Jump to content

Fuji lens quality? I need help!


rchrd

Recommended Posts

So I just moved from Leica to Fuji X-E3. I just tried out the 23mm and 35mm f1.4s, and there is a crazy amount of blur at the corners, especially for the price of those lenses. I was wondering if you guys can check these straight out of camera jpgs and tell me if this is normal fuji quality or there is something wrong with both lenses. 

 

www.richardavinson.com/fuji

 

The Fuji sensor is clean and the camera is new. Both lenses are clean as well. If any of you can post pics of a brick wall with your lens, that will be helpful!

 

 

Link to post
Share on other sites

I see two very different effects there.

 

- In your "brick wall images" there is field curvature (flat object normal to the optical axis in object plane can't be focused completely on a flat image plane)

- the dog image with the tree simply shows your depth of field, or rather the distribution of sharpness. Just follow the ground with your eyes. At the bottom of the frame, the ground is blurred. Then it gets sharper up to the point where (approximately) the head of the dog is located, and from there following the ground you see the image getting more blurry again.

 

combine both, and you get the last image.

 

I wouldn't be surprised if leica lenses were corrected to have a flat field of focus so that users can take images of tack sharp brick walls, corner to corner, but I would be very surprised if they get their corners sharp even if the object shown in those corners is far out of the focus plane.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Not enough info here as I do not see this effect when using Lightroom!

 

Welcome, dear visitor! As registered member you'd see an image here…

Simply register for free here – We are always happy to welcome new members!

 

1/23000 f1.4 ISO 200

Edited by Mike G
Link to post
Share on other sites

I can see what you are saying on your files (and also on Mike G’s brik wall but his show this only on the left side of the image, especially of the bottom left portion).

 

If one is standing in front of a brick wall the corners of the image shouldn’t be affected as much and certainly not unevenly.

 

I have owned both these lenses but no longer have them so I cannot carry out the test myself but I have done plenty of these test in the beginning (lots of brick walls around here) and don’t recall having seen this kind of results.

Link to post
Share on other sites

In normal photos, everything is not on a flat plane like it is on a brick wall so field curvature becomes more noticeable. I have shot Leica, Voigtlander, and Canon f/1.4 lenses and their natural lens defects never caught my eye like this. Fuji has a good reputation and makes Hasselblad lenses, so that is why I am startled that this is happening to the degree that it is. Maybe I got two bad lenses? Or maybe I am overly judgmental and this is normal for Fuji? Or maybe there is something wrong with the camera or settings?

 

MikeG: thanks for that brick wall photo. It is really helpful!!!! Yeah, I think I read somewhere that Lightroom corrects for the corner distortion. It looks like your lower left corner is more blurred than the other corners. What is the focal length of your lens?

 

I love the fuji sensor and image colors. I would like to stick with fuji. Are there any auto focus lenses out there made by another company?

Edited by rchrd
Link to post
Share on other sites

Only Zeiss and with worse results than Fuji, no other brand has shown concrete plans to do any autofocus lens for Fuji.

 

By the way Fuji already corrects for corner distortion and those results that you and others are showing are disappointing indeed .

 

One should wonder whether the sensor is properly positioned.

 

I hope for you that that is not the case.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Thanks guys. I hope more people post photos so I can see if this is a normal phenomena. I upload two leica shots on the webpage if anybody wants to compare. They are not the same shots but at least you can see the consistency across the image. It doesn't look like there is butter on the edge of the lens...

 

Mike G: I have read plenty of reviews before switching to Fuji, and it did not seem that the blur would be this bad. I have shot Leica, Voigtlander, Canon, Panasonic, etc and it was never bad enough that my eye would be drawn to it like it has with these lenses. 

 

Milandro: I was thinking it might be a sensor misalignment also. It gets better as you stop down, so this might suggest it isn't a problem with the sensor. Still you have to go past 2.8 before it starts to clear up. It almost seems like fuji was like "we need 1.4s on our spec sheets across the board, even if the quality is bad at 1.4"

 

I just looked up the Zeiss lens and the reviews say fuji is about the same quality or even better. That is surprising. But the Zeiss looks much sharper across the image and at the edges in these comparison shots: 

 

https://www.thephoblographer.com/2013/05/23/lens-comparison-zeiss-32mm-f1-8-vs-fujifilm-35mm-f1-4-x-mount/

 

Maybe people don't know how to review lenses and there is too much fuji fanboyism happening...

Edited by rchrd
Link to post
Share on other sites

sensor misalignment has certainly showed up occasionally ( I remember discussing this with someone who had also unexplainable uneven sharpness on one corner only and had it repaired).

 

The thing is also that is almost never detected unless one makes a series of very critical observations as you attempted to do.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Found some lens reviews, and it looks like this might be normal for Fuji. It is so misleading that you have to stop down that far. I guess 1.4 on a spec sheet helps them sell lenses.

 

35mm 1.4:

 

"In the lab the 35mm f/1.4 impressed us with extraordinarily peak sharpness, minimal distortion, and very good chromatic aberration controls. Its one major flaw is the heavy field curvature, so focusing in the center throws subjects in the corner pretty far out of focus." http://lenses.reviewed.com/content/fujifilm-fujinon-xf-35mm-f14-r-lens-review

 

"The center performance is already great but the outer image region is quite soft both at f/1.4 and f/2. The center quality is outstanding at f/2.8 and the borders/corners are at least lifted to a good level. The peak performance is reached around f/5.6 with a very good quality across the image field." http://www.photozone.de/fuji_x/746-fuji35f14?start=1

 

 

23mm 1.4:

 

"At f/1.4 it is capable of delivering a very good center performance combined with good albeit not stellar borders/corners. Stopping down improves the quality slowly but steadily till reaching a peak quality between f/4 and f/5.6."

 

 

This is what I have found in my experience. Though I think the 23mm is worse than the 35mm. So pretty much, this is a 2.8 lens, and just in case you need extra low light performance, you open to 1.4 and center your subject... single point focus and recompose would be bad to do at wide apertures. You will have to compose first and then focus if you want an uncentered subject. Guess that touch to focus screen on the X-E3 is the most quick method.

Edited by rchrd
Link to post
Share on other sites

still the uneven sharpness is a mystery if corners are not sharp they should all be unsharp the same way, all 4 of them ( if the camera is held orthogonally to the subject).

 

By the way recently there was an update with the 10-24 software.

 

When using this lens in certain position the entire sides (extreme border of the frame ) were not sharp at time (holding the camera vertical or even upside down).

 

This, I thought, was a problem with the OIS 

Edited by milandro
Link to post
Share on other sites

the update is a lens update that came Oct 5 2017 and is not body dependent and is described as:

 

 

 

  • Fix for wrong focal length display and shaking in peripheral part of images"
  •  

http://www.fujifilm.com/support/digital_cameras/software/firmware/lens/xf10-24mm/index.html

 

 

I use and will use until it fails the X-T1 . Have used X-E1, X-E2, X-M1 and X-T1.

Link to post
Share on other sites

You’ll need to ensure that you’re perfectly parallel to the wall you’re shooting

 

If the sensor is misaligned then stopping down will negate the effect to a degree

 

Remember that (say) 23mm might look like 35mm on a Leica (or other FF camera) but 23 will always be 23 and 23 is more likely to have more native field curvature than 35 (this would be even more apparent if you were comparing APSC 18 with FF 28)

 

Any way that you can return to the store and try a different body? If there’s a problem, it’s more likely you got one duff body than two duff lenses

Link to post
Share on other sites

Richard did you try other lenses? This because even two identical lenses can get different results. I owned a 23 1.4 and wide open, 1.4 - 2, center was more blurred than corners.

I took a sample proof but I deleted it. Also. It did suffer of that effect, now I don't remember the name, where you have a cyan border and a magenta opposite border of an object.

However, I've got a 23 2 and it's perfect.

Link to post
Share on other sites

In the case of one edge being worse than the others, this could well be a lens collimation fault where one or more elements are badly aligned in your particular example. I have suffered this myself, although it wasn't a Fuji lens.

 

Despite many people swearing by their 35mm f1.4, the copy I have anyway is definitely not one of Fujis best designs for sharpness. But sharpness is only one aspect of a lens. There is a huge price difference between Leica and Fuji lenses. The Fuji lenses are excellent for the price but you cannot expect them to compete with what are essentially hand made, money no object lenses. You can get an adapter to use Leica lenses. No autofocus possible though of course.

Link to post
Share on other sites

So I just got a new x-e3 and tried the same 3 lenses on them. I am getting better results and the corners are good enough at 2.8.  I think the sensor was off a bit on the other camera? Still, it did not improve as much as I hoped for. Leica quality is not a myth and their lenses are much better than these XF 1.4 flagships. I am not trying to be a snob when I say that, it is simply the truth in my experience. But of course, I wasn't expecting Leica quality at this price point, so I am happier I am getting more fair results for this price point. However, I am going to sell the 35mm Fuji and get the Zeiss Touit. I have seen direct comparisons and the Zeiss is sharper at the corners. Definitely worth the extra money. I will say, those Fuji colors are not a myth either and better than Leica's. 

 

 

lleo: I have heard somewhere that fuji quality control is not so good. Your experience, my experience, that the other poster on this thread with that weird bendy corner on his lens seems to support this claim. 

Edited by rchrd
Link to post
Share on other sites

I agree, Richard. I use both a lllf and a M4 and they're super cameras, though film ones. I said that about Leica because not all lenses are that great, expecially for the super price they cost.

I can believe what you heard about Fuji quality control. As I wrote in another thread, I owned a 23mm f1.4 which corners were sharper than the center, quite odd. It was definitely the lens, since I don't have the same problem with any other lens I own.

In these cases the question is always how much the Leica super price worths related to its quality and compared to the Fuji quality and price. You know that a certain fraction of Leica price it's because the red logo on the camera.

Link to post
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...