35mm (and where I’ve been)

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XF 35mm f/1.4 vs. XF 35mm f/2 WR

After weeks of testing, my extensive comparison of Fuji’s 35mm primes is now online. See how well the new normal compares against the old normal.

Where I’ve Been

As a bit of an aside, regular visitors have likely noticed a serious lull in content and updates. Looking at my last post that happened in August, I can hardly believe it’s been that long myself. What happened? A combination of things.

First of all, I found new employment approximately 5 months ago. It’s been a big transition from my previous freelance gig, and the ups and downs of a new job on top a huge multi-month project, had all but squelched my capacity for creative photography, let alone photographic analysis. Fortunately, things have settled down considerably.

Secondly, I decided early last year to take control of my physical wellbeing. This started out with the standard physical fitness, but quickly morphed into an obsession with restoring mobility and range of motion I’d lost from 15+ years of sitting for 8-15 hours a day. It’s been hard work, and took up almost all my free time, but it was well worth it.1

Anyhow, it was always an internal struggle for me. I felt bad neglecting the site outside of replying to those who emailed or tweeted, but it was the right thing to focus on.

TL;DR

I’ve been busy with work and life, but plan to get content on the site more regularly now. It’s good to be back.

  1. Physical health is hardly a topic for this website, but if you’re at all interested in restoring your own capacity for movement and how good movement can apply to photography, I recommend Kelly Starrett’s CreativeLive Class. Simply being able to squat properly behind my camera (ass to ankles, heels on the ground, toes pointed forward) has increased my enjoyment of photography, and saved me from putting more bad loads on my knees. If you can relate to that last part, you owe it to your lower extremities to restore full range of motion in your hips and ankles.↩

The Wide Angle Primes

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Work on my comparison between Fuji’s 3 widest angle primes, the XF 14mm f/2.8, the XF 16mm f/1.4, and the XF 18mm f/2 is almost complete. If you’re interested to see how Fuji’s newest weather sealed wide angle compares to their other wide fixed focal length offerings in sharpness, bokeh, handling, and more, this page is for you.

XF 14mm f/2.8 vs. XF 16mm f/1.4 WR vs. XF 18mm f/2

XF 90mm f/2 Review by Jonas Rask

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Reviews of the forthcoming XF 90mm f/2 → are few and far between right now. Fuji clearly hasn’t made as many pre-production units of this pro-focused lens as they did the consumer-focused X-T10. Jonas Rask has the best write-up I’ve seen to date.

... and it has a 62mm filter size just like the XF56mm f/1.2 (and the XF23mm f/1.4). By placing the 56mm and 90mm side by side it’s quite apparent that they are the same width, and and what differs is only the length of the lens.

This is a really smart move by Fujifilm. Three extraordinary, fast lenses covering a wide range of focal lengths, one set of filters. If only they were able to keep the XF 16mm f/1.4 at the same filter thread.

Compare it to an equally spec’ed full frame or even APS-C lens, the XF 90mm will still be one of the smaller options to carry around.

Jonas is right, it is one of the smaller options, but as Jonas alluded, it will depend a great deal on how you arrive at 135mm, and which of the other big guys you compare against. Here’s how things stack up against full frame Canon and Nikon lenses.

Fuji 90mm vs. DSLR 135mm, lens only

Canon actually has a really small and lightweight option at this focal length. I can’t speak to its quality, however. When it comes to Nikon, the DC-Nikkor 135mm is conspicuously absent from the US site, but is still available on nikon.ca. At f/2 on full frame, it will deliver a stop’s worth of shallower depth of field, but it will cost you in weight. Those figures do not account for body weight.

Things change when APS-C is included for either Canon or Nikon, depending on how exact we’re being with our focal lengths. 90mm is really closer to a 137mm equivalent, whereas a full frame 85mm will get to pretty close at around 129mm on Nikon’s version of APS-C (1.52x multiplier) and real close with Canon’s (1.6x mulitplier). That means you can get a lens that’s close to 135mm with an f/1.8 lens from either company for less weight than Fuji’s 90mm f/2, but what it doesn’t account for is body weight.

Fuji @ 137mm vs. APS-C DSLR kit

So going mirrorless gets you a reduction in weight, albeit a smaller one.

Finally, in an effort to be a completionist, let’s compare a Fuji X-T1 kit, with the closest we can get from Olympus, the OM-D E-M1 and M.Zuiko 75mm f/1.8 lens.

Fuji @ 137mm vs. Olympus @ 150mm

Sadly there doesn’t seem to be a 135mm equivalent in the M/43 world, Still, if you want the lightest way to 135mm and beyond, Olympus is the way to go, if you ignore the whole f/1.8 on a Micro Four Thirds thing.

I had intended this to be a quick piece pointing you to a great review, so I’ll leave you with a final word from Jonas before you checkout the rest of his review:

OH MY DEAR LORD! THE IMAGE QUALITY OF THIS LENS!

I get the feeling he likes it.

New 90, “Old” Stephani→

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Bert Stephani has a nice impressions video on the XF 90mm f/2 →. My favourite part is at 0:29, but keep watching until around the 4 minute mark, where Bert takes the lens outdoors to shoot, and provides some great sample images.

The 90mm f/2 looks like it will have no trouble creating separation for your subject, and rendering busy backgrounds as creamy, blurry, bokeh backdrops. Wedding photographers are going to be all over this thing.

The Fuji XF 90mm f/2 WR

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Fuji Fujifilm XF 90mm f/2 WR.jpg

The other big news along with the X-T10 was the official announcement of the XF 90mm f/2 WR.

WR FTW

The 90mm marks the the fourth officially announced XF lens from Fujifilm in a row that is weather sealed.1 I really hope this is a sign of Fuji’s intentions going forward; that every new lens will be weather sealed. Based on the mockups we’ve seen, we can be pretty sure the yet-to-be-officially-announced XF 35mm f/2 and XF 120mm Macro will also be weather sealed.

Quad Linear Motor

It seems like it was just yesterday that Fuji announced the “The World’s First” Triple Linear Motor in the XF 50-140mm. That lens is pretty swift already when it come to AF speed, so this Quad LM ought to help the 90mm focus quickly. Going by Fuji’s own numbers, which rank the 90mm at 0.14 seconds, it won’t be quite as quick as the XF 16-55mm f/2.8, at a mere 0.06 seconds.

Close Focus

There were some rumours that the 90mm f/2 would get us to 1:2 macro levels like the 60mm f/2.4, but it turns out 0.3x magnification is as close as we’ll get. Pairing the 90mm with either of the extension tubes will help, but I still have every intention of waiting for the XF 120mm Macro for my serious close-up needs.

Compact and Lightweight?

I suppose compared to other ways of getting to 90mm it’s reasonably small and light, but this will be Fuji’s heftiest prime to date. Fuji’s reported weight is 540g without the caps. That makes it heavier than even the 10-24mm f/4 and 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6.

Bokeh

I’ll wait until I can do some testing with my own copy before I weigh in on this, but it’s bound to be great. The first comparison will be how it fairs next to the 56mm f/1.2. It may have a shorter focal length, but that extra stop+ of aperture on the 56mm just might even things out.

APD?

During Photokina, I tweeted this:

Fuji advised that I not look too far into it, but if there’s another lens that an APD filter might make sense for, it’s the 90mm f/2. I suppose the only trouble is that with a maximim aperture of “only” f/2, the drop off in light gathering might slow the lens down too much for it to be as useful.

Conclusion

This is a focal length I was on the cusp of buying in my DSLR days many times. With the 90mm f/2, I’ll finally have it. At $950 USD, it’s going to make the choice between it and the 56mm a tough one. Look for a Versus comparison article after its release.

  1. The last 3 being the XF 16-55mm f/2.8, XF 50-140mm f/2.8, and XF 16mm f/1.4.↩

Fuji XF 16mm f/1.4 R WR

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Fuji have officially announced their latest prime, the FUJINON XF 16mm f/1.4 R WR,→ the first prime in their line up to offer weather resistance. You can count on a Versus article involving this lens once I get my hands on it (and have ample time to do my testing and analysis), but for now, you can check out a few initial impressions posts on the lens.

The first is from Tomasz Trzebiatowski over at Fuji Love. It’s a nice overview, however there is one statement that has me genuinely stumped on its meaning:

Images are crisp, but still not overly sharp.

I can’t say that I’ve ever heard of over-sharpness being a problem on the hardware level. I’d be interested to know what Tomasz means by that.

Next up, Neill Soden, despite admitting he’s not a fan of wide angles, appreciated the 16mm, and has a good size comparison photo of the new wide angle next to what was previously Fuji’s chunkiest prime, the 56mm f/1.2. Neill’s impressions are a testament to the impact 2mm can have on wider focal lengths.

Max Demartino has posted full resolution JPEGs over on his site. Full crops from a pre-production lens are a rare find.

Flemming Bo Jensen has probably the most interesting to read impressions on the new wide angle. If I had to choose one review to read this would be it. The astro capabilities in particular have my interest piqued.

Björn Moerman has gone to town, posting test charts, product shots, bokeh samples, the works.

UPDATE:

Ivan Joshua Loh has posted his thoughts on the 16mm as well. It won’t be replacing his 23mm f/1.4 anytime soon, but that will be the case for just about anyone who owns the 23mm. Ivan references the weather sealing of the 16mm though, which could end up being a big reason why I have it attached to my X-T1.

Ben Cherry is another recipient of a pre-production unit. I’m happy to see him address the potential duplication or even triplicating of adding this lens to your bag, and he calls attention to the size difference between it and the 14mm, which is substantial.

Conclusion

Fuji has really gone to town on shipping out samples to get the word out about their new kit. There’s a bit too much gushing for my taste, but it’s tough to get beyond the initial excitement of a new lens and get the feel of it, warts and all after only a few days. Sometimes you need weeks to really get a sense of whether or not it’s something you reach for regularly.

I’m looking forward to having my own impressions of this lens. It will be interesting to see how it compares to the 14mm f/2.8, and both the 10-24mm f/4 and 16-55mm f/2.8 at 16mm.

The New Zooms

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For those who haven’t yet noticed, detailed handling comparisons of what I’ve called “Standard Zooms” and “Telephoto Zooms” are online. I have a good start on comparison images as well, but it’s been difficult with the frigid temperatures we’ve been experiencing in Canada recently. Comparison crops are in the works though, and will be posted as soon as possible. In the meantime, check out my impressions of these new lenses and how they compare as far as handling and build quality is concerned.