I know it sounds crazy to do, but I strongly believe that if Fujifilm remake the 35mm f1.4, 18mm f2, and 50mm f2.4 Macro lens to give them weather resistance and the same optics, that they would sell out like tickets at a Taylor Swift concert. People would buy them up and scalpers would demand more money on eBay or even outside of stores because they’re so hard to get. These lenses generated some of the most hype I’ve ever seen in the photo industry. But more importantly, Fujifilm doesn’t need to ruin them with updating the optics or making the autofocus motors all that much faster.
As it is, I think Fujifilm users are pretty accustomed to having slower autofocus. So we don’t need these lenses to focus very quickly. But it would be very nice to not only have weather resistance but maybe a depth of field scale on all but the 18mm f2.
Perhaps even more than the 35mm f1.4, photographers have wanted an update to the 18mm f2. It’s a small pancake-style lens with an incredible feeling due to the design and metal build of the lens. It puts a lot of smiles on a photographer’s face. However, it surely could use a design to make it weather resistance.
Fujifilm, of course, is capable of doing it too. They did it with their 27mm f2.8 lens, and they also mostly did it with their 23mm f2 on the X100V. So why can’t they do it with these lenses?
More than anything, I think that this is a very quick way for Fujifilm to make more money on existing products. The optics really don’t need to be updated. The false claims that it can’t resolve the sensor are just that. Sure, they’re not the sharpest lenses — but we’re not buying them for the sharpness. We’re also not buying them to get the most squeaky-clean image quality. We want the character that we’ve come to know and use Fujifilm for years now.
While the Fujifilm 35mm f1.4 is also one of my most used lenses personally, we shouldn’t forget about the 60mm f2.4 lens. It was absolutely beautiful as a portrait lens. What’s more, it provided photographers with the ability to shoot macro images. Most importantly for some, it was sharp. Fujifilm’s X series cameras have 40MP sensors now, and that’s all that we need.
People tend to buy Fujifilm products for the styling of the retro-series cameras. It’s very appealing. If they need something more DSLR-like, then they go for the XH series. But so many new photographers want that retro aesthetic and want to be able to shoot video too. That’s easy to do, and it’s easy to make autofocusing lenses that can focus silently without being much larger than they are.
So who would buy these? Well, why not bundle them as kit lens options? Additionally, I’d surely buy a new 35mm f1.4 R WR or an 18mm f2 R WR. I often have need for small, fast prime lenses that are highly capable. Portrait photographers have always loved the 35mm f1.4, and street photographers have adored the 18mm f2. What’s missing from the system are fast, small lenses with weather resistance. Yes, there are the f2 series of prime lenses — but their image quality doesn’t hit the same on APS-C sensors.
Please Fujifilm, bring weather resistance to the original three lenses.