Weird glow in fujinon 23mm 1.4 at wide open

100% zoomed image

I am noticing this weird glow / ghosting in my 23 at 1.4, is this common or am I doing something wrong? Please look at the image attached and help.
I notice this happening mostly in high contrast images. Once I stop down to f2 it almost vanishes. Sometimes I observe black borders appearing at the edge. bokeh near the focus point has some kind of ghosting effect. Please observe the teeth, it has a pronounced ghosting effect.

I'd offer that it is an out of focus effect.

I specifically kept the teeth in focus to check for the same, I don't believe it's the case here.

Try manual focus. At wide angle the Fuji focus can be erratic. Don't use any filters. In the end the lens can be the cause but this is rather unlikely imo.

That’s unfortunately all that uncommon with the 23 f/1.4 wide open. Not all are that bad, but many are. If you want top notch performance at f/1.4 in high contrast situations, you really want the new 23mm WR. I gave up on the old 23 after three tries and three lousy copies and bought an X100V instead. Yours actually looks significantly better than the ones I had.

Looks like camera shake/image stabilization artifact or internal lens reflection. nt 60mm misbehaves a bit like this wide open and up close. a flaw......

justinwonnacott wrote:

Looks like camera shake/image stabilization artifact

There certainly is slight camera shake here.

Shutter 1/250, ISO 160 and IBIS was on

I will try it with IBIS off and update here shortly

Reading the other replies and looking again the whole image is soft and the halo effect on the teeth is obvious because of the very marked contrast white to pink gum.

Eric reports more than one copy which was soft and that may be your issue, but it will need more testing to know.

That looks like a nice image to me 🤷‍♂️

It is, but a bit soft.  Topaz Sharpen AI makes a lot of difference and leaves the teeth looking OK too.  It is a nice image.

a_c_skinner wrote:

It is, but a bit soft. Topaz Sharpen AI makes a lot of difference and leaves the teeth looking OK too. It is a nice image.

Tried everything, it looks like either I should compromise on print or shoot at f2 or higher.

That "glow" looks like the close focus issue that some of Fuji's f/2 lenses suffer from. I didn't think the 23mm f1.4 was prone to this - mine certainly was not. And you're not at minimum focus, so even more of a mystery.

Are you using face or eye detect?

Almost looks like focus might be on the right eye putting the front part of the face slightly out of focus.

Try just using single point AF for your tests while using mechanical shutter for optimal bokeh and try a faster shutter speed like 1/500 just to eliminate any chance of subject movement or shutter shock.

I've had this lens and was always pretty impressive in terms of sharpness and bokeh even at 1.4.

I have the 23 F2 now and it certainly lacks some of the special rendering and pop of the 23 1.4.