REVIEW: Six Months with the Fujinon XF10-24mm f4R OIS

Six months ago I bought the ultra wide XF10-24mm f4 Fujinon (15-36mm equivalent), the sixth lens in my Fuji line up.  

I have always had an ultra wide angle lens in my photographic arsenal and while the Fujinon 14mm f2.8 (21mm) is an excellent wide angle lens, there were times when I missed the extra field of view offered by my old full frame 17-35mm f2.8 Nikon.  

So I decided to add the newly launched Fujinon wide angle zoom to my inventory in May of this year.

The zoom range of 10mm to 24mm is very flexible making this lens a good all rounder.

Here is an image at 10mm

and here is the same scene at 24mm

So six months on, what do I think?

Well I have to be honest, while I enjoy using the lens, it hasn't been used as much as I thought it would be.  The build and optical quality is fantastic and it is a joy to use, but it is a big lens.  I find myself reaching for the 14mm and 18mm primes a lot more times than I thought I would.  

There are two reasons for this - the physical size of the zoom means I think twice before fitting it to the camera, especially to the more 'stealthy' X-Pro1.  

The second reason is the maximum aperture.  The zoom has a constant aperture of f4, which is fine for landscapes when you tend to stop down to f8 or f11.  But for all other types of photography I tend to favour a wide aperture for my work and the 14mm has a one stop advantage with f2.8 and the 18mm has two stops with its f2 maximum aperture.  This means the background is thrown more out of focus with the primes than it is with the zoom.

Now please don't mistake my grumblings above as an indication that I don't like this lens as nothing could be further from the truth.  I just wanted to point out that the prime lenses I own are sometimes used in preference to the zoom for the reasons stated where as I thought the two primes would become redundant.

UNMARKED APERTURE RING: I have a couple of other issues with the 10-24mm zoom.  The first is the aperture ring that isn't marked.  Unlike the prime lenses where the aperture can be set without looking through the viewfinder or on the screen, the 10-24mm follows the 18-55 and 55-200mm zooms in having an unmarked aperture ring, meaning you have to check the setting on the screen or viewfinder.  While the other two zooms have a variable aperture, the 10-24mm has a constant f4 maximum aperture, meaning the aperture ring could be marked.  This is irritating at best!  At least Fujifilm listened to their photographers when they designed the new 50-140mm f2.8 zoom as this lens does have a marked aperture ring.

REFLECTIONS: The other issue I have is when I use my Lee filters in bright sunlight on this lens.  The marking on the front of the lens cans sometimes be reflected in the filters and appear on the image.  Here are some examples of this phenomenon from some shots I did in Shanghai two weeks ago.  

The markings on the front of the lens can be seen in the image.  The way round this is to cover up the markings but as this lens is primarily aimed at landscape photographers, this is a pretty big oversight.  At least it is easily solved with a bit of black tape or in post production.  But it is another irritating feature of this lens.

So what do I like about the Fujinon 10-24mm f4?

As already stated the build and optical quality is first rate, but then it should be for £829!  The Sigma 10-20mm f3.5 APC lens is half that price and the f4/f5.6 version I used on my Nikon D300S / D90 was even cheaper and the optical quality was as good as the Fujinon.  

However the Fuji gets five stars from me for the Build and Optical Quality of this stunning lens.

Field of View: This ultra wide lens at the 10mm end of the range can get so much into the image and the results can be almost 3D.  You have to be careful with the composition because images of subjects in the middle distance can seem to be far away and I use the technique of lead in lines for my compositions at this focal length.

At the other end of the zoom range, the 24mm focal length is also very useful for street photography but the f4 maximum aperture and the size of the lens can be limiting and I tend to favour the 35mm f1.4 or 18mm f2 for this genre.

The Optical Image Stabilsation (OIS) system is also great to use.  It doesn't get as much use as the OIS on the 55-200mm tele zoom, but it is good to know it is there if needed.

Conclusion
This lens is worthy of its place in the Fujinon XF range line up and I am pleased that I have one for my Fujifilm system.  I do wish it had a f2.8 maximum aperture instead of f4, but the downside of this would mean the lens would be even bigger than it already is.  Perhaps a non OIS version with an f2.8 aperture would be about the same physical size but that is purely an academic question.  I love using the 10-24mm for my landscape work and on FIA WEC events and this are the areas that this lens will be mainly used.  A great piece of glass that produces stunning images time and again.

All images taken on the Fujifilm X-T1 + Fujinon XF10-24mm f4R OIS except the images of the X-T1 fitted with the 10-24, which were taken on the Fujinon X100

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