Fujinon 35mm f/1.4 with X-T3

Im curious to hear your opinion about the Fuji 35mm 1.4 lens, using it with the X-T3. Most of the reviews and user opinions is pretty old and not paired with the X-T3.

The main issues i have come across is the focus sound (the same of course), but how is it with the focus hunting with the X-T3. Im considering getting either the 1.4 or the 2.0 version. I do some portraits (no im not getting the 56mm right now) and would prefer the shorter depth of field with that the 1.4 brings, but not at the cost of losing shots due to the focus motor in the lens.

Whats your opinion using it paired with the X-T3?

The 35f1.4 did get a bit faster when I upgraded from the X-T2 to the X-T3, but to be honest, I never found the 35f1.4 to be "too slow" to begin with.  For portraits and other static objects, I never had a problem.  I even had some success with it shooting sports when it was my longest FL.

The 35f1.4 with the X-T3 is an awesome compact pairing!

I have been using the 35mm f 1.4 for years and got it at the launch of XP1.....

The XT3 gives a new youth to it and now the AFS is very fast, plus it focuses in near completely dark light..

In AFC wide tracking the lens is now quite snappy and unless you want to use it for sport or fast action, I would say works perfectly in AFC

It's clear that the f2 version is faster and quieter, but now ther is NO hunting.

Bob

I've got the 35mm f1.4 on my X-T3, in combination with the 18-55mm.

I leave the zoom on during the day as my walkabout lens, while the 35mm f1.4 comes on in the evening/night, or for specific portrait purposes.

I contemplated getting the 35mm f2 instead, but I'm glad I went for the f1.4, that extra light gathering and beautiful character really is worth it.

And on the X-T3 I have no complaints about AF. It's fast and very accurate, even in very low light. It is a bit noisy though compared to the 18-55mm but I can live with that

colombiano wrote:

I went from X-T1 to X-T3 and 35 1.4 greatly improved focussing speed. No problem with chasing 1,5 years old child with it even at F1.4.

Greatly recommend this lens with X-T3.

Can you share your settings. I’ve been struggling to get much in focus with 3yr old, unless they’re standing still.

If I use eye recognition with AFC, I find it too slow to get focus, and if I use wide tracking I find often the eyes aren’t in focus when I pixel peep.

Any help much appreciated.

TangoMan wrote:

Makingtrax wrote:

colombiano wrote:

I went from X-T1 to X-T3 and 35 1.4 greatly improved focussing speed. No problem with chasing 1,5 years old child with it even at F1.4.

Greatly recommend this lens with X-T3.

Can you share your settings. I’ve been struggling to get much in focus with 3yr old, unless they’re standing still.

If I use eye recognition with AFC, I find it too slow to get focus, and if I use wide tracking I find often the eyes aren’t in focus when I pixel peep.

Any help much appreciated.

You are "struggling to get much in focus" or "the eyes aren't in focus WHEN YOU PIXEL PEEP"?

Wide Tracking seems to work for you, just don't pixel peep. Why should you? Print the picture and be done with thinking the focus is wrong. Or just watch it in full screen, seriously, stop the pixel peeping, once the face looks sharp at normal viewing size, call it a success. If you pixel peep enough, only a flat plane of the image will be really really in focus. You have to draw the line somewhere.

Or you could use one point focusing with a medium size box and you just tap over the face of the 3yr old? It's less of a "we do everything for you mode" but it should be more precise.

I like to precompose the image in my head, place the focus point where I want the focus to be and proceed from there. My success rate is extremely high that way, with a X-T20 (and a X-A1 before it, would you believe ;))

Thanks for your reply. Sorry, I’m a bit of stickler for eyes being in focus, I can even see without pixel peeping to be fair unless the subject is distant. Tapping over the face I use for video or when the subject is fairly stationary. And focussing ahead of the action is something I’m very used to using with my older Canon equipment.

The thing is I want to get the hang of this new technology in camera and see if I can get it to  nail focus. I’d already in my head put down the problem to a slow focusing lens but if @colombiano has nailed his shots at 1.4 then I’m not too proud to ask for his settings.

TangoMan wrote:

Makingtrax wrote:

TangoMan wrote:

Makingtrax wrote:

colombiano wrote:

I went from X-T1 to X-T3 and 35 1.4 greatly improved focussing speed. No problem with chasing 1,5 years old child with it even at F1.4.

Greatly recommend this lens with X-T3.

Can you share your settings. I’ve been struggling to get much in focus with 3yr old, unless they’re standing still.

If I use eye recognition with AFC, I find it too slow to get focus, and if I use wide tracking I find often the eyes aren’t in focus when I pixel peep.

Any help much appreciated.

You are "struggling to get much in focus" or "the eyes aren't in focus WHEN YOU PIXEL PEEP"?

Wide Tracking seems to work for you, just don't pixel peep. Why should you? Print the picture and be done with thinking the focus is wrong. Or just watch it in full screen, seriously, stop the pixel peeping, once the face looks sharp at normal viewing size, call it a success. If you pixel peep enough, only a flat plane of the image will be really really in focus. You have to draw the line somewhere.

Or you could use one point focusing with a medium size box and you just tap over the face of the 3yr old? It's less of a "we do everything for you mode" but it should be more precise.

I like to precompose the image in my head, place the focus point where I want the focus to be and proceed from there. My success rate is extremely high that way, with a X-T20 (and a X-A1 before it, would you believe ;))

Thanks for your reply. Sorry, I’m a bit of stickler for eyes being in focus, I can even see without pixel peeping to be fair unless the subject is distant. Tapping over the face I use for video or when the subject is fairly stationary. And focussing ahead of the action is something I’m very used to using with my older Canon equipment.

The thing is I want to get the hang of this new technology in camera and see if I can get it to nail focus. I’d already in my head put down the problem to a slow focusing lens but if @colombiano has nailed his shots at 1.4 then I’m not too proud to ask for his settings.

But... at 1.5 years old, they move more slowly than at 3

I hadn’t figured that into my calculations. Probably should be in sports finder mode

colombiano wrote:

Makingtrax wrote:

colombiano wrote:

I went from X-T1 to X-T3 and 35 1.4 greatly improved focussing speed. No problem with chasing 1,5 years old child with it even at F1.4.

Greatly recommend this lens with X-T3.

Can you share your settings. I’ve been struggling to get much in focus with 3yr old, unless they’re standing still.

If I use eye recognition with AFC, I find it too slow to get focus, and if I use wide tracking I find often the eyes aren’t in focus when I pixel peep.

Any help much appreciated.

My settings are: AFC, CL and sometimes single focus point, sometimes 3x3 zone focus. I don't use wide tracking and I don't use face/eye recognition when doing "action" shots. Face/eye recognition is more useful for still or slowly moving subjects.

Thanks bro, I’ll give it a go.

ediblestarfish wrote:

Makingtrax wrote:

Can you share your settings. I’ve been struggling to get much in focus with 3yr old, unless they’re standing still.

If I use eye recognition with AFC, I find it too slow to get focus, and if I use wide tracking I find often the eyes aren’t in focus when I pixel peep.

Any help much appreciated.

This is my experience too. Even with the f2 and its smaller maximum aperture giving more DoF and naturally having an AF speed advantage, my keeper rate is quite low unless I generate more DoF by stepping back or stopping down more.

The 35mm f1.4 is much slower at closer distances, as the maximum AF speed seems a bit more limited, and the distance % changes are higher, giving the AF a real workout.

Also at f1.4, the eye-af frequently hits the eyelashes instead of the pupil.

Still, the best sharp images are when I shoot low speed bursts when my 3 year old is occupied with something and slows down. Standing still helps of course, but I sometimes get the odd mis-focus.

In any case, the one-eye in focus thing isn't really my style, and I tend to shoot f4 normally (also you get a crazy resolution boost). So the f1.4 isn't really missed for my style of shooting. You can see my results here, though most are with the 23mm f2 @ f4.

https://sunflowerinthesky.smugmug.com

Thanks for that. I enjoyed looking at your photos.

Coming from 5DIi and 70-200f2.8 I found that combo very good for toddler photos. The focus was quick and I wasn’t in their faces. The keeper rate was excellent.

But I switched to  Fuji xT3 to go mirrorless, lighter and have eye recognition. I also bought the 35mm 1.4, 56mm 1,2, and 16mm 1.4. But so far I’ve been a bit disappointed. I like shallow DOF shots and when the subject is fairly still I get good results, but as soon as the subject is moving about I’m struggling to get anything sharp wide open, even at decent shutter speeds. I’m hoping it’s my technique and will keep practising to find one that works but eye recognition is not fast enough with these lenses.

ediblestarfish wrote:

My uninformed guess is that Fuji doesn't do much if any predictive focusing to lead an intended focus target. Kind of like shooting an arrow on a moving target, you have to aim for where the target will be by the time the arrow hits, instead of aiming at where the target is right now.

So I assume the Fuji system is very reactive, since it always seems to have a bit of lag that never catches up. If my kid is running to me at a predictable rate, I usually have just as predictable back focus.

My experience with top end AF from Nikon and Sony gives me confidence in saying that they have a predictive AF system that is capable of estimating where the subject will be right when the shutter hits. I'm not using those systems right now for several reasons, but I may consider testing them out more in the near future.

Maybe the Fuji update in April will help fix the situation to be less of an issue, or correct it outright. Or perhaps it may take some further updates beyond that.

In any case, I'm keeping an eye on other system AF performance as it is one of the biggest frustrations I have in terms of both enjoyment and IQ.

The annoyance factor of having to shoot a dozen images in burst every time, then slowly checking focus on each to find the best because you feel you can't rely on the camera is pretty maddening.

Yes. To work it has to lock on to the face very quickly and then track it. If you can’t get a lock in the first place the system breaks down. With the 35mm wide open I can’t get a lock. Never had this problem with Canon. I may have to compromise and get a faster lens.

colombiano wrote:

Makingtrax wrote:

ediblestarfish wrote:

Makingtrax wrote:

Can you share your settings. I’ve been struggling to get much in focus with 3yr old, unless they’re standing still.

If I use eye recognition with AFC, I find it too slow to get focus, and if I use wide tracking I find often the eyes aren’t in focus when I pixel peep.

Any help much appreciated.

This is my experience too. Even with the f2 and its smaller maximum aperture giving more DoF and naturally having an AF speed advantage, my keeper rate is quite low unless I generate more DoF by stepping back or stopping down more.

The 35mm f1.4 is much slower at closer distances, as the maximum AF speed seems a bit more limited, and the distance % changes are higher, giving the AF a real workout.

Also at f1.4, the eye-af frequently hits the eyelashes instead of the pupil.

Still, the best sharp images are when I shoot low speed bursts when my 3 year old is occupied with something and slows down. Standing still helps of course, but I sometimes get the odd mis-focus.

In any case, the one-eye in focus thing isn't really my style, and I tend to shoot f4 normally (also you get a crazy resolution boost). So the f1.4 isn't really missed for my style of shooting. You can see my results here, though most are with the 23mm f2 @ f4.

https://sunflowerinthesky.smugmug.com

Thanks for that. I enjoyed looking at your photos.

Coming from 5DIi and 70-200f2.8 I found that combo very good for toddler photos. The focus was quick and I wasn’t in their faces. The keeper rate was excellent.

But I switched to Fuji xT3 to go mirrorless, lighter and have eye recognition. I also bought the 35mm 1.4, 56mm 1,2, and 16mm 1.4. But so far I’ve been a bit disappointed. I like shallow DOF shots and when the subject is fairly still I get good results, but as soon as the subject is moving about I’m struggling to get anything sharp wide open, even at decent shutter speeds. I’m hoping it’s my technique and will keep practising to find one that works but eye recognition is not fast enough with these lenses.

For best results for action you would have to buy some other lenses - 90F2 or 50-140 F2.8. Those are the ones with quickest autofocus.

I have 90 and am very satisfied with it for action shots - but you need to have the space, so it's mostly lens for outside kids' action.

That’s what I feared. Thanks.