That sounds like a pretty broad statement...but bear with me and see if you can't find at least one point of agreement. I feel a lens for a camera system - any system - should be:
a. Well-built. I cannot decry a polycarbonate outer barrel for some lenses, but I still feel better if the barrel features a great deal of metal. Not necessarily the heaviest casting available - but a lightweight alloy at least.
b. A finished barrel. By that I mean something better than the raw aluminium horrors we saw in the 60's from central Europe. Some of those lenses were destined to get scuffed and marked if they struck popcorn. The lens barrel design and finish should have a definable family resemblence all through the range.
c. A metal mount - chromed brass in the case of the Fujifilm G series. For the kind of money they are asking, polycarbonate is not on.
d. Water and dust resistant designs.
e. Outstanding image quality and coatings. Sharp, free of distortion, free of aberration.
f. Sharp and clean aperture settings - preferably with click stops and preferably in 1/3 stop increments.
g. Engraved, not painted, markings.
h. Small enough apertures to use with powerful studio lighting. f:22 at least and f:32 if possible. If there is a lens modulator program in the camera to let you use these small stops, all the better.
i. A large enough maximum aperture to please the Out Of Focus types.
j. Lens mounts that bayonet on and off.
In all cases, the G series lenses from Fujifilm meet these criteria. The professional sample box contained the GF63mmf2.8R WR, the
GF23mmf:4R LM WR, and the new
GF120mmf:4R LM OIS WR Macro. They are the normal, wide, and portrait macro standards for this system - 50mm, 18mm, and 95mm equivalents for the people who think in 35mm film terms. As you can imagine, they clicked on and clicked off perfectly, as did their respective lens hoods. The polariser fiddlers will appreciate the sliding door on the 120mm as a way to get into the filter while the hood is on.
They will also appreciate the hightly effective limiter switch and the optical image stabiliser. Note that there is also a mysterious C point for the aperture rings on these lenses as well...
Note that these lenses on this camera ar fast - as fast to snap into an autofocus as the smaller types on the X-series cameras. Even though they are heaving larger glass about there is no disadvantage.
Well, I must continue tidying up the old magazines here in the studio. It would appear that Jasmine was quite a star in the 50's. I wonder what ever happened to her...?
