Thursday 16 May 2013

Zeiss Touit Lenses - The missing link with the Fuji X1 Pro



Followers of this blog will know that I have a Love/hate relationship (mostly Love) with the Fuji X100,  and sure as night follows day I will somehow find room in the, seemingly never ending, photo budget orgy for its updated and largely fixed younger brother the X100S.

The problem child in my often blinkered eyes was the X1 Pro, which floated many shooters boat, but not mine.

Why not? Its size (a little too big) and the loss of the silent leaf shutter in the X100 (entirely understandable as it would put its interchangeable lenses out of reach of many users)

So, a good camera but not one for me....until now.

How so?

Those purveyors of the very finest optics Carl Zeiss have just unleashed on the photographic world the  two lenses, a 12mm f2.8 and a 32mm f1.8, (which promises to turn into a family) in Fuji and Sony fit.

Their first auto focus effort too which is really very good, but more of that later.

Not to mention the manual focus controls which are uncommonly good.

Firstly let's get the name out of the way.

The range is called Touit.

Yes, really.

What is a Touit when it is at home?

To quote good old wikipedia

'Touit is a genus of Neotropical parrots in the Psittacidae family.

So there you have it, a parrot.

Doubtless it will baffle some and amuse others.

But those who laugh, the joke will indeed be on them, for Zeiss have struck gold with these remarkable lenses.

With superb image and build quality which many will be unfamiliar with.

I have not had chance to shoot so very much with them yet.

So how do I know they are good?

I used them today on a paid assignment and they just shone.

Crisp, contrasty with great colour.

Sadly as I have not even delivered them to the client yet I cannot share them but over the weekend I will be shooting more, and will share my conclusions with you.

Along with my thoughts on the wider implications of the introduction of these lenses.

4am start beckons, with assignments at opposite ends of the country so an early night for me.

More, much more after the weekend.

Sorry for the tease...think of it as delayed gratification.







1 comment:

Libby said...

Look forward to your thoughts. I read a little about the lenses, but their not available for anything I have. As they say, Zeiss is nice ;-)

I am a little more enamored with the 100s each day, in fact I have put other buying plans I had on hold for the time being. IN a way that's good as I've been too busy for a new camera right now anyway. Leaves are all on the trees and haven't even gone out to shoot any infrared this season yet.