TEST: Fuji 14mm f2.8 and the Fuji 10-24mm f4

Last Thursday I bought the Fujinon 10-24mm f4 wide angle zoom lens and yesterday I gave my first impressions of this new addition to the MacLean Photographic arsenal HERE.  Now this lens covers the focal lengths of two of my prime lenses, the 18mm f2 and the 14mm f2.8 and a couple of people have asked if I will sell those lenses now that I have the 10-24mm.

The 18mm f2 is a superb lens and I have already given my verdict on this moderately wide angle fast lens HERE.  It is a compact lens with an f2 maximum aperture that is 2 stops faster than the 10-24mm f4.  For those reasons alone the 18mm prime has a place in my camera bag.

On the other hand a decision on the 14mm f2.8 is a bit more difficult to call.  Physically the 14mm is a big lens and, at f2.8, is only one stop faster than the 10-24mm.  So I took both lenses out into the Lammermuir Hills and ran them side by side, the 10-24mm fitted to the X-T1 and the 14mm to the X-Pro1.

The shot above was taken on the 10-24mm at 13.2mm according to the lens data in the file information.  I selected 14mm on the zoom dial but it was slightly wider than the setting on the lens.  No matter the field of view it almost the same and it provides a good comparison to the image below that was taken on the Fujinon 14mm f2.8.  The exposure on both lenses was 1/250 @ f8 with the iso set at 200.

As you can see the difference is negligible.  As another comparison here is the same scene but with the zoom set at 10mm -

As I indicated at the start of this feature, one of the differences between the two lenses is the fact that the prime lens has a maximum aperture of f2.8 while the zoom has a maximum aperture of f4.  When shooting close objects at maximum aperture the difference in the depth of field can be demonstrated.

The image above is from the 10-24mm at f4 and the shot below is from the 14mm at f2.8, once again the difference is negligible between the two lenses. 

The conclusion from this short test is there isn't a great deal to choose between the two lenses. In low light the 14mm has a one stop advantage but the 10-24mm has an Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) system that is effectively worth 3-4 stops, so that negates the advantage of the f2.8 lens - unless, of course, I am in a situation where I need to use a faster shutter speed where the extra notch on the aperture ring has the advantage.  

For now I will keep both lenses and see what happens over the coming months.  I love using the 14mm prime and I am sure it will still get some use in the future.  How much remains to be seen.

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