A recent convert to Fujifilm, I had an 18-55 for a wk and was about to dump it back, not happy with pixel peeping, low light..blah blah blah.I was two minded and wanted to keep it only as a 18mm landscape if I ever decided to keep it, which I was sure was not going to happen. I was already looking up for a parking in the city to go to the store for return.
I took this decade old so called ‘jack of all’ dog on a heavy sale and wanted to to give it a shot thinking the store really wanted to get their hands off it.To make a last minute decision, I used it during a wkend family mini hike to a forest.
Then this happened.. like a bolt from the sky, colors SOOC (Straight out of camera) are a perfect balance of vivid and sublime, blew me away like nothing I had seen before, clarity and sharpness..dream like, auto focus – razor sharp, auto\manual focus both no fault. This little lens came back to me like a burst of freshness out of blue sky, a story so compelling you want to read again and again. I finally found that elusive ‘Fuji colors’ I have been hearing for a long time – sans 35 1.4 which seems to be everybody’s darling. 18-55 is a silent assassin, a Femme Fatale. It is staying and not going anywhere! It is now glued on my XS 10 and and bumped out the primes I have off my bag.
With largest aperture of f2.8 on an APCS sensor, small pocket rocket like form factor, top grade build quality, this old lens, came out in 2012, still punches way above its weight and class. I am truly glad I ran into it and finally found that nirvana of being able to say I found my ultimate all season, all purpose, travel, family, everyday camera combo with this lens and Fuji’s XS 10 body, that does not compromise image quality, has image stabilization, is small enough to be carried around, isn’t too protruding and actually pushes the primes to the backup rather than primary lenses. This is a dream lens I had been looking for in a long time, truly, enough said.
Ravi Tandukar 