Fujifilm XF 35mm F1.4 R Lens

Honestly if you can get this it will be a sick pickup for you. A prime lense with low f-stop and a very unique frame. Even cooler if you put it on a Crop Sensor as it will automatically crop out the abberations. Also don't be scared to shoot with the lense disconnected and even flipped to the opposite side to make it more macro. Such is the benefit of some good prime glass. Get this if you come across it, trust me.

6 Year Review .....

I've had this lens since early 2015, and if I had written this a month ago it would have been 5 stars, and would have only spoken glowing review. This lens is the wonderful balance of size, weight, speed - and all with a 1.4 f-stop. It is tack-sharp, has nice bokeh, responsive power-easy focus, and it generally never disappoints - until today.Today I was looking through some photos and discovered a spot on one. I assumed there was dust on the lens, so I pulled out all of my lenses to give them some long deserved attention. I found no dust on any of the lens surfaces and soon realized there was a dark particle internal to the lens, and that it had appeared in the frame of every photo I've ever taken with it.Admittedly it was visible only with both caps off and ... MoreI've had this lens since early 2015, and if I had written this a month ago it would have been 5 stars, and would have only spoken glowing review. This lens is the wonderful balance of size, weight, speed - and all with a 1.4 f-stop. It is tack-sharp, has nice bokeh, responsive power-easy focus, and it generally never disappoints - until today.Today I was looking through some photos and discovered a spot on one. I assumed there was dust on the lens, so I pulled out all of my lenses to give them some long deserved attention. I found no dust on any of the lens surfaces and soon realized there was a dark particle internal to the lens, and that it had appeared in the frame of every photo I've ever taken with it.Admittedly it was visible only with both caps off and looking for it, so I'm dropping my rating to 4 stars - for poor quality control. I blame myself for not catching it early. I haven't been set up to actually work with my captures in a meaningful way until recently so I managed to miss it. Unfortunately for me it's a lovely lens, and it's my go-to prime that I drag everywhere - so many of my photos bear artifact.What to take away from this... First, you will read all over the internet that its not uncommon for dust particles to appear in a lens - and that it won't affect your photos. Sorry to break it to you, but when you put an obstruction between your subject and the CCD it will affect your photo. I would suppose severity depends on what elements have occlusions between them but it matters.Second, always inspect your lenses more carefully than I did, and know that B&W always cheerfully replaces a lens you return in a timely matter for a visible defect. Third and last, don't let this review stop you from buying this lens. It deserves a place in your bag, which for me is also usually on the camera. Footnote, I only shoot primes.

Close to perfection

I'm very happy with this lens.A few days after I got the lens I mounted it on the 11mm extension tube. My testing results were excellent.Today, five days after it was delivered I used it to photograph an event. The camera was a Fuji X-T3. It, the lens, did everything I wanted it to do. I used flash for some photos and existing light for others. Using f1.4 was a real pleasure. The bokeh was beautiful. I had focus confirmation on the camera turned off and could not hear the lens focusing. (It was not noisy.). It did not hunt. All I got from the lens was fantastic results.In 50 years of photography this lens is a close to perfection as I've ever had.

Despite its flaws, my go-to lens

This is my preferred FOV so it sits on my camera 90% of the time, Ive had plenty of time to use it and form an opinion of it.Good: Its a small lightweight lens. AF in AF-S is snappy and accurate. Images are sharp corner to corner across most of the aperture range. Flaring/ghosting control is only above average but the included squared hood is a really nice touch to make up for it and is always on my lens. Coma is visible up until f/2.5 where its low enough for astro and city lights. Bokeh is smooth at short to medium distances. Color and contrast are excellent as well. Distortion is low enough to not have to worry about it.Bad: AF-C focusing is slow and loud, low light focusing is not very confident. At MFD, the lens needs to be stopped down to increase ... MoreThis is my preferred FOV so it sits on my camera 90% of the time, Ive had plenty of time to use it and form an opinion of it.Good: Its a small lightweight lens. AF in AF-S is snappy and accurate. Images are sharp corner to corner across most of the aperture range. Flaring/ghosting control is only above average but the included squared hood is a really nice touch to make up for it and is always on my lens. Coma is visible up until f/2.5 where its low enough for astro and city lights. Bokeh is smooth at short to medium distances. Color and contrast are excellent as well. Distortion is low enough to not have to worry about it.Bad: AF-C focusing is slow and loud, low light focusing is not very confident. At MFD, the lens needs to be stopped down to increase sharpness and contrast to good levels. Spherical aberration could have been corrected better, this lens shows it at larger apertures. Bokeh at can get nervous with difficult backgrounds (trees, etc) and at longer distances its busy. Electronic coupled focusing ring needs refinement.I really like this lens but I think Fuji could increase its performance a bit to be more in line with some of their other fast primes. The 16mm 1.4 and 23mm 1.4 show a more refined image quality and character that this lens lacks. I would give it 4.5 stars if I could, Ill round up since its produced so many nice pictures for me.

Excellent

Switching from Nikon F full-frame to Fujifilm X, I found myself seeking a replacement for my treasured 50mm f1.4D, and arrived here. This is a touch tighter on the APC-C sensor but about the same size and weight. To my surprise, the build quality of this modern Fujifilm lens is superior to even the c. 1990 Nikkor lens, and knocks the socks off of anything I have bought from Nikon in the last 10 years. The quality of this hardware is a real strong suit of the Fujifilm X system.The shooting experience is excellent with this lens. With the in-body image stabilization of the X-S10, this is effectively the fastest lens I have ever shot with. Images are evenly lit, the bokeh is pleasing, and the focus is tack-sharp. This is an excellent lens overall.On the con side, I ... MoreSwitching from Nikon F full-frame to Fujifilm X, I found myself seeking a replacement for my treasured 50mm f1.4D, and arrived here. This is a touch tighter on the APC-C sensor but about the same size and weight. To my surprise, the build quality of this modern Fujifilm lens is superior to even the c. 1990 Nikkor lens, and knocks the socks off of anything I have bought from Nikon in the last 10 years. The quality of this hardware is a real strong suit of the Fujifilm X system.The shooting experience is excellent with this lens. With the in-body image stabilization of the X-S10, this is effectively the fastest lens I have ever shot with. Images are evenly lit, the bokeh is pleasing, and the focus is tack-sharp. This is an excellent lens overall.On the con side, I do miss the lock-open for the aperture and the rubber on the focus ring that was typical of Nikon glass- there is very little tactile difference between the focus and the aperture on this lens, so it's easy to mistake the two in the dark.The autofocus is fast and quiet, and that's a good thing, as this lens is definitely designed around autofocus. I find focusing it manually rather awkward. The focus moves smoothly but it does have quite a bit of resistance to it, noticeably more than on other Fujifilm X lenses I own. The lens also lacks any focal distance markings.Overall though, I am very happy with this lens, and use it quite often.

First tests

Just got rid of 16mm f/1.4 and 90mm f/2: two excellent lenses. I needed something more versatile, more universal and smaller. The 35mm f/1.4 is small, bright. It's also sharp as many have reported. Coupled to my X-S10 and with the latest firmware, it's almost totally silent, really. What they saw about the magic of this lens is true. However, for some reasons, I failed many shots because of focus. Strangely, I focussed at infinity and the pic is sharp only a few meters ahead of me. That's probably user error as I was using zone focus. But never before, in the Fuji system, have I missed so many shots because of unreliable focus. I will go out again tomorrow, and use single point focus. We'll see. But yes, pics can be sharp when the focus is nabbed, and the colours ... MoreJust got rid of 16mm f/1.4 and 90mm f/2: two excellent lenses. I needed something more versatile, more universal and smaller. The 35mm f/1.4 is small, bright. It's also sharp as many have reported. Coupled to my X-S10 and with the latest firmware, it's almost totally silent, really. What they saw about the magic of this lens is true. However, for some reasons, I failed many shots because of focus. Strangely, I focussed at infinity and the pic is sharp only a few meters ahead of me. That's probably user error as I was using zone focus. But never before, in the Fuji system, have I missed so many shots because of unreliable focus. I will go out again tomorrow, and use single point focus. We'll see. But yes, pics can be sharp when the focus is nabbed, and the colours are great. Maybe there's a learning curve here. We'll see if this is a keeper. Oh, I haven't shot 35mm (ff format 50mm) in 35 years. It's fun to zoom with one's feet.

Lens With Character

I hesitated getting this lens for a long time since I already own the XF 35 f2, my favorite lens up until now. A new puppy and winter light convinced me to give it a try for the faster aperture and I'm so glad I did. I don't know what the magic is with this lens, but I love the images it produces. It pairs really well with my XS-10 and I think it looks really good on the camera. It is a keeper. I just need to decide what to do with the 35 f2 now.

One of Fujis A Team Lenses...

Excellent…the lens is excellent. It’s sharp, fast, has great potential for bokeh, and it is reasonable small and light.So now that I got that out of the way, it is important to realize that there is no perfect, ‘holy grail’ Fuji lens. They are all excellent…some more excellent than others.I’ve purchased or owned at least a dozen Fuji lenses in the past few years, and none of them have been bad. I presently own the 35/2 and the 35/1.4, and I can find no fault in either one of them. It’s just that the 1.4 variant interests me more…speed, character, and perhaps ‘rendering’ when I can figure out what that means.But differences are subtle. I’ve ‘pixel-peeped’ all my lenses several times, and have just failed to find anything that would cause me to write a bad ... MoreExcellent…the lens is excellent. It’s sharp, fast, has great potential for bokeh, and it is reasonable small and light.So now that I got that out of the way, it is important to realize that there is no perfect, ‘holy grail’ Fuji lens. They are all excellent…some more excellent than others.I’ve purchased or owned at least a dozen Fuji lenses in the past few years, and none of them have been bad. I presently own the 35/2 and the 35/1.4, and I can find no fault in either one of them. It’s just that the 1.4 variant interests me more…speed, character, and perhaps ‘rendering’ when I can figure out what that means.But differences are subtle. I’ve ‘pixel-peeped’ all my lenses several times, and have just failed to find anything that would cause me to write a bad review. But there are some lenses that I put on and I can see the ‘something extra’ in the viewfinder. That list would include the 16/1.4, the 16/2.8, the 80 macro, and….this 35/1.4. Okay, maybe the 56 as well.This spring, I photographed hundreds of shots of fruit blossoms and other flowers with this lens from several feet back. Just for grins, I will magnify them to 200%...sometimes even 300%. Neither one of those crop factors I would seriously use, but when I try this experiment, the sharpness of this 35/1.4 is incredible. It looks like a freaking macro lens.Out in the field where I mostly use this lens, I love the dimension that the 35/1.4 can capture if I’ve creatively composed and chosen the correct moment of light. No lens can make a flat subject awesome, but some fall short at making an awesome subject awesome. My summary of this glass is that it is incredibly capable of capturing your creativity.The 1.4 variant is slightly larger than the 35/2, but not that much. I consider it ‘small glass’ in my bag compared to the 80 or even the 56. I like its feel…compact, balanced, right.If you need a faster focusing and weather resistant lens, than choose the 35/2. Otherwise, 35/1.4 is just one of those lenses that was created when the stars aligned just right, and the forces of incredible glass came together to give birth to an awesome lens.My one complaint? The rectangular lens cap falls off too easily. Big deal.This lens should be a staple in the bag of the hobbiest or professional. Crank it on and let it do its thing while you do yours.

Superb Fuji Classic 50

There are two versions of this lens - this classic 35mm and a newer and larger 33mm, both f/1.4. I opted for this because it's more compact. It's a joy to use. The boka is marvelous. The low-light capability opens up new existing-light opportunities. The focusing is responsive. The slight noise of the focusing motor is negligible. And the traditional 50-mm equivalent on Fuji's crop sensor is yet another pleasure. Highly recommended!

This lens lives up to internet hype.

Love it, but in low light, use manual focus when you can, also, of course, when in the woods trying to photograph a Sasquatch, cause otherwise the noise will scare the critter away or...you'll get a nice sharp image of the bush in front of you. Great color, nice backgrounds... It's all been. said, research it further. Sharp,..it's REALLY sharp.