PB: Fujinon XF33mm f/1.4 Review – Not A Natural Replacement For The XF35mm f/1.4, But Still A Great Lens


Photography Blog Posted its review of the Fujinon XF33mm f/1.4 and they came away impressed. You can read the full review here or read some excerpts below:

The new Fujifilm XF 33mm F1.4 R LM WR offers a winning combination of an ultra-fast f/1.4 aperture with nine rounded aperture blades for great bokeh, excellent sharpness throughout the aperture range, fast, precise and silent autofocusing, and built-in weather-resistance. The Fujifilm XF 33mm F1.4 R LM WR lens is remarkably sharp in the image centre and almost as sharp at the edges, virtually throughout the entire aperture range….

There is very little optical distortion worth mentioning and the close-focus point of 20cm comes in very handy when including a foreground interest in the image. There are some optical negatives of note. Vignetting is a slight issue, although that’s something that is is true of most fast lenses, chromatic aberrations are noticeable in very high-contrast situations, and flare can be pretty bad when shooting directly into the sun. As usual for a premium Fuji lens, the build quality is excellent. The linear motor auto-focus system is another strong-point, with hardly any delay before locking focus and a pleasingly quiet mechanism.

Sadly, the innovative focus collar for quickly switching between auto and manual focus that is found on the 16mm and 23mm F1.4 lenses hasn’t been included here.Overall, the new Fujifilm XF 33mm F1.4 R LM WR may not be the natural replacement for the venerable XF 35mm F1.4 that everyone was expecting, but it is undoubtedly a great lens and ultimately a more than worthy addition to the Fuji X-system lens range.

I have to say I agree strongly with their statement about it being unfortunate that the focus clutch was not included on this lens. The focus clutch was one of the coolest things Fujifilm had going for them and I would have preferred them to skip the linear motors in this model if that is really the reason that this system would not work. Fujifilm needs to stop abandoning features that make its cameras and lenses unique

Fujinon XF 33mm f/1.4 R LM WR:
B&H Photo / Amazon / Moment / Adorama
Fujinon XF 35mm f/1.4 R:
B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama

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