Long lenses in photography is nothing new, but long lenses on a digital medium format camera is. That is why I was really eager to try the new GF500mmF5.6 pre launch this year. When you combine the speed and AI tracking of the GFX II with a lens fully compatible and as fast you get stunning sports pictures never previously possible on a medium format camera.
My first impression when I picked up this lens was weight. It is so light. Company that with the stabilizing properties of the GFX100 II and the lens you have a setup that I shot hand held for the entire shoot we did for this project. I was even riding snowboard with it in my hand through out the day.
At first I was not sure how it would handle suddenly appearing objects in terms of quickly finding and tracking the subject but it did a wonderful job. I started shooting at f/5.6 fairly close, and I found that it did not snap onto the subject right away, but when I stepped back a few meters and added a bit more aperture it performed beautiful.
Which was something I applied to the rest of my shooting.
Having subjects on a snowboard going towards me with helmets and googles obscuring their facial features can create problems with facial recognition algorithms in the camera, but combining that with zone + subject detection it made it work really well.
Something I have not done previously on my long lenses was to save a focus place to a button on my lens, so when Len (Snowboarder) hit the big jump, and landed he “wheeled” over a knuckle with massive speeds, I pre focused on that knuckle – saved it to the lens button, took pictures in AF-C on the jump, framed the knuckle and pressed the focus button on the lens.
The knuckle got razor sharp and I got him when he rode over it. I think I would have had some problems tracking him all the way without that feature because of me using ibis and lens stabilising while hand held. That makes it a bit tricky to track subjects in tight frames. But the focus save button made it all happen.
Having 8fps together with this lens makes it a real setup for sports photographers to admire. Some moments are one-shot moments, like this powder spray with Len. There is a cloud rolling in and this is the last moment to get the picture for a while. I need a sharp rider and good composition. I am reacting of what he does, I need the camera to track him, keep him sharp, and there are more moments than just one. So I start shooting once he starts performing. This is a good example of camera, lens, rider and photographer maximizing one opportunity to get maximum return. We got two great pictures from one moment because it all worked together!
Taking portraits and lifestyle you don’t really think of GF500mmF5.6 as the ideal lens for it, and it probably is not either, but it still has its purpose. The compression factor you get through high mm on a lens really creates a unique look to the images and is another way of creating cool pictures that you normally don’t see.
Whenever I travel I always enjoy taking pictures of the places I am in, but sometimes I have to crop a lot to get the part that was actually interesting. Not with this lens, here you can get up close and personal and it also trains you to look differently when taking pictures. I spent three days only taking pictures with this lens. And after a while I started seeing pictures I normally cannot get.
One of my favorite pictures from this project was actually on this rail as the light was coming through the trees as It was setting for the day. This one light shined on the top and I asked Len to give me a cool trick on the tip in the light. He did and we got this picture to show for it. He rode straight up to me to see the picture and when we turned back the light was gone. That concluded the session and a big “it’s a wrap” was said to finish of this cool project.
I must say I am glad we have many different mm to work with as photographers, because just shooting one type of lens can be boring after a while, but 500mm is not the worst to be stuck with:)
I really enjoyed working with this lens and I think many people after me will do as well.
