I had the opportunity to see a demonstration of Argentinian tango recently. The event took place in a dimly lit concert hall. There was a band on the stage and the chairs had been removed to make room for a space to dance. The musicians were lit with spotlights but the poor dancers had to make do with overhead neon lighting.

I took some photos of the band (click here), then some photos of the dancers. I sat cross-legged on the floor and did my best to capture the essence of the dance. This kind of tango is not acrobatic and not a show, it is about the relation and emotion between the dancers.

I used my fuji x-t1 and the 50-140 f/2.8 zoom lens. Focusing was always going to be difficult in this light with the dancers moving at quite a speed around the room. There were some instances where the couple was moving slowly and this is when I tried to grab some shots. I took the photos in bursts and cut down my collection of over 200 pictures to a select few.

I edited in black and white in Lightroom because I love black and white photos and I think in this case it helps bring out the essence of the dancers.

The camera reacted very well, focus was fast and precise. Very few photos were out of focus or blurry. I culled my collection to keep the few I preferred. The 50-140 lens is excellent with lovely rendering and a very good sharpness.

As you can see, the photos are all taken at 6400 iso, the maximum the fuji x-t1 can take in raw. The x-t2 and x-pro2 can go up to 12800 iso with a usable quality. There was no way to slow the shutter speed below 1/125s because of the movement of the dancers. Sensor stabilisation is useless in this kind of photoshoot too, so the high iso capability of the camera is a great thing to have.

This XF50-140 f/2.8 is a keeper, it is versatile, fast, precise and built like a tank.