Kant Rathod
Kant Rathod is a self-taught street, urban and travel photographer based in London. He captures images predominantly in black and white with strong composition, light, tone and personality in mind. He tends to have one creative manifesto, ‘It’s not what you see, but how you see it.’
Kant has been using the FUJIFILM X Series cameras for over 10 years now, including the X100, X100S, X100T, X-Pro1, X-Pro2, X-M1 and the X-E2. They have all contributed greatly in the development of his journey and skills as a street photographer and assist him in capturing many memorable images.
Having already used the FUJIFILM X-E2 with the original FUJINON XF27mmF2.8, I was very familiar with the form and set up of the new X-E4 and XF27mmF2.8 R WR. The camera with the lens feels small, almost weightless in the hands and inconspicuous, making it perfect for street photography!
With it being a bright sunny day, I knew my intention was to capture images with a strong contrast and plenty of shadow and graphical play. To provide that filmic look I always shoot with ISO 400 which is my go to for street shooting whatever the light.
X-E4 + XF27mmF2.8 R WR - F8, ISO 400, 1/2000 sec
The X-E4 has a 180 degree tilting LCD screen, which I almost overlooked as it initially appeared fixed, a design stroke of genius in my words! The screen is very easy to pull out and place back. I used it a few times to capture images at waist level and the positive is, people appeared to ignore me, giving them the impression that I was just chimping through my images…
I used the EVF for the majority of my shots as I always feel more connected to my subject and composition. The X-E4 body design has moved on from the previous XE line, appearing sleeker. A few buttons have been omitted, keeping the overall body design simple. The focus option button on the front of the body has gone, which is a noticeable feature for me but this can be solved by accessing this option via a function button.
X-E4 + XF27mmF2.8 R WR - F8, ISO 400, 1/2000 sec
The focusing of the XF27mmF2.8 R WR lens is swift and as an avid manual focus shooter this helped tremendously. Alongside the superb focus peaking, I switched to manual mode for the majority of my shots. With all of the main settings quickly accessible, shooting in full manual mode was a pleasure. The aperture ring on the XF27mmF2.8 is a very welcome addition. I didn’t have an issue on the original lens controlling aperture in camera but now I find it makes the overall shooting experience more complete and a more grounded experience of using the exposure triangle.
X-E4 + XF27mmF2.8 R WR - F8, ISO 400, 1/4000 sec
The FUJIFILM X-E4 is a great camera for street photography as it is light, powerful and discreet, which led to many overlooking the fact that I was capturing their daily life routines. I do find the X-E4 small for my hands but with the addition of a thumb grip this enables stability whilst shooting. Additionally, the hand grip would make the X-E4 a great stealth, street camera especially in all black. Overall, I am very pleased with the user experience and the image quality was quite incredible, as usual coming from Fujifilm!
X-Pro2 + XF27mmF2.8 R WR - F8, ISO 400, 1/125 sec
FUJIFILM X-Pro2 & FUJINON XF27mmF2.8 R WR
I was also keen to pair the new XF27mmF2.8 lens with my beloved FUJIFILM X-Pro2. On the day I went out shooting the temperature was quite challenging but the weather sealed combo was a breeze to use. However, due to the freezing temperature my fingers did struggle to turn the aperture ring to F8. Similarly to the new FUJIFILM X-E4 and XF27mmF2.8 combination, this set up was a joy to use, along with being discreet and ninja like on the streets. I shot fully manual achieving composition and the desired effect of light and shadow at play.
X-Pro2 + XF27mmF2.8 R WR - F8, ISO 400, 1/250 sec