All Right, Mister DeMille…

Back when I was shooting my Canon kit, I never owned a macro lens because I never had much need for one. I had the occasional need to photograph something close up at a wedding or just for fun, but I had extension tubes and my trusty, close focusing 24-70 f/2.8L, which could, in most cases, make quick work of the task (except real macro work, of course). When I transitioned to the Fuji system, I bought the Fujinon 60mm f/2.4 macro because at the time (and we are still waiting on the 56mm f/1.2) it was the only short telephoto prime available. Because I have a macro lens that can focus as close as 1:2, I hadn’t given much thought to how any of my other lenses could function in that capacity–whenever possible, I love it when lenses can do double or triple duty, enabling me to travel lighter and work quicker.

The subjects next to the Fujinon 35mm f/1.4

Prompted by an email about the system generally and how I work with it, I set up an incredibly informal close focus test to see how each of the lenses I have would perform. I excluded the 18mm f/2 because even though it can focus quite close, the wide field of view generally works against trying to isolate your subject (also, it was in another room and bag). For the test, I took each lens and manually focused it at its minimum focus distance (MFD), and then moved the camera back and forth until the subjects were in focus. For scale, I’ve included the photo above with the 35mm f/1.4, to give you an idea of the size of the figures. It’s interesting to note the differences in perspective and depth of field as the focal length changes.

Fujinon 35mm f/1.4

Fujinon 18-55mm f/2.8-4 OIS at 55mm f/4

Fujinon 60mm f/2.4 Macro

Fujinon 55-200 f/3.5-4.8mm OIS

Obviously, the dedicated macro wins for macro work here, allowing you to focus much more closely on the figures. It’s the only choice if you need to photograph small objects up close. For my purposes, I found that each of the other lenses can work, though the 55-200 would require you to be so far away from the subject as to make it pretty impractical (never mind the relatively slow aperture). Given that the 35mm f/1.4 is sort of a nervous, hard-to-focus lens close up, the 18-55mm would be my likely choice for most things, after the 60mm, of course. A quick browse on B&H’s site didn’t turn up any native mount extension tubes for the X-mount, so I’ll have to make do with what I’ve got–and likely hold onto the 60mm–until something changes.