{"id":2667,"date":"2013-11-19T22:24:56","date_gmt":"2013-11-20T03:24:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/?p=2667"},"modified":"2014-01-05T13:35:48","modified_gmt":"2014-01-05T18:35:48","slug":"review-fujifilm-fujinon-xf-23mm-f1-4-r","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/review-fujifilm-fujinon-xf-23mm-f1-4-r\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Fujifilm Fujinon XF 23mm f\/1.4 R"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Fujifilm first created the X-System, they came out of the gate with three outstanding prime lenses…a unique decision in today’s world where zooms are considered the bread and butter of a system, especially in the consumer market.\u00a0 It set a note for what the X-System would become.<\/p>\n

As Fuji fleshed out the system, shooters increasingly became anxious for a fast prime that would give them a 35mm full frame equivalent field of view.\u00a0 At last, this past fall, Fuji came through with the Fujinon XF 23mm f\/1.4 R.\u00a0 Let’s see if it was worth the wait.<\/p>\n

\"Fujinon<\/a>
Fujinon XF 23mm f\/1.4 R on the Fujifilm X-E2<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If you\u2019re not familiar with my reviews, I review from a real world shooting perspective. \u00a0You won\u2019t find lens charts or resolution numbers here. \u00a0There are plenty of other sites that cover those. \u00a0I review products on how they act for me as a photographic tool in real-world shooting.
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Around the Lens: Build Quality and Handling<\/h3>\n

The XF 23mm f\/1.4 is a solidly built lens constructed of metal and high quality plastics.\u00a0 The lens body is entirely constructed of lightweight metal, most likely aluminum.\u00a0 The lens feels reassuringly solid without being too heavy.\u00a0 It’s a relatively large lens for a mirrorless camera, but it doesn’t overwhelm the camera body. \u00a0Due to its light weight, the lens handles well on any of the Fuji X cameras and there’s something about the looks of the lens that tells you it means business.<\/p>\n

The aperture ring is easily moved and features click stops every 1\/3 stop.\u00a0 The ring moves smoothly and without any slop, but I wish the detents were a bit firmer, as it is rather easy to bump the ring and change the aperture accidentally.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The focus clutch mechanism on the 23mm f\/1.4 works by pulling the focus ring to the rear of the lens, revealing a distance scale and automatically switching the camera to manual focus mode<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The focus ring is wide ribbed metal.\u00a0 The XF 23mm f\/1.4 features the same focus clutch mechanism that first debuted on the XF 14mm f\/2.8.\u00a0 This allows you to quickly switch to manual focus simply by pulling back on the focus ring.\u00a0 The focus ring moves smoothly and quietly and feels excellent in the hand.\u00a0 While there are hard stops at either end, the lens still focuses by wire, and you can hear the focus motor stepping through the range while manually focusing, which is slightly annoying.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The hood included with the lens is a large petal-type design<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The lens comes with a very large petal shaped hood.\u00a0 I know Fuji designed the hood to be the most effective it could be, but the extremely modern and ungainly hood design meshed with the wonderfully classic design of both the lens and the Fuji X camera bodies creates a disjointed effect.\u00a0 The hood feels out of place and unusually large.\u00a0 I honestly would have preferred a slightly less ‘effective’ hood that was smaller and more in-line with the rest of the lens and camera design.\u00a0 I’m not usually a form over function kind of guy, but as you’ll see in the image quality section, the 23mm is very resistant to flare, so I’m not sure the excessive hood is needed.<\/p>\n

Autofocus<\/h3>\n

I tested the XF 23mm f\/1.4 using the brand new Fujifilm X-E2, which features phase detection autofocus (PDAF) for the first time on a Fuji X-System interchangeable lens camera.\u00a0 The 23mm f\/1.4 had average autofocus speed when the camera utilized only contrast-detection AF (CDAF), about on par with the XF 35mm f\/1.4, or perhaps a hair faster.\u00a0 This is what you can expect in low to medium contrast areas and when using the lens on an older X-Series body.<\/p>\n

When the phase-detection system kicks in, the lens focuses nearly instantly.\u00a0 This is something I will discuss further in my upcoming X-E2 review, but the XF lenses focus extremely quickly when phase detection is used, and the 23mm is no different.\u00a0 While there is a slight chirp when the lens focuses with phase detection, in CDAF, you can tell the micro-motor in the lens is a little louder than I’d like. I’m not quite sure why Fuji can’t put their silent linear motors that are present in the Fuji zoom lenses into their prime lenses.<\/p>\n

One thing I did notice is that the 23mm tended to miss focus occasionally, throwing up the red AF box in situations where most any other XF lens is fine.\u00a0 I’m not sure what’s going on there exactly, but it happened enough with the 23mm mounted for me to notice it.\u00a0 The vast majority of the time, the autofocus locked quickly and accurately, but there were more AF failures than I’ve experienced with other lenses since the X-E1’s big firmware update earlier this year.<\/p>\n

Continue: Image Quality<\/a><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Image Quality<\/h3>\n

Sharpness<\/h4>\n
\"Dawn<\/a>
Dawn – Fujifilm X-E2 with Fujinon XF 23mm f\/1.4 R @ f\/5.6<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The XF 23mm f\/1.4 is an amazingly sharp lens.\u00a0 Straight from f\/1.4, there is very good sharpness at the center and it remains at that level across almost the entire frame, with only a little further softening as you near the extreme image edges and corners.\u00a0 This is an incredible performance wide open.\u00a0 Stopped down just a bit, the 23mm becomes extremely sharp.\u00a0 At smaller apertures there is minimal difference between the center and the extreme corner, with very sharp results from corner to corner.<\/p>\n

Having acceptable sharpness at any aperture frees the photographer to choose an aperture based solely on the desired depth of field, which is always welcome.<\/p>\n

Bokeh<\/h4>\n

One of the best things about shooting with a fast moderate wide-angle is the ability to isolate your subject while also allowing for some context to the surroundings.\u00a0 As such, the quality of the out of focus areas is a main area of concentration for such a lens.\u00a0 If you’ve been shooting with many of the Fujinon XF lenses, you will notice that they all have a very nice, somewhat creamy bokeh signature, and that trend continues with the 23mm.\u00a0 While there can be some situations where some very faint rings can appear around specular highlights, typically those highlights are evenly illuminated and smooth.\u00a0 The XF 23mm f\/1.4 turns in an excellent performance here.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Eye – Fujifilm X-E2 with Fujinon XF 23mm f\/1.4 R @ f\/1.4<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Color, Contrast and Chromatic Aberration<\/h4>\n

The XF 23mm f\/1.4 features a very similar color rendering to the other Fuji XF lenses.\u00a0 Fuji is relatively unique in that they seem to design their lenses to have very similar rendering characteristics, and this allows the photographer to change lenses and keep a similar look for all the lenses in their system.\u00a0 This lends consistency to a shoot and is one of the things I really appreciate when shooting the X-System.\u00a0 As such, the color response with the 23mm is excellent.\u00a0 It’s accurate and rich without being too saturated.<\/p>\n

Contrast is great and gives the images some pop and clarity without going overboard by causing an image to appear harsh.\u00a0 The 23mm f\/1.4 is somewhat unique in that the contrast is maintained even at maximum aperture.\u00a0 At f\/1.4, the lens retains a high level of image contrast and clarity, giving your photos some punch at the widest apertures.<\/p>\n

The one weak point with the 23mm f\/1.4 is in longitudinal chromatic aberration, which shows up as green and red fringes behind and in front of the focus point on high contrast subjects.\u00a0 The longitudinal CA is somewhat pronounced at closer focus distances and in very high contrast situations.\u00a0 It’s not terrible, and I have seen far worse on many fast lenses, but it can crop up and become rather visible under the right circumstances.\u00a0 Some lateral CA is present, but generally minor, and can be easily corrected in post.<\/p>\n

\"Lazarus<\/a>
Lazarus – Fujifilm X-E2 with Fujinon XF 23mm f\/1.4 R @ f\/5.6<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Distortion, Flare and Vignetting<\/h4>\n

The XF 23mm f\/1.4 is very well corrected for distortion, and as such, it’s a great lens for moderate-wide shooting of architecture and other subjects with straight lines.\u00a0 You’ll notice in the image to the left that the lines are extremely straight.\u00a0 While this shot was corrected for perspective distortion in Lightroom (which is due to shooting up at the building, and is not a lens flaw), there was no correction for lens distortion with this image.<\/p>\n

I was very pleased to see that the XF 23mm f\/1.4 is also quite resistant to flare.\u00a0 As I mentioned on the previous page, the hood is large and provides good coverage, but I don’t think it needed to be that large simply because the 23mm does very well against bright light.\u00a0 Even with a point light source in the image frame, there is minimal effect on the final image.\u00a0 Even veiling flare is not a major issue with the 23mm.<\/p>\n

The XF 23mm f\/1.4 also has well controlled vignetting for such a fast lens.\u00a0 At f\/1.4, there is minimal corner darkening that is only visible if you look for it really hard.\u00a0 Stopped down a bit it goes away completely.<\/p>\n

Continue: Conclusion and Image Samples<\/a><\/h4>\n

<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n

Pros<\/h4>\n