I had one of those nice experiences today when a chap rushed up to me to ask me what kind of camera my X-Pro1 was and what kind of lens I had mounted. I could sense general confusion – it looks like a rangefinder but it has a zeiss lens and an APS-C sensor. He asked for my general impression, which was “really great camera and lens, much better image quality than many DSLRs”. Mystified, he departed in the direction of the Monument…

I’ve said before that I like the Zeiss Touit 12mm, but that it’s maybe not as good as the Fuji 14mm. I stand by that assessment insofar as it considers sharpness across the frame and/or corner softness. An optically corrected UWA will always win that kind of contest. However, it ignores just how good the Zeiss lens’ rendering of colour is and just how sharp it is in the centre.

What all of that means is that you have a lens that can do great work as a UWA but that can double as a great fun lens for street photography too. Don’t get me wrong, the Fuji is better for traditional street photography using zone focus, because it has a focus scale, but in honesty, you can take some great shots with the 12mm too.

Of course, the Zeiss really lends itself to the kind of architectural or landscape photography I also enjoy. The results have pop or depth to them.

Although I prefer the colour results with this lens, the very good microcontrast and sharpness make for excellent monochrome results too.

Taken with My Fuji X-Pro1 and Zeiss Touit 12mm lens