XF 10-24mm F4 OIS Review (Re)Posted

I can’t believe it’s been 4 years since I first tried the XF 10-24mm F4 OIS. I had just a few hours with the lens back then, and managed to get a pretty good feel for it, however those impressions were in desperate need of being fleshed out in parts, and wholly reconsidered in others.

There’s another impressions page that needs updating. Once that’s finished I’ll be getting back to new lens reviews until my X-H1 arrives.

In the meantime, here’s a proper XF 10-24mm F4 OIS review.

XF 10-24mm F4 OIS vs. Primes Redux

Almost two years ago, I published my XF 10-24mm F4 OIS vs. Primes article, which compared the zoom to the XF 14mm F2.8, XF 18mm F2, XF 23mm F1.4, and even the Zeiss Touit 12mm F/2.8. It was a beast of an article, and I had pushed my CMS to its breaking point, literally. Making edits to this page was excruciating, and I imagine loading the page took longer than it should as well.

It took much longer than expected, but I have given this page a serious once over, updating copy, redoing comparison images to be more clear, and removing dozens of page elements and re-optimizing images to improve page responsiveness.

In addition, reviewing comparison images from so many lenses at once was a real chore on a 15 inch display. Having this new 5K iMac has made an incredible difference in how quickly I can review comparison images, and export assets for the site.

I hope this edit makes the page more useful. Check out or revisit this monster comparison.

A Case For a Weather Sealed 10-24mm f/4

This morning I woke up early to do some shooting with my new 50-140mm f/2.8. I figured I might as well throw the 10-24mm f/4 in my bag as well to round out my focal range. It occurred to me right then how great a combo the 10-24mm and 50-140mm is. Add in the fantastic 35mm f/1.4, and all your focal length bases would be very well covered.

This might be the most ideal kit available from Fuji, and would probably remain that way even after the 16-55mm f/2.8 comes out if it weren’t for one thing.

Weather Sealing

I’ve griped about this before, but this morning was another reminder of how much I wish Fuji had made this weather resistant. I packed my bag, jumped in the car, and upon exiting the garage, discovered it was drizzling quite heavily. I was undeterred thanks to the 50-140mm, but I thought to myself “Whelp, guess I won’t be using the 10-24mm.”

That sucks. Especially since as the 16-55mm f/2.8 approaches, I find myself thinking more and more that I’m going to prefer having the 10-24mm f/4. It zooms internally like the 50-140mm f/2.8, it shares the same 72mm filter thread,¹ and it goes quite a bit wider than the 16-55mm f/2.8.

FUJINON XF 10-24mm f/4 R OIS II WR

Rumours of Fuji releasing a Mark II version of their 35mm f/1.4 abound,² but just last week they’ve shown their willingness to re-issue lenses with Mark II versions of their XC lenses. I also asked one of Fuji’s engineers about the possibility of re-issuing a weather sealed version of the 10-24mm f/4 with weather sealing, to which he replied it was possible, but the lens mmight be slighty larger. I’d take a slight bump in size on a lens like that if it I could use it unfavourable weather any day. Here’s hoping.

1. The 16-55mm f/2.8 is 77mm. Yes, I could add a step up ring to the 50-140mm f/2.8, but the hood will either be unusable or a pain to use. Not an option for me.↩
2. Rumours that have since been squashed, it would seem.

FUJINON XF 10-24mm f/4 vs. Primes

After much too long, my comparison of Fuji’s excellent 10-24mm f/4, and the prime lenses its focal range covers is finally online. If you’ve been wondering which way to go, zoom or prime, this should really help you out.

Pitting one lens against many has resulted in one monster of a comparison, but I kept things as clear and concise as possible. I think you could easily bypass the pixel-level scrutiny entirely and still come away with a great understanding of how these lenses perform. For those of you you like poring over the 100% crops, you’ll definitely have your fill. Enjoy.

FUJINON XF 10-24mm f/4 vs. Primes