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I’d like to apologize in advance: if you were hoping not to feel the urge to part with some of your money, I don’t think this review will be much help. As I told my buddy Morten Byskov in an email when I first got my hands on this lens: damn. When I originally reviewed the X-Pro1 I defined it as something that was clearly “part of a system”, as a camera that by its very nature felt much less intimate than the X100 (the only other X camera at the time). Much has changed since I wrote that review: more X bodies have appeared, the entire ecosystem has exploded with stellar Fuji offerings as well as Zeiss and other third-party lenses added to the mix for good measure; it’s rather phenomenal when you think about it — it hasn’t been that long. But while I came to love the X-Pro1 just as much as the X100 — albeit for different reasons — it still always felt like an extremely refined cog in an ever evolving system. Until now. With the introduction of the XF 23mm f1.4 R lens (B&H), Fuji finally brings the long-awaited 35mm field of view to the X-series, something that was previously only available with an X100/S or via an adapted lens. We could certainly argue about the why’s of such a long delay for an indisputably classic focal length — marketing conspiracies et all — but I doubt anyone will be faulting the execution: saying this was worth the wait is a serious understatement There are many intangibles about using a camera, the way it sits in our hands, how different pieces come together and fall into place. At the risk of sounding way too hyperbolic, here’s the short version of this review: I feel as though the X-Pro1 has just found its long lost sibling – The balance, the size, the weight, the focusing, the build… Everything about this lens feels exactly right to me. Soul mates, baby.....
Via Thomas Menk
