The Definitive Fujinon XF50-140mm F2.8 R LM OIS WR: Fujifilm’s 70-200 Equivalent is Showing its Age
Dustin Abbott posted his definitive review of the Fujinon XF 50-140mm F2.8 R LM OIS WR. Below is a summary of the above video:
- Full frame equivalent of about 76-213mm
- Weather-resistant
- Optical stabilization
- Linear motors
- Aperture Ring
- Not a small or inexpensive lens
- Beautifully built lens
- Wish the lens hood was engineered with more precision
- The polarizer adjustment door comes off and can be lost
- There is a little bit of play at the lens mount on the copy he’s using
- The tripod foot design has a little flex since it is removable
- Materials are all nice
- The lens is nicely built
- All the rings are good quality (Aperture, Focus, Zoom)
- An internally zooming lens so no change of length of front element rotation
- Focus ring takes a lot of rotation to get in focus so AF is more useful than MF
- Can be used with up to a 2x TC
- Tripod collar has no feeling to it to let you know portrait vs landscape
- 72mm front filter thread
- Tamron 70-180mm which is a full-frame lens is shorter and lighter than the Fujinon, but it has a lot of plastic
- The Fujinon is more robustly made than the Tamron, but the Tamron is cheaper and optically superior
- Max magnification is 0.12x and focuses down to a meter
- For a premium lens, he doesn’t feel it competes with Canon or Nikon 70-200, but the Sony GM isn’t even as good as the Tamron
- Fujifilm’s first triple linear motor design
- Best for weddings, events, and portraits
- If you only have one lens to shoot events with the 70-200mm is the goto
- Good sports lens with the X-T4, but the buffer depth might limit you
- Plenty of AF speed
- Fujifilm Eye AF still isn’t as sticky as Sony or Canon
- Any AF issues are likely more due to the cameras than the lens
- You need LM lenses if you want to do video because other lenses make noise
- Still, a little bit of hunting when doing focus pulls, but still think this is a good lens for filming
- Had to get a second copy because the first he received wasn’t very good
- Fujifilm embeds their correction profiles so you have to go out of your way to disable them and if you do there is some pincushion and vignetting
- Performance across the lens is goodish at f/2.8
- The contrast and detail doesn’t compare to Tamrons 70-180mm
- The lens improves at f/5.6 but still not exceptional
- Performance is pretty consistent across the zoom range with wide-open being goodish, but stoping down improves a little around f/4-5.6
- This lenses acuity doesn’t blow him away
- 140mm is the sharpest of the zoom range and it is very good, but cant fully show off the X-T4’s sensor
- Bokeh in front and behind the subject is good
- Some cat eye lemon shape at the edges
- No fringing
- f/4 gives you more consistently circular bokeh and by f/5.6 you only get deformation of the bokeh at the extreme edges
- This is a nice portrait lens, but the resolution isn’t exceptional
- Has very nice bokeh and color
- Not very flare resistant so you will get ghosting and haze
- Real-world LOCA is very well controlled
- A little underwhelmed by this lens because maybe the goal post has moved since this lens was released and it might be time to be updated
- You will get good results with this lens, but Fujifilm needs more options
- Good enough to do your work with isn’t good enough for this price point
- Fujifilm needs more competition to drive down the prices of lenses like these
- The Fujinon XF50-140mm F2.8 R LM OIS WR is a good lens with a good optical stabilizer that gives you 3.5-4 stops of OIS
- This lens could be a bit better at this price point
Fujifilm X-T News, Rumors, and Collaboration
Fujifilm X-T Owners Group
Fujifilm X-T Page
Follow Fujiaddict on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube
Fujifilm X-T4: B&H Photo / Amazon / Adorama
XF 50-140mm F2.8 R LM WR: B&H Photo /Amazon / Adorama