It has been an insane few weeks. Working on my house in the evenings and work during the day, I’ve had very little time to shoot or write. I just wanted to post a few thoughts real quick on the Fuji 60mm f/2.4. I got the 60mm f/2.4 after sending back my 18-55, which had some issues. My second copy of the 18-55 was even worse, so I cut my losses and had them send the 60mm instead.
What a great choice. The 60mm f/2.4, while not exactly a speed demon in the autofocus department, is brilliantly sharp and has gorgeous bokeh. I really love the look from this lens. I haven’t had a ton of time to shoot, but here are a few images from the past week. I hope to have a few new articles up in the next week or so, but it’s going to continue to be busy for the next few weeks. I’ve got a backlog of stuff to write about, though, so lots more to come!
Click to enlarge any image
Jordan ,
Are you focusing on Fuji cause its a new piece of kit or are you dropping micro 4/3 from your kit bag. Since I can’t afford both I’d like to know which one you’d pick up for most photography.
It’s the former. I am definitely not dropping micro 4/3. If I could only have one, I’d keep the m4/3 kit without question. The image quality from the sensor is better on the Fuji, and the lenses that are out so far are really impressive, but the Fuji system has a lot of flaws in comparison to Micro 4/3, especially as an all around kit. If you read my Fuji X-E1 review, you’ll see that it is a great choice for a deliberate style of photography…but if you need fast autofocus, or quick responsiveness in low light, it can fall flat. In low light, AF will simply fail to lock at all in many situations. Meanwhile, my OM-D will lock nearly instantly in most any light. Plus, there’s the awesome in-body IS on the OM-D.
I do see a lot of potential in the Fuji system, so if they fix the issues and keep developing great lenses, it could be a great option for a lot of people. I don’t know if I see myself ever going fully to Fuji even if they do fix these issues, though, because while it’s plenty small when going with a prime kit (I have the 14, 35 and 60mm), the lenses on the roadmap for Fuji are pretty big. The 10-24 is the size of any other SLR ultra wide zoom, and the 55-200 that’s coming out is somewhat large as well (though not too bad for the range). I don’t know if a fully fleshed out kit would be small enough for what I like now, and m4/3 gives me that small size with great image quality and features.
Hi Jordan,
Nice review of the 60mm.
Regarding the 18-55mm, what issues did you have with the lenses? Decentering or something else? I’ve found it to be very sharp from 18mm to about 40mm, but at 55mm I’m seeing a slight drop in sharpness. I’m wondering if that is the best the lens can do, or if I have a bad copy.
Thanks.
Thanks. Definitely not my review though…I’ll have a full review in the coming weeks.
As to the 18-55, I went through two copies. My first copy essentially behaved how yours does. Great at 18-45 or so and then a little soft at the long end. I could have lived with that, I guess. Certainly good. Problem was, mine occasionally, for no reason I could ever figure out, would just toss a complete garbage image out. It was very random, and at good shutter speeds. I thought there might be an issue with the IS unit, so I returned it…might as well get a perfect lens, right?
While the first one was generally fine optically, the second one I got was complete garbage. Plenty sharp at the wider to middle range, but absolutely abysmal at the long end. I don’t mean slightly soft, I mean full on blurry. Even when manually focused. It was dreadful. It acted almost like I was freelensing or something. Anyway, that immediately went back and I just decided to get the 60mm.