The Fujinon XF18mm f/1.4 R LM WR is an interesting lens because the XF16mm f/1.4 WR is a pretty great lens that comes highly recommended by owners, but Fujifilm seems to be hinting that the XF16mm won’t cut it as sensor resolution increases and the XF18mm f/1.4 has been designed with that in mind. It looks like Fujifilm is getting their lens lineup ready for a high megapixel X-H2.
- Mr. Ware was in charge of the development
- XF18mm f/2 R was the original 18mm design and the new one is the XF18mm f/1.4 LM WR
- The resolution was their top priority
- The original 18mm was released 10 years ago
- The resolution was a priority because pixel counts keep going up
- Fujifilm is trying to keep aberration, coma, color, etc…. under control
- Fujifilm is aiming for a rich optical design that increases resolution and autofocus speed
- Adding linear motors makes a big difference
- The XF18mm f/1.4 design came from correcting the aberration issues of the XF18mm f/2
- Fixing the flaws of the 18mm made it a little bigger but accomplished the other goals
- Went from 2 aspherical elements to 3 and one ED element that’s normally used for telephoto to correct the lens
- Even though this lens is wide the bokeh blur quality is important
- The shortest shooting distance is 20cm
- It’s hard to move a lot of aspherical elements well
- The 18mm has an aperture position lock like the 10-24mm and GF lenses have
- Future XF lenses will be designed to make it hard to take the lens off auto
- The reason to put a focus clutch on a lens is the focus distance scale, which is important for rangefinder-style shooting like on the x-pro
- Most lenses have a focus ring that rotates 360 all around with no absolute value
- Focus scales are only approximate and accurate focus will become more important the more pixels you add
- Since Pixel Pitch affects depth it actually changes with temperature and other characteristics
- The XF18mm f/2 was designed to be compact, but the XF18 f/1.4 is designed for resolution wide open and speed
- The XF18mm f/1.4 has less aberration wide open than the XF16mm f/1.4
- Great for summer starscape photos
- The XF16mm smears a little in the corners compared to the XF18mm for Astrophotography
- Optical performance can change a lot with even just 1mm of change in focal length
- Fujifilm has optical distortion down to zero on the 14mm
- Building stand up really straight tat 14mm
- The 16mm feels a little soft compared to the 18mm
- 2mm can make a big difference
Fujinon XF18mm f/1.4 R LM WR: B&H Photo / Amazon /Adorama
Fujinon XF16mm f/1.4 WR: B&Hphoto / Amazon / Adorama
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