Happy new year and hello again everybody. As you may have noticed I took a longer break of two months from blogging. Well, I’m back and I promise to post regularly again in the future.

What happened in the meantime? I finally fulfilled one of my dreams and got myself a fabulous Fujifilm X-PRO1 together with 18mm and 35mm Fujinon-lenses. For financial reasons my daily attendant the X-100 which was responsible for most postings on this blog had to leave the house. A little bit sad, but hey, I’ve got a new friend with even greater capabilities.

About two weeks ago I thought It would be nice to expand workspace towards the telephoto range. Basicly I intended to buy the Fujinon XF55-200mm F3.5-4.8 OIS but then accidentally stumbled upon a demonstration model of its favourable brother the new Fujinon XC50-230mm F4.5-6.7 OIS. What can I say? For 260 Euros I just had to give it a whack. Just for the record: the original price is about 400 Euros ($ 400 in the US). If you insist in more lightstrength, more metal and less plastic the XF55-200mm will slim down your wallet to another three hundos. Relax, I don’t want to bore you with technical details, performance tables or benchmark tests. If your looking for this you can find lots of sources elsewhere giving you all the chiffres you need.

The point of matter is that I could barely find any sample photos created with that lens in the web. So, when I took a 5-day-trip to London over the new years eve I decided to explore the city through my new achievement and share it. And if you have no interest in the lens I hope that you still enjoy the pictures. By the way: generally the weather was foggy, rainy, windy and cold of course. If you go to Britain you can’t expect a Caribbean feeling for sure, particularly not in December. Still enjoyed my stay in one of the worlds most interesting cities a lot.

All photos were shot handheld often using high ISO due to the lack of a tripod (I was with my family and I didn’t want to let them wait every few minutes so I just shot “quick and dirty”.). The pictures come in their original size and are not edited (except watermarking).

All photos here are for demonstration only and were not made for marketing or selling purposes.

Full length and opened to the max. 230 mm, F6.7, 1/125 sec., ISO 3200.

Another example on the long distance with maximum aperture: 230 mm, F6.7, 1/75 sec., ISO 3200. The stabilizer did a good job.

Give the stabilization system a break. 230 mm, F6.7, 1/1000 sec., ISO 800.

A last one with fully opened aperture: 230 mm, F6.7, 1/1100 sec., ISO 1600.

230 mm, F8, 1/950 sec., ISO 6400.

A little more depth of field: 230 mm, F8, 1/250 sec., ISO 3200.

Even more depth of field: 230 mm, F11, 1/420 sec., ISO 1600.

And even more, close to the maximum: 230 mm, F16, 1/500 sec., ISO 800.

128 mm, F5.8, 1/900 sec., ISO 1600.

135 mm, F6.4, 1/500 sec., ISO 800.

Early morning scenery in Clapham. 120 mm, F8, 1/800 sec., ISO 6400.

At the river Thames. 172 mm, F8, 1/500 sec., ISO 800.

December rain scenery. 80 mm, F6.4, 1/250 sec., ISO 3200.

Giving ’em a little more time. 80 mm, F6.4, 1/125 sec., ISO 3200.

80 mm, F5.6, 1/150 sec., ISO 1600.

We’re getting closer to the shortest focal length: 75 mm, F6.4, 1/250 sec., ISO 3200.

63 mm, F5, 1/160 sec., ISO 1600.

A London Eye detail again. This time at shortest focal length and maximum aperture. 50 mm, F4.5, 1/340 sec., ISO 3200.

And higher ISO for some early morning Clapham shutters. 50 mm, F4.5, 1/140 sec., ISO 6400.

50 mm, F5, 1/2000 sec., ISO 1600.

50 mm, F5.6, 1/125 sec., ISO 800.

Impressive stabilization job. 1/20 sec. out of the hand. 50 mm, F6.4, 1/20 sec., ISO 3200.

50 mm, F8, 1/170 sec., ISO 6400.

50 mm, F14, 1/1000 sec., ISO 800.