Fujinon XF 35mm f/1.4 R Lens

March 2012

Photo Review 9

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Fujinon XF 35mm f/1.4 R Lens

In summary

Buy this lens if:
- It's offered with the Fujifilm X-Pro 1.
- You require superior performance and robust build quality.
- You want a lens with excellent flatness of field.
- You like shooting with filters.

Don’t buy this lens if:
- You need close focusing and macro capabilities.

Full review

Covering an angle of view that is close to that of the human eye, the Fujinon XF 35mm f/1.4 R lens fits into the 'standard' category and is the one most likely to be chosen by buyers of the X-Pro 1 single-lens kit. The fastest of the X-Mount trio, this lens is equivalent to 53mm in 35mm format and suitable for photographing most types of subjects.

Angled view of the Fujinon XF 35mm f/1.4 R lens without lens hood or lens cap. (Source: Fujifilm.)

Its optical design consists of eight elements in six groups. A glass-moulded aspherical element is used as the fifth element to minimise spherical aberration.

The optical diagram of the Fujinon XF 35mm f/1.4 R lens, with the aspherical element coloured yellow. (Source: Fujifilm.)

Build and Handling

Like other lenses in the series, the XF 35mm f/1.4 R lens is very well built, with a high-quality aluminium-alloy barrel that makes this lens robust and gives it a quality look and feel without adding unwanted weight. Finished in black, it blends well with the X-Pro 1 camera body.

The front element is recessed into the lens barrel and bulges outwards a little. However, it is protected by a non-removable, 52mm diameter Super EBC Fujinon Protector, which seems to be a kind of UV filter. The inner edge of this filter is threaded to take 52mm filters.

Behind it lies the focusing ring, which is approximately 15 mm wide and is covered by a finely-ridged grip. This ring turns through a full circle but is well-damped and easy to adjust in manual focus mode. A linear display on the LCD and EVF enable photographers to track camera-to-subject distances, although not with high precision.

There's a white indicator mark on the lens barrel just behind the focusing ring for matching up the aperture setting. The aperture ring, which is approximately 10 mm wide, is located just behind it.

The leading edge of the aperture ring is marked with settings in one stop increments from f/1.4 to f/16, each corresponding to a click-stop. The ninth position carries an orange 'A' and indicates the automatic aperture setting position. The grip on the aperture ring is approximately 6 mm wide and more deeply and widely ridged than the focusing ring, making each ring easily identified by touch.

The lens barrel angles gently inwards from the rear of the aperture ring, ending in a metal mounting plate that appears to have been made from aluminium. Ten gold-plated contacts are situated inside the inner edge of the mounting plate.

The rear element of the lens is recessed roughly 13 mm into the lens barrel. The lens is supplied with hard plastic front and end caps as well as a metal lens hood that attaches with a bayonet mounting.

The hood has a rectangular front section that effectively suppresses stray light to minimise flare. It also protects the front element. You can reverse the hood over the front of the lens for transportation and storage but this makes the hard cap impossible to remove.

Fujifilm supplies a fit-over lens cover that pushes onto the lens hood when it's in place and is easy to remove when you want to take photos. It's made mostly of soft rubber but, unfortunately, doesn't fit tightly enough to prevent accidental dislodgement. A great concept but not particularly well executed.

The lens comes in a handsome presentation case made from heavy card and with contoured interior padding. An accompanying box (without sealed ends) contains the multi-lingual user manual, warranty papers and soft carrying pouch. Both boxes are contained within an outer box made of lighter weight cardboard.

Performance
With JPEG files from the X-Pro 1 camera, the review lens produced the highest resolution figures of the three XF lenses we tested. Resolution in our Imatest testing exceeded expectations between f/2.8 and f/5.6, with f/8 just falling short of the f/2.8 figure, probably as a result of diffraction.

There was a noticeable drop in resolution from f/8 but resolution remained acceptably high up to f.16 and produced acceptably sharp images. Corner softening was less evident than with the XF18mm f/2 R lens and the lens delivered excellent flatness of field from about f/2.8 through to f/16. The graph below shows the results of our Imatest tests.

Lateral chromatic aberration remained towards the lower end of the 'negligible' band all the way from f/1.4 to f/16. In the graph below, which shows the results of our Imatest tests, the red line marks the boundary between negligible and low CA.

We found this lens to be virtually distortion-free and vignetting was negligible right out to the widest aperture. Slight spherical aberration and astigmatism combined to reduce contrast near the corners of the frame but this would have little impact on normal photography.

Autofocusing was fast and accurate, even in very low light levels. The camera/lens combination locked onto subjects quickly for our long exposure tests after dark and never hunted for focus, regardless of the ISO setting or exposure time selected.

As mentioned above, the lens hood was very effective at preventing flare and ghosting and backlit subjects were well-resolved with a surprisingly good dynamic range. Close-shooting is limited to 28 cm but we found the lens locked on quite smartly to subjects as long as they contained adequate contrast. Bokeh at wide apertures was as you would expect from a fast, prime standard lens.

SPECS

Picture angle: 44.2 degrees (53mm in 35mm format)
Minimum aperture: f/16
Lens construction: 8 elements in 6 groups (includes one aspherical element)
Back focus distance: 21.9 mm
Lens mounts: Fujifilm X-Mount
Diaphragm blades: 7 (circular aperture)
Focus drive: DC coreless motor
Stabilisation: No
Minimum focus: Approx 28.0 cm
Maximum magnification: 0.17x
Filter size: 52 mm
Dimensions (Diameter x L): 65.0 x 54.9 mm
Weight: Approx. 187 grams (without lens cap and lens hood)