Fujifilm has a lot of great glass and most of the time Fujifilm has an optically excellent copy of a lens that pairs up well with a lens that has a specific character or characteristic. These picks are DPRTV’s and I don’t agree with all of them (XF35mm f/1.4 is a must-own), but they do a pretty good job of making the distinction and explaining their preference. You can read a summary of the review below, but for those that follow DPRTV this is the video where Chris gets injured if you’re interested. We hope he gets well soon, stepping on rebar is no fun, and how I almost broke a Leica M a few years ago.
Fujifilm XF18mm f/1.4 vs XF18mm f/2
- The f/2 is one of Fujifilm’s oldest lenses
- The f/2 is a pancake with slow AF and needs to be stopped down to get god image quality
- The f/1.4 is one of Fujifilm’s best lenses
- The f/1.4 is optically near perfect and focuses quickly
- This is an example of the bigger more expensive lens being better
Fujifilm XF23mm f/1.4 vs XF23mm f/2
- The f/2 is one of the Fujifilm compact wonder primes
- The f/2 is optically decent wide open and focuses quickly
- Hard to beat the f/2 for a compact kit
- The f/1.4 is an older lens with a great manual focus clutch
- The f/1.4 is very good wide open and better than the f/2 when stopped down to f/2
- The f/1.4 is a little slow and noisy plus it isn’t weather sealed
- The f/2 is the way to go here for a good compact rugged setup
Fujifilm XF35mm f/1.4 vs XF35mm f/2
- The f/2 is great like the 23mm
- The f/2 is fast focusing, compact, weather-sealed, and sharp wide open
- The XC35mm f/2 is the same as the XF, but without weather sealing and it is plastic with different optical coatings
- The f/1.4 is an older design that is slower and makes some noise, but it is a well-built lens
- The f/1.4 is ok wide open but not great and even stopped down it is a little soft in the corners
- The f/1.4 has a lot of character with nice bokeh
- The f/1.4 has a more vintage look
- Chris would go with the XF35mm f/2
More expensive isn’t always better but you should know what you are buying.
Fujinon XF 18mm f/1.4 R LM WR: B&H Photo / Amazon /Adorama
Fujinon XF 18mm f/2 R: B&H Photo / Amazon /Adorama
Fujinon XF 23mm f/1.4 R: B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama
Fujinon XF 23mm f/2 R WR: B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama
Fujinon XF 35mm f/1.4 R: B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama
Fujinon XC 35mm f/2: B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama
Fujinon XF 35mm f/2 R WR: B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama
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