My lenses arrived. Literally the best customer service I’ve ever experienced. They suggested I cancel my initial purchase to take advantage of their sale that was coming up in a few days. When Aliexpress wasn’t cooperating on giving the promised free shipping they gave me a discount for another portal to the value of the sale - and then stayed in touch via whatsapp through Fedex’s idiocy until I had the lenses. @ttartisanofficial is a company that can be proud of its customer service and it speaks well of Chinese customer service in general.

I love this 50 f1.2. Such a great look. Sharper and contrastier at f1.2 than the ’70s Nikkor I was using was at 1.4. And it cost less than $100. Just crazy. Such a nice fit on my Fujifilm XE1. I now finally have a wide lens for it too - the 17mm f1.4. Cute little lens and great for nighttime environmental pics with that fast aperture. Shooting manual focus prime lenses isn’t for everyone. But since I grew up in photography doing that with my Pentax MX, I find it just adds to the experience of shooting ‘digital film’ that Fuji does so damn well. Mirrorless makes shooting everything manual ridiculously easy. But the feeling of control is still there.

Basically my entire photography setup - the Fujifilm XE1 and two fast prime lenses - cost $300 and is more fun to shoot for me than any other digital I’ve ever used.

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