Good thing the Wordpress dashboard gives me enough space to list out the entire Fujifilm lens designation. A couple of centimetres more and it would be off the end of your computer and dangling over the desk. If you were reading this on the train using your mobile phone you'd be poking the passenger next to you...
Well, today's lens is the dear old overlooked 18-55 kit lens that you can get with the X-series cameras. This focal length choice is not exciting to the photo trade writers because everyone in the biz has made a kit lens of about this general size. Okay - Fujifilm has made theirs a lot sturdier and better looking than several other major makers, but the basic idea is the same - a moderate-aperture lens with a short zoom that the average photographer can take out for most daily purposes.
That they do not do so...preferring the big-buck super primes and exotic zooms because they look so good in the advertisements - is neither here nor there. Everyone is free to make their own choices and the sale of the
wunderoptik is good for trade. But every now and again you get the feeling that someone is overlooking a resource that they really should make more use of...
The lens is really superbly finished and balances well. It carries an OIS mechanism and a usefully wide maximum aperture when you are at 18mm. If focuses fast and the results are...are...are here:
A. The full image.
B. The details.
Yes, you might as well be looking at any of the other Fujinon results as far as resolution and distortion. I'm glad I made a point of shooting identifying pictures before each test exposure and a blank frame between lens changes:
Otherwise I should have given up in hopeless confusion trying to sort out which image had been made with which lens. Whoever the lens development teams are at Fujifilm - and I imagine that there are different crews for each lens made - they and their coordinators can be praised for getting the look of the line as uniform as it is. This also applies to the external appearance of the lenses - no names no pack drill, but glance along the shelves when you are next into Camera Electronic at the way some other makers have such a wide disparity in the appearance of their goods.
I really should say something bad about the 18-55 kit lens here to encourage readers to be dissatisfied with it and to come rushing in to buy handfuls of prime lenses to replace it. That would be good for trade. But quite frankly, it is a corker of a lens and should be used freely by everyone. If you don't have one, check up the cashback situation and come in and get one.
