Coming soon are images from the old world — Paris and Switzerland from a trip I took at the end of September 2022. Before the trip, however, I was profoundly contemplating the gear I would take. I considered bringing just one camera and one lens — a true rarity these days on my travels.

I used the Fujifilm X-E3 since this trip was before I purchased my current Fujifilm X-S10. The Fuji 16-80mm f4, with a generous 24mm to 120mm full frame equivalent, would make the ideal travel zoom — a single lens that should cover all my needs. It should work well during the daytime, but how about at night? An f4 aperture wasn’t particularly bright. Luckily, the 16-80mm has in-lens image stabilization.

I met my friend Tony for dinner and a photo walk in early September — my first real test of the lens a couple of weeks before my European trip. The results were very encouraging. I started with a modest 1/15 second shutter speed, producing an image at ISO 3200.

Of course, I needed to shoot the obligatory food photo — an essential part of travel photography.

We stayed at least an hour and a half catching up. By the time we left, the restaurant was closing some sections. The 24mm equivalent worked well for architecture. Tony and I like shooting at night; it was conveniently dark when we left, and I snapped the first picture at the top. As we explored the hip and growing Mueller development, I was ready to push this new lens to its limits.

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