It’s always a sad time when you have to part ways with a lens, especially when its one that you’re fond of..
Earlier this year I was fortunate enough to receive an equipment grant from the Westminster 125 fund while in my final year of Architectural Masters at the University of Westminster in London. With this money I was able to buy the recently released Fujinon 80mm F2.8 (and all the rest) lens. I wanted a macro for photography my architectural models for my portfolio and having done a good deal of reading around it looked to be a real killer piece of glass, a huge step up from the respected but now dated 60mm macro that Fuji released early on in the X-series.
Recently I sold the lens in order to pay for the Fujinon XF50-140, the 80mm had served me well for 6 months but it just wasn’t getting the amount of us my other primes were getting. For me, personally, there is nothing worse than owning something expensive that doesn’t get the use that it deserves.
Having owned the lens for 6 months I would commend the image quality which was just incredible and arguably the sharpest of the X-mount lenses that I’ve owned. Coupling this with the 1:1 macro image reproduction that the lens creates it sets a very high standard for macro photography. The IBIS is a definite plus for the lens but I only really used it for taking general photos where as anything macro was always set up with a tripod. The lens continues the long tradition of exceptional build quality from Fujifilm but the main downside for me is that the lens is a bit of a beast for a prime which is ultimately what stopped it earning a spot in my daily camera bag.
Having had the 50-140 for a couple of months now I know that I made the right decision but I loved the 1:1 macro results that the 80mm produced. Below I’ve shared 3 different sets of images, Fujinon 80mm, our time together was short but it was sweet.
The first images are taken from my final year model, a design for a Micro-Fishery in Hull. The model is made at 1.50 scale and the images demonstrate the 1:1 macro power of the 80mm to take photos at this architectural scale and appear almost real world in their appearence.
This second batch of photos are of the Bridge Theatre lights designed by Haworth Tompkins and were taken for ahead of the Dezeen Awards 2018 for which these lights were longlisted. The light is made of folded copper mesh which wraps an LED light source which helps increase the warmth of the light source into an almost candle like glow.
This final set of photos captures some of the fire damaged surfaces found at Battersea Arts Centre. The fire which consumed the grand hall in 2015 stripped back 120 years worth of paint in varying warped layers to create a set of scarred yet beautiful surfaces which were ultimately preserved in the grand halls rebuilding which was completed in 2018.
