Fujifilm XF 35mm F1.4 Lens - what is the strange jerk?

kshapero

kshapero

South Florida Man
Local time
9:52 PM
Joined
Mar 27, 2006
Messages
10,048
My Fuji 35 mm lens is a real gem but seems to jerk slightly when in use. Anyone else notice this?
 
Saw this on Scoop It:

Fujinon XF 35mm F1.4 R Lens Chatter And Shutter Sound:

Lastly, I think my biggest gripe with the XF 35mm F1.4 R lens is the lens chatter. This stuff normally doesn’t bother me much but I must admit, it’s pretty annoying, and loud. I thought my lenses were broken when I first purchased them. It turns out that the sound comes from the movement of the aperture blades as light changes. I have no idea why it does this because all of my settings are set to manual. The Fuji X-Pro1 is such a great camera for discreet photography but how can you bring this camera into somewhere like a courtroom if it’s constantly chattering? Hopefully, Fuji can issue up some firmware to remedy this problem in the future.
 
Are you referring to the aperture or AF motor... or both?

Forgive the obvious question. Does your camera and lens have the most recent firmware?
 
Akiva what was the date on the scoop posting, if it was around the same time the the XP1 came out it was referring to an attribute of the body that caused the aperture blades to be constantly in motion causing a chattering sound. This was thankfully corrected with a firmware update.
 
kshapero said:
hard to tell. all firmware upgraded.
Click to expand...

To display fw info, same as first step to start the fw update. Use the display/back button and turn-on at the same time. It will bring u to screen that gives fw info. Instead of doing the normal update process from here, just turn off camera.

Don't u have a xe2? If I remember correctly there was at least one lens fw update that needed to be applied and I think one body update. But it looks like u have already done this.

Btw, if the lens fw is not up to date w/ the current body, starting for the xp1/xe1, the last two body fw updates displayed a warning message when the camera was turned on that the lens needed updating if it detected the issue when it communicated w/ the lens.

The 35 has always been a bit noisier then some of the other lenses.. Never noticed it enough to worry about it, but then again, I don't use it much after I acquired the 27. I only use it when I need a fast low light af lens. After getting the speedbooster for the Fuji, my Nikon f1.4 lenses are now my low light lenses since they end up f1.0. So using the 35 even less these days.

Gary
 
I noticed mine is pretty jerky (mmmm... jerky... ) too.

Try using macro mode sometimes as it seems to change the way the lens behaves though it does make it slower than it already is.

I noticed my 35 when everything is set to full manual that it still clicks and clacks the aperture with the half press.

Frankly I am surprised that someone at Fuji was testing this lens and thought.... "yeah, this is fine" because it may be optically fine but technically it's horrid.
 
All my Fuji X lenses (35, 60, 18-55) have the characteristic I think you're describing. If so, its just the AF motor moving things around inside. I suspect there's nothing wrong with your lens, at least not so far as Fuji intended. :-o
 
the xc lenses i have are silent & smooth…seems funny that the cheaper lenses have that while the xf lenses i own all make focussing noise.
 
Remember lens release dates vs what can be learned vs trade off decisions and mass. The xc lenses have more plastic parts.. Maybe different af motor and less mass as well in terms of the mass that is moved due to the af mechanism.

Gary
 
Jamie Pillers said:
All my Fuji X lenses (35, 60, 18-55) have the characteristic I think you're describing. If so, its just the AF motor moving things around inside. I suspect there's nothing wrong with your lens, at least not so far as Fuji intended. :-o
Click to expand...
I think you are right on this. A little bit annoying.
 
I'll admit, it was jarring at first, but now I prefer it... I feel when the focus locks definitively.
 
It has a DC motor inside, similar to the Zeiss Touit lenses. The "jerk" you're referring to could be the start of the AF action since the whole optics array moves back and forth when hunting for focus. If your lens catches or "jerks" at one spot in the focus travel, maybe there's debris I'm the focusing helical? Could also be damage to the focusing tracks if something is inside the lens. Best guess is to send it for a cleaning, if the problem bothers you. Otherwise use it and live with it.

One last thought: something is very slightly out of plane, so when the motor activates, it is bringing the lens back to square as it moves the optics forward/back. If done enough times, I could see how this may cause damage to the focus track. Check the lens mount and the front ring to make sure they're both solid and there is no play in the barrel.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom