"You ain't seen sharp till you've used the Fujinon XF 35mm f1.4. Heck, get ready for blood transfusion here coz this baby's gonna slice and dice everything in it's view WIDE OPEN!"
Yeah, this is going to be a short review. Simply put, this is the very best lens I've ever used. Period. Wide open, colors and contrast remains high and it is so crazy sharp that I can't believe I'm shooting at f1.4! The first time I pixel peeped, I had to look twice at what aperture I was shooting with coz it's just unbelievable.
Bokeh is creamy and dreamy and I just have to say this is one beautiful lens both optically and built-wise. All fast aperture lenses I have tried have strong CA open wide, but I hardly see this in the Fujinon. If you read those professional reviews, you will see that the lens is "soft" on the borders, but in real life, your subjects aren't at the borders. I've never seen any softness with this lens before. Ever.
Auto focus however is it's greatest weakness, especially in low light situations, but has improved with the latest firmware. The wife test confirms this as she gets frustrated with the focus and prefers my X20 camera. Fortunately, photos that come out of this lens more than makes up for it for me! And the Face Detection feature on the X-M1 helps make it easy for those portrait shots.
I've used the Sigma 35mm f1.4 and the Pentax FA 31mm f1.8 before, and both cannot match the quality of the Fujifilm. The Fujifilm focuses closer than the Sigma and is much sharper and contrasty. The venerable Pentax is made for full frame film SLRs, so although it is really good, it's just cannot keep up with the modern Fujifilm lens. The Fujifilm is lighter and smaller in both cases, and is even cheaper than the Pentax cream-of-the-crop lens.
Behold, the sample photos below, no editing done except for resizing.
Hi Joshua if you dont mind giving your opinion.
ReplyDeleteIm thinking to buy XM1 instead of X30 considering the sensor size
Since i prefer punchy focus and outfocus background.
But i've read some reviews saying that the XM1 autofocus is quite slow / lagging.
Does the kit lens XC16-50 has manual focus ring? Or user can only "manual focus" from the camera setting?
And do you think the XF35 f1.4 lens can cope with daily usage? I mean can the XF35 perform well in most situation? And does the XF35 has manual focus ring? Thankss
Hi Angelin, thanks for visiting my blog!
ReplyDeleteI would say go for the XM1 especially how low the price is now. If you go with the X30, you are stuck with the lens. The XF35 to me is one of the best lens ever made, and I've used quite a few lenses, including the XF56 from Fuji.
The focusing speed is ok to me, unless you want to shoot lots of moving subjects, example a running kid. On my X-T1, it is even better due to the new firmware upgrade. What do you plan to shoot, may I ask?
You can manual focus on the kit lens and the XF35, but you will need to set to manual focus on the menu.
I highly recommend this lens. It's affordable, small and is just a great lens to bring about. :)