With this post I wanted to share with y’all my love for the “oldest but goldest” of Fuji lenses: The XF 35mm F/1.4R. Despite all the great stuff which Fuji brought out after it, this first lens is the one which IMO has the most character, please read on to find out more & enjoy!
Chairs in the sun intertwined with their shadows, X-Pro2 with XF35mm F/1.4 @F/8, 1/420 sec, ISO 200
“Character” … so, whassat mean now? OK, I headed over to Merriam Webster, but they got like 10-15 meanings for it. So I guess I gotta be more specific! Basically the character of something or someone describes specific distinctive qualities and/or conspicuous traits which differentiate that individual from others and drive its personal behaviour and style. What differentiates Fuji’s XF 35mm F/1.4R lens from others is the way its rendering transitions from the sharp part of the image in the focus plane to the unsharp areas in the image to the front & the rear of the focus plane
On modern lenses with internal focussing only a few elements inside the lens are shifted to achieve focus. The advantage of this is that the lens can be more compact, its length does not change & nothing moves on the outside of the lens. However as the distances between the lens groups inside the lens change when adjusting focus, optical designers need to apply stronger correction to compensate aberrations. This (over)correction tends to generate harsher foreground bokeh and restless, more nervous (obvious) background bokeh. This can be observed in the “bokeh balls” having a defined circumference (“onion rings” in photography jargon). This occurs especially at closer focus distances and is exacerbated in case the lens employs additional aspherical lens elements to achieve that higher degree of correction. Older lens designs (to which I count Fuji’s XF35mm F/1.4R) use what Fuji calls “All-Lens-Group (ALG) Focussing”, meaning that distances between lens groups do not change. Therefore these can do with fewer aspherical elements (the XF35 mm F/1.4R has only 1 aspherical lens element):
“All-Lens-Group (ALG) Focussing” technology, courtesy of Fujifilm Corporation’s X-System Guide ©2019
Here the whole lens system is shifted to achieve focus, without changing the distance between the lens groups. While this tends to increase the size of the lens, reduce the focussing speed and results in the front lens barrel moving in an out of the lens body during focussing, the lens requires less correction and can deliver smoother bokeh: Case in point, Fuji’s newer XF 35mm F/2R WR lens requires 2 aspherical lens elements to achieve sufficient correction of aberrations, even it is one stop slower than the older, single aspherical lens element design of the XF 35mm F/1.4R. Please see below the beautiful, subtle rendering of out of focus areas, the blurred structures in them are much less apparent compared to internal focused lenses with several aspherical elements:
Spontaneous pic of my pretty wife, captured on X-Pro2 with XF 35mm F/1.4R @F/2, 1/2000 sec, ISO 200
Like for so many Fuji’s X100 line (it was the “S” for me) was the entry drug into a more spontaneous, carefree kind of photography, uninhibited by tons of heavy gear “ballast” and continuous choices on what lenses to take with you. “The best camera is the one you always have with you”, and the X100S played that role for me. However, while being in principle happy with its “standard” wide angle (35mm full frame equivalent) field of view I’ve always preferred the slightly tighter perspective of a “normal” (50mm full frame equivalent) lens. Soon I was a proud owner of Fuji’s exchangeable lens version of the X100S, the X-Pro1, together with the XF35mm F/1.4R. I don’t know what magic sauce they dipped this one into - the way this lens renders is just incredibly beautiful, especially at apertures of F/2.8 and larger, see also the image below:
Orchids contre jour, exposed with X-Pro2 with XF 35mm F/1.4R @F/2.8, 1/2700 sec, ISO 400, EV +1
I immediately loved this lens’s “normal” undistorted field of view, ideal for documentary type photography. Since then, “lured” by the image quality promise of Nikon’s new D850 I sold my Fuji kit and went thru a short phase of full frame photography. After a short honeymoon I ruefully returned to the Fuji fold, when I (re)discovered that full frame, even delivering amazing quality, again meant lugging a major piece of heavy kit around. Result: My photographic activity wound down, I just couldn’t be bothered & my camera often stayed at home. No camera, no images, please read also this story! I tell you, after this you learnt to appreciate the compactness of APS-C. A Fuji X100V and even an X-Pro2 with a compact XF 35mm are sufficiently small that you can always have them with you, resulting in spontaneous, lively images. See below an image of this sceptical little guy I met during a recent Sunday afternoon walk (yes, even I sometimes do cat photos …):
Little tiger in the sun, seen with X-Pro2 and XF 35mm F/1.4R @F/5.6, 1/200 sec, ISO 400
Here you can see it again, even at F/5.6 the background dissolves in a gentle blur without any disturbing artefacts, resulting in a 3 dimensional rendering of the the little tiger! Although I love the XF 35mm F/1.4R’s image quality the AF noise is quite loud (in this case quite helpful as it caught kitty’s attention 😉)
In case you enjoyed reading this article, I would like to welcome you at my website hendriximages.com for more information on my style of Black & White photography. Looking forward to seeing y’all there!
Please take care & stay healthy, OK?
Many thanks & cheers,
Hendrik
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PS: If you’re interested in inspirational photography please also be sure to head over to Fuji X Passion, they got loads of interesting articles with great images to enjoy & learn from!