Fujifilm 18mm f1.4 First Impressions
It has now been around 3 months since I got my hands on the 18mm f1.4 and after prolonged use I am finally ready to share my thoughts on this lens. I will share the good bits, bad bits and my general opinion on who this lens is for and whether it is worth the premium price tag.
Why 18mm?
18mm on the fuji is around the 27mm mark on a full frame sensor and within the world of street and documentary photography it is a staple choice for many. I have covered focal lengths in great detail however all I can say here is that this is the lens you would get if you prefer to shoot wide, if you like to incorporate architecture into your photography and if you like to shoot landscapes or cityscapes. Personally I find that this lens is the best for just documenting my day out in a crowded city such as Istanbul where I am now. I do have a small confession to make though and that is, I got this lens with the goal to use it as a 23mm (35mm full frame) but with room to crop. Personally I prefer a 23mm focal length but sometimes in a really tight spot, I wish I had a tiny bit more room just in case. This lens gives me that. Finally this lens is a perfect companion for my 33mm prime (50mm full frame) as between the two I can cover 95% of all the scenarios I would encounter in a city environment. I also want to share that previously I have owned and used both the 16mm fuji lenses. The f1.4 and the f2.8. The f1.4 was great for photos but the autofocus was a little outdated and at times slow. The f2.8 although extremely small and light, just didn’t offer any low light performance and I ended up resorting to the 23mm f2 that I used to have. When I purchased this 18mm it was with the hopes that it could replace my 16mm prime and 23mm prime, while also offering better low light performance, better autofocus and a sharper image. And after 3 months I can confidently say that it has ticked those boxes and then some.
The Good
Let’s start with the party piece which is the sharpness. This lens is incredibly sharp. Sure at f1.4 the corners will never be as crisp as the centre but at this kind of level, it really doesn’t matter. I am a proud anti pixel peeper however now and then I can’t help but zoom in to obscene levels in order to satisfy myself…. That sounded so wrong. So this lens is sharp with plenty of scope to crop if you need to. The next big plus is the autofocus. It is lightning fast, accurate and silent. Certainly it is a big step up from the previous 16mm lenses. I must say I never used the old 18mm but I haven’t heard many good things about it either. Now there were a couple things which were strange with the autofocus I found which could be me or the camera, but I will mention them later. As for build quality, this lens seems solid although I have never dropped so can’t tell you how well it bounces. Overall it seems like a high quality, premium well built product. In terms of reliability, I need another year or so of long term usage to give you any real feedback but for what it’s worth I never had any issues with this lens.
The Bad
Like any product there are some things which could be improved and some things which I am still trying to figure out. The first negative is the aperture ring. On the 33mm f1.4 which is almost identical to this as for build, the aperture ring has a solid click. Although you can knock it by accident, the chances are low. On this lens however, you sneeze and it will probably move the aperture ring. I couldn’t get my hands on another copy to see if this is just my copy or all of them are like that. There were countless times when I set it to f4 and from basic camera handling, or just putting the camera into my bag, the aperture would change to either f11 or f1.4. A few times this has tripped me up and resulted in a messed up photo. The final thing worth mentioning is that there were a couple autofocus hiccups I encounters but again this could just either be me or the XT4. The first one was that at higher apertures, especially towards f16, the autofocus system was not as snappy as it would be at f2 or f4 or even f1.4. The second one was if I was using single point autofocus on the camera and focusing on something in the distance that didn’t have too much contrast, it would sometimes miss or focus on the background instead. These could be just user error but I can’t remember experiencing this on the 33mm. The final negative is that when the lens is off, you can hear the lens elements moving inside. This is normal for this kind of lens however I have had a few people message me asking if mine done it because they though their lens was broken. It is not a real issue but just something to mention
The Neutral
The following points are neither good nor bad as they are totally subjective. First is size and weight. This is considerably bigger and heavier than the 16mm f2.8 and the 18mm f2. For me it is not too big or heavy and the compromise is worth it. It is also not cheap. In the UK it goes for £880 which is a lot of money. However my argument was that it replaces both the 16mm and the 23mm and it is very future proof. For some people the size / weight / cost will be too much. For me it was acceptable although definitely close to the limit of what I could justify.
Overall this is a great lens but comes at a premium. For many people getting a smaller cheaper and lighter 16mm f2.8 will get you a similar focal length. However if you need low light performance, the best autofocus and the sharpest image, then this is the lens to get.