Fujifilm Fujinon XF 35mm f/2 - Criminally Underrated
If you would rather watch a video instead, click here for my review on YouTube. If you prefer reading and many more images samples, do read on.
The Fujifilm Fujinon 35mm f/2 is forever destined to live in the shadow of it's older sibling, the by now, legendary and frankly slightly over hyped, Fujinon 35mm f/1.4. While the latter is indeed a wonderful piece of optics, a lens with soul and character, deservedly well loved by Fujifilm shooters, I think the f/2 is preferable in all but a a single specific use-case. That is my opinion and I can safely say this because I've owned both lenses.
In the past I used to be very interested in character above all else, but that seems to have changed recently. My interests in and requirements from lenses have shifted from vintage character before anything else to what I think is a healthy balance between soul and practicality, especially seeing how I realised it's preferable to have different tools for different jobs, because odds are if you choose specialized lenses, they'll be much better at their intended, specific purpose, than one trying to be good at everything. So in that regard, I recently bought the 7Artisans 35mm f1.4 manual lens for fun, hipster vibes, bokeh, character, while the 35mm f2 from Fuji is supposed to be the reliable workhorse, the "serious" lens.
Look and feel
Announced in October of 2015, the Fujinon 35mm f/2 is still in production and one of Fujifilm's most popular lenses, for many a good reason. It's remarkably well built, featuring and all metal barrel, a metal mount, with eight seals on the body providing an adequate dust and weather sealing. The manufacturer claims resistance to rain, dust and splashes and worry-less operation in as low as -10°C.
The lens is also very pretty, I like the design of the entire fujicron line-up a lot, I think it fits best on the X-Ts and X-Pros. The Fuji 35mm f/2 is compact and light, weighing about as much as a small zucchini - that's 170g if you want to be specific about it. However small and light, there is a decided, confidence inspiring heft to it. Construction is tight and tolerances are at their minimum, it's quite an impressive piece of mechanical engineering. The focus ring is a slight bit on the thin side, but seeing how it's not meant to be a mostly manual lens, that's a non-issue. It’s smooth in operation and while electronically coupler to the focusing motor, with and endless rotation, it’s more than adequate for the occasion when I need to override autofocus and pin point my focus manually. Since I bought this lens new, it has seen very little wear and tear and the aperture ring has remained firm, the aperture clicks crisp, but I'd have preferred full stop clicks, instead of click at each third of a stop.
Form and function
Featuring an optical construction consisting of 9 elements in six groups, with two aspherical elements, an automatic and manual aperture system with nine aperture blades, a minimum focus distance of 35cm where it achieves a magnification ratio of 1:7.4 and a filter thread of 43mm.
Fujifilm Super EBC Fujinon XF 35mm F/2 Aspherical R WR
The 35mm fujicron comes equipped with a stepping focus motor which is dead-silent, impressively fast and accurate. It also features and internal focusing system which is something that I find quite valuable in a lens, on the one hand because that means it always keeps it's compact size, not having to extend while focusing and on the other hand, it doesn't suck in dust while operating.
Image quality
Besides looking pretty, the Fujinon 35mm f/2 also makes pretty pictures. Real pretty!
In a lot of ways it's sitting in the shadow of it's older, 1.4 brother, quite undeservedly so, if you ask me. This lens makes really beautiful colors. Images come out looking gorgeous, colors are vivid, lively and joyous, absolutely charming. Sufficiently saturated, but not over the top. A slight saturation boost in post production truly makes them come alive and sing. As far as colour accuracy goes, the images are neutral and I have to say I haven't noticed any colour shift, at all nor warm nor cold, just honest and true-to-life.
Seeing how we're talking about a 35mm lens, on a crop sensor body, one should not expect boatloads of blur and bokeh, however, the Fuji 35 f/2 can focus pretty close and once you do that and if you mind you background you *can* get some charming blur. It's soft while still keeping a bit of character. Doesn't melt everything in the background into nothingness, doesn't get agitated or nervous. Just pretty, while a little bland and lacking soul and character it's more than adequate when you need some subject separation.
Shooting wide-open, shooting RAW, as one should, and post processing, as one should, will reveal a significant amount of barrel distortion and some vignetting, but once you load the available lens correction profile, or if you shoot jpeg, or if you stop down a bit, both these issues are immediately and completely fixed.
The lens is sharp. Very sharp! Wide open, centre to corner, the amount of captured detail is impressive. Only the far outer corners get a hair soft and smudgy wide open, but I'm sure that's from the stretching of the images resulting from either in software or in camera correction. The Fujinon 35mm f2 has got an impressive ability to render good resolution, easily resolving the XT3's 24MP sensor. It's rendering is rather sharp and clean, but it's not over-the-top, clinical and soulless. It manages to make images that are sharp, while still having a gentle softness, especially wide open. Images are crisp and sharp, monochrome tones are well represented throughout the entire tonal range, the transition from black to mid-tones to highlights is natural and smooth. Blacks are rendered deep and inky, mid-tones are crisp, while highlights are bright and shiny. An excellent lens for black and white.
A far as flaws go, the Fuji 35 f2 does produce some slight purple fringing but that's only in the most difficult and harsh lighting conditions and is also easily fixable in post.
The Fujinon 35mm f2 is a stellar lens. Pretty colours, solid monochrome, very well behaved, practically impossible to make it flare, sharp all over even wide open, even able to make some nice blur if you ask it nicely, there's, frankly nothing to criticise here.
Conclusion
The Fujifilm Fujinon 35mm f/2 is fantastic and I prefer it over the 35mm f/1.4. It's smaller and lighter, focuses faster, more accurately with an internal focusing system, has weather sealing and frankly, I think it even looks nicer. The Fujinon 35mm f/2 does a lot of what the 1.4 does, while the Fujinon 35mm f/1.4 only does one thing better - blur and bokeh, while being inferior in most other ways that matter. However, when I do need some hipster vibes, when I feel like having fun, focusing manually and getting oodles of blur and character I just switch to the 7Artisans 35mm f/1.4 - review coming for that soon - or, better yet, the Brightin Star 35mm f/0.95 - hold that thought…