Some advice for a noob.

donalh087

Hi, I have been using a bridge camera for years and have just bought a Fujifilm x e1. It does not have an original lens - I am using an adaptor and a pentax screw in 35mm lens. Because I am new to this and everything is manual each photograph is taking ages to set up - and I am learning a lot about manual focus !! Quality is not good.

I am looking for advice for an all round lens that will work with the e1. Am I right in thinking all XF lenses should work?

Any advice would be welcome.

magicbastarder

any examples? curious as to what you thinking is failing in terms of quality - focus?

donalh087

Yeah, I think it is a combination of a lack of light and soft focus. I will throw a pic up when I get a chance.

fixXxer

The XC 16-50mm is a good lens if you don't want to spend a fortune. XF lenses will work but can cost significantly more. The E-X1 has a relatively older auto focus system so it won't be lightning fast no matter what lens you put on it.

ED E

Fujifilm X-mount 17.7 mm
Pentax Q-mount 9.2 mm[1]

Assuming you're using a Q lens currently the adapter would have to be a mere 8mm deep to function. If its "thicker" than that then the sensor is out of position.

donalh087

fixxxer wrote: »

The XC 16-50mm is a good lens if you don't want to spend a fortune. XF lenses will work but can cost significantly more.

The XC looks good - but if I am looking for lenses how do I know what will fit an e1? Is this a very stupid question?

fixXxer

donalh087 wrote:

The XC looks good - but if I am looking for lenses how do I know what will fit an e1? Is this a very stupid question?

Look for X Mount lenses. They will fit the E1. The XC are the budget friendly range versus the XF so they usually lack an aperture ring, weather sealing and are made of plastic, but the glass is usually still very good.

donalh087

Here is a photo I took earlier. Quite soft in a lot of places.

ED E

Dumb adapter - no EXIF which hampers diagnosis but do you know what your shutter speed was? Bump ISO/open wide so you can get up to 1/120 or 1/200 as a start.

DaireQuinlan

Orrr ... bit hard to tell because it's low res, but the tip of his nose looks in focus, everything else is gradually more and more out of focus. Looks like you focused on his nose, and are shooting wide open. 35mm Pentax M42 screwmount ? What is it, F/2 ? F/3.5 ? Try focusing on the eyes and stopping down to f/4 or f/5.6.

@ED_E looks as though flash was on so unlikely to be motion blur unless the shutter is also being dragged.

donalh087

Details from the RAW file. The F-stop was 8.

DaireQuinlan

donalh087 wrote: »

Details from the RAW file. The F-stop was 8.

If it's an M42 lens stuck on via an adapter it's very unlikely that the camera is recording the actual lens F/stop correctly, plus that picture definitely doesn't look like a 35mm at f/8.

fixXxer

Yeah, that's not an f/8 shot.

ED E

Has the adapter got its own manual aperture ring?

Bring it up to ISO 800 for a start. Noise shouldn't be an issue until way above that.

DaireQuinlan

ED E wrote: »

Has the adapter got its own manual aperture ring?

Any of the old Pentax screwmounts have their own aperture rings. Their behaviour can differ though. Typically there's an A/M switch on the mount somewhere. Leaving it on 'A' means that the lens only stops down when a pin on the mount is pushed (typically in camera by an actuator that gets pushed forward when the mirror goes up), when set to 'M' the lens will stop down as you turn the aperture ring.

D.

donalh087

Took a couple more this afternoon. The first one I focussed on the navy yacht and it appeared perfectly in focus - and yet it's miles out. F is automatic, so is speed. I meant to change the ISO but forgot.

The second one is a bit better but by no means perfect. Do I just need to go and buy a compatible lens?

DaireQuinlan

Again, it's a little difficult to see what the problem is because they're fairly low res. All I'm seeing is an image shot wide open on a lens that's prone to a bit of flare. 100% crops of your focus point. How are you focusing ? I assume some kind of magnified live view ? If it's in focus on the screen, the shot will be in focus, it's pretty simple.

magicbastarder

the shot of the boats; i would guess that was taken with the lens stopped down? the trees in the background look like they're nearly in focus but the entire shot looks a bit soft. does the lens look like it's ever taken a knock?

Bacchus

donalh087 wrote: »

Hi, I have been using a bridge camera for years and have just bought a Fujifilm x e1. It does not have an original lens - I am using an adaptor and a pentax screw in 35mm lens. Because I am new to this and everything is manual each photograph is taking ages to set up - and I am learning a lot about manual focus !! Quality is not good.

I am looking for advice for an all round lens that will work with the e1. Am I right in thinking all XF lenses should work?

Any advice would be welcome.

Lot of talk on the issues with your current lens so I'll just skip past that and go ahead and recommend one of the f2 XF lenses. There's a 23mm, 35mm and 50mm. All super quick to focus and a nice size for the X-E range. Personally, I find 23mm to be a great all rounder focal length but the 35mm is quite versatile too.

fixXxer

Bacchus wrote: »

Lot of talk on the issues with your current lens so I'll just skip past that and go ahead and recommend one of the f2 XF lenses. There's a 23mm, 35mm and 50mm. All super quick to focus and a nice size for the X-E range. Personally, I find 23mm to be a great all rounder focal length but the 35mm is quite versatile too.

The 35 f/2 is a fantastic lens, but on an X E-1 nothing is going to be super fast autofocusing.

brownian

I've the XF18-55 kit on my X-E3 and it's great for most things.

TomCo

donalh087 wrote: »

Took a couple more this afternoon. The first one I focussed on the navy yacht and it appeared perfectly in focus - and yet it's miles out. F is automatic, so is speed. I meant to change the ISO but forgot.

If you're using a manual lens with no electronic connection to the camera, I would recomend shooting in aperture priority mode. The aperture (the F), can't be automatic since you control this by physically turning the aperture ring on the lens.

donalh087

OK, thanks for all the input. I think I have filtered most of it. Clearly using a non-standard lens is a bridge too far just now. I bought an XF 55 to 200 today and it is the mutts nuts. I know it's a bit long but I got a deal and it is a cracker. Only just starting but the difference is phenomenal.