Ray Sachs
Legend
- Location
- Not too far from Philly
- Name
- you should be able to figure it out...
A bit of a technical question / speculation. Based on the Panasonic 20mm m43 lens and its inability to take advantage of the various technical improvements in m43 bodies over the past couple of years, it makes me wonder about the Fuji 18 and 35mm lenses as the X-system cameras evolve and, presumably, get a lot of the improvements previewed in the X100s announced yesterday...
What I DO know is that lenses with external focussing mechanisms (which the initial Fuji lenses share with the Pany 20 and the first version of the Olympus 17mm) do not respond to faster processing speeds to provide faster CDAF in CDAF-only cameras. Or they do up to a point, but the lens mechanisms quickly become the weakest link in the chain and can only go SO fast. The Pany 20 was a bit faster with the GH2 and subsequent models than it was with the GF1 and G1, but on the new bodies it doesn't even come CLOSE to the focus speeds of the newer lenses with internal focussing, from both Olympus and Panasonic. The initial Fuji X-series lenses share this external focussing mechanism and so I'd expect them to share this liability for future X-system bodies IF those bodies just improved the processing speed of their CDAF system.
BUT...
What I DON'T know is how this type of lens construction interacts with PDAF and whether Fuji's move toward hybrid CDAF/PDAF auto focussing (which I assume they'll port over to future X-bodies). Will PDAF overcome the physical limits of these lenses to a greater extent than faster CDAF would? I know that PDAF doesn't require as much movement of the lens - it goes to a calculated point rather than raking back and forth to FIND that point - but I have no idea how much the physical speed of the lens mechanics limits the potential improvements...
Any thoughts from those with a better technical knowledge than I have?
I like my X-Pro a lot, but I use it about 90% of the time with the 18mm lens. I was anticipating replacing the 35mm with the 23mm when it became available because I almost never use the 35 but I would use the 23mm some - not as much as the 18, but a fair amount. I might have bought the 14mm also but that wasn't for sure - I already have wider angles covered in my m43 gear and I'm skeptical about how well the 14 will work with the OVF given the limits to the width of the OVF view. Now that the X100s has equalled the X-Pro in some ways and leapfrogged it in others, I'm half considering the possibility of selling the X-Pro gear and getting the X100s along with the 28mm adapter. If future X-Pro bodies are likely to bring that system up to that level of performance, I'll probably just sit tight with what I have and add a lens or two to the X-Pro. But if the current lenses are going to notably limit the improvements to come with future bodies, I wouldn't mind going back to the smaller, simpler camera since I don't see myself ever having an extensive lens collection with the X-Pro anyway...
-Ray
What I DO know is that lenses with external focussing mechanisms (which the initial Fuji lenses share with the Pany 20 and the first version of the Olympus 17mm) do not respond to faster processing speeds to provide faster CDAF in CDAF-only cameras. Or they do up to a point, but the lens mechanisms quickly become the weakest link in the chain and can only go SO fast. The Pany 20 was a bit faster with the GH2 and subsequent models than it was with the GF1 and G1, but on the new bodies it doesn't even come CLOSE to the focus speeds of the newer lenses with internal focussing, from both Olympus and Panasonic. The initial Fuji X-series lenses share this external focussing mechanism and so I'd expect them to share this liability for future X-system bodies IF those bodies just improved the processing speed of their CDAF system.
BUT...
What I DON'T know is how this type of lens construction interacts with PDAF and whether Fuji's move toward hybrid CDAF/PDAF auto focussing (which I assume they'll port over to future X-bodies). Will PDAF overcome the physical limits of these lenses to a greater extent than faster CDAF would? I know that PDAF doesn't require as much movement of the lens - it goes to a calculated point rather than raking back and forth to FIND that point - but I have no idea how much the physical speed of the lens mechanics limits the potential improvements...
Any thoughts from those with a better technical knowledge than I have?
I like my X-Pro a lot, but I use it about 90% of the time with the 18mm lens. I was anticipating replacing the 35mm with the 23mm when it became available because I almost never use the 35 but I would use the 23mm some - not as much as the 18, but a fair amount. I might have bought the 14mm also but that wasn't for sure - I already have wider angles covered in my m43 gear and I'm skeptical about how well the 14 will work with the OVF given the limits to the width of the OVF view. Now that the X100s has equalled the X-Pro in some ways and leapfrogged it in others, I'm half considering the possibility of selling the X-Pro gear and getting the X100s along with the 28mm adapter. If future X-Pro bodies are likely to bring that system up to that level of performance, I'll probably just sit tight with what I have and add a lens or two to the X-Pro. But if the current lenses are going to notably limit the improvements to come with future bodies, I wouldn't mind going back to the smaller, simpler camera since I don't see myself ever having an extensive lens collection with the X-Pro anyway...
-Ray