I just took the Fujifilm XF 33mm f/1.4 out of the box and took a few quick trips into the country for some nature and landscape photography.

It was amazing.

Seriously – this lens is fun to use, focuses accurately and quickly, and has incredible image quality. My first impressions are fantastic and compared to the older (and much loved) 35mm f/1.5, I’m pretty sure I’m going to sell that lens and keep the 33.

Why?

Although the 35 is smaller and lighter, the 33mm just outperforms it in every other way that matters to me. Note: these were all shot and tested with the Fuji X-Pro3.

My first impressions:

• The 33mm with the X-Pro3 is a great combination. The weight and size of the 33 go well with the X-Pro body. I did put the lens on my X-E4 and while it was fine, it didn’t feel as “good” in my hands as it did with the X-Pro3.
• The autofocus is just quick and accurate. I didn’t have too many problems with the 35mm f/1.4 before this, except I never trusted it completely in close-focus situations. The 33 appears to focus more accurately for me right now.
• The quality of the photos throughout at f/1.4 is fantastic. I don’t really care too mucha bout edge-to-edge sharpness with the types of photos I take, but the XF 33mm f/1.4 really impressed me while I edited these photos.
• A big negative for me was the manual focus. It just doesn’t feel great out of the box, and while I got better manual focusing throughout my time with the lens (mainly slowing WAY down), it still has a tendency to “jump” from one point to another. I’d had to use this for video, but since I don’t do much video with my gear, it’s not a big deal for me.

Check out the first set of photos I made. All edited with Lightroom. Just know that I edit these quite a bit – these are “real-world” tests for me and how I shoot… so these are a mix of jpeg recipes with various presets that I use for my landscape and nature photography.