XF33mm F1.4 - Sam
Almost a decade ago a radically new, yet retro camera sparked a substantial change in my way of working and my work in itself. I started doing portrait shoots with just my X-Pro1 and the XF35mm F1.4. It was (and still is) liberating. One of the first people I photographed this way, was young Sam. So when I was asked by Fujifilm to test drive the new XF33mm F1.4 lens, I really wanted to photograph her again for this project.
Sam, in the summer of 2012, photographed with the X-Pro1 and the XF35mm F1.4. The early firmware X-Pro1 wasn’t very good with autofocus but it never really bothered me that the eye isn’t perfectly in focus. The intensity of her gaze is what the picture is about.
Summer of 2021, the weather is way worse, the little girl turned into a young woman, the technology has improved but the intense gaze remains. Shot with the X-Pro3 and the XF33mm F1.4.
Our summer sucked badly this year. The only upside of all this rain was that it was pretty easy to find a day with torrential rain to test out the weather sealing of the new lens. After 5 minutes my rain jacket gave up on trying to keep me somewhat dry. We shot for 3 or 4 hours and the lens didn’t skip a beat.
That brings me to most important thing I was looking forward to with the XF33: weather sealing. I’ve used the old(er) XF35mm F1.4 in rain, dust, sand, mud, snow, … and it still works perfectly. But there’s always that nagging feeling of worry when using a non-weather resistent lens in adverse conditions. The XF33mm F1.4 gives me peace of mind in that aspect. You see, I actually really like shooting in bad weather.
Big thanks to Sam for being being crazy enough to spend hours in the rain for some pictures and for being a wonderful young lady.
I’m not finished yet with XF33 images btw ;-)
