p.1 #1 · X-E5 Lens recomendations for Street + Travel
Hello all, new to the forum, starting to get back into photography but keeping it casual this time around.
Just got a Fuji X-E5 with the kit 23mm kit lens. I like the camera a lot and the size of the 23 but I know the images could be more compelling. The 35mm equivalent is a pretty good length for me but I'm flexible. I have adapted some m-mount lenses I have which are great but I'd like some autofocus for capturing the kiddo.
Would love recommendations on small-ish bright primes for the X-E5.
p.1 #2 · X-E5 Lens recomendations for Street + Travel
Your own preferences matter a lot here. Are you looking for something longer or shorter or both? What sort of maximum aperture are you looking for? Purely primed, or zoom.
The 50mm f/2 could be useful paired with your 23mm.
designtaylor wrote:
Hello all, new to the forum, starting to get back into photography but keeping it casual this time around.
Just got a Fuji X-E5 with the kit 23mm kit lens. I like the camera a lot and the size of the 23 but I know the images could be more compelling. The 35mm equivalent is a pretty good length for me but I'm flexible. I have adapted some m-mount lenses I have which are great but I'd like some autofocus for capturing the kiddo.
Would love recommendations on small-ish bright primes for the X-E5.
p.1 #5 · X-E5 Lens recomendations for Street + Travel
Why not the OG 35/1.4? It has the most character of any prime in your desired range. You can zone focus or manually focus for street, so the slowish AF becomes a non-issue.
p.1 #6 · X-E5 Lens recomendations for Street + Travel
The OG 35mm f1.4 is very good, so I'd second that. Anything in the Viltrox Air series will be good if you can live without an aperture ring. Just pick your prefered focal length - the 25mm is close enough to 35mm equivalent. I'd skip the Fuji 23mm f2 in favour of the Viltrox if looking for a 23mm.
The new 23mm f1.4 R WR LM is the cat's meow if you can live with the larger size and price.
The 50mm f2 is also good but there are other 3rd party lenses in that range that are a bit longer and faster.
p.1 #7 · X-E5 Lens recomendations for Street + Travel
Personally I'm considering to replace M6ii+32 1.4 with x-e5 + 35 1.4r in future as secondary, compact portrait setup. 35 1.4r is only 50mm eq. lens that is compact, relative lightweight, has aperture ring, high build quality metal, and has f1.4 aperture with AF.
p.1 #10 · X-E5 Lens recomendations for Street + Travel
In that range, I very much like both the original 35mm f/14 and the 50mm f/2.
The 35mm is small for a f/1.4 lens and it is an excellent optical performer. People will tell you that newer lenses AF better or are sharper, but it AFs fine and it has excellent resolution.
The 50mm is really a beautiful performer, and getting f/2 out of such a small and light lens is a bonus.
If I were looking at a pair of lenses from among those that I own, I’d pair the 50mm with your 23mm since with primes I’d rather have about a 2:1 focal length ratio between lenses. I would rarely carry both a 23mm and 35mm as a pair with the exception of a few specific situations.
My basic street/travel kit is 14mm f/2.8, 27mm f/2.8, and 50mm f/2.
p.1 #13 · X-E5 Lens recomendations for Street + Travel
Instead of the 50/2, I highly recommend the Viltrox 56/1.7 air — cheap, lightweight and excellent optically from wide open down.
Ditto comments on the 35/1.4, it’s about as good as it gets on APSC, and ironically the above Viltrox 56 renders very similarly.
FWIW, I also really like the Viltrox air 25/1.7 — it also renders similarly to the above two, and is excellent optically, and IMHO just enough longer than the 23 to make it more useful for my style of shooting. Also not much larger or heavier than the 23 pancake, and a stop and a half faster which is really handy for low light street and travel shooting. But YMMV here…
p.1 #15 · X-E5 Lens recomendations for Street + Travel
I highly recommend the Viltrox Air primes. I bought the 35mm 1.7 as an inexpensive nifty-fifty. The optical quality was surprising--sharper wide open, edge to edge than my Fuji fast primes and much lighter. I ended up buying the 56 1.7 and the 25 1.7 to replace my other Fuji primes. Viltrox has some kind of magic mixed in to these lenses.
p.1 #17 · X-E5 Lens recomendations for Street + Travel
The Viltrox 25 f1.7 is a nice lens. It is a bit hard to use with the XE5 due to the lack of an aperture ring, so you have to set up another dial on the camera for this function.
The XF 23 f2 is what I'd go with.
Keep in mind that the 35mm f1.4 is a 53mm equivalent lens. I don't like this focal length for street work (too narrow FOV) but for portraits it should be nice.
p.1 #20 · X-E5 Lens recomendations for Street + Travel
I agree the 50-ish can be pretty tight for urban and interior shooting, I would likely go with the 30 1.4 if I was going to keep the 23 2.8 as a pair. If I decide just to focus on one "do it all" lens then I'm more likely in the 23mm camp and then it comes down to the tradeoff between physical size and maximum aperture.
