Now that the year is coming to an end, I like to reminisce about some of this year’s milestones. Photographically speaking.
Project 52
The year started with the premise of following Frames 52 for my Project 52 2025. It worked for a while, but then life got in the way, or I didn’t care for the topic. Eventually, I stopped following the group and posting. I did keep my own project up. I guess, following a set of rules or restrictions isn’t my thing after all. Photography is an outlet for me, and should not be a chore.
Fujifilm X-T5 | Fujinon XF 60mm f2.4 R Macro | 60mm (90mm) | 1/200 sec | f/2.4 | ISO 125
New lenses
You could say that this is the year of Voigtländer. I love these manual lenses. I did sell some gear to acquire the Ultron 27mm f2 and the Nokton 50mm f1.2 in exchange. They arrived just in time for my trip back home. These were the two lenses I used 95% of the time. Both lenses are chipped and provide EXIF data. Both have a software bug that, when you use them wide open some of the time, the aperture setting is written as the smallest aperture instead of the widest. The functionality is not affected by this. Since I never use the smallest aperture, those cases are easy to spot and fix with Lenstagger or any other exif tool.
The 27mm lens is sharp and provides beautiful out-of-focus areas with smooth transitions. The 41mm field of view is great. It is a perfect walk-around lens.
Fujifilm X-T5 | Voigtländer Ultron 27mm f2 | 27mm (41mm) | 1/40 sec | f/3.6 | ISO 125
Based on a Sonnar formula, the 50mm Nokton renders images with a vintage flair. Slightly soft wide open with a bit of glow, which cleans up impressively at f2.
Fujifilm X-T5 | Voigtländer Nokton 50mm f1.2 | 50mm (75mm) | 1/75 sec | f/4 | ISO 12800
Later in the year, I acquired the wonderful 35mm Macro APO Ultron f2. What a lens. It is close to perfect. Sharp, wide open, no glow, beautiful rendering of the image. If I had to select just one lens, this one could be it.
Going Analog
This year, I have been using my analog gear more. It is nice to use the vintage lenses with film cameras. I’m very pleased with my Contax II and Kiev Cameras. All three perform well. Once I got used to holding the cameras properly, focusing with a rangefinder was so easy. Once I used a Spotmatic, I started liking SLRs. I’m still not keen on the loud mirror slap, but the spotmatic gets out of my way, which is nice. My Vivitar CX-3 is a bit harder to get used to. Mostly because of the double slap when I press the shutter. The Vivitar is newer and supports the automatic mechanism of some lenses, which is kind of cool.
Kiev IIa | Jupiter-3 50mm f1.5 | AgfaPhoto APX 100 | ISO 100 | Rodinal
It is not just that I like taking photos on a film camera. I do enjoy developing film. Scanning the film is another story. Scanning with my X-T5 and the Laowa lens is much better than using a flatbed scanner. But I still do not enjoy it. However, I love seeing the photos appear on the screen.
The lure of a new camera
It is often tempting to pre-order a new camera when it is announced. The good thing about pre-ordering is that it’s easy to cancel. Buyer’s remorse and all that. When Fujifilm announced the X-E5, I was all over it. I almost pre-ordered the camera. After seeing the price, which I thought was a bit too high (partly due to the tariffs), I started looking more closely at the specs. The viewfinder wasn’t up to par with the one on the X-T5, so I decided not to buy. An X-T6 and maybe an X-Pro4 might be coming in 2026. I’ll wait to see what those two have to offer.
New look, new domain name, new host
I like to move my websites around. Always on the quest for the fastest, best host. If there is such a thing. I decided to move hosts and freshen up the look of my site. I also went from Divi 4 to GeneratePress. Divi 5 wasn’t ready enough for this site, but it will be awesome soon, and I wanted to try something else. So there you have it. I always disliked Gutenberg-based themes. The whole concept didn’t sit well with me. While recreating my website with GeneratePress, the whole block concept grew on me. Now I like it.
My decision not to use a page builder like Divi, Elementor, etc. was a conscious one. But this exercise made me appreciate the page builders that are out there on a different level. They make certain things easier. I do not need things to be easier; building websites is what I do for a living, but it can save some time, especially when you know a certain page builder very well.
Looking forward
Finishing my Project 52 for this year is pretty much all that’s left to do. I will have a new Project 52, with a narrower scope. The new project page will be posted in early January.