I recently had the opportunity to go on a photo hike of sorts with the Dayton Focus Photo Club – I recently joined.  We met up at Sugarcreek Metropark in Bellbrook Ohio.  We unfortunately got a dreary, cold Fall morning for our outing – which amusingly cleared to a beautifully sunny, Fall afternoon the moment we left the park and went to lunch.  Still, it was good to meet some of the club members.  And I gave myself a little photo assignment:  Compare the results I could get from my Canon R5 Mark II with the FD 35mm SSC f2 with the Fujifilm X100VI and its effective 35mm f2 lens.  Here’s a few of the photos I got – I did my best to take them from the same exact position and same framing.  I did apply some mild edits in Lightroom, but tried to keep them comparable.  The tough part is that the front element on my FD 35mm SSC lens exhibits the classic yellow cast from its thorium glass – often making photos appear warming than true life rendering.  But I did my best – here are the comparison shots:

R5 Mark II & FD 35mm SSC f2

Fujifilm X100VI

Fujifilm X100VI

R5 Mark II & FD 35mm SSC f2

R5 Mark II & FD 35mm SSC f2

Fujifilm X100VI

Fujifilm X100VI

R5 Mark II & FD 35mm SSC f2

R5 Mark II & FD 35mm SSC f2

Fujifilm X100VI

R5 Mark II & FD 35mm SSC f2

Fujifilm X100VI

This turned out to be a more challenging comparison than I initially thought.  In several of these photos  it’s much more difficult than I anticipated to choose which version I like better.  You really have to admire the vintage FD 35mm f2 SSC.  Yes, if you pixel peep, it could be a bit softer than the lens on the X100VI at times.  And surprisingly, I think I do prefer how theX100VI renders bokeh just a tad.  But what a fantastic walk around lens if you’re looking for something lighter weight, but still offers tremendous creative capability.

Which do you prefer?  Let me know your thoughts in the comments!