Don’t be XF Obsessed: Let’s Look Beyond Fujinon Glass
Third party lenses are fantastic!
I have manual focus X and G mount lenses and one day I’ll also get some third party AF lenses (especially this upcoming one sounds sweet to me).
But truth be spoken: I almost exclusively use XF/GF lenses, so much so that one could call me almost an “XF obsessed” or “Fujinon purist” if you want.
And there is one main reason for me using almost exclusively Fujinon lenses.
What I am most addicted to on my Fujifilm systems are:
- retro look/controls (love aperture ring on the lens and dials on the camera)
- Fujifilm colors (the film simulations)
And while I own some wonderfully vintage looking third party glass, what is really hard to emulate and to perfectly match for third party lenses, is the color rendition of my Fujinon lenses!
And as a film simulation lover myself, this is a big deal!
In practical terms this means that for example an image taken in Velvia on my Samyang 12mmF2 just does not look like the Velvia I am used to get with my Fujinon lenses.
But don’t get me wrong.
I like Samyang and shot some of my most loved images with it. And I can always tweak the colors in post to get closer to the look I want.
But in my experience XF/GF lenses are just incredibly consistent in terms of colors and I know they will deliver the best results in terms “film simulation rendering” over any third party lens (this also helps my editing workflow).
With that said, I am also convinced that third party lenses massively enrich the Fujifilm X and GFX system.
And I’d dare to say that third party glass is even vital and essential for the Fujifilm system.
Third party lenses can be much more affordable, offer interesting focal range not covered by Fujifilm glass (like this lens), have different design choices that some might prefer (like clickless aperture ring) and have their own lens character that might appeal to some (like the lovely sunstars of this lens).
And because I am convinced about how important third party lenses are for the Fujifilm X/GFX system, I am going to do two things now:
- next week I am going to take picture only using my third party X and G mount glass
- I will share this roundup dedicated only to third party lenses
So let’s rock it now :)
