Fujinon 10-24mm F4 OIS Lens Review | Dubai, UAE

Since the beginning of my journey in photography I have always been interested in Ultra Wide Angle (UWA) lenses and I have used different ones, Canon 10-22mm, Sigma 10-20mm, Sigma 8-16mm, Tokina 11-16mm and Canon 16-35mm. If you look at most of my work, you will hardly see any tightly composed shots except for some portraiture work. I always like wide and sweeping view.  I think, it’s more of a personal preference and also depends on what you shoot.    Here in Dubai, you wont have a problem using a wide angle lens, in fact if you want to take a good composition of the Burj Khalifa, the wider the lens the better.

So with my fascination with wide angle lenses, I was really excited the first time I have learned about the Fujinon 10-24mm f4.0 OIS. In fact I was more excited with this lens than the venerable 56mm f1.2. Simply because 60% of my work are taken by a wide angle lens and I know that this lens is going to be my workhorse.

PHYSICAL CONSTRUCTION

Size compared to Canon 16-35 f2.8L Mark II

The 10-24mm construction is top notch. It is no different with the high end X Series lenses like 56mm f1.2, 14mm f2.8 and the 23mm f1.4. In other words, it is beautifully crafted and you will know that it will last for a long time. Fuji doesn’t have a lot of zoom lenses but the 10-24mm is quite big compared to the 18-55mm lens, but don’t be put off with that because it still feels balanced with the X-E2 and X-Pro1. The zoom ring is made of rubber and it takes an amount of force to zoom in and out, which is something I like. I have a problem with my Canon 16-35mm f2.8 of accidentally turning the zoom ring so I end up with a different focal length I intended it to be. This doesn’t happen with the Fujinon 10-24mm. In terms of weight, it is heavy compared to the other zoom lens but it is not that much compared to the 56mm f1.2 and the 23mm f1.4. The weight makes it feels more solid and premium.

PERFORMANCE

It is everything I hoped it will be, it is fast focusing, sharp and gives superb contrast. From my experience with all Ultra Wide Angle Lenses, most of them suffers with two things, first is that the edges are soft and the second is that it shows Color Aberration or color fringing. So the question is, is the same problem with the Fujinon 10-24mm?

In terms of edge to edge sharpness, the Fujinon performed pretty well, although the edges sharpens up a bit more when the lens is stepped down, I think the sweet spot is in the f8 to f9 range. But, even at wide open (f4.0) I have no complain.

Color aberration is the color fringing you see on your photos in areas with high contrast. In the short time that I have used this lens, I deliberately shoot high contrast areas, like tree branches in a brightly lit sky and I hardly see any color fringes. I am quite surprise about this because compared to all the ultra wide lenses I used before, this is by far the best when it comes to color fringing. They did a great job with this lens.

The lens is image stabilized and to be honest at its widest focal length at 10mm you wont need it but it is a feature you wont mind having because it is quite handy to have. It is something essential especially when you are traveling and you don’t want to carry any tripod with you, having an image stabilized lens solves this problem.

I really had a great time using this lens. This is the lens that I always wanted for my X-series system. The focal length is very useful for photographers who shoots landscapes, architecture and even street photography.  I don’t really have any negative comment about this lens, I know others would have wanted a 2.8 lens but it might have made this lens bigger and I think, the current size is just perfect for the X-Series cameras.  And to be honest in landscape or architecture photography which this lens will be most used, you will use high aperture values anyways and at f4.0 it is by no means a slow lens.

This is the lens I have been waiting for the complete my X-Series system.  If you are looking for an ultra wide angle lens, look no further this is one of the best out there.

SAMPLE SHOTS