Fujifilm
Make the Switch ADVERTISEMENT FEATURE Looking to save weight, the choice to swap his DSLR outfit for mirrorless was a no-brainer for Bill Allsopp, but he took a slightly unusual route before finding the perfect kit combination with Fujifilm
able to keep your finger halfway down on the shutter button so the camera is taking shots all the time, but isn’t recording anything until the shutter button is pushed all the way down. Then you get the last ten, 20 or 30 shots, depending what you’ve set. It ABOVE Bill Allsopp’s latest addition to his Fujifilm lens collection is the recently launched XF70-300mm f/4-5.6 R LM OIS WR, which he bought with the X1.4x teleconverter. He used that lens for this shot of a nesting blackbird. Camera Fujifilm X-T3, lens XF70-300mm f/4-5.6 R LM OIS WR, exposure 1/150sec at f/5.6, ISO 400
I USED TO own a Canon EOS 5D Mark II and a ton of L-series glass. Then, one day, I walked up Mam Tor [in the Peak District] and, honestly, it nearly killed me – and I started from the top car park, so it wasn’t too much of a climb! I thought, ‘I must get a lighter camera’, and that’s when I bought a Leica M9. I loved it. I was used to shooting with rangefinders and it was no bother at all using a manual camera. It was small, very light, but I had a prime lens, so had to zoom with my feet. That’s great, unless you’re standing at the edge of the sea or the edge of the riverbank, so I shot wider and cropped in. However, it only had 18 megapixels, so
that wasn’t the answer, and I continued using it alongside the Canon kit – by now I’d bought an EOS 7D – because I had a good lens range. Eventually, I stumbled across Fujifilm and bought the X-Pro1. The camera was great, so then I bought the X-T1 and sold off my Canon gear. I worked with the Fujifilm X-T1, then bought a couple of X-T2s and, a few months ago, purchased the X-T3. It’s a fantastic machine and has all the features I need. As for lenses, I have an XF10-24mm f/4 R OIS, the superb XF16-55mm f/2.8 R LMWR and the XF50-140mm f/2.8 WR OIS, which I love for the bokeh and shallow depth-of-field. I also recently
purchased the new XF70-300mm f/4-5.6 R LM OIS WR, which I am absolutely delighted with. And in case I need bit more focal length, I bought the XF1.4x teleconverter, too. I’m very happy with the lens and have done quite a bit with it. My daughter rides horses, so I take pictures of her in action – and I’ve been fortunate that some blackbirds are nesting directly opposite the bedroom window. I’ve used the XF70-300mm f/4-5.6 lens to photograph them on the nest. In addition, I found the X-T3’s Pre-Shot feature really useful for this subject. Obviously, it uses a lot of memory space, but it means being
BILL ALLSOPP Keen landscape and travel photographer billallsopp.co.uk
12 Photography News | Issue 88
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