FUJINON XF10-24mmF4 – Super Compact Super Wideangle

FUJINON XF10-24mmF4 R OIS WR (on my FUJIFILM X-T3)

The Fujinon 10-24mm wide angle zoom Mk 1 was first released many years ago, and many people have asked me if I have used it. I never did and for a lot of the shows I worked back then F/4 would be too dark even at ISO 12,800, at least with a shutter speed I could handhold. BUT now there is a Mk2 of this lens with OIS (optical image stabilisation) and I work big concerts with lots of light so F/4 works just fine in most cases. I have used this 10-24mm Mk2 for the past 2 months and I love it!

A bit about focal lengths. There are many advantages to APS-C sensors but one disadvantage is the crop factor for wideangle photographers. The 1.6x crop factor might be a nice plus for telephoto focal lengths but it is a minus for wideangle, particularly super wideangle focal lengths. Long story short, to get the same field of view as a 16mm lens on a 35mm camera, you have to use a 10mm lens on an APS-C camera and 10mm is a very extreme focal length. I talk about this here in my video about the GFX100S. At 10mm on the 10-24mm the depth distortion is still rather extreme (foreground and background pushed far apart) but that is just physics. There is no way to change that until I can afford a GFX100S (with a GFX sensor it works the opposite way, 23mm is equal to 16mm field of view).

There are some third-party prime lens options, and I have tested Zeiss and Samyang 12mm but never bought them. Fujinon does also make the amazing XF8-16mm F2.8 ultra wideangle zoom and I have used that a fair amount and wrote a review here. The 8-16mm is great, but honestly it’s just far too big and heavy for me to enjoy using at concerts. It annoys me that it is so front heavy, it has spectacular optics but I just dislike running around a stage and handholding that beast. This is where the XF10-24mm shines, it is small and lightweight (385g) compared to the 8-16mm (805g), as you can see below.

This might not seem like much, but it makes a world of difference to me. These are creative tools that I need to feel good about carrying and using for hours and hours, and if something is too large and heavy I get really annoyed it and don’t want to use it. I have used a double setup a lot this Summer with an X-T3 with XF16-55mm lens on my right shoulder and an X-T3 with XF10-24mm on my left shoulder, and this has quickly become a new favourite setup.

There is also a huge advantage to an ultra wideangle lens being a zoom – sometimes I want the extreme 10mm view but very often I will be hovering around 12mm-18mm and having a wideangle zoom just means you can compose much better in camera instead of cropping an ultrawide view in post production.

The maximum aperture of F/4 means there will be some concerts where I cannot use it but that is ok, the 16mm F1.4 will be what I bring for those gigs. For the large headliner show there is plenty of light and F4 coupled with image stabilisation works perfectly.

The image quality is outstanding and the autofocus is super fast. OIS works perfectly and it’s weather sealed too. This is really just the norm for all recent Fujinon lenses! If you are after a super compact super wideangle zoom I highly recommend the 10-24mm F4 mk2.

I am not a technical detail reviewer, so let’s look at a bunch of real pictures from real photography assignments this Summer. I particularly love making wide cropped panoramic views with the 10-24:

The Minds of 99. Shot at 10mm and cropped, this wide view lends itself well to panoramas.
The Minds of 99. This is actually 2 x 10mm pictures stitched together, showing the view from behind the podiums
The Minds of 99. Shot at 12mm and cropped, this wide view lends itself well to panoramas.
Crowd at The Minds of 99 concert. 10mm, I love ultra wideangle for capturing the crowd!
The Minds of 99. Shot at 18mm and this is where it is so handy that this is a zoom. I probably just shot a superwide shot at 10mm and then zoomed in to get this closer view at 18mm – within the same couple of seconds.
The Minds of 99. Shot at 10mm.
The Minds of 99. Shot at 12mm and ultrawide is very handy for standing right in front of the band and still getting a wide view of the stage and lights
The Minds of 99. Shot at 10mm and while not quite enough to get the whole stage in (I should have stitched 2 shots!) it still shows most of the stage view.
Crowd at Roskilde Festival
Joyce. Shot at 10mm and again shows how nice it is to get an ultrawide view from the pit
Crowd at Joyce going nuts! 10mm puts you right in the action, assuming you stick the camera very close to the front row. Perfect example too of slow shutter with IOS
Joyce. I love the ultra-wide panorama stage view.
Saveus at Roskilde. Again, 10mm ultra wide is the only way to capture a grand view of the stage from the pit (you can’t go backwards)
Saveus. View from the stage at 24mm (again handy to have a zoom, get 10 and 24mm within the same second)
Jada. 10mm view from stage left.
Jada. 10mm and the incredible view from the pit.
Jada. 10mm and the incredible view from the pit – this is just after the previous picture, pyro going off and lighting the whole scene
Jada. This is more than anything really the scene where you need the ultra wide-angle, the closing shot of the concert

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