Fujifilm Fujinon XC 35 mm f/2 review - Introduction

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Fujifilm Fujinon XC 35 mm f/2

19 May 2020

Maciej Latałło

1. Introduction

The majority of producers of different photographic systems try their best to guarantee that there is plenty of cheap lenses aimed at amateur photographers in their line-up. Lower prices usually entail lower quality of used materials (e.g. plastics in casings and mounts), a quite average aperture fastness, and a relatively simple optical construction. Many producers concentrate mainly on two types of lenses: those which focal range starts with a full frame equivalent of 24-28 mm and ends near 300 mm.

The Fujifilm X system wasn't an exception here. It started with the launch of three prime lenses of good quality and then another prime and two zooms with a sensible aperture fastness. The series of cheaper, basic lenses, designed for amateur photographers (and marked with XC letters) was shown in 2013 with the Fujinon XC 16–50 mm f/3.5–5.6 OIS; after some time, they launched also the Fujinon XC 50–230 mm f/4.5–6.7 OIS.

We had to wait for the next XC series lens almost 5 years – the Fujinon XC 15–45 mm f/3.5–5.6 OIS PZ was launched at the beginning of 2018. After that Fujifilm realised that amateurs photographers need not only cheap zooms but also interesting primes. I suppose everybody remembers the times when, for a sum of $125 or so, you could purchase nice 1.8/50 instruments. They usually were quite popular and found many happy buyers.

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Year 2020 started with the launch of the Fujinon XC 35 mm f/2 that hit the shelves with a very affordable price tag, that of $200. Trusting it isn't the last prime lens launch in the XC series I was quite eager to test it.

Courtesy of the Fujifilm Polska company that interesting optical instrument found its way to our editorial office pretty quickly and now we are presenting its full test in the following chapters – enjoy your reading!

You are also invited to get acquainted with our test procedure, described in the article "How do we test lenses?" If you feel it’s still not enough, please go to our FAQ section where you can find some further explanation.