The last week of the September Fujifilm sale was like a voice in my head that wouldn't stop telling me "what you really needed to complete your X-T2 kit is that sweet Fujinon 10-24mmF4 R OIS lens... get it now before it's too late!" So now I own one.
My first trip out with the 10-24mm was to the Richmond Night Market. I thought it would be a fun place to get acquainted with the lens, and it was, but I got completely distracted by the bright lights of the two rides there and wound up spending a lot of time experimenting with slow shutter speeds and pans. I shot with the 10-24 and also the XF18-55mmF2.8-4 R LM OIS kit lens that I bought with the X-T2.
I really liked the abstract patterns and colours I was getting by using longer exposure times and/or moving the camera across the scene to paint a linear or sweeping pattern. The 10-24mm lens worked out to be a great choice for the situation because I wanted (at least in some shots) to be able to get most or all of the large ride in the frame, but did not want to move too far back from the ride in case people might wander between me and the subject. The wide to super-wide focal lengths of the 10-24mm let me stay right up with the action, and still get all the information I wanted in frame. Perfect!
The X-T2 is really a fast handling machine. Call me old school (or just old) but I learned photography on cameras with dials, not displays and menus. I wanted to capture the colourful whirling patterns of the rides and express the motion in my images. It was so natural to reach for the ISO dial (down to 200), the shutter speed dial (down to 1/2 sec) and the 10-24mmF4 aperture dial (down to F16). The 10-24 has an aperture dial that allowed me to easily stop down to F16 by monitoring the F stops in the viewfinder. I takes me less than 5 seconds to adjust my settings and I'm shooting. Love it. I shot some frames using the bulb shutter speed setting, hand holding the camera and just holding the shutter open for 3 or 4 seconds. This is also where the optical image stabilization (OIS) of the 10-24 comes into play. I found that at a wide angle in the 10-20mm range I could easily shoot hand held and get a great result.
So the voice in my head was right. The Fujinon 10-24mmF4 R OIS is a great addition to my X-T2 kit and I really like the way it handles and those super wide angles!