Fuji 18mm F1.4 Lens Review
The marvellous Fujinon 18mm F1.4 lens
I upgraded to the 18mm 1.4 from the 23mm 1.4 in 2022
TL:DR (Too Long - Didn’t Read ) This lens is a great, light, quick-to-focus lens with great image quality and a surprisingly nice depth of field when shot at F1.4 - It pairs fantastically well with the 33mm F1.4 which is my go-to combo for wedding photography.
Time for a review of the Fuji 18mm F1.4 lens. I bought this back at the end of 2022 as I found my 23mm F1.4 was an odd pairing with the 33mm 1.4 as they were quite close in focal length.
At the same time the 16mm F1.4 wasn’t quite giving me what I wanted so I sold the 16mm & 23mm and used the money to grab the 18mm F1.4 (About £800 at the time)
Here’s a review of the lens, there won’t be any sharpness charts or anything like that, just my real-world review and a bunch of photos I’ve taken with it. Let’s get into it…
Tech Specs + Build Quality
Here are the main technical specifications of the Fujifilm 18mm F1.4 - for a full list head over to the Fujifilm Website <
Weight - 370g
Size - 68.8mm x 75.6mm
Lens Configuration - 15 elements in 9 groups
Focal Length - 18mm (27mm Full Frame Equivalent) 76.5° Angle of View
Minimum Focal Distance - 20cm
Filter Thread Size - 62mm
Image Quality + Sample Photos
If you know Fuji then you know this section is going to be good. It’s a Fuji lens, which as usual means you get a very sharp lens at all apertures that renders photos really nicely - especially when paired with the Fuji XH2.
The photos it makes are very contrasty which I really like and it has a very pleasant rendering of out-of-focus backgrounds.
You’ll be surprised by how far back you can be from your subject and still get a decent out-of-focus background when shooting wide open, I’ll try and include some shots which demonstrate this.
Here are some sample shots, edited in Lightroom with my preset:
Focus Speed
Being one of the more recent offerings from Fujifilm, this lens boasts its most up-to-date focus system. It’s also a very wide lens which is traditionally quick to focus due to reasons (I don’t understand exactly why probably lighter glass and less of a focal range to get through).
When paired with the Fuji XH2 it is super quick to grab and hold focus on all subject matter, it’s also very accurate and I can’t even think of a single time this lens has been too slow or missed what I’m shooting at.
It also carries these qualities over to video, being a very nice lens for when you want to be in the action, for me I shoot video on the 33mm mostly, but this lens is great for busy dance floor videos.
Comparing the 18mm to the 23mm + 16mm
So I sold the 23mm 1.4 and the 16mm 1.4 lenses to fund the purchase of this new lens.
The main reason was the 33mm lens, this became my go-to main lens for all my work and so the 23mm missed out as it was too close in comparison while being all around slower.
Then the 16mm was a bit too wide for me and just didn’t have the lovely rendering that the 33mm does (probably due to the 16mm being quite an old lens by this point).
So I went with the 18mm and a lens that was designed around the same time as the 33mm and the pairing works so well together.
The 23mm + 16mm as still great lenses, but this one beats them in pretty much all areas.
Review Summary
So, we come to the end of the review. This lens is a stunner and you’ll be happy you picked it up.
While the other wide offering from Fuji still holds up and I’d be happy to do work on them, this lens just beats them out in all sorts of ways.
If you’re considering a wide then rent this one and see how you find it, but for me, it’s a dream to work with.
I hope that was a useful blog, give me a shout below if you have any thoughts or questions.
Cheers,
Col-
