First outing with Fujifilm GFX 100S

February 24, 2025 Peter Damo

I have to say, I was pretty keen to lay my hands on a Hasselblad X2D 100C though the possibility grew ever more remote. Closing in on $20,000 with a couple of good lenses. No, I didn’t need video capability. I would have been just as happy with the 50 megapixel version if it had IBIS. But alas.. Nevermind, another option presented itself - Fujifilm GFX 100S. Same sensor if not the equal in colour science. Plus three lenses for less than the option of the Hasselblad body alone. An offer too good to refuse. I’m posting a few images from a country trip in the first instance. A little more commentary soon to follow.

I have to say, the image format variants are big plus, especially the pano option. Easy to access and plenty of resolution to go around. A couple of b&w images as well. Notably the dynamic range together with colour rendition makes the file very pleasant to edit. Not much to do at all.

The third image was a pano taken with the Fujifilm 23mm lens. Previous two are with 32-64mm. All handheld with IBIS.

Good bad weather

December 26, 2023 Peter Damo

We all know how photographer’s dislike sunny days - for photography at least. Howling winds and sideways rain are no fun either. But something in between can be quite satisfying. During a break in the rain a trip to the beach turned out some moody textured images.

Not macro

November 20, 2023 Peter Damo

Whilst I love a detailed eyeball as much as the next guy, I also like to see a little personality thrown in. I pulled out the Olympus (EM5 MKIII with a teleconverter = 420mm) to take some more bird shots. This little fellow was asking to be photographed as well. He was missing some body parts but largely unfazed by my presence.

In all likelihood I probably would not have got this shot with the manual Pentacon though I will attempt it on another occasion just to compare the images. A slight overcast condition made for more subdued tones.

Troublesome Raven destroying a wagtail nest and being attacked for his efforts.

Pentacon 300mm f4

November 16, 2023 Peter Damo

I occasionally like to make use of a longer tele lens than the Nikkor 180mm f2.8. So, I bought a Pentacon 300mm f4 which weighs a ton - to capture the occasional bird or other wildlife shot. This came in at under AUD200 so was not a big investment. And I figured I would also take for travel shoots where I had the car available for transport as there’s no way I’m going to carry this with the other lenses in a camera bag. I have previously used both Canon and Nikon teles upto 400mm as well as the 300mm equivalent Olympus. I have to say I love the images this lens produces. That wonderfully soft and somehow still quite sharp result together with beautiful colour rendering makes the images from this lens worth the exercise.

Wattlebird in Grevillea bush - handheld.

A four hour forest walk

November 16, 2023 Peter Damo

I’ve really enjoyed coming here over the years. Although its only 10 minutes off the main road that goes through the Blue Mountains, you can, as I did only come across one other person the whole day. I don’t live here anymore so the trip isn’t as predictable as it used to be. Weather forecasts can’t be relied on…

A lot can change over time and this area was strewn with fallen trees and likely subject to some flooding. Nevertheless there were cool little spots for testing a Zeiss 18mm f3.5 lens (on a Sony A7RIII). Some superwide lenses with leave you with stretched corners which I find particularly unpleasant and distracting in a landscape scene. Not to mention very difficult to correct in post. Most photographers don’t seem to even bother. The photo below as with others in this blog were edited with the ‘auto’ selection and ‘Adobe landscape’ profile in Camera Raw. I found I had to reduce the saturation a little though. For the most part they were shot at f11. Although I focus stacked many of them I can’t see the necessity of using the other exposures.

It was overcast for most of the day so exposures were upto a couple of seconds. For these a tripod was used of course. I’ve gotten used to working with manual lenses and not having much info at my disposal. I don’t find it matters much although I don’t always remember which lens was used. On this day though - was the Zeiss 18mm and another piece of Zeiss glass which doubles as an excellent close up lens - 35mm f 2.4 Flektogon. The reason I like traveling to this location is that all these features were within a 500metre radius.

BTW, I would have moved this log resting on the tree root if it wasn’t so heavyand quite long.

A quick look

October 28, 2023 Peter Damo

Its been a while since I’ve had a weekend off or even a full day outing. But I wanted to have a closer ‘look’ at the Zeiss 20mm f4 while at Minnamurra Falls. Some of these beautiful locations are hidden away in National Parks and require longer visits to explore that I could afford. So, I considered this a recon trip with a view to going back to do the job properly. I’m a fan of 5 x 4 format where possible and certainly if its a vertical image. Much more pleasing to the eye than a 3 x 2. This shot was taken with the Zeiss 20mm f4 Flektogon on a Sony A7III. It was handheld around 1/20 sec @ f11. I’ll return here with the A7RIII and a tripod in the coming weeks.

Below is an image of a vine taken with the Sirui 24mm Anamorphic lens on an Olympus EM5. I’m growing to like this combination more and more. The edge to edge sharpness is excellent and it makes a panorama style image after setting the camera to 9 x 16 format then adding an extra 1.28X factor to the width when the anamorphic image is expanded to its proper proportions. If you’re using a MFT camera this is an excellent option for wider landscape photos. I would rather describe this as intimate landscape as its more of a close-up rather than scenery at a distance.

…and finally a few roadside shots taken enroute. You can see how you need to be aware of how you’re filling the frame as it can easily appear that some cropping should have been applied.