I finally completed my trio of lenses for the X-Pro1 last week when I managed to get hold of the 60mm. It seems to be in short supply here in Ireland. The place I got my camera said they wouldn't have it for another three to four weeks and two other camera stores I tried were also out of stock. I was about to order it online when I remembered one more place I could try and luckily they still had a few in stock. I finally had some time to get out and give it a good try out the other day and he rte are the results:
First impressions of the lens are pretty much in line with what everyone else has written about it at this stage. It's very sharp, but also very slow to focus compared to the other two. Still, it's not really much slower than on some other mirrorless cameras, but it can be a bit frustrating. There's a small amount of purple fringing on some shots against high contrast areas, but its easily fixed. Other than that, it's a good quality lens. The one thing you need to be aware of though is it can be difficult to hold steady given the lightness of the camera, so you need to up your shutter speed as there's no image stabilisation system. If you're using the camera's auto ISO I've found that its chosen shutter speed of 90 just isn't enough. You really need (for me anyway) 125 or higher, especially if you're using the LCD for framing. This will depend on the individual mind you, as some people are much better at holding cameras still, but the overall package is pretty light so it's difficult enough. Mind you, I drink way too much coffee, so maybe that's what's wrong! Anyway, it's not a criticism, just an observation.
In terms of the camera, I was much less frustrated after this shoot than I was after my Docklands walk. I seem to be getting the hang of it now. I also made the conscious decision to stop trying to test the camera and just go out and enjoy shooting with it. The lag is bothering me less and I've managed to predict the overexposure most of the time. The only thing that's still kind of bothering me is the highlight burn out. Areas that should not be clipping are clipping. It reminds me of the ccd's in early digital cameras. It's the same kind of luminous highlights that just look wrong. It's not too bad in JPEG, especially if you set the highlight mode to -2 but on Raw file's its really challenging with the supplied software, even though the information is there. Hopefully this will be addressed when Lightroom and Camera Raw get support for the camera, but for now it's my only really big knock against the system. (Well, that and the abysmal battery life)
Ok, so back to the lens. Here's a random selection of shots taken with the 60mm. It's a mixture of proper "macro" shots, i.e. close ups and also some normal shots taken with the lens. Performance in either setting is pretty good, although you have to remember to stitch back and forward between macro mode and normal mode, or you'll have difficulty focussing.
As you can see, it was a nice overcast day again! Good to have the "summer" back after the brief flirtation with actual sunshine!
Obligatory Leaf shot. You can see the individual cells when viewed at 1:1 which is pretty good. It's nice and clean too and look at the the lovely round bokeh.
Close up shot of the water fountain in the park. You can really see the detail on the fallen seeds.
A close up of the metal on the other side of the fountain. There's some fall off in focus because of the angle I was at, but you can see the really sharp part at the top.
Slowly dying flower shot.
This shot makes it look like something you would take in Autumn, but no, it's still May.
Close up of a Daisy. This was pretty small, so you can see how close I got. There's a nice smooth drop off in focus too, for that nice milky look.
Obligatory angry musician shot.
O….k….. I presume they mean for cloths….and not, you know, actual Ladies and Gents!
Yep, that's not a stereotype at all. No sir.
I do have a fascination for ornate letterbox covers.
Mural on the side of a pub in Temple Bar. Did you know that old Irish sea captains came with levitating dogs? I didn't.
This used to be a really great Pizza place in the centre of Temple bar, but they've kind of ruined it by turning it into a kind of bar. Well, I'm sure it's fine, but It's just not the same. Maybe I'm just being too nostalgic. Nice neon though!
Old poster on the side of a litter bin. I love how the camera rendered the colours as nice and solid.
Nice and smooth rendition of the detail in this sign. It's about 4 square inches too to give you an idea of the size
Obligatory steel plate shot.
Trapped forrest creatures. The colours this camera produces in overcast conditions is really nice. Almost pastel like.
A beautiful series of posters covering up bordered up windows. Quite clever.
This is where they are.
More funky graffiti. "That's so deep man" (hippy voice)
Almost makes me feel like I'm in Cuba or somewhere.
For some reason this reminds me of Futurama. It's a nice contrast of the strong colours of the wall and the flesh tones of the woman walking by.
"Hey, what's going on, can I be part of the gang…guys….guys…."
Spot the two people looking out the window. If you're wondering what they were looking at it was this rather odd street theatre display that was going on below….
So, there you have it. All in all a pretty good lens, especially for the price. Just remember to watch your shutter speed, especially if you're in Auto ISO mode.
One last thing, I actually did very little to these shots too. I tweaked them in the supplied RAW Converter software to correct some of the blown highlights and fix any exposure irregularities and then brought them into Lightroom for some final contrast tweaks and to add some vignetting where appropriate, but overall I kept a light touch. The white balance was set to "cloudy" in the camera and it seems to be bang on for the kind of light.