Thoughts On Lens Categories

With the latest Roadmap update, Fuji has officially categorized their lenses into 6 key categories: Ultra-fast Prime, Compact Prime, Macro, Red Badge Zoom, Zoom, and Cinema Zoom. That they have separated the primes into two categories is interesting to me, as it highlights gaps in each.

Can we expect an “Ultra-fast” 18mm in the future? The XF 18mm F2 isn’t exactly slow, but I can’t see anyone being disappointed by say, an XF 18mm F1 WR with better optics, a clutch manual focus ring and engraved depth of field markings.

What about a compact 14mm F4? The XF 14mm F2.8 is the lens I would have had the most trouble categorizing. I’m not sure I’d call it “Ultra-fast” as primes go, but then it might be just large enough to be outside of “Compact” territory despite being about equal to the XF 50mm F2 WR in size and weight. A weather sealed option by way of an XF 14mm F4 WR would be a great addition for fans of 21mm who are not keen on a lens as large as the XF 8-16mm F2.8 WR.

Likewise, might we see a compact ~90mm? Knocking a stop or two off the XF 90mm F2 WR would certainly make engineering a smaller lens possible, and without all that glass to shove around, they could do away with a linear motor or two.

The “Red Badge Zoom” seems to be the only category one might call complete since Fuji have decided to categorize their exotics like the XF 200mm F2 OIS WR under “Ultra-fast Prime.” We’ve only got 8-140mm covered at F2.8 though. I could see another big, fast telephoto in this category’s future. I suppose one day we might see Fuji take another page out of Nikon’s playbook and release a second generations XF 16-55mm F2.8 WR with OIS built in. They better not think about moving to a 82mm filter thread though.

I’d love to see Fuji release a “Mark II” version of some lenses to address build quality consistency (loose aperture rings, anyone?) and weather sealing on old favourites like the XF 14mm F2.8, XF 23mm F1.4, and XF 56mm F1.2. I’d add the XF 35mm F1.4 to that list, but with the XF 33mm F1 WR announced, that effectively is a Mark II in my mind.