Home Donate New Search Gallery Reviews How-To Books Links Workshops About Contact Fuji 16mm f/1.4 R WR Intro Specs Performance Recommendations More Fujifilm Fujinon XF 16mm f/1.4 R WR ASPH for X-mount cameras (metal 67mm filter thread, 13.2 oz./375g, 0.49'/0.15m close focus, about $849). enlarge. I got mine at this link to it at Adorama; these links to it at Amazon and at B&H are also great places to get it. This all-content, junk-free website's biggest source of support is when you use those or any of these links to approved sources when you get anything, regardless of the country in which you live. Fuji does not seal its boxes, so never buy at retail or any source not on my personally approved list since you'll have no way of knowing if you're missing accessories, getting a defective or damaged customer return or a used product. Buy only from the approved sources I use myself for the best prices, service, return policies and selection. Thanks for your support! Ken.
August 2015 Fuji Reviews Fuji X-Mount Lenses LEICA Reviews All Reviews Why fixed lenses take better pictures.
Sample Image Files (more throughout the review) f/1.4: Palm, 28 August 2015. (Fuji X-T10, XF 16mm f/1.4 R WR at f/1.4 at 1/1,800 at ISO 200, Perfectly Clear V2.) Full resolution. Warning; at f/1.4 almost nothing is in focus.
f/2.8: Palm, 28 August 2015. (Fuji X-T10, XF 16mm f/1.4 R WR at f/2.8 at 1/420 at ISO 200, Perfectly Clear V2.) Full resolution. Warning; at f/2.8 not everything is in focus.
f/5: Palm, 28 August 2015. (Fuji X-T10, XF 16mm f/1.4 R WR at f/5 at 1/140 at ISO 200, Perfectly Clear V2.) Full resolution. Warning; at f/5 not everything is in focus.
Introduction top Intro Specs Performance Recommendations More This is an ultra-fast wide lens for use in low light. It has no visible distortion, it's super-sharp, has no lateral color fringes and has no visible light falloff even at f/1.4 as shot on the Fuji X-mount cameras. It's all-metal, too! Like all Fujinon XF lenses, there is no mechanical manual focus. It's all electronic. Again like all Fujinon lenses, there is no instant manual focus override; you have to move the focus ring forward or back to switch between auto and manual. In many Fujifilm cameras if you update the firmware, there is an AF+MF option deep in the menus (look in the fifth Camera menu in the X-E2 for instance) that will give instant manual override only if you turn this menu item ON and then only as long as your finger is halfway down on the shutter. Fuji has for many decades, just like Canon and Nikon, also made far more advanced optics, like binoculars for the military and for use in space, as well as lenses for motion pictures and television with six-figure price tags at discount. Unlike mud brands like Sigma and Tamron (or even LEICA), Fujinon has loads of experience actually supplying optics that cost more than some people's houses, and puts that same know-how into these lenses.
This is a Fuji X-mount XF lens that works only on Fuji X-mount cameras.
Fuji 16mm f/1.4. Specifications top Intro Specs Performance Recommendations More
Name Fuji calls this the Fujinon Aspherical Lens Nano GI XF 16mm f/1.4 R WR, or XF16mmF1.4 R WR. Fujinon is Fujifilm's brand name for their lenses. Aspherical means specially shaped lens elements for better sharpness. Nano GI means that one surface has Fuji's new sub-wavelength nano variable-index-of-refraction anti-reflection coating. It's the same as Nikon's Nano and Canon's SWC. XF is Fuji's line of good lenses for their X-mount cameras. R means it has an aperture ring. WR means weather resistant.
Optics Fuji 16/1.4 internal diagram. 13 elements in 11 groups. 2 aspherics and 2 extra low dispersion elements. Internal two-rear-group focus. HT-EBC multicoating; Nano GI Coating on the rear surface of the front element.
Diaphragm Front, Fuji 16/1.4; diaphragm not seen. 9 rounded blades. Stops down to f/16 in 1/3-stop clicks.
Focal length 16mm. When used on the X-mount cameras with their 1.52x sensors, it sees the same angle of view as a 24mm lens sees when used on a 35mm camera. When used on the X-mount cameras in their 1:1 square crop mode, it sees the same angle of view as a 58mm lens sees when used on a 6x6cm (2¼"square) medium-format camera. This is about the same as a 31mm lens sees when used on a 35mm camera. See also Crop Factor.
Angle of view 83.2º
Autofocus DC coreless AF motor. Internal focus. No external movement as focussed, so no air or dust is sucked in.
Close Focus 0.49 feet (0.15 meters).
Maximum Reproduction Ratio 1:4.76 (0.21x).
Filters Metal 67mm filter thread.
Hood Plastic bayonet-mount petal hood included. LH-X16 metal hood sold separately, promised for September 2015.
Size 2.89" diameter x 2.87" long. 73.4 mm diameter x 73.0 mm long.
Weight 13.227 oz. (375.0g) actual measured weight, lens only. Fuji specifies 13.2 oz. (375g).
Announced 16 April 2015.
Included Lens. Hood. Front and rear caps. "Lens wrapping cloth." Paperwork.
Packaging Box, Fuji XF 16mm f/1.4 R WR. Inside the micro-corrugated cardboard box are black pulp-formed cardboard holders for the plastic-wrapped lens and hood. A small folded tray of microcorrugated cardboard lies on top to hold the manual and lens wrapping cloth.
Fujifilm Model Number 16463670.
Price $849, August 2015.
Performance top Intro Specs Performance Recommendations More Overall Auto and Manual Focus Bokeh Coma Distortion Ergonomics Falloff Filters Flare & Ghosts Color Fringes Macro Mechanics Sharpness Spherochromatism Sunstars
Overall performance top The Fuji XF 16mm f/1.4 R WR is optically quite good, excelling at falloff and distortion, as well as mechanical quality.
Auto and Manual Focus performance top Autofocus is moderately fast, and it's very accurate, especially at f/1.4. Fuji's focus system is closed-loop, read directly from the image sensor, so it automatically compensates for any mechanical errors. Open-loop systems of DSLRs and LEICAs can't compensate for these errors and sometimes have focus errors (offsets) which we don't have in the Fuji system. Bravo! On the other hand, it's not as fast as Fuji would like you to believe. Unlike a DSLR, AF isn't instant; it usually takes a moment to lock-on.
Bokeh performance top It's rare to get anything significantly out of focus on any 16mm lens; background blur has more to do with focal length than aperture. The only way to make the background soft is to get very close to the subject. Once you get close enough to get anything out of focus, bokeh is pretty typical: soft, but blur circles are still circles, not just undefined blobs. 16mm R WR bokeh at f/1.4. Camera-original © JPG.
Coma performance top Coma is weird smeared blobs that appear around bright points of light in the corners. They happen with fast and wide lenses at large apertures. Coma goes away as stopped down, and tends not to be seen in slower and tele lenses. Coma also can make the far corners look like they have a radial blur even if you don't have points of light to excite it. This aspherical lens is far better than any spherical lens, like LEICA's 35mm f/1.4, or Nikon's 24mm f/2, each of which is awful compared to this 16mm f/1.4. Coma is visible at f/1.4 and f/2. It's gone by f/2.8.
Distortion performance top Distortion, as shot on the X-T10 which is probably correcting it automatically, is completely invisible, whoo hoo! Maybe use a correction factor of +0.1 in Photoshop's Lens Correction filter, or just forget about it.
Ergonomics performance top Fuji XF 16mm f/1.4 R WR for X-mount cameras. Ergonomics are great! Grab and go. It feels great; it's a real metal lens. The only other real metal lenses made today are almost exclusively from LEICA; Nikon and Canon have been churning out mostly plastic since the 1980s. The dedicated aperture ring is also mandatory for real photography, but absent on most other brands of lenses. A whine about the aperture ring is that it needs a deeper detent or an easily-released lock at A, otherwise it's easy to knock it to f/16 by accident. It's silly to have all the third-stop clicks. We need the full stops more deeply detented so we can feel them with our eyes closed.
Falloff (darkened corners) performance top Light falloff is completely invisible, even at f/1.4, as shot on the X-T10 which is probably correcting it automatically. Even shooting white walls wide-open at f/1.4 to exaggerate it, it's still insignificant. I've greatly exaggerated it by shooting a white plate and showing it against a gray background:
Filters, Use with performance top There's no problem with vignetting, even with a couple of stacked filters! The filter ring doesn't move at all. The all-metal filter ring is a pleasant surprise compared to the plastic rubbish from other brands. For instance, Nikon's $2,200 24mm f/1.4 has a crummy plastic filter thread.
Flare and Ghosts performance top Flare, 28 August 2015. (X-T10, ISO 400, 200% Dynamic Range, XF 16mm f/1.4 R WR, f/6.4 at 1/420.) Shooting directly into the sun or letting the sun shine on the front of the lens from outside the picture area and then deliberately putting something dark in the image can show some veiling flare. No big deal, don't do that or shield the lens with your hand. While flare is a bit worse than average for a modern lens, it's never visible in actual shooting. See also Sunstars for more samples.
Lateral Color Fringes performance top There are no lateral color fringes as shot on the X-T10. It's probably correcting any that the lens may or may not have.
Macro performance top It focuses to within inches of the front of the lens. Rated at 6"/0.15m from the image plane, that means about 2"/6cm from the front of the lens: Genuine Rolex Submariner at close-focus distance at f/14. Full-resolution file.
It's super sharp: Crop from above image at 100%. If this is about 6" (15cm) on your screen, printing the complete image at this same high magnification would result in a 50 x 32" (125 x 85 cm) print!
Mechanics performance top Rear, Fuji X-mount XF 16mm f/1.4 R WR. enlarge. The Fuji XF 16 1.4 is built much better than anything from Nikon or Canon today. It's built as well as LEICA lenses, with much newer technology. It's all anodized aluminum, not cheesy plastic.
Hood Plastic.
Hood Mount Anodized aluminum.
Filter Threads Anodized aluminum.
Barrel All parts are anodized aluminum.
Focus Ring Anodized aluminum.
Focus Scale Yes, in manual focus mode only (pull back on focus ring).
Depth-of-Field Scale Yes, in manual focus mode only (pull back on focus ring).
Internals Seem like metal.
Aperture Ring Anodized aluminum. Third-stop clicks.
Mount Dull-chromed metal.
Markings Engraved and filled with paint, yay!
Identity Ring Front ring, laser-engraved.
Serial Number Laser engraved on rear of lens barrel.
Rain seal at mount Yes.
Noises When Shaken Mild clunking.
Made in Japan.
Sharpness performance top Warning 1: Image sharpness depends more on you than your lens. Warning 2: Lens sharpness doesn't mean much to good photographers. With those caveats, the Fuji XF 16/1.4 is sharp at all settings, but softer in the far corners at f/1.4 and f/2 due to coma. Library, 28 August 2015. (Fuji X-T10, XF 16mm f/1.4 R WR at f/1.4 at 1/30 at ISO 200, Perfectly Clear V2.) Camera-original © file.
Here is its rated MTF at f/1.4, which confirms the coma:
Spherochromatism performance top I see a little spherochromatism, also called color bokeh by hobbyists. This means that out-of-focus highlights may take on slight color fringes. If you do see anything, background highlights may be fringed with green, and foreground highlights might be tinged with magenta. This goes away as stopped down. I doubt you'll ever see it.
Sunstars performance top Sunstars at f/8, 28 August 2015, as-shot. bigger.
Sunstars at f/16, 28 August 2015, as-shot. bigger. The rounded 9-blade diaphragm makes no sunstars at large apertures, however it becomes straight as stopped down and can make great sunstars on brilliant points of light at f/16. It will make some small sunstars at reasonable apertures, like f/8, so it's better than many modern lenses.
Recommendations top Intro Specs Performance Recommendations More The Fuji XF 16mm f/1.4 R WR is a great lens for low-light, giving you the longest reach into the dark hand-held of any lens. While an f/1.2 lens is faster, all the f/1.2 lenses are longer, which means you can't hand-hold them at shutter speeds as slow as you can with this 16mm lens. This shorter lens also has more depth of field, so far more is in focus at f/1.4 with this lens than with any longer lens. Personally I rarely shoot with this 24mm-equivalsnt focal length; I prefer the 23mm f/1.4 and 35mm f/1.4 lenses which see more as I do, and if I want wide, I use the 10-24mm f/4 OIS. The only advantage to this lens is if you really shoot it at f/1.4. When stopped down it's the same as using any of Fuji's other zooms at their 16mm settings. If you've found my research here helpful, my support to run this all-content, junk-free website comes from when you using any of these links to it at Adorama, at Amazon or at B&H when you get yours, or when you get anything at these links to approved sources. Please always use these links when getting any of your gear so I can continue to share what I know; it's what supports me. If you take the chance of buying elsewhere (or especially at retail), remember that Fuji doesn't seal its boxes. Unlike a bottle of milk or a CD which is sealed, buy your 16mm lens elsewhere or at retail and you'll not only cheat me out of the work I've done here to help you, you run the risk of getting a lens that's a customer return, dropped, missing accessories or been used for store demos. Never buy at retail. Thanks! Ken.
More Information top Intro Specs Performance Recommendations More Fuji's 16/1.4 R WR press release.
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August 2015