Conclusion
Pros
- Solidly built weathersealed lens with excellent focus controls
- Fast and accurate autofocus
- Very sharp across most of the frame from f/1.4 and corner to corner sharp stopped down
- Very pleasing bokeh that adds depth to the images
- Outstanding color and contrast at all apertures
- Very low field relevant CA
- Almost no distortion
- Excellent flare resistance at all apertures
- Low vignetting
Cons
- Largest Fuji X Prime at its release
- Some coma when shooting point light sources
Again, a very short ‘cons’ list above. Fuji keeps cranking out great lenses, and the 16mm f/1.4 is one of their finest. It brings the sharpness and low distortion of the 14mm f/2.8 and combines it with the great wide aperture performance of the 56mm f/1.2, while keeping almost all lens aberrations at a minimum. The lens is simply optically stellar. The only shooters who should pause a bit are those who are looking to use this lens for astrophotography, as it does show some notable coma. However, for almost all other shooting scenarios, it’s really hard to improve on this lens. Other than that, the only real sticking point is that it’s a bit larger than some of the other primes, but even then, it’s not really that much larger. If you’re in the market for a fast 24mm equivalent, go buy the lens now. The 16mm f/1.4 shows Fuji at the top of their game.
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Image Samples
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