Meike 25mm f1.8 Manual Focus Lens For Street Photography

I recently posted a review of The Meike 25mm f1.8 manual focus lens on my regular blog (also on this site). Feel free to go check that out. But I wanted to post a bunch of street photography pictures here to show and talk about how this lens is suited to the street photographer. You can also buy the lens HERE

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If you fantasise about roaming the streets with a Leica M, but are unable to afford such an expensive camera (Sadly I’m in that department), then maybe a manual focus lens will get you part of the way there. Attaching the Meike 25mm f1.8 to my X-Pro2 changed both the way that camera performs and feels, and changed the way I shoot with it too. But it’s not just about switching to manual mode, there’s more too it than that. It slows you down, makes you more precise, and forces you to pay more attention to what is in your frame.

At the equivalent focal length of around 38mm in full-frame terms, the 25/1.8 is not the easiest lens to use for zone focusing. It’s not quite wide enough in my opinion (28mm FF being the sweet spot for me). But with a little practice, you can quickly get used to focusing manually and nailing the shot. Not only is this possible with static subjects, but with subjects moving toward you too.

The 25/1.8 is very smooth to focus and just the right stiffness to make sure not to overrun the desired position by accident. I bought a focusing tab made by TAAB in the US. This product really makes the Meike lens perform better (or perhaps the photographer), but TAAB are in dire need of worldwide distributors and the experience of buying and shipping from the U.S. isn’t a good one. But I’m glad I have one now.

The Meike lens is not the sharpest wide open, but f2.8 and beyond is fine. I mostly shoot at f8 or f11, so there is no problem for street. I wish Meike would have used different colours for the metres and feet markings to be able to tell them apart at a glance. I also wish the centre, focus mark would have been brightly coloured. I find it more difficult to see at a glance than I would have liked. I have used an orange piece of stick paper cut into a triangle for a few weeks, but this is starting to wear away. So my next attempt will be to put a little dot of yellow or orange luminous paint. Talking about this centre marking; it’s worth mentioning that it is not actually bang in the centre, but slightly to the right as you look straight down from camera position (photographers view). I thought this might just be my copy, but a friend of mine bought one and his is exactly like mine. I bit annoying!

I would definitely recommend trying a manual focus lens for your street photography. It’s a different experience and the size of this little 25mm is great (especially on a rangefinder-style body like the X-Pro2, X-E3 etc). Sometimes you just need to change things up. I can get a little too comfortable with zone focusing using the X70 from the hip, but there’s nothing like using a viewfinder.

So set your camera up in a minimal way. Make it function like a film camera, then add a manual focus lens to the mix, and get out there and feel like a purest (albeit a digital one perhaps).

Buy this lens on Amazon UK

Street Photography With The Fujifilm 90mm f2

As a follow up to my review of the Fuji 90mm f2, I thought I'd throw up some of the street shots I took at the Edinburgh Festival with said lens. The 90mm comes out at 135mm in full frame terms, which is 100mm longer than I tend to shoot on the street...just saying. The order is a bit random, but so is life!

The 90mm was a blast on the street. Even at f2, the autofocus locked on and the look is fantastic. I tend to shoot at around f8 with a 35mm on the street, so it's kinda refreshing to see the buttery smooth shallow depth of field that the 90mm produces. I've recently picked up the new 35mm f2? So far I'm really impressed with the performance and at £299 in the UK it didn't break the bank. I'll get out soon and shoot some street with it, so stay tuned. I could do with an X-Pro2 to go along with the 35mm f2 now :o)

Fuji X-Mount Lensbaby Edge 80 Street Photography

I went for a walk the other day to try out my new LensbabyComposer Pro and Edge 80 optic. Yes they have finally brought out a Lensbaby with a Fuji X-Mount. I'll have more Lensbaby street stuff coming soon, but in the mean time, if you want to read more and see some colour shots from this same walkabout and even a couple of tips regards to camera setup, click HERE.

Click the photo above to see the very flat out of camera and slightly underexposed JPEG. I've noticed that the Dehaze Slider in the latest version of Lightroom CC is a must for the Edge 80 (for the colour versions at least).

And Now For Something Completely Different :: Street With A Fuji 50-140mm

As the name of this blog would suggest, I usually shoot street photography with a 35mm lens. But after some random shooting while trying out the latest 50-140mm f2.8 zoom from Fuji, I naturally was drawn to the city streets. I can't say I felt comfortable walking around with what is a 75-210mm in full frame terms, and a bit too big and obvious for street photography. But I enjoyed the change and once again this lens blew me away with it's sharpness and quick auto focus. You can see some of these in colour by clicking HERE. Looking at these pictures, I find it interesting that I came away with the same shots I would have with a 35mm lens, I just stood further away. It just shows that we frame the shots with our eye, not with the lens. I also shot some portraits and  reviewed this lens HERE.

Rob The Street Photographers Bag

Millican are based in the beautiful English Lake District and produce old school, rugged and well made bags for the great outdoors. I was first introduced to Millican via a project called Freedom Through Photography that I was involved in to promote their collaboration with Fujifilm UK to produce camera bags for the X Series. I'm not sponsored or paid by Millican in any way, I'm simply writing this review because I feel I've finally found a small, discreet and well made bag that suits street photography and small documentary shoots and I though I would share it with you.

So why such a small bag? That's easy, the bigger the bag, the more we try to cram in to them. I'm definitely guilty of this and I regularly have that inner voice that tells me I'll need as many lenses I can cram in. But when shooting street photography it's good to travel light. To be honest I would be happy to just have my X100S and some spare batteries, but my inner voice wouldn't allow that. The bag in these photos looks bigger than it actually is. It's really not much bigger than an iPad Air.

What you see before you is Rob The Traveller, but Robert The Camera Bag is also available. The only difference between the two is that Robert includes the Small Camera Protector, while Rob doesn't. I bought Rob because it (he) is available in Slate Green, but Robert is only available in Grey Blue and Antique Bronze at the moment. I have both large and small camera protectors, so I already had that covered (as you can see in the last photo).

The only downside to Rob is that because I have a lot of stuff in the main compartment, it can be a bit of a fumble to slide my iPad into the dedicated section at the back (inside) as the pouch has a thin material, rather than a firm padded devider (which would make the bag more bulky). This is a minor thing and not a deal breaker in any way. I have a piece of card covered in cellophane (that came with prints) in there at the moment that gives me something rigid to separate my iPad with my camera and lenses and allows my iPad Air to slide in easier.

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The material Millican use for their bags is a high quality weatherproof 100% cotton canvas and veg tanned leather. This is my third Millican bag (I also have the X-Series Christopher and Matthew The Daypack) and the quality and craftsmanship is the same on each of them. These things are built to last and will probably look even better as they age. I love the old school fasteners on the main and rear compartment and the leather covered handle is extreamly useful. On Millican's website it says they Rob was "inspired by Grandad's old binocular case, which travelled the world. And then some". I love that!

INSIDE Inside the main section of the bag has a separate section for iPad at the back and one at the side that I use for a Zoom H1 audio recorder. There is also a zipped compartment that is ideal for business cards or bank cards. It's a safe place to keep your phone or wallet when you're on the streets too. The Small Camera Protector fits squarely on the bottom with enough room for another on top if required. This small insert will hold cameras up to an X100/X100S or X-E1 with an 18mm or 27mm lens attached. My recent street setup has been the 28mm and 50mm conversion lenses inside the camera insert on the bottom of the bag (separated by a padded insert from an old Lowepro bag). My X100S sits on top of the Small Camera Protector with the lens hood attached. I also have a mobile phone pouch on the bottom of the camera insert that the two conversion lenses sit on (see the last photo on this post). This pouch keeps my cables in one place and saves me from stuffing too much into the front pocket of Rob.

FRONT POCKET The front pocket is very handy and where all those important bits and bobs go. I have a Moleskine notebook and pen, spare X100S batteries, lens cloth and Apple Earbuds. It's unusual for me to need to change SD cards on the street, so I keep a spare SD card in it's plastic case inside the internal zipped pocket in the main compartment. The front pocket is also ideal for a mobile phone.

What's in my street photography bag at the moment? Here's a list of everything you see in the photo above. The two things that are missing are my Apple Earbuds and Lens Cloth. iPad is not essential (obviously), but it's nice to be able to read or write when stopping for coffee or travelling on a train. An iPad Mini might be a better option to save on weight.

Rob The Traveller bag by Millican

• Fujifilm X100S
• WCL-X100 Wide Converter Lens for the X100/S
• TCL-X100 Tele Converter Lens for the X100/S
• Zoom H1 Audio Field Recorder
• Small Camera Protector by Millican
• iPad Air
• Apple SD Card Reader
• iPhone Cable
• iPad Cable
• Phone Pouch for cables
• Business Cards
• Hotel Shower Cap for shooting in the rain
• Moleskine Notebook (Evernote version)
• Pen
• Extra Sandisk Extreme SD Card
• 2 Spare X100 Batteries (I usually have a third too)

So that's Rob. A small well made street bag that doesn't look like a camera bag and 28mm, 35mm and 50mm options. Another possible setup would be an X-E1/XE-2 with an 18mm or 27mm lens attached inside the camera insert and an X100/X100S on the top. Two cameras with two focal lengths. Rob or Robert would also make great lens bags, (probably) large enough to hold two large f2.8 zooms for those DSLR users, or two to six Fuji (or CSC) lenses (depending on which ones). Click HERE to visit the Millican website.

If you're looking for something a bit bigger, Christopher, The larger of the two X-Series bags is now available in Grey Blue as well as the original Antique Bronze and includes the Large Camera Protector.

Fujifilm X-E1 :: A Street Photographers Dream?

All of the photos posted on this site (for at least a year) have been taken with the X100 or the X-Pro1. Out of these two cameras I would say that the X100 is the best tool for the job due to there being less shutter lag. But the X100 has had quite a few firmware updates to give it the edge. Even so, it can still be a little frustrating at times when you see a shot, take it and then curse the thing when the viewfinder display screen pops up to reveal a different photo than the one you new you had taken. Ladies and jiglly bits, I give you the Fujifilm X-E1. When I first saw the so called leaked (by the Fuji PR department) photos of this camera, I didn't give it much thought. The fact that it had no optical viewfinder made me write it off as being a camera that I wouldn't buy or use (even though I've been using the X-Pro1 EVF about 50% of the time recently. But I've started to look at it differently in the past week with the icing on the cake coming the other day with the news that it could focus in 0.1 seconds and had a shutter lag of just .005. If this is true and not just hype, the X-E1 could be one of the best street photography cameras on the market when it's released.

Take a look at my photography blog for more of my thoughts on the X-E1

The Taxman Giveth & The Taxman Taketh Away

I'll try to post a street photo from the X-Pro1 every day this week. If I miss a day, I'll post two the next. This one is pretty self explanatory. The taxman giveth and the Taxman taketh away. We have many forms of tax in the UK. Some with black hats, some with white, some with no hats at all. They'll take everything on this sign and more...much more!

Fujifilm X-Pro1 Mirrorless System Camera

 

This is a cross post with my blog at DerekClarkPhotography.com

News of the new Fujifilm X-Pro1 mirrorless system camera was leaked today ahead of it's January 10th announcement. It looks like the exposure compensation dial will be in the same place as the X100's but recessed down into the top plate . I have also seen photos of a pre-production unit, and it looked just like this, except it was in it's bare metal state. Notice how far to the edge of the camera the viewfinder is? That should mean you don't see as much of the lens hood that you do in the X100.

The Specs for this unit will be 16mp APS-CMOS sensor with 6 photo sites instead of the usual 4. It will also have Fuji's excellent EXR processor. The lens options will be an 18mm (27mm equivelent) f2.0, 35mm (53mm) f1.4 and a 60mm (90mm) f2.4. Looks like Fuji have left out a 35mm equivalent so not to offend it's little X100 brother. It will have a 2nd generation hybrid viewfinder that according to the French page below, will zoom. Ship date is said to be March, but I think there may be even more demand for this than the X100. I'm looking at doing quite a bit of documentary photography this year, and this camera is a dream come true. it won't replace my X100, but complement it.

Inside The Street Photographers Bag

I thought I'd do a 'what's in my bag' feature for all you gear heads out there. As you can see from the photo above, I actually have two street bags. The green Lowe Pro Terraclime 100 is a great bag that is just about perfect for a minimalist street shooter and is the bag that I used until I bought the iPad2. Why take an iPad on a street you might ask? I love the iPad for reading or writing if I stop for a coffee or if I'm on a train going to or from the city I'm shooting in. I can also load my photos in, edit them and have them in a blog post, ready to upload when I get to a WiFi spot. The Storm isn't a camera bag, but I really like the style and pukka feel to it, it's made of good quality leather and has a section in the front for my iPad and a zipped pocket inside for all my accessories.

My main camera is the Fujifilm X100. That little camera has quadrupled the amount of street photography that I do and I really believe it's one of the best cameras ever made. The Yashica Electro 35 GTN is my film rangefinder which has a 40mm fixed lens. At the moment it has a roll of Ilford Delta 400 loaded, but I want try out some Fuji Acros 100 film after seeing the results that Severin Koller had on some of the photos on his blog, including this one. The Casio FC100 is for a project that I'm working on at the moment and will be featured here on 35mmStreet some time soon.

Make sure you always take plenty of batteries (especially with the X100) and a spare memory card. I have an 8GB in the X100 and a 16GB as a spare. The 16GB would usually be in the camera, but with the latest firmware update there was a new bug that makes the camera boot up really slow when using a 16GB. Reformatting sorts the problem, but it returns after you take a few shots. Let's hope Fuji is working on a new firmware update that will fix the problem.

The Zoom H2 Audio Recorder is for recording ambient sound to use with slideshows or videos, but I'd like to use it for interviews some day. The Fuji flash never gets used for street photography, it's just a habit to always have a strobe in my bag.

That's about it. To be honest, I could go out without a bag and just have the X100 and/or the Electro 35 and a pocket full of batteries. It doesn't really matter what gear you have, even a point and shoot will get you good street shots. When I use my DSLR's on a paid job, I'm a sharpness freak, but when I shoot street it doesn't really matter too  much. It's all about the content and the composition.

Gear List

Fufifilm X100 Yashica Electro 35 GTN (rangefinder) Casio FC100 (point & shoot) X100 Lens Hood 2 x X100 Batteries 16gb SD Card Lens Cloth Business Cards Storm Bag or LowePro Terraclime 100 iPad 2 & Charger iPad 2 Camera Connection Kit

Fujifilm Finepix X10

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qttiZkQBq2s&w=950&h=564] Fujifilm have announced the baby brother to the X100. The X10 is smaller, black and even more stealth. It has a zoom lens and a smaller sensor. It can be used in manual, but it doesn't have a dedicated shutter speed dial. I don't think many of us that own an X100 will be rushing out to buy this (unless you really need a zoom), but it looks like a nice little camera for people who might not have the cash for the X100 or want something even smaller. There is one features that trumphs the X100 though; The video is 1080p. Check out the run through by The FujiGuys.