Around christmas in 2023, I saw some youtube videos of the TT artisans 35 mm f1:4 a decent quality manual lens for among other systems the fuji X mount, it is also really good looking and has a clickable apperture ring at the front and the focusing ring closer to the camera body. I looked at my Fuji XE3 and thought why not.
See the TT Artisans webpage for information.
I ordered the lens from the Swedish camera store Kamda, got it and set my camera to manual used the Acros film simulation. I decided that I would try to use the viewfinder as much as possible to “recreate” the feeling of shooting dslr/analog by not using the screen.
I was also inspired by this youtube from Omar Gonzalez Photography: Introducing the Fujifilm Noir
I had a few reasons to do this experiment, one of them is that I wanted to try to slow down my photography, with modern cameras, such as the Fuji XT5 you have a good autofocus, decent handling of ISO as well as IBIS. So there is a lot of support, which means that you can actually get a decent shot “in the step” so to speak. But I did want to slow down a bit and go back to the feeling of my old dslr days.
Slowing down to actually stop and take the image feelt like something I want to spend more time doing. As a street photographer who does a lot of photography while commuting I get into a certain pace and go with the flow, but I wanted to use this as an opportunity to slow down, observe more and try to get better at finding images.
I also find that going manual is more of a challenge and using a viewfinder kind of forces me as the photographer to be seen. This last aspect is something I find interesting, I am of the belief that if you are comfortable and act natural as a photographer, people will not notice you as much, or at least tolerate that you are taking pictures. So practicing on being comfortable with letting people see that I take pictures was another thing I wanted to practice.
The Fuji XE3 is a nice package of a camera, small and light, it has decent controls and a good shutter sound. With a small lens such as the TT artisan or some of the fuji F2s you have a small and competent camera that can deal with most situations if you know how to work within its limitations. It is not the fastest and the ISO gets grainy above 3200. But you can get decent shots well below 1/30 of a second if you brace yourself and use good technique. Sure the viewfinder is a bit small but it works and the screen is not as good as the more modern ones, but it is good enough for making the composition when out walking and shooting. In general it is a pleasing and fun camera to use.
What was it like?
I ran with the setup for ca 3 months from Christmas 2023 until mid march 2024. The first thing that struck me is that using manual focus and focus peaking makes you more aware of what area or space is in focus. With autofocus you tend to look at an eye, a face, an object, but using manual with focus peaking made me look at area or a scene, perhaps thinking a bit more of layers in my composition as the small red dots showed what I actually had in focus. I tried to work above f4 preferably at f8-f11. As I did this during the darkest part of the year here in Sweden I often found myself down at f1:4. Which makes zone focusing difficult but at f4-8 it waz more useful.
The setup is small, so it was quite easy to use it in public without getting too much attention and I did feel comfortable shooting with it. I also tried using the camera to do some panning shots of people and vehicles moving, I usually use 1/8 s timing to get a nice drag and flow of the image.
I did get to slow down, and learn some tricks on how to use the zone focus. That was kind of what I wanted to get out, and I find now after I switched back to my XT5 that it has helped my eye to observe and see the images.
I did enjoy the experience, the setup does not weigh much and it is quite small, not small enough to fit into a coat pocket, but on the smaller side of an interchangeable lens camera. So carrying the camera with me was no problem. The shooting experience was ok, the viewfinder is a bit small but it works. It was quite fun to try to nail the focus with the manual focusing ring. I did find myself stopping a bit more to actually try to nail the focus, adjusting the shutter and time to get the shot I wanted. In general I did enjoy this little experiment, I tried to look for new angles, subjects and motives. I found that it did challenge me in a positive way and that I took away a bit of understanding and seeing the depth of field.
A collection of the images that I took during the experiment. I can recommend any photographer to do the same. It slows you down and gets you back to working with the basics of photography.
/ Jonas
