I really need your help.

[glpsace]

Hello Everyone,

This is my first thread in this forum. Have been following it for a few weeks and decided to step in.
I´m from Portugal and a few weeks ago sold the last gear I had, due to economical problems and also because it was getting little use due to size.
Had many Nikon primes, Zeiss and Voigtlander together with the Fuji S5 Pro, which I sold last with the 50 f/1.8.
80% of my hobby is about everything going from landscape, street, macro, candids and 20% about portraits. Especially family portraits – I just love to shoot my daughter, mostly candids but also about face and shoulder portraits.
So, I want to keep in the Fuji family especially because of colors and skin tones rendering (the best I have ever seen in any system).
I fell in love for the X100 which I´m planning to get next week. Yet, I still have some doubts due to the lens range. It excels in every department, al least for my standards, except one – portraits.I have considered the X-E1 with the fast 35/1.4 since I could stretch, at the limit, my budget for that. Since I only shoot JPEGS (don´t have the time to PP), the IQ quality wouldn´t be a problem. But than I think, just because of some occasional portraits, it would cost me twice the price, since the X100 costs me half of the X-E1 with the 35/1.4.
Plus I really want the X100, I´m just scared that I will miss, sooner or later, that longer range.

Anyway, just sharing my doubts with you.

Thank you for reading.

Cheers.

GLP

 

[thegman]

Hello there,
Welcome to the forum. Certainly lots of people like the X100 around here, I'm sure you'll like it. However, if you're looking for longer reach, then 35mm may well leave you wanting. Maybe going back to a DSLR would make more sense for you, the S5 is pretty big, I expect you could get a DSLR half that size these days. Or of course, there is micro 4/3, NEX, and others like them.

 

[daveleo]

hello there

I think 35mm focal length is perfect for "environmental portraits" of people that include their surroundings. For head & shoulder portraits, why not just crop to whatever you desire? With an APS sensor, you can crop a bunch and still produce a very nice 8X10 print.

FWIW, I have a Nikon and a bunch of lenses, and that is now my second choice for making pictures, the X100 (with all its kinks) is now my sweetheart.

EDIT: I'd say the XE1 is a great choice, but it does not have an optical viewfinder, and that's a great feature of the X100 (after the first trial run, I have never used its EVF or the LCD). Then of course there's the split image focusing of the X100s . . . 🙂

 

[zwarte_kat]

X100 is fine for head and shoulder portraits of family. If you were shooting female models for editorial, it's a different story. I actually like family shots on wider lenses, they look more spontaneous and fun. Anyway, you can also crop your picture up to beyond a 50mm field of view. Unless you print bigger than A4, you could go all the way to 75mm I think.