Ray Sachs
Legend
- Location
- Not too far from Philly
- Name
- you should be able to figure it out...
I've been on the fence about the new Fuji 14mm - I was pretty sure I was going to return it at first. I'm still not totally sure I'll keep it, but after a full day of shooting with it, I'm leaning that way. No question about the quality of the lens - it's excellent to say the least - but just whether I'll use it enough to justify. I spent yesterday in Philly, doing a combination of street shooting and scenic/architectural shooting. My shooting in the various underground rail stations and related tunnels actually drew the attention and a brief interview with the good folks from Homeland Security. I won't get into a discussion about rights - I had no problem with their concern - but if I suddenly disappear.... Anyway, first some scenics:
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And to do something I NEVER do, here are a couple of corner crops to show the sharpness and lack of CA (although these are jpegs and the shot is at f8, so its not exactly a stress test). The bottom corners are pretty close and slightly OOF, but these upper corners give you some idea...
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And some street shooting:
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One thing this lens is REALLY good for is low light street shooting. The DOF is so deep on this lens that you can zone focus with it really easily at f4 and even wide open at f2.8. With the X-Trans' excellent high ISO quality, this opens up a lot of possibilities, which I explored somewhat yesterday:
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Peeking, but not a duck:
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I very rarely shoot the homeless and use anything I get even less, but this guy's look is hard to ignore:
So, there's no doubt in my mind that the 14mm is an excellent lens in any respect that matters. My only hesitance is still based on a combination of price and wondering if I'll use it enough to justify it. The other lenses I have similar costs into are the Olympus 12 and 75. The 12 is probably my most-used lens, so no question there. The 75 I don't use that much, but I can do things with it I can't do with ANY other lens and I value those things. This lens is a great wide lens, but I have the focal length well covered with the Olympus 9-18 and so its main "unique" capability is being able to zone focus with it in pretty low light. And I really love the manual focus "snap" ring that this lens shares with the Olympus 12 and 17, although Fuji's implementation is slightly different. As of today, it stays, but I've gone back and forth on this and I can't promise I won't again...
-Ray
View attachment 9806
And to do something I NEVER do, here are a couple of corner crops to show the sharpness and lack of CA (although these are jpegs and the shot is at f8, so its not exactly a stress test). The bottom corners are pretty close and slightly OOF, but these upper corners give you some idea...
View attachment 9807
View attachment 9810
View attachment 9812
View attachment 9813
View attachment 9815
And some street shooting:
View attachment 9816
View attachment 9817
View attachment 9818
View attachment 9820
View attachment 9821
One thing this lens is REALLY good for is low light street shooting. The DOF is so deep on this lens that you can zone focus with it really easily at f4 and even wide open at f2.8. With the X-Trans' excellent high ISO quality, this opens up a lot of possibilities, which I explored somewhat yesterday:
View attachment 9823
View attachment 9825
View attachment 9827
Peeking, but not a duck:
View attachment 9828
I very rarely shoot the homeless and use anything I get even less, but this guy's look is hard to ignore:
So, there's no doubt in my mind that the 14mm is an excellent lens in any respect that matters. My only hesitance is still based on a combination of price and wondering if I'll use it enough to justify it. The other lenses I have similar costs into are the Olympus 12 and 75. The 12 is probably my most-used lens, so no question there. The 75 I don't use that much, but I can do things with it I can't do with ANY other lens and I value those things. This lens is a great wide lens, but I have the focal length well covered with the Olympus 9-18 and so its main "unique" capability is being able to zone focus with it in pretty low light. And I really love the manual focus "snap" ring that this lens shares with the Olympus 12 and 17, although Fuji's implementation is slightly different. As of today, it stays, but I've gone back and forth on this and I can't promise I won't again...
-Ray
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