What's The Fuji 18mm F/2 Actually Like?

I had good results with it.

AF is fast

Some CA wide open. Easy enough to fix in ACR

It got a bad rap because the 35 mm was such a killer optic. And the 28 was just very good.

You buying one H?
 
Yeah, xpro1, 35 1.4 and the 18. Picking the lot up tomorrow for £900, used but mint!

Selling the d700 to do it ... Bit of a shot in the dark really, but I want the RF shooting style for work and weighing up all the options, this seems to make the most amount of sense!

If it can keep up with me at a wedding I have next month, it will be a keeper I think!

Had? You sold it?

Do I have to put it into macro to close focus? (sounds silly when I type it - I just don't get how the macro mode works)

There was another question ... It will come to me in a mo
 
i have one as well, it's a great little lens, but not my favorite. haven't used it in a while... like chris said, it probably would have been better received if it had hadn't been released along side the 35mm.

i believe macro mode on the fuji's doesn't let the camera focus closer, i think it just tells the autofocus that it should include closer distances when it's hunting for something to focus on. not entirely sure about that though.
 
I'm looking forward to shooting with the 35 1.4 ... The Nikon 50mm 1.4 afs is not my cup of tea at all, so I have high hopes!
 
Thanks Beth, that's what I figured!
I am a sucker for 28mm, so it's reputation alone is one thing that has previously put me off the system ... That along side the early reports of early x100 like AF ...

But it seems it has aged well with these firmware updates ... And for the sake of selling a camera that gets used once in a blue moon ... ... Anyway, rambling off topic here :)

The Nikon 28mm 1.8 is probably in my top 5 lenses of all I've shot with, so it has a mountain to climb ... Hence my asking about people's views :)
 
I got one and sent it back. At various aperture setting, the edges were really bad. Even at less than $400 (USA) it was not what I consider a lens that I wanted. No distortion though. The 18-55mm "kit lens" had better definition at 18mm. I might have gotten a bad lens.
 
You should make sure you do the camera and lens firmware updates H - they did move things along a lot

Still have it - on my X-Pro1 as I type

Interested to see how you get on
 
I used it on my X-E2 with current firmware as well as the lens. Still didn't like it. I think some of their glass is over-priced.
 
Few samples to tide you over H

7461196072_5533688cb0_b.jpg

Wide open at f/2

10143124894_dd67e5abdb_b.jpg

Close-In at f/2.8

9674954669_8a67cf724c_b.jpg


7735623140_be639494d1_b.jpg

Stopped down to f/8

10720149143_ec91bb0fae_b.jpg

At f/11
 
Well, at f11 it is sharp. On the Pontiac, it looks like it is getting soft on the edges. What f stop was used on that? The clarity on that Pontiac is great. Contrast is perfect. Maybe I should order another one before the sale is over. I think that it is the end of march. Where did you get yours?

I am glad that you sent that. I really liked the size of that lens. Not as pancake as the 27mm, but still very compact.
 
f/2 on the Pontiac shot Jerry
 
Dave, that is a very deep DOF for f2. I really like that photo in monochrome.
 
definitely f/2 - checked the EXIF data
 
Some only have three wheels Rob ... And sometimes they are in different colours, but of course Chris has made one of those things hard to ascertain! ;)

Thanks for those Chris! It's just for work, but I'm sure I will post some shots if I am happy with them!

Thanks Jerry, that's the position I was wanting to hear ... There seem to be two things at play: Pronounced chromatic aberrations, which I know I can fix and soft corners, which reading some reviews is down to a rather strong field curvature. This is actually something the Nikon 28 suffers from, but because of my shooting style, I find it can often have a positive influence on the images rather than negative ... We may deviate into the subject of another post here, one that I haven't finished writing my reply to yet, but because I shoot a lot of work for "design" purposes, I you cheap tricks like knocking large areas out of focus ... Right up your street it is! ;D
So for this, it won't be an issue... The problem is, one of the reasons for buying a rf style camera is that I want it to help me shoot more like I do with the M7... Ie, less reliant in said cheap tricks and with more concentration on quality framing! Anyway, more on that when I get around to finishing the post in your very interesting thread :)
 
The first three primes that shipped were the classic photojournalist's kit, and tended to be tested as a group. The 60mm is a macro to 1:2, and outstandingly sharp. The 35mm is a fast, superb normal. Of the three, the 18mm was the least—but only when compared to the other two.

Of course, Internet Amplification Syndrome kicked in, and to read some of the reviews from people who neither use the camera nor the lens, it was a lump of unpolished glass. Nothing could be further from the truth.

https://www.facebook.com/notes/larry-bolch/internet-amplification-syndrome/10151769167215820

The car that comes in third in a Formula 1 Grand Prix race is not a poor race-car. It has beat all but the two fastest cars and drivers in the world. With the 18mm, whether on the web or on a print, signs of weakness will not be seen. In a lab, photographing a resolution chart and examining it in minute detail, then some difference will be seen compared to the other two. Compared to every other lens out there, it is an outstanding lens. My only complaint is that it is not wide enough. Were it equivalent to a 24mm, I would be happier—but that is a matter of my taste, and not a fault of the lens. I solved the problem by recently taking advantage of special pricing to get the 14mm, which is equivalent to a 21mm and pleases me greatly.
 
I am really pleased with the XF 18mm on my X-Pro 1. I have 4 primes for this system now but I still enjoy using the 18mm for street photography quite a bit. It definitely isn't the "best" lens I've ever used from a pure image quality standpoint but it's also far from the worst. On its own without comparing against the other XF prime lenses it is actually a very decent performer.
 
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