The Fujifilm 23 - the 2.0 or the 1.4?

The 23 f/1.4 is my fifth 23mm. I think it's safe to say I have a problem with the focal length.

First I bought the Viltrox. A fine lens, really, but it tended to misfocus kind of a lot, hat a bit of a color shift, and the bokeh varies quite widely from the center to the edge of the frame, which is a "swirly" look I do not enjoy.

Next up was an X100T. I found focusing surprisingly hard with its OVF, and was frankly disappointed by the lens, especially closeup (for the price!). At the end of the day, the camera wasn't compact enough to make me take it instead of an ILC.

At this point, I had more or less given up on 23mm as a concept. Not for me, or so I thought.

Then came a Sony RX1 that I found for a price too good to pass up, despite the focal length. And boy, did I enjoy that lens! What an utterly gorgeous rendering! A terribly smooth focus transition, wonderfully smooth and uniform bokeh across the frame; what can I say, perhaps 23mm was good after all. The RX1, however, was a bit too cumbersome a camera to earn its pay, and when someone offered me a ridiculous price for it I sold it. I still miss it sometimes.

By way of compensation came the 23 f/2. I bounced off that one very hard. Swirly bokeh, weirdly sterile rendering, and I didn't like the shape of the lens at all.

A few weeks ago I once again stumbled upon a few well-loved images from the RX1, and lo and behold, there popped up a used 23 f/1.4 for a reasonable price. Suffice it to say, it has not left my X-Pro2 yet. While not quite capturing the magic of the RX1, it is darned close, and a joy to shoot with. A smooth, uniform bokeh, a solid construction, and just small enough to be usable in the OVF. It may just be my favorite Fuji prime lens.