Daily Archives: June 25, 2023

 

While I have been recovering from May and June’s “events” I accepted the challenge of helping a friend put together a system for what he hopes will be a deeper dive into his photography. He hopes to be a generalist like me, and shoot nature, landscape, travel, Americana and some wildlife like birds and mammals.  He is not as old asI am but he’s not wanting to carry a massive amount of gear either.  So I went to work helping him assemble what I think will serve him best for what his photographic goals are!

 

My basic advice to anyone entering this kind of equipment search is to build a system around two bodies and a wide angle lens, medium zoom, and a mid and long telephoto zoom, throw in a macro lens for dong closeups and the needed accessories and you are ready to go!

 

He had a Fujifilm X-T3 and the XF 18-55 and XF 55-200 zooms, which was a great start!  He will add the new Fujifilm X-T5 to complete his two body set.  For the wide angle I suggested a Fujifilm’s XF16mm f 2.8 which is the equiv. of a 24mm.  The 24mm is wide enough for wide angle effect but not so wide that it is hard to compose with. I often find that giving someone a 14mm (21mm equiv.) is a little daunting until the photographer gains some more experience.  The old saying is true: give a beginner a super wide and he will struggle, give him a telephoto and will thrive!  Telephotos force us to confine what we compose and shoot, a very wide angle invites clutter.

 

18-55 Zoom

 

55-200 zoom @ around 100mm equiv.

 

Add a Nikon 5T diopter and you can shoot t his close with the 55-200!

 

His 18-55 (equiv. 27-84) and the 55-200 (equiv. 80-300) reply cover the bases for tight shooting.  Both of those lenses are very sharp and easy to use!  To get something long to deal with birds and wildlife I suggested the Fujifilm XF 100-400 (equiv. 160-600) It is tack sharp and can do birds especially with a 1.4 converter which stretches it out to 840!

 

 

This Puffin shot by Chris Klapeke with around a 600mm lens is what the 100-400 can do for  you!

 

For macro shooting he will get the Fujifilm  XF 60mm macro f 2.4 (equiv. 90mm)

 

XF 60mm Macro lens

 

Add to all that extra batteries, cleaning supplies, SD cards, a swiss army knife an ,multi tool, a mini tripod and LED light panel, iPhone bracket and he will be ready to cover almost anything he wishes to photograph!  Oh yes the bag, my personal favorite is th Guru Gear Kiboka 2.0 16+

 

 

I can’t wait for him to start enjoying his new gear!

 

Blessings,

 

 

the Pilgrim