But yeah, I can’t see the future. Nobody can. So Tony’s opinion is just as valid as mine. The future will tell.
Two System, Less Cameras and Lenses for APS-C due to limited R&D
Maybe I am not so much into other brands, but I don’t feel like Fujifilm is releasing less gear than other brands.
The real issue was more that so far not many third party brands released AF lenses for Fujifilm, but that has been solved in the meantime.
But in some way it is true. No GFX system could potentially mean more resources for X mount. But I think this is also why Fujifilm waited so long before offering a second sensor option. They did want to wait that their APS-C lineup is rich in lenses and once well covered, they can free up resources for other projects.
Lack of Fast Lenses
First off, let me say that there are many fast Fujinon XF lenses such as the XF200mmF2, XF8-16mmF2.8, XF50mmF1.0 as well as all the nice f/1.2 and f/1.4 primes.
But what about the f/1.8 zooms he’d wish for the X system? Well, that brings us to the next point.
High ISO
In the past, pushing your digital cameras to high ISO was something we absolutely wanted to avoid, as the performance was so bad. To avoid to go too high with ISO, we did indeed need fast glass for low light photography.
But that was the past. Today, ISO performance on digital cameras is vastly improved, which means you don’t need to try to desperately avoid high ISO with super fast and expensive glass. Nope, you can also push ISO up much higher than you ever could in the past.
What this means is that you can put smaller, lighter and more affordable lenses on your camera, as you can compensate the slower aperture with a higher ISO value.
Down below I will share a video of an extreme low light recovery I made of my wife overlooking the hills of Ronda in Andalusia, Spain (we made our honeymoon there). She basically went from almost invisible black to nicely visible in clean colors (thank you X-Trans for that high color fidelity) and in my eyes also very contained levels of noise, which make the image pleasing and usable.
But what about Bokeh? Let’s talk about it.
Bokeh
Not enough background blur? Well, this one is easy to answer. I’ll just share an image down below. And it’s not even the fastest lens Fujifilm has to offer (you can get even more radical with this one).
Autofocus (and Computational Photography)
True, Sony and Canon have better autofocus. But the point with autofocus is, that once it is near perfect, there is not much to improve anymore. Fujifilm just needs to catch up with Sony and Canon, and then the “autofocus war” will be basically over, since there will be little room for further enhancements.
Where there is much more room for improvement, is computational photography. And this is an area where smaller sensors simply are superior to bigger sensors. In fact, if done wisely, it could be even lead to a Renaissance of the M43 system (as the Panasonic GH6 shows with its terrific high res handheld mode). And certainly APS-C has a potential advantage here over full frame or medium format.
Now Cosina has published the main specs and a new product image (see above) of this lens at their website in Japanese, which I now report here on FujiRumors machine translated.
A large aperture quasi-wide-angle lens with the latest optics using one double-sided aspherical lens and two abnormal partial dispersion glass. Although it is a compact size, it has excellent resolution from the aperture opening, and large blur due to the large aperture of F1.2 can be obtained.
Just as the 35mm version, also this one has electronic contacts to transfer certain information such as EXIF data.
I love the look of this lens, and actually also of the Voigländer Nokton 35mm f/1.2 X. And although I am tempted to get one, I so far have not treated myself with one, since I’d pay for features (the electronic contacts) that do not work on my Fujifilm X-E3.
Last year, Cosina launched the Voigtländer Nokton 35mmF1.2 X, with no autofocus, but with electronic contacts which allows for transfer of EXIF data and more (more details at the bottom of the article).
Now Cosina will also launch the Voigtländer Nokton 23mm f/1.2 APS-C lens for Nikon Z and Fujifilm X mount.
Also in this case, there will be electronic contacts but not autofocus.
It’s nice to see that Cosina understands us Fujifilm X shooters (or most of us) better than what Sigma does, and did put the effort to design the X mount version with an aperture ring. I wish the new Sigma X mount trinity would have an aperture ring too. But it’s no dealbreaker in my eyes. I shot my 27mmF2.8 without aperture ring for long and with great joy (but I replaced it now with the new XF27mmF2.8 with aperture ring).
For me, shooting Fujifilm is not only, but also about the experience. This is also the reason why I got the TTArtisan 23mm f/1.4. It’s the look and feel of it, attached to my X-E3 or X-T4, that simply makes me enjoy shooting with it every now and then.
And surely the new Voigtländer NOKTON lenses for Fujifilm X hit the same nerve, with a lovely vintage design and the bonus of electronic contacts that make it an appealing option for X shooters.
Personally, though, the Voigtländer options is not on my radar, because my Fujifilm X-E3 camera is not supported (yet). The full list of supported X series cameras can be found at the very bottom of this article.
As we told you a few weeks ago, Sigma will announce X mount lenses “soon”. I never gave a date (and hence I never said they would be announced today, Feb.9), but I confirm everything I said so far, hence that they will come “soon” and that Sigma will start their X mount adventure with these three lenses:
Assuming that Sigma will not design completely new lenses, but use the current design and just adapt the mount to make it fit on X series cameras, I have made a couple of comparisons already.
Note that I’ve mounted the Sigma lenses on a Sony A6600 and the Fujinon lenses on an X-Pro3, since that way both lenses have their mount pretty much perfectly aligned. And of course, camerasize has the Sigma lenses with lens hood, but it’s really not a massive effort of imagination to “think away” those lens hoods.
For the full specs comparison, you can click the links below:
Hence, once again I used the B&H Photo comparison tool to run over the specs and compare Viltrox to Sigma (I ignore the Tokina X mount trinity as those lenses are identical to the Viltrox lenses, just they cost more).
NOTE: This comparison is based on the rather reasonable assumption that Sigma will re-use the design of the current Sigma DC DN lenses and adapt its mount to Fuji X, rather than designing all new lenses with new optical design and ergonomics (hence add an aperture ring).
The main reason: the Zeiss Touit X lenses were more expensive than their Fujinon XF counterparts but did not offer a better image quality that would justify the price jump.
On the other hand, the Sigma X mount lenses will come in at a sensibly lower price tag than their Fujinon XF competitors and probably at the same time offer a very good image quality, too.
Well, today I’d like to go a bit more in depth and compare also some of the other specs thanks to the very useful B&H Photo comparison tool.
Given the gentle price and probably also the great performance, I believe the Sigma X mount lenses could potentially be an attractive option for many Fuji X shooters.
What I believe could be the biggest “deal breaker” is not that they are too close to existing Fujinon lenses, but that all the Sigma lenses mentioned above do not have an aperture ring, which is something many of us love and consider a key part of the Fuji X shooter experience.
At least for me it’s like this, so much so that I sold my original XF27mmF2.8 to get the new XF27mmF2.8 R WR just to have an aperture ring on the lens.
But other than that, I am happy Sigma joins the X mount with whatever lenses they want and I look forward to more in future.
