Eduardo Soteras Snaps UNICEF Photo of the Year 2022 with Fujifilm APS-C X Gear

© Eduardo Soteras, Argentina, AFP (Agence France Press)
© Eduardo Soteras, Argentina, AFP (Agence France Press)

Eduardo Soteras has just been awarded with the UNICEF Photo of the Year 2022 for the image you can see above. The story is this one:

Although destroyed, the library in this elementary school in Ethiopia’s Tigray region is where two children have taken refuge in books. This little moment of happiness shows in their smiles. It is a rare moment. Because of the armed conflict with the central government, 5.2 million people in this region in northern Ethiopia are suffering from violence, displacement, malnutrition and a shortage of drinking water.

[…] The desire to discover and learn new things is often so great in children that it makes them forget the threat of a situation.

That is the message of the Unicef ​​photo of the year 2022,” said Unicef ​​patron Elke Büdenbender, wife of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

“The winning image challenges us to do everything we can to ensure that children can play and learn even under the most adverse circumstances.

Because this is the only way they can maintain their hope and confidence in times of war and other crises.

Given the importance of this image, little it matters that the EXIF data shows it has been taken with the Fujinon XF 16mm f/1.4 R WR.

Here on FujiRumors we just want to congratulate with fellow X shooter Eduardo Soteras for his important recognition and for making the best possible use of our beloved Fujifilm gear: encapsulating meaningful moments and important messages into a single powerful image.

You can read more about this image and Eduardo Soteras at the dedicated UNICEF page here.

Thanks to Daniel Stocker (instagram) for letting me know about it.

And in case you are being brainwashed by some YouTubers that you can only get real Pro work done with Full Frame gear, check out the articles below.

Not enough? Well, then know that photographers using Fujifilm cameras also…

  • won the world wildlife photography award (story here)
  • made the cover of the TIME magazine (story here)
  • won the World Photography Arts&Culture Award 2015 (story here)
  • won the First Prize of the World Press Photo Category “Stories (stroy here)
  • made the front page of the Wall Street Journal (story here)
  • were good enough for God’s work (story here)
  • captured America’s most hated man (story here)
  • distracted a French presidential candidate during his interview (story here)
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Meike 25mm f/0.95 Manual APS-C Lens

The new Meike 25mm f/0.95 has been announced recently and now starts to be available at Amazon.

At the time of this post you can find the Sony E Mount version here and other mounts including Fujifilm X mount will be available soon.

  • Aperture Range: F0.95 – F16
  • Focal Length: 25mm
  • Filter thread:Ф 62mm
  • Weight: 600g（1.32lb）
  • Focus Mode: Manual Focus
  • Minimum focusing distance: 0.25m
  • Lens Construction: 11 elements in 9 groups
  • Diaphragm Blades: 13
  • APS-C Angle of View: Diagonal 59.3° Horizontal 52° Vertical 35.4°
  • MFT Angle of View: Diagonal 47.6° Horizontal 38.8° Vertical 29.5°

The new Meike 25mm f/0.95 will be available soon at AmazonUS here and BHphoto here and it is listed at Meike here.

Meike lenses for Fujifilm can be found at Amazon here and B&H Photo here.

Product Images

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Avatar: The Way of Water: These Unbelievably Good Fujinon APS-C Lenses were Used to Film Large Parts of the Movie

After this article, tons of Forum heroes and YouTubers will cancel their ticket for Avatar: The Way of Water.

Why?

Because once they find out that important parts of the movie where shot using the totally unprofessional APS-C format (Super35 cameras) in combination with not crazy fast Fujinon APS-C zoom lenses, they will know that this movie must be a technical disaster, and they’ll rather invest their precious time into creating Full Frame f/1.2 masterpieces in their basements.

But there will be those, who will watch the movie anyway. And today’s story is for them.

AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER director of photography Russell Carpenter talks with Go Creative Show host Ben Consoli about the making of the film and using the custom-made 3D Sony Venice [also used with Sony Rialto Camera Extension System] – video below.

At some point they talk about which lenses they used for the movie, and here is where the praises for these prosumer Fujinon APS-C lens start.

Everything was done to get it as light as we could.

We didn’t need to work with a Full Frame sensor, that would require very big lenses. We wanted to work with zooms so we didn’t have to change lenses all the time.

We did a lot of testing and research, and we ended up with these prosumer Fujinon lenses made by Fujifilm [the Fujinon MK 18-55mm T2.9 and the Fujinon MK 50-135mm T2.9].  Each one is about 2.2 pounds and about 8 inches long, which is ideal for being on a rig.

The amazing thing about these lenses when we tested them, was that even though they were not as fast, at their wide open aperture of f/2.9 they were super super sharp. We thought we did something wrong with our test as they were as sharp as lenses that cost 10 times more.

We shot 90% of the movie on the MK18-55mm T2.9. In the world of 3D you get much more sense of depth if you shoot wider.

Russell Carpenter literally says they shot 90% of the movie using the Fujinon MK 18-55mm T2.9, but my guess is that he refers to the underwater scenes in the movie, although he did not specify that. He just said “movie” not “underwater parts of the movie“.

So, not only the backstage images of Avatar were taken with Fujifilm gear (as we reported here), but also the movie itself was shot using Fujifilm APS-C gear!

You can watch the podcast in the youtube video down below (automatically starts on the part where they talk about the Fujinon lenses).

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Fujifilm X-Pro3 Discontinued but Not Because Fujifilm X-Pro4 is Coming – REPORT

Some reports are appearing that indicate how the the Fujifilm X-Pro3 has been discontinued.

The first one comes from India, where a fellow X shooter looking for an X-Pro3 spoke to a Fujifilm distributor, who was informed by the regional Fujifilm sales person that the Fujifilm X-Pro3 is discontinued [see screenshot above].

Another report comes from a Swiss Fujifilm shooter, who got told the same by a Swiss distributor (X-Pro3 no longer in production), with the addition that no Fujifilm X-Pro4 is in the pipeline.

Speculations are rising, and so far here are the options I see.

  1. Fujifilm X-Pro4 is coming
  2. Fujifilm X-Pro3 simply is not selling well enough anymore and the parts shortage that is still going on forced Fujifilm to stop production on lower selling models
  3. The class action lawsuit the X-Pro3 is suffering is forcing Fujifilm to stop production

What’s your most likely scenario?

If you ask me, I’d go for Nr.2. But the option that would make me most happy is the Nr.1 of course :)

Fujifilm X-Pro3: BHphoto, AmazonUS, Adorama