Camera: Fuji X-Pro1
Exposure: 1/1500
Aperture: f/1.4
Focal Length: 23mm (35mm equivalent)
ISO: 200
Shooting architectural images is a sure fire way to reveal optical aberrations and distortions in your lenses. The gold standard of distortion free, wide angle lenses has for years been rangefinder style lens designs that are sharper and exhibit much less distortion than traditional SLR lenses. Though “rangefinder” style lenses have their own limitations inherent in the designs.
Fuji lenses are not SLR lens designs nor traditional “rangefinder” style lenses. And while the SLR market is traditionally one that handles architectural photography, I’ve shot architectural images before with Fuji lenses and have been amazed at the performance and rectilinear images that come out of even the widest of telephoto Fuji designs. The image above of the Sorensen Molecular Biotechnology building on the University of Utah campus is another example of this and was shot with Fuji’s oldest X-mount camera, the X-Pro1 which I still carry around, and their magnificent Fuji 23mm lens. Typically, one shoots architectural images with a tripod, your lowest ISO setting and very small apertures. The image above violated at least two of those principles in that it was shot wide open and handheld and I’m still rather pleased with the sharpness and perspective.