Fujinon XF 14-24mm f/4
Fujifilm’s new, more affordable ultra-wide zoom www. fuj i f ilm. co. uk
A new and improved version of an established member of the Fujifilm family
The XF 10-24mm f/4 R OIS WR is a new version of a lens that’s been in the Fujifilm line-up for a while. It keeps the optical configuration of the original XF 10-24mm, but adds an aperture ring, weather-sealing and improved optical stabilisation. The lens has an effective focal length of 15-36mm, a standard ultra-wide zoom range. It goes wide enough to squeeze in tall buildings, expansive interiors and narrow streets, but it also goes long enough for regular semi-wide-angle photography. It’s not the widest there is, but you won’t have to keep changing lenses so often.
The aperture ring is really pleasing. It’s fairly light, but has definite click-stops both at full aperture settings and at 1/3-stop increments. There is an automatic setting past the minimum aperture of f/22, but you have to hold down a button first, so there’s less risk of accidentally switching between auto and manual aperture control.
Performance
We found no problems with the way this lens performs physically, and the autofocus is fast, quiet and smooth. The image quality proved more of a mixed bag, however. The lab tests show poor corner sharpness at longer focal lengths, and this became very evident in our real-world tests.
The XF 10-24mm f/4 R OIS WR is by no means bad in this respect – most ultra-wide zooms start to soften at the edges – but it’s clear to see at 24mm, the longest end of the zoom range, that the edges are not as sharp as the centre.
On the upside, at the widest focal length of 10mm, the edge sharpness looks pretty good, and that wider focal length is probably what most people would buy this lens for anyway. Even so, this is a pretty expensive lens for an f/4, and we would have hoped for a more consistent level of edge sharpness. Rod Lawton