More REACH. XF1.4 TC

Don’t we all want to jump higher, swim faster or go further.
Here is it, and its now within reach. The Fujinon XF1.4 TC WR.
The frist tele-convertor for Fujifilm X-series.

Its currently only able to paired with the XF 50-140mm F2.8 WR
zoom lens. Transforming it to a 70-196mm lens or in 135mm format
its will be a 105-294mm zoom lens. Weighting about 130g; The
XF1.4 TC features an excellent optical design with a construction of
7 elements in 3 groups to maintain the optical performance of the
original lens. Also, thanks to the unified design when mounted to a
compatible lens, the teleconverter is weather and dust-resistant and
operates at temperatures as low as -10°C. Hopefully this will make you
feel invincible when used with the weather and dust-resistant X-T1
camera body and XF50-140mmF2.8 R LM OIS WR lens.

Every XF 50-140mm’s owner will be asking if the new XF1.4 TC worth
in gold? I had the opportunity to test out this little wonder over a course
of 2 weeks.

As its also the Singapore Formula One weekend; what better opportunity
to test the XF 50-140 + XF1.4 TC. This is mated with X-T1 with firmware 4.0.
When Keitaro San from Fujifilm first pass me the 4.0 firmware; I was impress
by the improvement of the AF among the many other improvement. Little
did know until I begin shooting the race cars! This is where the new firmware
truly shine like a star! Wow! Its really snappy and I do feel very confident
on nailing the shot.

9 point Zone AF and continuous AF was my setting of the day. Why 9 and not
15 AF point. Personally I feel its better for me as this will pressure the
camera system to focus on that 9 point and that is where I want it to
be focus. Instead of “spreading” to 15 point. This is just my personal preference.

X-T1 was set to High performance and CH; which is a blazing 8 frames
per second. Here is a set of 9 photos of the Porsche Carrera Car Asia.
This is a one make Porsche race which is a support race at the Singapore’s
F-1.

As you can see the Zone AF is spot on from frame number 1 to 9! All the way
at the back of the street circuit to the sharp corner and the follow through.
This is really a milestone for me and I hope it will for you. When I sold my Canon
1DX, I really missed the ultra fast reliable AF. After today’s session; I truly
think Fujifilm is really chasing up real close. I strongly believe when Xpro2
and X-T2 comes, Its gonna step up the game!

What makes these pictures even more special. The driver of this race car; Ringo
Chong is a fan of Fujifilm X series. He uses a Fuji X-T1 too. Some might ask;
does the TC make the 50-140mm’s AF slower? Not a single bit. The AF
performance is unaffected by the addition of the teleconvertor. At least this
is how I feel when shooting with it.

As all the Porsche GT3 Cup cars come in all different colors; one
particular car which is in a reflective chrome color; I do have have some
difficulty nailing the shot. I believe its the flare its reflects that causes the
AF to hunt more.

What about if I were to compare it with XF50-200mm. I have used it for
my travel and I love it for it size,weight and reach. At 200mm the F-stop
is at F4.8 vs the XF50-140mm mounted with XF1.4TC. Which makes
it a F4 at 196mm because of the with one stop deficit. I would sum up; for my
commercial project; I will use the XF50-140mm with XF1.4 TC and for travel;
I will definitely use the XF50-200mm.

Lastly, what if I would to attach MCEX-11 with XF1.4TC on XF50-140mm lens?
Now I could shoot even closer! Abit of Marco photography with a zoom lens?
The result is quite brilliant too.