Fujifilm has revealed 14 dream lenses for X-Mount, including F1.0 primes, F1.4 zooms, and a brass-bodied F2 series, and is asking the photographic community to vote on which ones should be made.
Fujifilm has given its most detailed look yet at the future of its X-Mount lens system, with a Focus on Glass presentation that combined a deep dive into its development philosophy with an unusually frank wishlist of lenses the company would love to build if the technology and commercial stars align.
The presentation opened with product manager Yuji Igarashi making the case that the XF35mmF1.4 R, one of the original three X-Mount lenses from 2012, still defines what Fujifilm is aiming for: not maximum resolution, but a holistic rendering quality that makes images compelling in the real world. That a 14-year-old lens remains one of the system's best sellers tells its own story.
Igarashi also clarified the company's internal lens hierarchy. The seven Red Badge lenses represent the flagship tier, excelling across every metric except cost and sometimes size. Less well known is an internal "Red Badge Class" designation applied to certain primes that meet the same optical standards but don't carry the badge, typically because their focal lengths allow them to be made more compact.
In the wide-aperture category, the most ambitious proposal is an XF33mmF1.0 — or potentially F0.95 — a standard prime that was originally explored during development of the XF50mmF1.0 R WR before being shelved for being too large. Alongside it sits the XF18–50mmF1.4 zoom, an F1.4 constant-aperture standard zoom that the team freely admitted would be extraordinarily difficult to build at a practical size, and the more achievable-sounding XF16–80mmF2.8, a 5× zoom extending the existing 16–55mm formula to the telephoto end.
The high-magnification category offered a single but extremely interesting concept: a high-image-quality version of a 14–140mm zoom. You can read this as a tacit admission that existing superzooms are optically compromised and that there's appetite for one that isn't.
Perhaps the most characterful proposals came in the "beyond resolution" category. An XF16–50mmF2.8–4.8 "Ghost Control" lens would deliberately reproduce the flare and ghosting of vintage glass with the hood off, while reverting to clean modern rendering with the hood on. An XF90mmF2 APD would add an apodization filter to an already excellent portrait lens for what the team described as "meltingly smooth" bokeh. There's also a proposal to produce the existing F2 prime trio in brass exteriors, a nod to tactile pleasure and the patina that develops with use.
More niche but genuinely interesting were a Fujifilm-branded manual focus lens series designed to complement the rangefinder aesthetic of cameras like the X-Pro line, and a set of T1.2 cine primes for X-Mount (above) to complement the existing MK zoom cine lenses.
The presentation devoted considerable time to the thorny question of what a true XF35mmF1.4 Mark II would look like.
Three approaches were floated: a weather-sealed version with the optics unchanged; a version with faster, quieter AF while retaining the optical formula; and a full optical redesign that somehow preserves the original's character while improving on it. The team acknowledged that the third option is the hardest. Many users regard the current lens as untouchable.
Two further concepts rounded out the 14: a revival of a historical FUJINON "porous aperture" soft-focus lens with a lotus root-style multi-opening design, and an 18/30mm dual-focal-length switchable lens inspired by a compact film camera from the 1990s, conceived as a modern travel lens that avoids the middle-range compromises of a zoom.
Fujifilm has opened a public vote on its website for users to select their three most-wanted lenses from the list — with the results feeding into future product planning decisions.
This is not the first time the company has done this, with votes in 2019 and 2024 both leading to new lenses coming to market.
2026 voting takes place here. And in the hours following the initial stream, the wide aperture XF18-50mmF1.4 and XF16-80mmF2.8 were clear leaders as far as public sentiment goes. It will be interesting to see if they can maintain their lead over the coming days.