Fujifilm XC 13-33mm F3.5-6.3 OIS Review

Introduction

Ease of Use

The clear selling point of the new Fujinon XC 13-33mm F3.5-6.3 OIS lens is just how small and light it is, weighing in a mere 125g, which is even lighter (by 10g) than the XC 15-45mm f/3.5-5.6 OIS PZ, and measuring just 37.5mm when collapsed.

When extended to 33mm it does measure 57.2mm in length, an extra 2cm over the retracted position, but this is still some 5mm shorter than the XC 14-45mm at its full telephoto setting.

The obvious trade-off compared to the XC 15-45mm is the much shorter telephoto reach (50mm vs 69mm), although you do benefit from an even wider angle of view that will especially please landscape photographers and video shooters.

The other slight annoyance is the slower maximum aperture of f/6.3 at 33mm versus f/5.6 at 45mm on the XC 15-45mm - we'd have expected it be the same or perhaps even slightly faster given the reduction in reach.

Being so small and light, this new kit lens proved to be a great match for the equally new Fujifilm X-T30 II, which is the camera that we have used to test the lens. 

Now there are some obvious reasons as to why the lens is so light, not least of which is the plastic barrel, plus the lens mount is plastic too. This is not a lens to throw around and it certainly isn’t weather-sealed, not that we would expect such a thing from an entry-level lens like this.

Design-wise, the XC 13-33mm F3.5-6.3 OIS lens is about as simple as it gets. You have the 13-33mm focal length marking on the top, a focus ring and a manual zoom ring. That’s it. No buttons, no switches.

The slender manual focus ring is at the very front of the lens and by default moves from near to far focusing in a clockwise rotation. There is little resistance from the focus ring, meaning it is easy to make severe manual adjustments quickly.

There is the option in most (if not all) X-Series cameras to display the focus distance scale onscreen for quick reference. It’s super useful and not many brands do this, so kudos to Fujifilm.

Directly next to the focus ring is the manual zoom ring which is about twice the size. This isn't powered like the one on the XC 15-45mm, so it's easier to use for stills photography with an electronic zoom being better for video. 

As for autofocus, the Fujifilm XC 13-33mm lens uses a stepping motor to drive the focusing elements. Autofocus certainly is very quiet and will not distract in video work or announce your presence to those around you. 

Focusing is quick too, although of course AF speed is affected by the camera’s AF system, the AF mode in use and the amount of available light.

With no switches on the lens barrel, you’ll need to swap between AF modes and manual focus through the camera menu, or depending on the camera via the front switch or live view display.

Image stabilisation is built-in to the lens (OIS) with what Fujifilm claims is 4 f-stops (EV) of effective stabilisation. Now you’ll remember the lens does not have any switches or buttons on it, which means optical image stabilisation is also controlled in-camera.

Last thing to mention here is that the lens thread accepts optional 49mm filters, although no filter is included and you also won’t find a lens hood in the box.

Focal Range

The Fujifilm XC 13-33mm F3.5-6.3 OIS 's focal length of 13mm provides an angle of view of 95.1° and the 33mm focal length provides an angle of view of 46.6°.

13mm

33mm

Chromatic Aberrations

Chromatic aberrations, typically seen as blue or purple fringes along contrasty edges, were not especially apparent in our test shots, only appearing in very high contrast areas.

13mm

33mm

Vignetting

When shooting JPEGs, with the lens set to its maximum aperture, there is some obvious light fall-off in the corners, requiring you to stop down by at least 2 f-stops to prevent it.

There's a larger amount of vignetting evident in the RAW files, but thankfully the Fujifilm X-T30 III camera automatically and successfully applies corrections to the JPEG files, resulting in an acceptable out-of-camera image.

13mm / JPEG

13mm / RAW

33mm / JPEG

33mm / RAW

Distortion

When shooting JPEGs, at the wider end there is some barrel distortion, as you can see in the photo below, but it's no worse than you would expect from a typical 20mm equivalent lens.

It's a different story for RAW files, though, where shooting at 13mm without applying the in-camera profile reveals just how much optical distortion there is.

There isn't really any noticeable distortion at the longest 33mm/50mm focal length if you're shooting either JPEGs or Raw files..

13mm / JPEG

13mm / RAW

33mm / JPEG

33mm / RAW

Sunstars and Flare

The Fujifilm XC 13-33mm F3.5-6.3 OIS is capable of creating some quite nice sunstars when stopped-down to f/22, as shown below, and flare is also well controlled even when shooting directly into the sun.

13mm

33mm

Macro

The Fujifilm XC 13-33mm F3.5-6.3 OIS offers a very useful minimum focusing distance of just 20cm / 7.87", with a maximum magnification of 0.25x.

Bokeh

Bokeh is a word used for the out-of-focus areas of a photograph, and is usually described in qualitative terms, such as smooth / creamy / harsh etc.

In the XC 13-33mm F3.5-6.3 OIS lens, Fujifilm have employed an iris diaphragm with 9 rounded blades, which has resulted in quite nice bokeh in our view.

We do realise, however, that bokeh evaluation is subjective, so we've included lots of examples below for your perusal.

Sharpness

In order to show you how sharp the Fujifilm XC 13-33mm F3.5-6.3 OIS lens is, we are providing 100% crops on the following page.