Review by Klaus Schroiff, published June 2012

Introduction

Following the tradition of its in-house cousins, the build quality of the 35mm f/1.4 is very good thanks to a tightly assembled metal body based on a metal mount - even the supplied lens hood is made of metal. The lens extends a tiny bit during focusing operations but the front element does not rotate. The focus ring operates smoothly. Typical for all Fujinon lenses, there's a dedicated aperture ring with distinctive 1/3 steps. If you move it from A (=Automatic) to a specific f-stop the camera will turn automatically into aperture priority or manual mode (depending on the settings of the shutter speed dial).

The lens has an internal micro motor which produces a bit of noise during AF operations. The AF speed is quite good but we've seen higher standards from other mirrorless systems. AF object tracking isn't really advisable - at least based on the X-Pro1. The AF accuracy is very good though. Manual focusing works "by wire" thus by triggering the AF motor. A focus distance guidance is provided in the camera viewfinder/on the LCD - this works quite nicely.