Fujifilm Fujinon XF23mm F1.4 R Lens

Product Information

Fuji claims the lens is this good and it's not being corrected in the Fuji X-T1 on which I shot it. The newer generation of lenses is also much more compact, thanks to sacrificing a little bit of aperture. Next for my bokeh ball test with the Sigma 23 wide-open at f1.4 and focused close to its minimum distance of around 25cm. Let’s briefly toggle between it and the Sony 24 from the same distance and position at f1.8. Notice how the Sigma is actually delivering a similarly-sized subject to the Sony – maybe even a tad larger – despite its slightly shorter focal length. This is due to a mild magnification from focus breathing at close range as demonstrated earlier. Apart from shallow depth of field, of course, what this f/1.4 prime gives you is great low-light capability. It lets you keep the shutter speeds up and control subject movement in a way that image stabilizers don’t (they only suppress camera movement). Of course, you’ll get even more of a low-light advantage on an X-mount body with IBIS, like the X-S10 or X-T4. Lab tests

The Fujifilm 23mm lens boasts a metal mount and focusing and aperture rings, metal lens barrel and non-rotating 58mm filter thread.This is predominantly because it features a more complicated optical construction than the original XF 23mm, plus it offers built-in weather resistance and a more sophisticated and faster auto-focus system. When launching the old XF23mm f/1.4 Fujifilm really highlighted the fact that it renders beautiful out of focus areas. They really emphasised that as a leading trait of that particular lens. And indeed the old XF23mm f/1.4 has some of the most soft and beautifully rendered bokeh within the XF system. It’s way up there with the XF50/1 and the XF35mm f/1.4. Personally speaking, the closer focusing distance of the Sony lens has proven very useful when filming small details on the products I review on YouTube and gives it greater flexibility for me, but of course your mileage may vary. Let’s zoom-in for a closer look at the middle of the frame with the Sigma 23 on the left and the Sony 24 on the right, both at their maximum apertures of f1.4 and 1.8 respectively. Holding it in your hand feels like cradling a baby dragon egg — it’s small but dense. You can tell this lens is made like a tiny tank, completely from metal and ready to withstand getting banged up a little bit.

The only real downside comes if you are very, very much into bokeh and shooting portraits, in which case only an f1.4 lens could satisfy you 🙂 Perhaps unsurprisingly as they were announced at the same time, Fujifilm has used a similar design to the XF 33mm F1.4 R LM WR for the XF 23mm f1.4 R LM WR. Both lenses are constructed from 15 elements arranged in 10 groups, and feature two aspherical elements and three Extra-Low Dispersion (ED) elements. These specialist elements are designed to deliver high-quality images with good detail levels in the corners and minimal chromatic and spherical aberrations. As I gradually close their apertures, you’ll see the impact of their respective diaphragm blade systems, with the Sigma on the left rendering the rounder shapes we’re more used to seeing on newer lens designs versus the more angular shapes of older models. There’s no right or wrong here, only personal preference. In terms of accessories, the Fujifilm XF 23mm F1.4 R LM WR ships with standard lens and mount caps plus quite a large plastic circular-shaped lens hood which snaps into place. There is no bag or case included with this lens. Focal Range The rounded seven-blade diaphragm ensures smooth bokeh even when shooting portraits or product shots at a medium aperture to maintain reasonable depth-of-field.We found the autofocus system to be fast and consistently accurate throughout our testing. Levels of sharpness are highly impressive, right out to the edges and corners of the image frame, even when shooting wide-open at f/1.4. Color fringing is minimal at all aperture settings but barrel distortion and vignetting can be noticeable. Automatic in-camera corrections are generally available and worked well in the Sony mount-option of the lens that we tested. The provisos mentioned in the introduction are compounded for me by the fact I don’t really get on all that well with 35mm. This is 100% a preference while shooting, as opposed to the output. I love 35mm photography as captured by other photographers, and I appreciate the focal length for environmental portraits, intimacy when used up close, etc. It’s just something I personally struggle with. It’s a focal length I do a lot of cropping in, or wishing was a little wider.

Even though I’ll still reach for an f1.4 lens when I really need that look, the reality is that it’s not necessary every day. If I’m out and about, the 23mm lens is the one I’ll put in my bag. As has become common, there’s a correction profile that’s applied automatically to Jpeg and raw files, but you can turn it off for the raw files when you’re processing them in software such as Adobe Camera Raw. Removing the profiles for the XF 23mm f1.4 R LM WR reveals that there’s slight barrel distortion, but if you allow the profile to do its job, straight lines look straight.But now let’s compare it to the Sigma 23 in full-frame mode, and while some of the imaging circle remains visible as expected, it’s far less extreme than the Sony. Now to be fair, neither lens is designed to be used like this, but you can still see how the Sigma not only has a larger imaging circle, but one that remains respectably sharp well beyond the APSC frame size. This lens certainly offers professional performance, build quality and features for X-mount cameras and helps strengthen the appeal of Fujifilm’s APS-C range for serious enthusiasts and pros. Optically, it’s superb, and the handling is neat, efficient and effective.