Fuji X100S deal: at BHphoto, AmazonUS, Adorama and Pictureline
Fuji X-E2 deal: at AmazonUS, BHphoto, Adorama and Pictureline
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THE RUMOR
As you know, in early June I told you about an updated 35mm f/1.4. It has become quiet around this rumor, so that I thought that Fuji has dropped original plans. But now an anonymous source told me that the 35mmMKII could be announced early 2015.
THE PATENT
[UDPATE: As JoHo said in the comments: The US patent is a (presumably just translated) version of a patent that has been filed in December 2011 in Japan (see priority date). So it is unlikely that it refers to a new design.]
ORIGINAL POST: And this could be another hint: here is a patent (click here) showing a new 35mm f/1.4 lens. So there were/are definitely plans to upgrade it. Early rumors said that the upgrade would basically be just about a faster AF speed (and not weather sealing).
But be careful: a rumor + a patent are still not a fact! So take it with the usual grain of salt for now. Especially since at photokina a manager said that the 35 ver.2 could eventually come after they have released all the other lenses…. but I remember managers denying an update to the X100 just a few months before the X100S was announced, so who knows…
Don’t worry, I’ll do my homeworks and hopefully be able to update you soon with something more reliable.
55 Responses
Looks expensive.
If it’s bigger I don’t want it.
Unless they make it faster, don’t see it getting much bigger.
Lens Construction is the same, as the current XF35mmF1.4 R. http://www.fujifilm.eu/eu/products/digital-cameras/fujinon-x-mount-lenses/model/fujinon-xf35mmf14-r/specifications/
The optical formula is basically identical to the current 35mm f1.4. http://www.fujifilm.com/products/digital_cameras/x/fujinon_lens_xf35mmf14_r/specifications/
How can you tell that? Do you know which glass they are using? If so, there is no patent required. I bet there are optically differences, they might be smaller or bigger in the real concept, no way to tell by just a sketch.
Using my eyes and comparing the published optical diagram with the one in the patent filing? It’s already been established the patent mentioned is for the original 35mm f1.4, nothing to see here, move along.
Surely it will have internal focusing…?
The optical formula is possibly the same without weather sealed. So.. Will it be only the upgrade of AF?
A conventional lens hood and a smoother focus ring would be appreciated
The US patent is a (presumably just translated) version of a patent that has been filed in December 2011 in Japan (see priority date). So it is unlikely that it refers to a new design.
If true, I wonder if they’ll pre-announce or put it on the roadmap at all. If it is an addition, yes. But if a replacement? That would certainly be amazingly customer-centric.
Since the current one s..ks,make a new 28mm instead?
I wouldn’t say the actual 35mm F1.4 sucks, unless you seek perfection!
The 28mm (18mm) sucks, and that’s what must be redone,not the 35mm.
You’re really going to confuse people if you refer to Fuji lenses by their equivalent focal lengths. Let’s call the 18mm the 18mm. Try using a 3rd party converter that lets you disable distortion corrections such as Iridient Developer. The lens is way sharper then. http://lightpriority.net/2014/01/fuji-18mm-f2-r-review/
The 18mm doesn’t ‘suck’. It’s a very good lens. It focuses fast, is just a little soft in the corners, and is very unfashionable now. As opposed to the 27mm, which is a very good lens. It focuses fast, is just a little soft in the corners, and is very fashionable now.
What’s changed is the mercurial nature of shutterbugs and their goldfish-grade memory.
the 27mm is most definitely not soft in the corners, from the charts it’s one of the sharpest lenses Fuji makes. By f4 it’s sharper than the 35mm and 23mm across the frame. In fact it completely kicks the 35mm which only really shines in the center even stopped down. The 18mm suffers a lot from software based distortion correction, turn it off in a 3rd party converted and the corners suddenly improve massively.
The times when you need a fast 35mm lens, only a fast 35mm lens will do. I’m not big on the 27mm. I tried it before the Masters of the Internet proclaimed it a wonder, and (like most people before it received its historical revisionist airbrushing) thought it so-so.
Imagine my surprise when this mediocre lens became the darling of the Fuji range.
Nope. It’s the 2014 US continuance of the 2012 International continuance of the 2011 patent of the original 35mm f/1.4 lens. These things take time to filter through the relevant patent offices.
I wouldn’t get your hopes raised about a massive redesign here. There might be a series change to speed up the AF and get rid of all the squeaks and growls it makes, but not a root-and-branch change. Sorry.
How do you pronounce Oojnika?
“who d’ja nick a”
that is a seriously cool name.
Sounds good. I just wonder if the day when Sigma and Tamron will make AF X mount lenses will really come!
Maybe the X-Pro 2 will come attached to it.
The 35mm is a centerpiece lens of the Fuji system so it needs an update to be more in line with the more modern 23mm and 56mm.
http://photobyandrei.wordpress.com/
It certainly needs better AF, but I hope it doesn’t get massive and become another $1000 lens.
Considering the 35 f1.4 had a MSRP of 600$ when it came out…I guess the replacement will be around 7-800$. New lenses tend to cost more than the older ones used to cost when they came out…
Dear Fujifilm, we already have a 35mm f/1.4. Please, make it 35mm f/0.95.
Why not just rub vaseline on the lens if you want nothing in focus? 😉
Would be great for environmental portrait and definitively close the last advantage of full frame and shallow dof
You can already buy a 35mm f0.95 lens from Mitakon. Or you can combine a metabones speed booster with a 50mm prime to get ‘full frame’ equivalent shallow DOF. AF at f0.95 in the dark would be next to impossible anyway so you might as well get used to manual focus lenses 🙂
AF worked ok on my Canon 50 1.2 and 50 1.4, don’t see any reason why it wouldn’t work on a fuji equivalent. A dodgy MF lens is no substitute at all.
I’m sure it would work, but I doubt it would work well. It would inevitably be slower, using it in low light situations would only hamper this further. Then you have to factor in the fact that the smallest movement by the photographer between focus being acquired and the shot being taken would result in missed focus.
I need bright lenses for available light photography. My 56mm f/1.2 focuses just fine, f/0.95 should be fine as well. Still, 35mm f/1.2 would be welcomed too.
35mm F1.4 mark II very welcome, but no AF/MF clutch with DOF scale on the lens ( like the 14mm and 23mm). I want to see the DOF scale in the VF.
Clutch is ok but DOF scale only in VF which is more precise.
Looking forward to this. Original 35mm is too soft wide open. Replaced it with the Zeiss 32mm which is great wide open but focuses substantially slower/less accurately. Both are compromises. Hopefully this is the ideal solution.
My Zeiss focused faster than my 35/1.4.
Interesting. Sometime mine focuses fast but a lot of times it hunts. And often when reviewing images I find the focus point is out of focus even though the camera supposedly locked focus.
I think the Fuji managers would have to deny this particular rumour anyway, to stop reducing sales of the present 35mm.
No plans for a MF – FF camera already?
BOOOORING!
35mm 1.4mkll + xpro 2 is perfect
Should I wait for the 35mm MK II or just buy the original 35mm?
When did the current 35mm started sucking? It has always been praised as an astonishing piece of glass, THE lens that convinced many X-series users (and others) of Fuji seriousness in this series of cameras/lenses and talent as glass maker! Now that this version 2 rumor appears, it suddenly “sucks” and has many flaws… Gosh… You people…
That autofocus could be faster
I don’t get it. It looks exactly the same like the optical formula of the current 35mm, like some guys stated here earlier, but is a new patent published two weeks ago.
Maybe just a weather sealed version of the lens?
Earlier rumors stated that the new 35mm f/1.4 mark II will coming with improved AF. The current version was made for contrast detect focus systems (X-Pro 1, X-E1, X-M1, X-A1), but the latest bodies (X-E2, X-T1) have faster and better hybrid AF (contrast + phase detection).
And of course the weather sealing isn’t impossible. I’m exiting! 🙂
“And this could be another hint: here is a patent (click here) showing a new 35mm f/1.4 lens. So there were/are definitely plans to upgrade it.”
It seems pretty clear that the information/speculation above is incorrect. We are looking at patent information showing the current 35mm lens and thus that information tells us nothing about plans to upgrade it.
So Patrick…Do you have plans on correcting this posting?
sry, I was too busy with my life beyond FR… just updated it
should we now expect duplicates of all lenses?
running outta ideas. a pity.
And knowing what happened in the past, precisely this worried me the most with Fuji. As well the marketing as R&D has always been extremely weird versus the more conservative mainstream manufacturers. A company that starts replacing glass in a 2,5 years cycle doesn’t provide any confidence for me. Most of all because due to the complex ‘fly by wire’ and the very distributed concept of these cameras, a lot of electronics and firmware are sitting in the lenses. What about the investment, which is always, for every photographer, for the biggest part related to the expensive glass? Will I still be able to use a XF35mm MKI on a X-Pro3 or X-T3, is there really a legacy future? Will Fuji still update lens firmware for the MKI’s? A good concept doesn’t need to change, it is 100% reliable and stable. If this is all true we should immediately ask the question why Fuji is already coming with a MKII? May I give the answer? Because the possibilities of improving the AF-speed has come to an end using this particular hardware. The motor drive was no ultrasonic design. And if anything optically changes (where this patent seems to allude to) it is because there were on this issues too, maybe it was even too expensive to built in this price class. Despite the good press, I never found the XF35mm to be such a winner – the XF23mm is much more refined lens, better made, already a different generation. If this is the way to go with the X-series I bet a lot will get very, I mean really very disappointed in the (serious amount of) money they have spend to this system. Professionals don’t have the habit to replace glass in only a few years time!
For everybody who is going gaga over or is disappointed with how the “35 mm mkII” will be, please please note that this is in fact, as many have already pointed out, the patent application for the ORIGINAL 35mm/1.4 originally filed in Japan in 2011 (that is THREE YEARS AGO) and therefore tells us virtually ZERO about 1) Whether there will even be an “mkII” version of this lens and 2) how this mythical beast will be constructed/perform. Please update the article so that the UPDATE part is reflected in the main text, instead of being hidden away.