jeez, you could certainly get away with some pretty intimate shots.

BOKEH! Oh glorious Bokeh! Just take a look. It's simply the best I've ever seen Fuji produce for the XF range and the focus fall off on the xF90 will have the full frame purists shaking in their boots. Just take a look for yourself.

Fuji have created an absolute winner of a lens here. 'Nuff said.

Cheers to DigiDirect Melbourne as always for them deals!

Before I get started, if you're here for photographic proof of what I have written below, I don't have it quite yet. Well, I do, but unfortunately I cannot share the pictures I have been taking so you're just going to have to trust me until I get usable proof in my next post. I merely want to get numerous other XT-1 users excited for the new update to Firmware 4.0.

As I write this I'm a few hours out from getting on a plane headed for Ireland to shoot a pretty massive wedding between a fine Australian lad and a lovely Irish las. In preparation for the big day I have assembled a very nice and flexible kit for my wife and I to shoot with - she loves the Canon stuff and I'm a big Fuji convert.
After selling my X100s I was quite adamant about getting my hands on the XT-10 after seeing how much smaller it is than the XT-1 and in some aspects, smaller than the X100 series, thus making it 'pocketable' and discrete. I opted to pick up the XF27 as well and honestly, I am a much happier camper with this setup than with the X100s. A significant reason for that though, is the interchangeable lens ability of the XT-10 and the absolutely impressive new Firmware 4.0. The AF system of Fuji's X-series has been reinvented with this update and I have been achieving results that were simply unattainable with the old firmware. Kids running wild shot in continuous zone focus mode on the XF56 at F1.2? Yep. That happened this week for me.

If you're keen to read up about all the specifics involved in the new update, take a look at this link.
Since picking up the XT-10 a day after its release here in Australia, I have been testing it each day on a whole bunch of active school kids, which unfortunately means I can't share the actual proof of what I'm writing just yet. Onto the camera.

The XT-10 feels solid in the hand but could certainly benefit from a grip of some sort. One of the features I have really enjoyed (aside from the new AF system) is the face and eye recognition. This function is absolutely brilliant when paired with the XF56 at F1.2. It's snappy and every time I've shot with it it's made the mark. It will certainly be interesting to see how it holds up at the wedding next week.

Let's get to the really good stuff - Continuous and Zone focusing.
Good God! Or should I say 'Good Fuji!'?
The new focusing system is amazing! Is it perfect? No. Is it on par or better than many of the big guns? YES!
Imagine this. 4 young kids running around a play ground, chasing each other and me snapping in Continuous Zone focusing mode in High Burst with the XF56 at F1.2, focusing on 1 kid. Guess how many photos out of 5 hit the mark? 4! The 5th didn't make the mark because one of the kids came straight towards me at lightning pace and the shallow depth of field of 1.2 meant that the top the kid's head was in focus and not their face. Regardless, the camera tracked beautifully and I achieved something I'd never experienced before with the X-series cameras. Stopped down to F5.6, I spent some time on the sidelines shooting a basketball game. 30 something shots later, not a single miss! The XF16 also tracked exceptionally well and handled objects that were moving laterally and towards the camera exceptionally.
At this point I'd say it tracks better than my trusty Canon 7D and it is definitely better than my long standing (pre-Fuji) favourite, the 6D.

My apologies that I don't have the proof you're all probably looking for of my very large claims. You're just going to have to trust me. I will be posting photos via my usual Facebook and Instagram feeds over the coming weeks whilst in Ireland, hopefully providing insight into how well the XT-10 and XT-1 focus in low light situations with the new firmware. 

Cheers!

Mathieu