Lens advice

[Peppercorn]

Good afternoon,

 

Last August I bought a Fujifilm X-ES2, a mirrorless compact type digital camera, and have enjoyed using it although I don't suppose I've even scratched the surface of its capabilities. #

The camera came complete with a 18mm - 55 mm zoom lens, but haven't yet found the best way of taking photos of models (learning process, etc) with that lens and, so, I was considering buying a Fujifilm XF 60mm macro lens and wondered if I could solicit, from those who know about these things, advice on this.

Thanks,

Cliff

[JJGraphics]

It might be worth considering some extension tubes, which allow the lens to be focused a lot closer, as a cheaper alternative to a macro lens.

[Enterprisingwestern]

Iceland gets a ten from Len, that seems to be his advice.

 

Mike.

[Dunsignalling]

Good afternoon,

 

Last August I bought a Fujifilm X-ES2, a mirrorless compact type digital camera, and have enjoyed using it although I don't suppose I've even scratched the surface of its capabilities. #

The camera came complete with a 18mm - 55 mm zoom lens, but haven't yet found the best way of taking photos of models (learning process, etc) with that lens and, so, I was considering buying a Fujifilm XF 60mm macro lens and wondered if I could solicit, from those who know about these things, advice on this.

Thanks,

Cliff

Depending on what you want to photograph, a set of close-up lenses that screw in to the filter thread of the lens, might well be adequate and a lot cheaper. Put what you save towards a good tripod. I'd recommend a Manfrotto or a Benbo and size-wise, go up one from what you think you'll need.

 

For layout photography I use a Nikon DSLR (DX format - similar to your Fuji) along with two Sigma lenses, a 17-70 f/2.8-4 and (mostly) a 50-200 f/4-5.6, the latter with a close-up lens fitted to reduce the minimum focussing distance.

 

Check out the Bournemouth Central layout thread for examples of the results obtainable.

 

Regards

 

John

[jamesg]

It might be useful to have a telephoto lens with a small minimum focussing distance.  I use a 40-150mm (80-300mm 35mm equivalent) lens that will focus down to 0.9m, giving 0.14x magnification (0.28x 35mm equivalent).  That's close enough for a single model, but the advantage of using a telephoto is that I can always remove anything that might be distracting from the background by moving the camera.  The disadvantage is the requirement to use a small aperture to keep everything in focus, sometimes F/22 for 10 or 20 seconds.  Using a wider aperture, it is easy to control depth of field and blur the background entirely, if that's appropriate for a particular image.