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‹ Photo Notes · 25 května, 2016
A review that may not please you.
It isn’t a review, you see. Why? Because neither lens is any novelty and a lot has already been written about them, likewise about the January novelty, the incredibly long-awaited Fujifilm X-Pro2 camera.
I won’t burden you with technical data or facts on how much the data matches real operation. I won’t pile dozens of sample photographs in here; I’ll limit myself to a minimum, and that minimum will be my feelings and observations.
Fujifilm FX 16mm/F1.4 R WR
When Fuji announced this wide-angle, I got angry. I own the XF 14mm/F2.8 (it was my first Fuji lens), which is two millimetres shorter, but that speed of the sixteen! Actually it isn’t about speed; on such wide lenses, and combined with the excellent quality of Fuji photos at high ISO, speed doesn’t need to be addressed. It’s about shallow depth of field, which is not easy to achieve with short lenses; usually everything from a metre to infinity is sharp (give or take). Since it went on sale this lens has had nothing but excellent references. No wonder I considered swapping, even at the price of losing two millimetres of focal length.
I’d once had the sixteen in my hands, at a workshop, and within a few minutes I casually snapped a few shots with it. At home I was disappointed; the photos didn’t look as I would expect and as I’m used to. Probably in that hurry I didn’t think and did something wrong. Or it was a bad piece.
This time I had a different piece for testing and much more time, so I could compare with my fourteen and weigh the reasons for swapping.
The letters WR (weather resistant) on the XF 16/1.4 aren’t important for me; I’m not very resistant to inclement weather myself, and when it rains, I shoot at home. With depth of field you can indeed, as expected, work better than with the XF 14/2.8, and those two millimetres of focal length difference aren’t noticeable at first glance. You only notice them when you don’t fit in and there’s nowhere to step back twenty centimetres; in such a case 14 millimetres is priceless (just as 12 or 10 might be…). Thanks to the high speed I can shoot at lower ISO values, but as I mentioned, that doesn’t trouble me much. But I can. It’s simply a very successful lens. Except…
Except I shouldn’t compare it with the excellent fourteen. When shooting wide open (F1.4 on the XF 16, F2.8 on the XF 14) I see the fourteen as markedly sharper. I know it’s only a by-feel measurement, but in my eyes the sharpness of the two becomes comparable only at F2.8, which is still the fourteen wide open!
To be safe I’ll repeat that the XF 16/1.4 is a good lens and its owners rightly praise it, but for me the XF 14/2.8 is better. I won’t be swapping.
Fujifilm XF 90mm/F2.0 R LM WR
I often say that I like lenses with a focal length above 50 mm (on APS-C above 35 mm) but don’t use them much for my work (see the article Two reasons why I don’t shoot models with long lenses or the article Women from 50 down in the May issue of the magazine Digitální foto). The proof is that my XF 56mm/F1.2, despite its quality and well-deserved reputation, I use really little. Buying an even longer ninety just because it’s said to be even better than the fifty-six would truly be a whim. Only curiosity leads me to the test, because I hadn’t had any time at all for the XF 90/2.0 so far.
I’ll shorten it a lot. The first previews on the camera’s little display: „damn, wow, holy hell…“. The verbal expressions after viewing it on the monitor aren’t publishable at all. Fuji probably shouldn’t have made this lens at all. All their lenses deliver beautiful contrast, colours and sharpness, but when I take the XF 90/2.0 as the reference lens, all of them fall behind, including the XF 56/1.2.
And it was precisely the XF 56/1.2, a lens that doesn’t sell, that I sold and bought the XF 90/2.0. Wow!
Fujifilm X-Pro2
At last we come to the most desired Fuji camera of the present: the X-Pro2. It took maybe two years to finish and there was heated speculation about what it would have and be able to do. When it was finally launched this January, it thrilled some and disappointed others; either way it immediately became the hit of the season.
Already in my first article about Fuji I wrote that at the beginning I was deciding between the X-Pro1 and the X-E1, which in the end won out for me.
The first feeling is similar to when I first held the X-Pro1 in my hands, but already in the first minutes it is clear that the X-Pro2 is a new generation in every respect.
Everything is better. It doesn’t matter whether I compare with the legendary X-Pro1 or my X-E1, just a few months younger. I promised not to deal with details. The comfort and speed are simply noticeable. Is it time to finally think about an upgrade? I’m thinking… just a moment…
Photo quality is what interests me primarily. There’s certainly no reason for disappointment; the photos are excellent. But from my old X-E1 they are excellent too. All that’s left is to compare. In the X-Pro2’s favour plays at least its resolution: 24 MP against 16 MP on the X-E1. The increase isn’t drastic, but it’s noticeable and may come in handy for crops or slightly higher quality of enlargements.
Fujifilm also states improved quality at higher ISO, allegedly by about one stop. I have no reason not to believe them, but I don’t usually shoot at extreme values and within the range I move in, I don’t see the change. That’s not to say it isn’t there.
In ordinary viewing of photos I don’t see a difference in quality, nor am I aware of it at 100% magnification. Is that bad news about the X-Pro2 or good news about the X-E1 (and other older-generation models)?
That’s right, at the last moment I hit reverse. My old fellow (now probably only sold at bazaars for around 5,000) still works and the photo quality is sufficient. The X-Pro2 is better. In everything. But for me what matters mainly is photo quality, and that isn’t 10x better and isn’t even 2x better. And above all, the X-Pro2 is the first swallow of the new line that is now starting to arrive. Most likely the X-E3, X-T2 and others await us, as in the past. There will be plenty to choose from and it’ll probably hit me too. And maybe my choice will fall on the X-Pro2; I wouldn’t be surprised in the least 🙂