Fuji has been putting the X-factor into a growing range of up-market lenses. Recently we tested six of the best Fuji XF lenses on the market to see which you should buy next.
Fuji XF16-55mm f/2.8 R LM WR, £740/$1,000
Fuji XF50-140mm f/2.8 R LM OIS WR, £1,060, $1,400
Fuji XF35mm f/2 R WR, £300/$400
Fuji XF56mm f/1.2 R, £725/$800
Fuji XF60mm f/2.4 R Macro, £410/$500
Fuji XF90mm f/2 R LM WR, £640/$800
Fujinon is a name that’s been synonymous with high-quality cinematic, video and photographic lenses for decades. Excitement is currently peaking around its camera lenses for the range of rather gorgeous X-series compact system bodies like the X-E2, X-T10 and X-T1.
The lens line-up is split into XC zoom lenses to complement entry-level and mid-range cameras, and premium XF prime and zoom lenses for the more overachieving bodies.
Like most good graduates of lens school, Fuji’s X-mount optics have a string of letters after their names.
‘R’ lenses feature an aperture ring that enables intuitive control in aperture-priority and manual shooting modes, while also featuring an A (Auto) position for program and shutter-priority shooting.
‘LM’ signifies that there’s a Linear Motor, for fast yet virtually silent autofocus. ‘OIS’ stands for Optical Image Stabilization, which can come in handy considering the absence of sensor-shift stabilization in Fuji X-series bodies (so far, at least).
Finally, ‘WR’ or Weather-Resistant lenses are sealed against moisture and dust, as well as being designed to work in freezing temperatures down to -10 degrees Celsius.
One thing shared by all the lenses in this test group is premium build quality, based on metal barrel parts and mounting plates, along with top-notch glass.
They’re also fast, with apertures of f/2.8 or wider, which remain constant throughout the zoom range for the zoom lenses in the group.
Due to the APS-C format of the current X-series range of cameras and lenses, they’re also reasonably compact for any given focal length. Let’s take a closer look at what each lens has to offer.
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Best Fuji lens: Fuji XF16-55mm f/2.8 R LM WR
Price: £740/$1,000
Factor in the 1.5x crop factor of Fuji X-series cameras and this lens gives an effective focal length of 24-84mm. Coupled with a constant aperture of f/2.8, this makes it potentially perfect as a standard zoom.
It’s a chunky lens that looks a bit outsized on a body like the X-T1, but it’s nevertheless much smaller than most f/2.8 standard zooms for full-frame SLRs.
As Fuji’s premium standard zoom, it’s a high-tech affair that includes three aspherical and three ED (Extra-low Dispersion) glass elements, along with HT-EBC (High Transmittance Electron Beam Coating) and Nano-GI (Gradient Index) coatings to increase sharpness and contrast while reducing ghosting and flare.
The aperture ring features Fuji’s usual one-third click stops through a range of f/2.8 to f/22 and, while the physical length of the lens extends at longer zoom settings, there’s no zoom creep and the zoom ring is wonderfully smooth, as is the fly-by-wire focus ring.
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Performance
Twin linear motor autofocus takes full advantage of the hybrid phase/contrast detection system built into most up-market X-series cameras, to deliver super-fast and highly accurate focusing.
During lab tests, we found a bit of a dip in centre-sharpness when combining the 35mm zoom setting with the widest f/2.8 aperture but, overall, sharpness and contrast are excellent.
Meanwhile, distortions are incredibly low for this class of lens. There’s marginal colour fringing towards the corners of the frame at the 16mm focal length, but even this drops away at longer zoom settings.
Unlike some of the latest f/2.8 standard zooms for SLR cameras, this lens doesn’t feature optical stabilization but, in all other respects, it’s a feature-rich lens that’s impeccably built and delivers superb image quality.
Features: 4/5
Build/Handling: 5/5
Performance: 4.5/5
Value: 4.5/5
Overall: 4.5/5
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Best Fuji lens: Fuji XF50-140mm f/2.8 R LM OIS WR
Price: £1,060, $1,400
The zoom range of this lens might seem a little odd but, once you add in the crop factor, it comes pretty close to being a classic 70-200mm f/2.8 (75-210mm, to be exact).
It’s naturally longer and weightier than the Fuji 16-55mm lens but, for a lens of this telephoto class, it’s still modestly sized at 83x176mm, and relatively lightweight at a shade under a kilogram.
Even so, the lens comes complete with a tripod mounting foot. This maintains excellent balance in both landscape and portrait orientation shooting, as well as enabling easy rotation between the two when using a tripod or monopod.
Another thing that’s typical of fast, constant-aperture telephoto lenses is that the physical length doesn’t increase at any zoom or focus setting. As such, both the zoom and focus mechanisms are completely internal.
And speaking of internals, there’s a feast of glass that includes no less than five ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements, plus a big Super ED element near the front.
Further attractions include OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) and all of the handling finesse that you could wish for, including silky-smooth and highly precise zoom and focus rings, and an aperture ring with one-third click stops (f/2.8-f/22).
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Performance
Fuji boasts the world’s first ‘triple linear motor’ for autofocus in this lens and, coupled with a hybrid contrast/phase autofocus body like the X-T1, autofocus practically snaps into place.
It’s deadly accurate and practically silent, as well as being super-fast, only slowing down under extremely dull lighting conditions. This makes an autofocus range limit switch superfluous and, indeed, the lens doesn’t have one.
Optical image stabilization is always great to have in a telephoto lens and, based on our tests, it gives a genuine four-stop advantage in beating camera-shake.
Our lab results confirm stunning levels of sharpness and an almost complete absence of colour fringing or distortions throughout the zoom range.
Overall, it’s the perfect telephoto step-up from the Fuji 16-55mm standard zoom, combining sublime image quality with spectacular all-round performance.
Features: 5/5
Build/Handling: 5/5
Performance: 5/5
Value: 5/5
Overall: 5/5
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Best Fuji lens: Fuji XF35mm f/2 R WR
Price: £300/$400
With an effective focal length of 53mm and an amazingly small build of 60x46mm (the filter attachment thread is a mere 43mm) this is Fuji’s answer to ‘nifty fifty’ lenses for conventional DSLRs.
Unlike most cheap standard prime lenses with plastic lens barrels, this one sports a full metal jacket, continuing the usual XF theme, along with weather-seals and the necessary toughness for sub-zero shooting. Indeed, only the lens cap is plastic, but Fuji offers a metal one as an optional extra.
Whereas some metal-encased lenses feel unnaturally heavy, the Fuji is refreshingly lightweight at just 170g. There’s certainly nothing insubstantial about it, however, including the optical glass, which includes two complex aspherical elements.
And despite the small size of the lens, Fuji has managed to squeeze in the usual XF-series aperture ring and smooth-action fly-by-wire focus ring. Handling is a pleasure in all respects.
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Performance
A common problem with downsized lenses is that they can give strong vignetting (darkened image corners) at wide and even medium apertures. The Fuji performs surprisingly well in this respect, with good peripheral illumination even when shooting at its widest aperture of f/2.
It lacks the HT-EBC (High Transmittance Electron Beam Coating) and Nano-GI (Gradient Index) coatings of Fuji’s 16-55mm and 50-140mm zoom lenses but, even so, resistance to ghosting and flare is excellent.
Sharpness and contrast are similarly impressive, although you do need to stop down to f/5.6 if you want great sharpness to stretch right into the extreme corners of the frame. Lab scores confirm minimal colour fringing and just the slightest touch of pincushion distortion.
The icing on the cake is that, for a 35mm lens, bokeh (the quality of defocused areas within images) is rich and smooth. The lens has quick reactions too, with a stepping motor autofocus system that’s super-fast and practically soundless.
Features: 4/5
Build/Handling: 5/5
Performance: 4.5/5
Value: 5/5
Overall: 4.5/5
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Best Fuji lens: Fuji XF56mm f/1.2 R
Price: £725/$800
Lenses with really wide f/1.2 apertures tend to have a big build and even bigger price tags. By stark contrast, this 56mm lens is refreshingly compact but beautifully built and reasonably priced. It measures 73x70mm, weighs 405g and it looks and feels right at home on a Fuji X-series camera body, with great overall balance.
The effective focal length of this lens is 84mm, which is perfect for portraiture. It enables you to maintain a comfortable distance from the person you’re photographing and helps them to feel less intimidated and more relaxed.
The wide aperture is all the more useful in the context of portraiture, delivering a really tight depth of field that can make the main subject stand out against a heavily blurred background.
The solid yet refined construction includes a metal barrel and a wide, comfortable metal focus ring, with a nicely knurled surface for assured grip. Fully internal focusing ensures that the front of the lens neither extends nor rotates.
The optical design is based on 11 elements in eight groups, of which two are ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements and one is a double-sided aspherical element.
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Performance
High-tech glass does a good job of keeping lateral and longitudinal chromatic aberrations at bay, and the seven-blade diaphragm keeps the aperture quite well rounded when stopping down a little.
The quality of defocused areas is very soft and dreamy while, more unusually for such a ‘fast’ lens, sharpness and contrast remain very impressive even when shooting wide-open at f/1.2. Our lab tests also revealed that distortion was practically non-existent.
A less obvious bonus for portraiture is that the whisper-quiet autofocus system is very fast in operation, helping you to catch fleeting expressions before they’re gone forever.
Features: 4/5
Build/Handling: 4/5
Performance: 4.5/5
Value: 4.5/5
Overall: 4.5/5
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Best Fuji lens: Fuji XF60mm f/2.4 R Macro
Price: £410/$500
Like popular and widely available 90mm f/2.8 macro lenses for full-frame D-SLRs, this one has the same effective focal length on APS-C format Fuji X-series compact system cameras, but with an f/2.4 maximum aperture that’s half an f/stop faster.
This class of lens is often referred to as a ‘portrait macro’, as it’s a dual-purpose tool that gives a reasonably tight depth of field for portraiture, as well as offering full 1.0x ‘macro’ magnification at its shortest focus distance.
There’s a catch here though, in that the Fuji only actually delivers a maximum magnification factor of 0.5x. That means that small objects are only reproduced at half life size on the camera’s image sensor, rather than at the full life size of a 1.0x macro lens.
Even so, the ability to massively enlarge tiny objects when viewing images on screen or in print can be breath-taking.
The 0.5x magnification factor is a lot easier to get to grips with in practical terms, with less need to keep the camera absolutely still during the shooting process. Depth of field is still tiny but rather less miniscule, and the minimum focus distance is a more generous 0.27m.
The upshot is that, even though the inner lens barrel extends at shorter focus distances, there’s still 165mm of clearance between the front for the lens and the subject you’re shooting. It’s a plus point because some 60mm macro lenses encroach much more, and can even cast a shadow over what you’re shooting.
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Performance
Autofocus isn’t as fast or as near-silent as in most Fuji X-mount lenses, and a bit more prone to hunting, especially at very close focus distances. The sweet spot of the lens is at f/4, where our lab results show greatest sharpness across the whole frame.
Using such a wide aperture often isn’t practical for macro photography, where you usually need to use narrow apertures to increase the depth of field. Sharpness holds up pretty well at f/11 but is less impressive between f/16 and the lens’s narrowest aperture of f/22.
Colour fringing is very minimal and there’s only marginal pincushion distortion. Overall, it’s a compact yet well engineered macro lens that’s also good for portraiture, making a wise dual-purpose prime buy if you can’t stretch your budget to Fuji’s 56mm f/1.2 posh portrait lens.
Features: 4/5
Build/Handling: 4/5
Performance: 4/5
Value: 4/5
Overall: 4/5
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Best Fuji lens: Fuji XF90mm f/2 R LM WR
Price: £640/$800
Equivalent to a 135mm short telephoto on a full-frame camera, this 90mm lens has ‘speed’ written all over it. The widest available aperture of f/2 enables fast shutter speeds even under gloomy lighting, and autofocus is driven by a specially developed ‘quad linear motor’, which uses four magnets for increased torque.
Autofocus speed is also enhanced by an internal focus mechanism in which the larger, heavier front groups of elements remain fixed, and only the smaller rear ones are moved.
The minimum focus distance of 0.6m is also pretty close for this class of lens, enabling really tight compositions.
Three ED (Extra-low Dispersion) elements are included to boost sharpness and contrast, while combatting chromatic aberrations.
And while the design places sharpness at a premium, there’s equal attention given to the softness and smoothness of defocused areas, helped by a well-rounded seven-blade diaphragm.
Everything’s wrapped up in a tough, high-quality metal barrel, typical of up-market Fuji XF lenses. Weather-seals are also added to keep dust and moisture at bay, and the overall build is reasonably compact and lightweight, at 75x105mm and 540g.
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Performance
Our lab tests confirmed our real-world experience that this lens delivers spectacular sharpness across the frame, especially at apertures of f/4 to f/5.6, and neither sharpness nor contrast drop off much towards either end of the aperture range.
There’s almost no colour fringing at any aperture, even in the extreme corners of the frame, and the essentially imperceptible amount of pincushion distortion is of the same order as in Fuji’s 60mm macro lens.
The lens easily lives up to its claims of fast autofocus and the wide, smoothly-operating manual focus ring is also a joy to use. This in conjunction with the manual aperture ring help to ensure great handling.
It’s a cracker of a lens that’s brilliant for everything from tightly framed portraiture to action sports.
Features: 4.5/5
Build/Handling: 5/5
Performance: 5/5
Value: 5/5
Overall: 5/5
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Best Fuji XF lens: Verdict
It’s often said that any system camera is only as good as the lenses that form the complete system. That’s good news for Fuji X-series cameras, because the range of premium XF zoom and prime lenses are truly excellent.
They combine superb build and optical qualities with fast autofocus and great handling. Many add weather-resistance to suit a rugged outdoor lifestyle.
These lenses can also act as the key to unlock your creative potential as a photographer. Wide available apertures enable great control over depth of field, especially for an APS-C format system, while little extras like aperture rings and highly precise fly-by-wire manual focusing give you quick and intuitive access to creative adjustments.
All of the lenses on test have a great deal to offer, in terms of value for money as much as anything else. The 16-55mm f/2.8 is a classic standard zoom for everyday shooting, while the longer 50-140mm f/2.8 is an equally versatile fast telephoto zoom that’s ideal for shooting sports and wildlife.
Moving on to prime lenses, the 35mm f/2 makes a superb fast standard lens, while the ultra-fast 56mm f/1.2 is magnificent for portraiture.
For close-up shooting, the 60mm f/2.4 Macro reveals astonishing levels of detail in small objects, while the longer 90mm f/2 is the ultimate for short telephoto shooting.
All things considered, there’s something for everybody here, and there’s an equally compelling case for building a complete kit that comprises every one of these lenses.
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