35mm lens with wide maximum apertures are some of the most popular and versatile options available, offering the ability to tackle a huge variety of shooting scenarios and genres, including things like wedding photography, astrophotography, street work, and more. For Fujifilm users, there is the XF 23mm f/1.4 R LM WR, and this excellent video review takes a look at the lens and the sort of performance and image quality you can expect from it in usage.
Coming to you from The Hybrid Shooter, this great video review takes a look at the Fujifilm XF 23mm f/1.4 R LM WR lens. Offering a full frame equivalent focal length of 35mm, the XF 23mm f/1.4 is suitable for many applications, allowing you to capture a lot of a scene without introducing too much distortion and allowing you to work with shallow depth of field or in low-light situations. In addition to that, it brings with it:
- One aspherical element for reduced distortion and increased sharpness
- Super EBC coating for fewer flares and ghosting and deeper contrast
- Rounded seven-blade diaphragm for smoother bokeh
Altogether, the XF 23mm f/1.4 R LM WR looks like a flexible and useful lens for a wide range of needs and applications. Check out the video above for the full rundown.
"Offering a full frame equivalent focal length of 25mm..."
shouldn't this be 34.5mm, or practically 35mm?
Whoops, good catch! Thank you!
I have the older XF 23mm f/1.4 R and absolutely love it. How does the image quality compare against this new model? Other than faster focus and weather sealing, is the image quality significantly higher? On my X-T5 the older model has a pretty decent boost in both image quality and focus speed then with used with my X-T1 through X-T4
For me they are like two completely different lenses. Of all the new lenses by Fuji the 23 1.4. is the sharpest by far, comparable to the 80mm. It's a lens best suited to detail shots and I shoot it always with negative sharpness. The close focussing capabilities are a big deal for me - a frustration with the old lens. The magnification of 1:4 is the same as for the 16mm 1.4.
The softness of the older lens when shooting wide open at its minimum focus distance is also gone. It's really sharp at 1.4 even just 19cm from the subject.
The slightly softer 23mm 1.4 mkI however lends to slightly more flattering portraits though in my opinion.
If you are focussed on street, in various weather, yes portraits but also with a priority on details and getting closer. And especially if shooting children or other lively subjects, then you will love the upgrade and appreciate the big improvement of AF.
If however your main focus is portraits, indoors, and you've never had issues with AF or the (very annoying to me) focus clutch, the old lens is still great!
Dammit I can’t afford this right now…. I was hoping it was “more of the same but revamped” :(
Out of interest, I didn’t notice in the video, is the lens hood the same? The big petal one that makes it impossible to put the lens on it’s face and not have it fall over?