Fuji Fujinon 35mm f/1.4 manual focusing stiff?

jloden

All-Pro
Name
Jay
Does anyone else with the 35mm f/1.4 on the X-E1 or X-Pro1 find that manual focusing is stiff and kinda balky? Mine feels sort of... robotic I guess is the way to describe it. I can feel the focus motor whirring and it offers some resistance, similar to the feel of pushing a CD/DVD drive tray closed or something like that.

I sort of assumed this was normal behavior due to the 35mm's focusing method, but I was just comparing it to the nice smooth focus feel on the 18-55 when it occurred to me maybe I should double check that this is normal and I don't have a problem with my copy of the lens.
 
Uh-oh... the silence is starting to make me worry :D

I know at least a few folks here have the 35mm f/1.4 lens... anybody?
 
Yes..it's normal for the 35. And yes, it's awful manual focus. Don't know why they've made the motor act like that, or why it takes like 900 degrees of rotation to go from MFD to infinity. I avoid manually focusing the 35 if I can avoid it. The 18-55 feels much better.
 
Ok great, thanks for the confirmation - I figured that was the case but just wanted to make sure!

I think the 35mm focuses by moving in and out kind of like the Panasonic 20mm does for m4/3, which makes it slower to AF and presumably makes manual focusing rougher. IIRC manual focus on the X-Pro1 was comparable to the X100 (which is to say, "not good") so that feature probably didn't matter as much as making sure the lens had other desirable characteristics like sharpness, large aperture, good rendering.

If I decide to keep the X-E1, I'm hoping the 23mm f/1.4 will be a good performer *and* have the improved AF/MF characteristics of the 18-55 and other newer lenses.
 
Does anyone else with the 35mm f/1.4 on the X-E1 or X-Pro2 find that manual focusing is stiff and kinda balky? Mine feels sort of... robotic I guess is the way to describe it. I can feel the focus motor whirring and it offers some resistance, similar to the feel of pushing a CD/DVD drive tray closed or something like that.

I sort of assumed this was normal behavior due to the 35mm's focusing method, but I was just comparing it to the nice smooth focus feel on the 18-55 when it occurred to me maybe I should double check that this is normal and I don't have a problem with my copy of the lens.

Hi

I do feel resistance when in MF with the 35, but it's not particularly stiff, and seems to have a good amount of feedback.

With the latest firmware I don't find the MF awful at all.

Generally, I use one of two methods:
1. Hit the thumbwheel to go into magnification
2. Hit the AF/AE button for a quick AF while in MF mode, and then either fine-tune straight away, or magnify and fine-tune.

It's very quick and intuitive.
 
LOL ...

I can feel some resistance, like I'm turning a motor/flywheel type of feel. But I won't call it stiff.

Gary

PS Where cam I purchase one of those X-Pro2?

Yeah, that's what I mean exactly - I can feel motor resistance on the 35mm whereas on the other lens I can't.

LOL, I didn't see the typo on that, fixed. Guess that was wishful thinking on my part, wanting an X-Pro2 with the best of the X100S and the X-E1 together :D
 
Back
Top