If the 18-135 is the allrounder travel lens you’ve waited for, feel free to pre-order it at BHphoto, AmazonUS, Adorama to support FR. You won’t pay a single penny more on your lens, but a small comission is valued back to Fujirumors. Thanks in advance to those who decide to support this blog.
XF 18-135 pre-orders: USA: BHphoto / AmazonUS / Adorama / – EUROPE: wexUK / wexDE / PCHstore
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
MUST READ: Rico’s First Look here
– XF18-135mm F3.5-5.6 R OIS WR Initial Impressions at bencherryphotos: “With this lens attached to a X-T1 I was able to capture a variety of photographs that wouldn’t be possible with any one lens currently in the Fujifilm line up. The other bonus of this lens is that it’s the first weather sealed lens, which came in handy during one extreme downpour. Overall this is a fantastic lens if you’re looking for an extremely versatile lens to always have on your Fuji camera.”
– On the test bench: The New Fuji 18-135mm at lovetheimage: “The OIS (image stabilisation to you and I) does seem to be very effective when shooting handheld – giving you a little extra room for manoeuvre on shutter speed and aperture. This has been really useful lately as even some of the outdoor shoots have been in very low light and dark sky conditions. It hailed so hard at the polo, they all charged off the pitch to take shelter!! You can see the rain drops in the final image (better on the high res file). And of course, being the first ‘Weather Sealed’ lens in the Fuji range – perfect for my outdoor, muddy playground!”
Video: the X-T1 with the 18-135mm WR lens under the rain (youtube video)
XF 18-135: BHphoto / AmazonUS / Adorama
Fuji X-T1: [shopcountry 21553]
44 Responses
His tee shirt isn’t weatherproof.
So there will be a new firmware for the X-T1 soon.
Most any camera will take photos in the rain. The question is whether it will work tomorrow.
Right! The moisture within the lens (if it had a chance to come there) will condense again when brought into the cold outside visa versa and so on. Within the condensing-evaporation cycle tiny deposits can be left behind. That’s the process, but I think chances are low.
Another first impressions post to add to your list:
http://www.lovetheimage.co.uk/on-the-test-bench-the-new-fuji-18-135mm/
added, thx for sharing
oh oh what a nightmare, shirt wiped lens)
not a big deal really
seems like none of the first impressions speak to IQ….but they do detail other benefits such as focal range, weather sealing (the obvious). Does anyone else find it interesting that there is no mention of IQ?
They are probably working with pre-production lenses for reviews this early…
Not only pre production lens (one reviewer mention his copy serial # is “prototype 14” but also test firmware. Despite that one or two mention that they were surprised by the IQ, but with no details.
correct
If they didn’t have a reasonable expectation that the pre-production lenses would be pretty representative of the final release, why bother having a first impression. I mean c’mon that rain video was ridiculous. The pictures were awful and we have no idea if any water managed to get inside the lens. And didn’t that bozos mother ever tell him not to come in from the rain?
Probably because a zoom lens, especially with this range, is never going to be a top performer. Just like the 18-55mm does not have as good image quality as the 23mm or the 35mm.
I think Fuji Rumors has become more of an advertising (and selling-PRE-ORDER NOW) site than a rumor and dispassionate look at Fuji products site. Can you imagine the out-cry if “Nikon Ambassadors” were the only ones posting first impressions on Nikon Rumors. In know Patrick puts a lot of time and effort into FR and he has to make a living, but couldn’t we be just a little more unbiased? To not talk about IQ in First Impressions is a little like Fox News not wanting to talk about Benghazi anymore.
Tomorrow (19th of june) Fuji France will come with a spectaculair announcement if I remember correctly. Patrick can you confirm this ?
All I know is this http://www.fujirumors.com/rumor/
It’s probably more of the X-Robot
Dont get to excited , the way these announcements are delivered it could be something as exciting as a new lens cap
Well mine is on order with Adorama. Planning a trip to Hawaii this fall and I will take the 18-135 and 14mm along with my X-Ti. I will also take my X-E1 with the 27mm glued on
Would like to see a visual size comparison to 18-55mm.
Shouldn’t be too difficult to find a top view of both the standard x-t1 kit and the new 18-135, both are around ..
I’ll give you the latter for free:
http://www.dpreview.com/news/2014/06/16/fujifilm-launches-weather-resistant-xf-18-135mm-f3-5-5-6-r-lm-ois-wr
Its not really a small system anymore, once you add the handgrip … but fascinating none the less.
http://camerasize.com/compact/#333.25,520.426,489,491.34,551.418,ha,t
The goal of ‘Mirrorless’ at least in Fuji’s case was never to be the smallest, but simply to be the most efficient (compared to DSLR) with APSC at minimum, high standards in optics, and premium built. Also meaning $$$ of course.
It’s all relative, if you don’t like the size then APSC is the wrong choice, if you don’t mind compromises in quality or a different system then you don’t need Fuji. Simple, no? 🙂
Efficient? As in; effective, value, reliable, usage – one can argue forever on those parameters and achieve nothing. Fuji’s place in the market is rather obvious … they sell a lot more when they drop the price by a few 100’s …
What is interesting is how far away visually/design wise from the rest of the market the X-T1 is. I would guess the market for cameras with lots of dials is, as for cameras that look like rangefinders, rather small.
However, soften the design a little and increase the size of the hand grip, add a PASM dial (as in the X-M1) and the X-T1 would possibly be very interesting to that other market segment which typically buys a digital rebel and don’t really care what all those dials are for.
Perhaps the next X-Pro will have the DSLR form factor? Would be even more fascinating if they maintained the OVF!
No most efficient as in losing its mirror, but not anything else. Point is that the other brands deliver those other ‘parameters’, and one is to accept the parameter Fuji delivers. 🙂
Then “equivalent” to DSLR in function.
Sure, personally i’d say it became much more. 🙂
DSLR isn’t the benchmark for perfection you know, even in the old days Rangefinder people would argue otherwise.
Yes, much more but still some way to go. Only a matter of time.
I put my money on a DSLR equivalent, both form and function (i.e. PASM etc), as they did with the M1/A1. A Pro variant with OVF/EVF and new sensor/platform, and an entry level variant with EVF only and previous/current sensor/platform.
Make no sense to me .. That’s going backwards.
I would expect that!
However it could make a lot of sense to Fuji as the PASM DSLR market is _huge_ in comparison to the Retro/Manual you have to know what you’re doing market. Just give them camera they are familiar with … and probably they will buy it. Currently they have only the X-M1, and that is not a “real camera” in the mind of this market.
Yes exactly that market is huge, and any decent company knows you don’t offer what’s already there, you make something different and that’s what they did and should continue to do considering their limited resources. Why do you continue to wish for them to become like so many others. Those options are already there, duplicating them achieves nothing, other than becoming another jack of all trades but master of none.
Agree! We don’t need the same-old, same-old…
If Fuji used a PASM dial instead of the shutter speed and exposure compensation dials, and they didn’t have aperture rings on the lenses, I wouldn’t buy another Fuji camera. Actually, I probably wouldn’t have bought one, as that is one of the things that I don’t like about other cameras: digital cameras took a step back in design in my opinion, especially without aperture rings on the lenses.
And, the X-Pro 2 should have a rangefinder-style design, not an SLR design, as the X-Pro 1 and the X100s still have the best designs, in my opinion. If they could design the X-Pro 2 like the X100, but with the size of the X-Pro 1 (it is the perfect size, in my opinion), it would be even better. The rest of the X-Series cameras, including the X-T1, are too small for me, which is one of the reasons why I have never liked the feel of Sony or Olympus (don’t like the tiny sensor either) cameras.
Despite the fact that the A7r has a far better sensor than any Fuji camera, even if they resolved the issues (shutter vibration, compressed raw files, loud shutter) and they added a full set of high-quality, fast primes that can resolve 36mps, I would probably be turned off by the design: I have never liked the design and feel of Sony cameras.
That said, Fuji needs to improve the image quality with the X-Pro 2 and provide their own raw converter (ability to convert the raw files to 16-bit TIFF in-camera or with a Fuji-designed bare-bones converter). If not, I may sadly have to switch systems, despite the compromises in design and feel.
Fuji provides Silkypix, that does TIFF apparently. It makes little sense to implement that in-camera.
Fuji is good at pumping out camera bodies, they can make a Rangefinder clone and a DSLR clone at a variety of price points. They already make plenty of Bridge cameras so its nothing new for them – simply take the M1 and package in a nice comfortable plastic DSLR body – will sell like hot cakes in MediaMarkt.
Perhaps even a few more lower cost Primes/Zooms for the low end DSLR form factor.
The problem with that is Silkypix does not produce as good of results as the in-camera converter, to say the least. Thus, it makes a lot of sense to provide the ability to save the raw conversions to 16-bit TIFF using the in-camera converter, as it is the best converter.
“increase the size of the hand grip, add a PASM dial (as in the X-M1) and the X-T1 would possibly be very” … much like an overpriced Pro Olympus camera.
F3.5-5.6 ????
Most people use zooms with those maximum apertures…that make the bulk of the sales for most makers so don’t complain. If you want constant aperture coupled with weather sealing…wait for the two 2.8 zooms 🙂
http://photobyandrei.wordpress.com/
Right Andrei, but are Fuji X cameras for most people?
I prefer fast primes. In this respect, I can not complain about Fuji 🙂
Have you heard anything more about the mirrorless medium format camera that Fuji is apparently designing? That would likely be an incredible camera.
no… trusted sources have no information about it
Thanks. Hopefully it comes true.
The weather sealing coupled with a good range/focal and wrapped up in the convenience of a zoom will be a hit for Fuji if it will offer the new lens as a kit with the X-T1. Most people use zooms with variable maximum aperture so this is not a drawback as some purists would point out.
Not everybody needs the prime or premium constant aperture zooms IQ that’s for sure…
http://photobyandrei.wordpress.com/