It had been nearly twenty years since my last visit to Spain (or indeed Europe) when we went to Madrid last October. On my previous trip, I had carried one camera and two lenses, but that time it was film—a Hasselblad X-Pan II, which meant I was able to take ultra wide panoramic images everywhere I went; which also meant finishing a roll of film twice as fast as usual.

This time, Fuji had recently brought out the GFX100RF with its massive sensor and ability to crop to that same 65:24 ratio, and I really REALLY wanted one. But…for 1/8th the price, I decided to try the Sigma 17-40mm f/1.8 lens on my current Fuji X-H2 body instead, and see what that zoom range and lens speed would let me do, partly as a simulation of the 100RF’s lens and in-camera crop range, but also as an opportunity to test out this lens and see if it might suit my theatre work as well when I got back…