As my camera kit continues to grow, the latest additions are a 12mm wide-angle lens from Rokinon (made specifically for Fuji x-mounts) and a pretty affordable, lightweight, and versatile tripod from Dolica.
The reviews for the Rokinon glass all touted its great lowlight performance, so, equipped with my tripod I thought I’d try some long exposure photography for the first time with my Fuji X-E1.
One downside of the Rokinon lens is that it doesn’t have any electronic connectivity to the camera body. This means that aperture and focus can only be adjusted manually on the lens itself (which is actually preferable for me), but it also means that the aperture metadata isn’t recorded.
For this shoot, I kept it the lens at f/11 throughout (hoping to get some light trails) and had the shutter set to BULB mode so that I could choose the speed manually. This meant lots of holding my breath as I hadn’t yet picked up a remote shutter release, though I have one coming in the mail shortly!
I’ve listed the rest of the image details below each photo as it’s cool to see how altering the settings along with the sunset change the overall effect.
- Time 8:18pm ET
- Aperture f/11
- Focal length 12mm
- ISO 1250
- Shutter speed 1/85s
- Time 8:52pm ET
- Aperture f/11
- Focal length 12mm
- ISO 800
- Shutter speed .5s
- Time 9:01pm ET
- Aperture f/11
- Focal length 12mm
- ISO 800
- Shutter speed 2.6s
- Time 9:10pm ET
- Aperture f/11
- Focal length 12mm
- ISO 800
- Shutter speed 3.5s
- Time 9:24pm ET
- Aperture f/11
- Focal length 12mm
- ISO 800
- Shutter speed 4.3s
- Time 9:27pm ET
- Aperture f/11
- Focal length 12mm
- ISO 800
- Shutter speed 7.0s
- Time 9:41pm ET
- Aperture f/11
- Focal length 12mm
- ISO 800
- Shutter speed 6.0s
I tried a few shots with my 50-230mm zoom lens as well, but I wasn’t blown away by the results. These are a few of the salvageable photos, but the blurring was so extreme in the others that I won’t be trying it again until my remote shutter arrives.
- Time 8:21pm ET
- Aperture f/4.5
- Focal length 50mm
- ISO 1250
- Shutter speed 1/450s
- Time 8:27pm ET
- Aperture f/11
- Focal length 230mm
- ISO 1250
- Shutter speed 1/20s
- Time 9:14pm ET
- Aperture f/11
- Focal length 50mm
- ISO 800
- Shutter speed 7.0s
Amateur Tip: Remember to readjust your shutter speed before you get back to street photography 😆
- Time 9:55pm ET
- Aperture f/11
- Focal length 12mm
- ISO 800
- Shutter speed 8.5s
- Time 10:02pm ET
- Aperture f/11
- Focal length 12mm
- ISO 800
- Shutter speed 8.5s
david.watkis.blog 