Recently I picked up a new prime lens and you may have heard of it before. It’s one of Fuji’s newer lenses: the famed 33mm f1.4. Okay, it’s not that new but it’s new for me. Now I’ve heard a lot of good things about this lens and its actually my first lens/gear pickup in a while, so I’m pretty excited.

But I’ve only had it for a little bit, so today is just going to be my first impressions and we’ll do a longer review later.

Focal Length

First we’ll cover the focal length.

Now I’ve tried several other lenses around this focal length before, like the 35 f2 (which i’ve had twice and sold twice now…), and historically, it’s never been my favorite. I’ve always preferred something like the 23mm and even the 27mm more.

But as I’ve been shooting with the 18-55, I’ve been practicing the 35mm - to try and get used to it and understand it more. And this is my third attempt at it. I chose this over the new 23mm 1.4, even though I love that focal length, because I already have the x100v and I thought it’d be best to force myself outside of my comfort zone.

So far it’s not bad. I took it out recently and have found myself shooting it like a 50mm (aps-c). The challenging part is that the 33mm is a bit of an awkward distance for me. I’m used to the 23mm on the x100v where I have to get close. I’ve also gotten quite used to the 55mm on the 18-55 where I can shoot things from further away. However, for the 33mm, I don’t have to get quite as close as the 23mm, but I can’t be as far as a 55mm. If I could explain the difference it’d be: 23mm I can kind of pretend that I’m just walking by and snap subjects in my close vicinity, while 50mm I can pretend as if I shooting something else “over there”. But this is right in-between line of sight of me and my subject. So I’m still learning how to frame things properly without getting in people’s line of sight. Which requires more practice.

If you’ve recently bought a new lens or are looking for a new lens, this is something I think is important to think about. Try the lens in multiple scenarios, conditions, and with different bodies. A lot of the times gear isn’t bad, we simply haven’t gotten used to it yet and aren’t using them right. So understand that it may take time to get used to new gear before you actually start to get solid images.

Aperture

Of course, a big reason I got this lens was for the wide 1.4 aperture. This is probably the widest lens I currently have - most of the stuff I’ve used has been f2, f1.8, and f2.8. And so I’ve been very curious to see how much of a difference it makes and if it’ll change the way I take photos.

What I’ve noticed lately is that many of my images have been from a distance. I’ve been shooting this past year from further away, which causes a lot of the shots to be quite flat. Take for example this photo I’m going to use in my upcoming photo zine. It’s a nice image, the colors are good, but it’s fairly flat because the sunset is further away naturally. (insert golden sunset shot) You wouldn’t really be able to tell if I shot this with a 1.4 lens because everything would focus to infinity and there are no closer subjects to get that difference in focus.

This isn’t a bad thing - I think it makes sense for the photos I’m taking here. But to make use of this 1.4 lens, I want to get that bokeh or falloff between my subjects. Which means I’m probably going to have to get closer or learn to frame things in a more interesting way. Which also means you might see me doing more street photography again or just go to different environments to try and make use of this lens.

This is something to think about if you’re looking to buying this lens. Does the f1.4 actually matter to you? Meaning are you going to use it in low light situations often, do you want that kind of bokeh, and does your photography require that level of separation? As of right now, I think the 1.4 can be great for portraits and detailed product shots. Anything where you can really let the 1.4 shine.

Autofocus

One of the things that surprised me the most about this lens was the autofocus. Like the 18-55 it’s got a linear motor focusing system so I knew it’d be good but I didn’t know how good.

So far, the autofocus is fast, accurate, and works well even if there’s not a lot of light. When comparing it to the 18-55, the 18-55 will sometimes have trouble focusing in low light. But it’s an older lens and has a different aperture, so I get that. To me however, the autofocus feels closer to that of the 16-55 - accurate, fast, and quiet.

This was a concern for me because although I’ve made use of many slower focusing and even manual focus lenses in the past, I wanted something quicker where I could just snap photos and keep on walking. A fast and reliable lens allows me to be subtle and enjoy the moment more. When photographing sunsets, I’m in a paradox between snapping the photos and enjoying the moment. Ironically, I don’t want to spend too much time taking a photo. Rather I want something where I can get a good result, everything’s sharp and in focus, without much effort and then I can comfortably get back to enjoying the moment. That’s where I’m at right now.

So if you’re concerned about autofocus, so far this lens seems to be pretty good. I don’t think you’ll have many issues with autofocus with this lens - it’s fast and accurate.

Build Quality

At first pick up, I was pretty impressed with the build quality of this lens. Like many of Fuji’s lenses it has a metal construction and everything is well built. The aperture clicks are nice and the manual focus is very smooth. It is a pretty basic looking lens however, and part of me wishes they did something unique with it like many of the older lenses. But I can’t complain much because it’s shape and filter size allows it to be easily interchangeable with the 18-55 and other 58mm fuji lenses.

That was actually a big reason why I bought this lens: to have a compact set of lenses that shared the same 58mm filters. And it actually feels so similar to the 18-55 that I found myself turning the manual focus like I was trying to zoom in.

You guys know this but, size and build quality are important to me. I think the smaller the lens, the more casual I can be taking photos - which is where I typically create my best work. Also, the nicer something is to hold, the more I’m incentivized to use it.

So if you’re looking to grab this lens, you don’t have to worry about build quality. The construction itself is great and I personally like holding and using it.

I’m overall pretty excited to use this lens more in the future. I do want to dedicate for time to getting used to this focal length because I think I could learn a lot from it. So I hope this could help in any way - I will be back soon with a 1 month review, so look forwards to that.

Thanks for reading.