Fujifilm recently announced a new XC 35mm f2 lens, a low budget version of the XF 35mm f2.
Here is a detailed look at the difference between the new Fujifilm XC 35mm f2 (nifty-fifty) and the higher end XF 35mm f2.
Overview
Years back I did a review on the XF 35mm f2 and never really fell in love with the lens, but it definitely has its place in my setup. It’s just an insanely practical lens and useful in just about every situation. I always felt the lens was too expensive for what it was, so it’s really nice to see Fujifilm release a more affordable version. Finally, they have a nifty-fifty at half the price of the XF 35mm f2. $200 vs $400.
A lot of people might think f2 isn’t fast enough, however, I would say, that depends on what you need. On the new APS-C bodies by Fujifilm f2 lens is totally fine for even night street photography because the ISO performance in these new cameras is so good. The only thing you don’t get from the f2 lens is that really nice bokeh like seen with the 35mm f1.4.
Which is fine, not all styles of photography require you to shoot super shallow depth all the time. Especially for the street or casual photographer. I sort of look at lenses like these as more small lightweight action lenses, they have their place and their purpose.
So finally now, the kit zoom lens wielding hobbyist can have a taste of that sweet prime lens greatness without breaking the bank. This was a super-smart move, and this lens is going to be a very important part of the system.
Fujifilm XC 35mm f2 – B&H
Fujifilm XF 35mm f2 – B&H
Fujifilm XF 35mm f2 vs Fujifilm XC 35mm f2
What’s the same
There are a few things that are the same between these two lenses and a few that are different. Choosing which lens you need should be fairly obvious.
Image Quality
It’s hard to know exactly for sure if the optical chemistry and design are identical but I’m pretty sure it’s the same, based on what I’ve seen from various samples.
Autofocus
The XC features the same silent stepping motor as the XF 35mm f2 so it’s fairly capable even when shooting in AF-C mode.
| Image Quality | XF 35mm f2 | XC 35mm f2 |
| Aperture | 9R | 9R |
| Optical Formula | 9/6 | 9/6 |
| Aspherical Elements | 2 | 2 |
| Coatings | EBC coated | EBC coated |
| Minimum Focus | 1.15′ / 35 cm | 1.15′ / 35 cm |
What’s Different
Build quality and materials.
The outer barrel on the XF 35mm is made of metal and the lens mount is made of metal, while the XC lens is all plastic.
There is no aperture ring setup on the XC 35mm f2, so you will have to dedicate one of your dials to control the aperture, which can be a little annoying.
Here is a comparison of build quality features.
| Build Quality | XF 35mm f2 | XC 35mm f2 |
| Size | 2.36 x 1.81″ / 60 x 45.9 mm | 2.3 x 1.83″ / 58.4 x 46.5 mm |
| Weight | 6 oz / 170 g | 4.59Â oz / 130Â g |
| Materials | Metal | Plastic |
| Focus Ring | Yes | Yes |
| Aperture Ring | Yes | No |
| Filter Threads | Ă˜43mm | Ă˜43mm |
| Lens Mount | Metal | Plastic |
| Weather-Sealed | Yes | No |
| Focus Mech | Silent Stepping | Silent Stepping |
| Focus System | Internal | Internal |
Image Quality Overview
I won’t get too detailed with the image quality since you can just read my XF 35mm f2 review. Both lenses should be the same, I do however want to point out a few things.
Image Quality Is Clinical . . . Maybe
You see this term thrown around a lot. I like to apply it to lenses that are designed all for sharpness and or perfect smooth bokeh at the cost of everything else. You know, those 20 element Sigma lenses or even some of the Nikon Z prime lenses you could say are a little clinical, although the Nikon’s usually do have some interesting character.
But those “clinical,” lenses always lack one important thing, Micro-Contrast / Lens Pop.
There is this idea floating around that this doesn’t exist. However, Zeiss talks about it on their website, and since I’m always one to go against trends and the norm, I’ve been doing a lot of testing lately to really see if it’s a thing. And I can say, I’ve gone back and forth with my 12 element Z 85mm and some of my other lower element lenses, and the Nikon just doesn’t have the same tonality as some of my other lenses. So it is a thing.
These little 35mm f2 lenses do have really nice tonality. They also have insanely good saturation and contrast, better than the XF 35mm f1.4 by a little bit.
Why is this good tonality important?
Because when shooting black and white or even street photography or just people, you want tonal details. It’s super important. For the general average joe, working many photographers, it’s one of the most important attributes a lens can have.
But, it’s not as important when shooting models that you will post-process into looking like plastic barbie dolls, a look still used by so many portrait photographers for whatever reason. This is why it’s sometimes good to have more than one lens in the same focal length.
Autofocus Ability
It’s been a while since I’ve shot with the 35mm f2 so I wanted to go out and see how it performs on the X-T3 compared to some of the new cameras like the Z6. I will say that Z 50mm f1.8 lens with the Z6 is probably the fastest focusing experience I’ve ever seen.
So how does this 35mm f2 compare to that massive expensive lens?
It’s not quite as fast or as responsive. Some of this is the camera some is the lens. It struggles to track just a little more. Most of the time it’s fine, but with kids running around and running towards you, it does miss with AF-C sometimes so you will need to be pretty disciplined at setting your AF-C modes for the appropriate situations. I find for kids the SET 1 – Multipurpose is the best.Â
So the AF is pretty good by modern standards, just not the best. Really if you’re using a modern camera with these modern lenses and you’re not getting focused shots . . . it’s probably not the gears fault and you’ll likely need to work with the settings a little more to match the situation.Â
Latest Samples From The XF 35mm f2
Since this is such a great multi-purpose lens, I really like bringing it to situations where you want to keep things small and light, and you don’t want to be annoying to the people around you with big camera gear. That is the whole point of this XC 35mm f2 I think, casual photography.
Here are some samples I shot with the XF 35mm f2 of the little ones at their school.
16 comments
Nice pictures as usual.
I love your post processing, would love some suggestions on how to achieve something similar, unrelated to used software maybe.
I’ve been working on some video for that. Recorded one but the audio was messed up so gatta do it again.
Hi Alik,
Nice photographs ! đŸ™‚
Out of curiosity, for your photography, especially for dark scene/night time, do you use sometimes a flash (speedlight) ?
For the streets photography at night I don’t think so (too far away from the subjects, and maybe you don’t want to fight at night with strangers blinded by the flash light :-D), but maybe for the photographs or your family and friends ?
Other question, not related to the xc 35 topic (sorry !), I’d like to try the ~35mm (eq FF) focal length with my fuji. Which lens would you advise me to use ? A kamlan, a 7artisans, another chinese lens or a better optically Samyang ? Maybe wait for the viltrox 23 f1.4 release ?
Thank you, have a good day
I rarely use a flash unless I’m shooting set up portrait shots, or if I’m intentionally going for an 80’s retro look. For the street stuff I usually hunt for good lighting with a nice background and wait for people pass through.
If you just want to test out that focal length, go with the Meike / 7Artisans because they are so cheap but still produce good results. Ideally the slower lenses like the f1.7 will give you the best results and those lenses will be more useful in most situations. Then if you find you love that focal length wait till that Viltrox comes out and then you can have a nice lineup to choose from. Those Viltrox lenses should have autofocus.
Something to be aware of though, is that those cheap lenses usually don’t focus at far distances very well when wide open. Where as the better Viltrox / Samyang / Kamlan lenses do.
Here is a flash sample.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/3936bc7bc0a919a902f0ea9dd61259b6f05707533201d6ace96e8c8f3f2fbbc1.jpg
Hello Alik,
Thank you for your long reply !
I will try to shoot some photographs with a flash, I really like the mood of your flash sample picture ! Nice shot !
For the street stuff, ok good lightning with somes neons/stores to light up the subjects and add some mood, I’m taking some note đŸ˜‰ In my city in France, it’s not really doable at night but I will try next time I’m going to Asia.
Thank you for the information concerning the ~35mm FF, I saw some softness for the Meike, the 7artisans seems better, but when I read your post about it, I noted that you got a pretty bad lens. Anyway maybe I will try the 7artisans (luckily I got good copies of the 55 and 35mm), or spend a little more for the Samyang f1.4 to shoot astro occasionally..
Thank you for the advice, but when you say that those cheap chinese lenses don’t focus at infinity, is it also the case once closed down ?
Have a nice day !
They focus at infinity just not very good wide open on the faster lenses. The f1.4 that I use for example just never really seems sharp at infinity. It could be that the images are just soft always, so when the subject is far away it just becomes too difficult to resolve detail on the smaller subjects or even see what’s in focus, so getting accurate focus ends up being difficult. I actually think that’s more what happens than them not focusing at infinity. But yeah, stop down to like f2 or f2.8 for far away things and it seems to be ok with most of the lenses.
Hi Alik,
Ok I understand, it might be a mix between lens resolution/high ISO/shallow focus depth wide open. I thought you were talking about lens focus calibration at infinity, focus breathing depending on aperture, stuffs like this.
Thank you again for your replies, keep going your amazing work !
Yeah, I’m not sure 100% what it is and it’s probably a mix of things. I haven’t gotten too scientific with this :). Sometimes I get shots that look decent at infinity when wide open with some lenses but a lot will be just messy looking with poor sharpness. Depends on the lens. Most of the time the f1.4 or f1.2 35mm lenses that are super small, like the Meike or 7Artisans lenses just don’t do well at far distances wide open. It could very well be the optical design, the optics and light rays might be calibrated to converge perfectly at a distance sweet spot for best performance at mid to close which is how most people will shoot wide open. We even see this sometimes with higher end lenses. Some lenses are sharper at infinity, some lenses are sharper close. Nikon has been doing dual focus motors with dual focus elements to correct for some of this in their lenses.
Hi Alik,
Thank you for those information. I didn’t know that somes lenses were designed to improve close or far away focus. Now the dual focus motors make sense.
For the 7artisans I found this => https://yukosteel.wordpress.com/2018/01/22/7artisans-35mm-f1-2-calibrating-infinity/ to be able to focus correctly at infinity @ f1.2.
After all, if the shots are not intended to be printed on A3 or A2, the lack of sharpness is not a problem, and I don’t know anybody who would try to do landscape photography wide open with a cheap lens :-). And for your style of photography (street/family pictures), total sharpness is not required as it adds something to the mood/style of the photographs.
Yes, exactly, Nobody really needs to shoot wide open at infinity on fast lenses most of the time, f1.8-f2 is good enough for most night street stuff I’ve found, and f2.8 is good enough for astrophotography.
I would also say, the issue isn’t necessarily that these lenses don’t focus well at infinity. That’s a different issue with calibration. I had this happen on one of my Samyang lenses once. What happens are the lenses are not very sharp wide open so subjects that are far away just lack detail because they are smaller in the frame. So it’s fine when you’re shooting headshots, but far away when things are smaller, there ends up being that sort of spherical aberration haze that just consumes everything.
Hi Alik,
Yes, f1.8 or f2 gives already a pretty shallow depth of field to manage when using a manual focus lens đŸ™‚ I saw you were shooting street photographs at 1/125th or 1/250th, I have to try those shutter speed at night, and to check if the iso noise from the fuji is acceptable.
For astro on fuji cameras, you can get the samyang 12mm f2, so contrasty for landscape @f8, and @f2/f2.8 it produces really clean shots of stars and milky way.
OK I understand the difference between mechanical calibration of the lens and what you are talking about. You’re right, if it’s already little bit soft wide open for close to mid distance, for long distance shots at night it won’t do marvels đŸ˜‰ if one is a pixel-peeper, he would have a stroke đŸ˜€
I would love to get some inspiration because I really love your eye and post processing with lots of contrast and this beautiful play of light vs shadow as well as the overall color balanced look which is somehow film inspired. I am yet to find the correct way to edit photos of my daughter and still lust over the rolls I shot of my little girl with my old Pentax combined with some everyday Kodak.
Your daughter uses her mother’s family name in Japan.
Same case than me :).
Yep. It was easier that way.
Nice one Alik. The XC seems like a great casual solution or a perfect first lens for someone who wants their first real camera. We should do a video on these two lenses.