Venice: A Tale of Two Lenses

One of the plus points of the Fujifilm X-Series is it compact and lightweight design. I have been accused recently by a reader of this blog for going against the ethos of the X-Series by having so much equipment, four camera bodies, nine lenses and all the accessories that support my camera system for my work. Yes this is a lot of equipment and all in it weighs just under 12kg full loaded.

However the name is compact SYSTEM camera and the system means I adapt the camera and lenses for the job in hand. If I am tackling sport I will pack three bodies and the long zooms, plus the 1.4x converter. For travel I don't need to pack as much and that is where the X-Series comes up trumps.

Now I was taking a personal trip to Venice with my wife Julie to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary but I wasn't going to pass up the chance to indulge in a spot of photography on our first ever visit to such a beautiful place. My wife is very patient with me with regards to picture taking when I am not working but I have occasionally pushed her to the limit. So I wanted to make sure that this trip was a success on a personal level as well as a professional one.

So I decided to go lightweight and pack the X-Pro2 (without the new grip) and two prime lenses - the XF18mm f2 and the XF56mm f1.2, which gave me a wide and a short telephoto, but more importantly they were both fast for shooting at night. I could've taken the 16-55mm f2.8 zoom instead but this is a big lens and I like to have the fixed focal lengths to force me to think creatively.

The other advantage of the X-Pro2's 24mp X-Trans III sensor is the ability to crop the image if necessary, so if the 56mm was a little short on pulling power I knew I could crop in on the image if necessary in post.

I packed three spare batteries (but I only needed two on the trip) and a spare 32GB memory card in addition to the two I had in the camera. I didn't pack a tripod but took the Gorillapod but ended up not using, preferring to find a handy wall to put the camera on or bumping up the ISO to 12800.

Now I have to admit I was a little concerned about leaving the zooms at home and not having a back up camera but on arrival my concerns vanished as the beautiful city of Venice presented itself. With the 18mm on the camera and the 56mm in a belt pouch I spent two days in this most photogenic of locations, enjoying the company of my wife and getting the shots while we walked about.

In the end I filled two 32GB memory cards so I have plenty to edit and post over the next few weeks. Unfortunately my time is short as I have to fly to Belgium tomorrow morning for the next round of the FIA World Endurance Championship at Spa-Francorchamps. But here are a few of the images I took over the past two days in Venice on the Fujifilm X-Pro2 and 18mm or 56mm Fujinon lenses.