Na 6 jaar eindelijke deze lens gekocht

Nu toch eindelijk deze lens gekocht na 6 jaar twijfelen. En waarom zo lang twijfelen zal je misschien denken? Nou dat komt omdat ik al heel lang dol was op deze kijkhoek, ik vind hem ideaal voor reportage fotografie, portretfotografie en landschapsfotografie. Maar de kijkhoek had ik eigenlijk al. Toen ik mijn Fujifilm X100 kocht had deze de kijkhoek en om dat zelfde lens ook voor mijn Fujifilm X-Pro1 te kopen vond ik een beetje dubbel. Iets later ging in plaats van vol op Fujifilm van Canon eerst nog even naar Nikon in verband met video functies en beter in de studio. Toen ik 3 jaar geleden geheel overging op Fujifilm heb ik de Fujifilm X100f gekocht en de 45mm voor de Fujifilm GFX waar ik weer deze kijkhoek gedekt had, en veel gebruikte in nu ook mijn Fujififilm XF16mm 1.4. Maar nu ik de Fujifilm X-T4 gepre-orderd heb en mijn X100f wil gaan verkopen voor tweede X-T4 was het voor mij het moment deze lens te gaan kopen. Welke lens heb ik het dan over? Nou de Fujifilm XF23mm 1.4

De Fujifilm XF23mm 1.4 is een 23mm lens maar door de cropfactor van 1.5 heeft hij een kijkhoek van een 35mm lens. Tijdens mijn Nikon dagen was ik gek op de Sigma 35mm 1.4 Art lens. De Fujifilm XF23mm 1.4 had ik al een paar keer geleend en vind hem echt heel erg mooi, en fijner om mee te werken dan de F2 variant.

Wat ik erg fijn vind aan de Fujifilm XF23mm is dat hij net als de Fujifilm XF16mm 1.4 is dat hij de push/Pull focusring heeft, waardoor je snel kan switchen tussen auto en handmatige focus. Vooral met hybride werken (dus zowel foto als video tegelijk) is dit erg handig. Fotografie doe ik graag met Auto-focus en video op manuele focus.

Een echte review komt binnenkort. Maar hierbij alvast de unboxing video!

First results: Sigma 85mm 1.4 Art

Last week I got the new long anticipated Sigma 85mm 1.4 Art. This weekend I gave two workshops in which I could make some first test shots! The results are great! I shot all most all photo's at 1.4, 2.0 or 5.6  and the parts that are in focus are very sharp! But remember, you need to focus spot on the eye when shooting on 1.4 , because the depth of field can be really shallow shooting close up.

In the upcoming weeks I have some more shoots with which I will also be using the Sigma 85mm 1.4 Art so I can really test it and will write a real review soon. 

A few first comments about the Sigma 85 mm 1.4 art are that it is quite heavy, and the front element diameter of 86mm is big and rare, so it is hard to find a 3 stops ND filter for it, so got a 2 stops now. But they will be coming soon. But overal it is a great portrait lens!

Editorial photoshoot with a chef cook and (review of) a Phase One P30+

Last friday I did an editorial style portrait shoot with chef cook Marcel Bark of de Rijd in Nieuwe Niedorp. For this photoshoot I borrowed a Phase One DF body with a P30+ digital back and a 80mm lens. For a while I am searching for an affordable way to get into medium format photohraphy. I have tested a P30+ back in the past (Read review here), the CVF-50c (click here) and the Hasselblad H5D-40 (Click here). 

The set-up

View fullsize

Beside the Phase One set I am also trying out some Broncolor gear. I love my Elinchrom gear and especially there softboxes, but the bron are just a little more stable on output and white balance throughout the whole powerrange and have a faster flash duration for when you are working with speed/dance. So I had a Siros 400L with the 75 octabox as a key light, the Siros 400S with a strip and a grid as a kicker and a Siros 400 S with the 150 octa box as a fill. 

The Phase One P30+ was connected with a firewire cable to my iMac runing Capture One Pro 9. All editting of teh photo's have also only be done in Capture Pro One 9. I love using tethering during shoot. It helps communication with the client and is a real visual way to get to the result you want.

Styling 

For the styling we went to the local supermarket and bought some nice food to shoot. Marcel loves working with Fish so a fresh fish and some clamps couldn't be left out of the photo's! Marcel is also really font on green cabbage, so we also photographed him with just the green cabbage!

The Shots

Here a a couple of the final shots of teh editorial photoshoot. 

The Phase One P30+ Back

The Phase One P30+ is a great digital medium format back. The colors are so natural and lovely. It has (only) 31 megapixels. which was huge in the time it was released and is still more than enough. Normally I shoot around 24mp with my Nikon D610 en D750 and rarely use the 36 of the D800, only when I need to print big. 

The point for me for Medium Format is not the megapixel count but the sensor size and look. I don't know what it is but Medium Format photography has a look which is just so much more lovely then 35mm Full Frame photography. I has the look of the photographers I admire like Mark selliger, Martin Schoeller, Erwin Olaf and Anne Liebovitz. They also use Phase One camera's/backs,  

The set up of the back is simple. The menu has just a few options, like ISO, white balance, power performance, and some basic information. just all you need.

The body and lens

The thing I disliked was the body. and especially the autofocus of the body. Getting critical focus with a wide open aperture was hard because of the singel AF point. You had to focus and recompose without chancing the angle. So you had to move up and down or side ways without moving back and fort of chancing your angle. This was hard! And took a while to get used of. But this is also the point for me to not buy the camera. Because of this I can also buy a back for my Hasselblad 500c/m and focus manually. 

Saving up to do

So I decided I have to do some more saving up so I can buy a newer model and also take a look again at the Hasselblad H5D-40 or the X1D!

BTW I got the new Sigma 85mm 1.4 ART lens, I am going to test it soon with a few shoots!

Workshop: Shooten en Shoppen

Afgelopen zaterdag heb ik de eerste workshop "Shooten en shoppen" gegeven. Deze workshop ging over het fotograferen en photoshoppen om schilderachtige portretten te maken. Als modellen was ik blij dat steampunkers Spike "Wolfcry mcDark en Minerva McDark mee wilde werken, Spike heb ik ontmoet op de FotoFair afgelopen jaar!

Hier onder staan enkele van de resultaten die ik gemaakt hebt:

Jeroen Zelle heeft geassisteerd bij de workshop en ook wat spullen van Broncolor meegenomen zodat we zowel met Broncolor als Elinchrom konden werken. Ook heeft hij wat Behind the scene fotos gemaakt:

Qua gear heb ik gebruik gemaakt van:
Camera: D610 en D800
Objectieven: Sigma 24-15 Art en 50mm 1.4 Art

FotoFair 2016

Afgelopen weekend stond ik voor Sigma Benelux op de FotoFair bij de Beekse Bergen in Hilvarenbeek. Was echt een top weekend! Veel leuke mensen en medefotografen op de foto mogen zetten. Gelukkig was er tussen door ook soms tijd om wat eigen dingen te maken van de modellen die er rond liepen en in de Worstel ring. 

Steampunk

Naast de bezoekers waren er ook diverse Steampunkers aanwezig. Ik kon de kans niet laten lopen om enkele van deze uit te nodigen in de studio om ook op te gaan!

De Stand en studio

De studio opstelling was redelijk simpel. Mijn Elinchrom Quadra RX met een Elicnhrom 100cm Deep Octa en als camera een Nikon D610 met mijn werkpaard de Sigma 24-105 Art direct gekoppeld aan mijn MacBookPro waar Capture One op draaide. uiteraard was mijn kistje ook aanwezig voor de modellen om op te zitten en een grijze achtergrond! 

Worstelaars!

Sigma Benelux had op de FotoFair de worstelring gesponsord. Dus aan het einde van de dag ook even de kans genomen om enkele mooi portretten van de worstelaars te maken! Deze bleken trouwens hun thuisbasis in Hillegom te hebben dus binnenkort meer!

Marco en bijzondere verhalen

Ook kwam natuurfotograaf en mede Sigma-fotograaf Marco de Paauw nog langs in de stand, en heb hem naar eigen zeggen "Vast gelegd hou hij echt is" en als portretfotograaf is dat het grootste compliment wat je kunt krijgen!

ook is het leuk om bijzondere verhalen te horen als je bezig bent. Zoals van twee personen warvan de ene een nier aan de andere gaat geven! 

Review: Sigma 24-35mm f2 Art Nikon

For the last week I had the new Sigma 24-35 f2 Art lens for Nikon. I used it during a commercial shoot and on some portrait work. And I must say, I am a little puzzled about this lens.  How and why I will tell you further up in this review. 

First things first. As you might know. I am not a pixel peeping lab testing reviewblogger. I like to test camera's and lenses in the field and give my opinion based on my experience working with the gear. 

The quality of the Sigma 24-35 f2 Art lens

Let's start with the easiest part of the review, the quality of the lens. This is simply excellent. Like all other Sigma Art lenses the Sigma 24-35 f2 Art lens is build really well. It feels nice in you hands, focusses smoothly, feels like a high quality lens and performance as a high quality lens. I must say the lens is large. It is even bigger then my Sigma 50mm f1.4 Art lens. I can't find anything quality wise to say anything bad about the Sigma 24-35 f2 Art lens!

Where to place the Sigma 24-35 f4 Art lens

So now the hard part. Where should I place the Sigma 24-35 f2 Art lens in my current range of lenses, what will it add. While working, a lot of time I was just using my Sigma 24-105 f4. And I forget I had the Sigma 24-35 f2 Art lens in my bag. So later I switched to the Sigma 24-35 f2 Art because I had it and could try it.

While working with it, the Sigma 24-35 f2 Art lens performed greatly. The zoom range was convenient. When I thought it was a little to wide at 24mm I could zoom in or a little to tight at 35mm I could zoom out. In dark places the f2 was handy, and due the focal length a lot was even in focus at f2. But I could also get a small depth-of-field when getting close to the subject. And you could focus it nice and closely.

A storyteller lens

Working with the lens and thinking about where to place it I slowly was figuring it out. This lens is not build for studio and portrait work but for people in the field and story tellers. If I was a wedding photographer or journalist photographer I would buy this lens. I love the 35mm range. But sometimes it is just a little bit to narrow to tell the story or when you are shooting in small rooms. A 24mm lens is a great lens to get everything in, but a lot of time it is just to wide. When there is to much information and noise in the image. Also the f2 aperture makes it great for working indoors. I could see myself shooting weddings with a 85 1.4 or 70-200 2.8 on one camera and the Sigma 24-35 f2 Art lens on the other and shooting all day without having to swap lenses. 

The conclusion

The Sigma 24-35 f2 Art lens is a very high quality lens! And I can recommend it highly to every wedding-, travel- or landscape photographer. Or everybody who doesn't own a basic high quality zoom lens. But for me I don't think it will add enough to my current range of lenses. The  Sigma 24-105 f4 Art lens covers the whole range from me, from wide to tele.

I hardly ever use the 24mm, so I am thinking about adding the 35mm art. I love the 35mm range my Fuji X100 and on the Leica M (Monochrome) (check the review for the Leica M type 240 HERE and the the M Monochrome HERE). But sadly the 24-35 f2 properly won't get back in my bag again. Although it is a great lens, it is not my lens.