Lea & Lens

I sent off my last box of gear to KEH yesterday. I’ve been weeding through it all for the past few months, keeping only what is essential for me. It feels good to see space in my previously filled gear drawers. Now, that’s not to say that I won’t buy anything new. In fact, part of this process has been repurchasing and recreating a portion of the kit I had years ago that served me very well. There were really only two focal lengths I used regularly – a wide angle and a medium telephoto.

Previously, I owed the Fuji XF 35mm f/1.4 and it was a lens I used often. Very versatile. I had every intention of repurchasing it as part of this process but with the new XF 33mm f/1.4 now released, I decided to go with that one instead for the faster and quieter autofocus, and frankly, it really wasn’t a huge price difference so why not?

I also have a Fuji XF 16mm f/1.4 on the way, a lens I also owned previously, as part of the trade in process with KEH. Coupled with the 33mm f/1.4, those are really the only two lenses I need. I also used to own the Fuji XF 56mm f/1.2, which is a truly beautiful lens, but one I only used occasionally. I may add the soon to be released Sigma 56mm f/1.4 at a later date instead (newer, half the price) to round things out.

And that’s it. That’s my perfect kit. You’ve probably noticed that I’m a prime shooter rather than a zoom shooter. I like to zoom with my feet and I like the wider apertures available on prime lenses. That said, I do also own the Fuji XF 18-55 f/2.8-4 ”kit” lens and I’ll likely never get rid of that one. It’s really useful for certain scenarios, like traveling, which I don’t do a lot of, but it’s sort of a perfect fit. While it technically belongs to me, it pretty much lives on my daughter’s X-T1 95% of the time and I rarely see it.

So, to recap, in the past year or so since I started this process, I cleaned out the X70, X-E2s, X-100V, X-E3, X-E2, 18mm f2, 27mm f/2.8, 35mm f/2, 50mm f/2, 60mm f/2.4 and I decided to keep the X-T3, 16mm f/1.4, 33mm f/1.4, and the 18-55 f/2.8-4.

Here’s to fresh starts.