[Winder]

It looks like Fuji wants to be become the king of compact kits and high quality prime lenses.

14mm F/2.8
23mm F/1.4
35mm F/1.4
56mm F/1.2 (on the way)

I'm sure Pentax has a plastic mount F/5.6 constant aperture 33mm ready to be announced any day now. To go with the 4 other lenses in the 31mm-35mm range.

Fuji has introduced 9 new lenses since the XP-1 was released in last year.....

[pinholecam]

And there is little to no reason to manually focus these auto focus lenses..

I was on a recent photo trip and we were taking the Milky Way at night.
The guys with the MILC (OMD; NEX; X100) struggled to get focus and struggled with focus by wire too.
Of course we don't take these sort of celestial bodies everyday.

Then there are the dinner and indoor low light shots where AF is either slow or not working too well.
The EVF gains up, so it gets noisy. It also starts to slow down the refresh.
Both pretty bad if the photographer is trying to use manual intervention with MF.
Add to this the lack of tactile feel for focus by wire, and its quite a pain.
Of course the faster lenses are better in this respect since the EVF remains brighter.
No free lunch imo, but these X-lenses are nice AF lenses.

[Winder]

There are 3 Fuji X-mount lenses on Amazon USA top 100 lens sales/orders. Not a single Pentax lens.

[Uluru]

..

Fuji has introduced 9 new lenses since the XP-1 was released in last year.....

OMG ...
You mean, they don't promise gardens of Babylon, but rather .. work hard ... and make them? What a blasphemy!

[tuco]

I was on a recent photo trip and we were taking the Milky Way at night.
The guys with the MILC (OMD; NEX; X100) struggled to get focus and struggled with focus by wire too.
Of course we don't take these sort of celestial bodies everyday.

Yes tough situation. I was mainly thinking under more normal conditions that with the X cameras you can put the camera on manual focus, point it to the area you want the focus to be and push the AEL/AFL but to focus it. You'd have taken the picture by time you used focus peaking with the zoom feature.

[prime.partisan]

Fuji has introduced 9 new lenses since the XP-1 was released in last year.....

Well, who needs 9 lenses? We all should be happy taking great pictures with a 15mm and a 31mm

[twitch]

Lots of sample photos from this lens over here http://www.kevinmullinsphotography.co.uk/fujifilm-x-pro-1/fujinon-xf23mm.html

[Urkeldaedalus]

A lot of unnecessary Pentax hate in this thread, imo. I mean the criticism is probably deserved, maybe not so much the bitterness. Or can we not praise other brands without raging at Pentax?

Fuji X and Pentax APS-C are apples and oranges. I think there are good reasons to own either or both. The usability of the K-5II in a variety of real world situations trumps any Fuji camera out there, but conversely the Fuji has the advantages of mirrorless cameras: an adaptable mount, great sensors in a smaller form factor, which they are starting to match with excellent lenses. Sony is an R&D behemoth these days, but I hope Fuji can keep up with them in their own way. The Panasonic/Fuji sensor partnership could be interesting.

This Fuji 23 f/1.4 is important because it's the type of lens you'd buy a Fuji X system just to use, even if there is the focal length overlap with the X100s. I'm glad that the X system is starting to fill out a bit.

[Urkeldaedalus]

Lots of sample photos from this lens over here http://www.kevinmullinsphotography.co.uk/fujifilm-x-pro-1/fujinon-xf23mm.html

Looks good. Perhaps a bit soft wide open? But the softness of the rendering has that nice Fuji character.

[Clarkey]

No, they don't but if they are determined to give pentax more recognition making such a lens will certainly be of benefit. Especially if it continues the low PF habits of the K/A series 50mm f/1.2 lenses.


Then you lose all lens-body communication and therefore you don't have any EXIF or ability to apply lens corrections in post.

True, but you can determine the lens distortion, edge brightness and CA situation and input these into the camera (as well as specify the FL). I haven't yet done this, and don't know if it works only on jpgs, but essentially you gain lens corrections for 5 saved lenses from another brand.

I was on a recent photo trip and we were taking the Milky Way at night.
The guys with the MILC (OMD; NEX; X100) struggled to get focus and struggled with focus by wire too.
Of course we don't take these sort of celestial bodies everyday.

Then there are the dinner and indoor low light shots where AF is either slow or not working too well.
The EVF gains up, so it gets noisy. It also starts to slow down the refresh.
Both pretty bad if the photographer is trying to use manual intervention with MF.
Add to this the lack of tactile feel for focus by wire, and its quite a pain.
Of course the faster lenses are better in this respect since the EVF remains brighter.
No free lunch imo, but these X-lenses are nice AF lenses.

I'll give you the gain is an issue for the EVF.
Fuji displays a focus distance scale on the evf/lcd in the body, so that you can zone it for astro. It also accounts for the aperture setting and is very useful. Enlarging the AF area also helps a lot at night, and is a very useful feature.

I'm actually quite impressed by the X-E1 (certainly by the output). There is a lot of good tech (the DR feature is also well implemented) in the bodies.

In terms of lenses, what I think Fuji is doing well is make both fast (the 23mm) and compact (27mm) lenses for the system.

I agree with Emacs on the 18-55 too - it is a stellar zoom. If it (and the body) were WR, I don't think I would have any Pentax gear.

Edit: before I go, I'm going to need a replacement for the 15mm and 70mm!

[bibz]

Those samples do absolutely nothing for me. Maybe its the xtrans technology that just doesnt gel with me.

[prime.partisan]

I've also failed to appreciate this lens. It's just too soft for me.

[snake]

This is inadvertently a part of the discussion that went on for years, especially since 2008-2009; there was no small sized lens done by Pentax that covered normal to normal-wide angles — arguably those most common ones, since beginning of the social documentary photography.

None of the 5 limiteds cover anything from 30mm to 50mm in 135 format terms, only much bigger zooms cover it. And I think that absence of a small, good quality lens around 24mm (or 35mm in 135 FF terms) has cost Pentax a lot. Situation was often described as "Pentax eccentricity".

I don't know how to name it properly.

What is sold today in forms of DA35/2.4 and DA50/1.8, is 52mm and 75mm equivalent FoVs in 35mm photography — narrow normal to slight telephoto. I believed Pentax should have done a DA24 lens instead of DA35/2.4 — let it be same plastic fantastic — but, well, there you go. They have two 35s (which is 52mm), two 40s (which is 60mm), one 50 (75mm) and one 55 (83mm). But most interesting focal lengths, from 30mm to 50mm, are still not addressed.

I suspect they needed an all new APS-C design for them, and that was out of question — even under Ricoh's management.

I've made this argument before that Pentax's glaring lack of vision, leadership, and management is no better proven by the glaring absence of a 35mm equivalent on APS-c. More so now than before, as the X100 and others have repopularized this FL. Pentax is supposed to be the prime lens company, but no fast 35 eq? And not to mention, people are often apologists for the absence here, stating things like "image quality" or "the 21 is close enough and fast enough". No, it's not.

[Urkeldaedalus]

I've made this argument before that Pentax's glaring lack of vision, leadership, and management is no better proven by the glaring absence of a 35mm equivalent on APS-c. More so now than before, as the X100 and others have repopularized this FL. Pentax is supposed to be the prime lens company, but no fast 35 eq? And not to mention, people are often apologists for the absence here, stating things like "image quality" or "the 21 is close enough and fast enough". No, it's not.

I agree that if Pentax really wants to compete there should be a new set of modernized primes from Pentax, with internal motors as well as weathersealing in the DA* line, and updates to the two main zooms in the DA* lens line. This is especially true if they don't come out with full frame. If they do come out with full frame then the absence of these lenses in order to launch a new lens line is more understandable. These DA* primes could be bigger than the DA LImiteds to give consumers options while still being smaller than full frame primes with internal motors, which tend to be quite large.

But in the meantime if you want a 35 mm equivalent there is the FA24 f/2. Three available from KEH right now. Also have the added bonus of being fullframe if you have film cameras. Pentax Autofocus Fixed Focal Length Lenses - KEH.com

[Urkeldaedalus]

I've also failed to appreciate this lens. It's just too soft for me.

I'm wondering if that's the JPG preset he used. Some of those images look soft even when they should be sharp based on f/stop. I'm guessing it's more the mood he was going for.