Optical Limits posted its full Fujinon XF150-600mm f/5.6-8 R WR review, and you can read the whole thing here, or you can check out the summary below. I personally purchased this lens to pair with my X-T4, but I really can’t wait to see how it performs on the Fujifilm X-T5. I haven’t been able to use it much yet, but the little experience I have had with it has left me impressed, and it looks like optical limits were impressed too.
…the Fujinon XF 150-600mm f/5.6-8 R LM OIS WR is a slow lens… If you’ve ever carried a 600mm f/4 lens into the outdoors, you know that it’s a PAIN. And slow lenses are simply more compact and lightweight… they can compete with similar super-tele zoom lenses… outdoor conditions are less than perfect most of the time. There’s atmospheric interference from heat or haze at longer distances, and there’s always a bit of wind at least. In real life, you rarely achieve the same maximum sharpness as in lab conditions. So while the MTFs may not be top-notch, they are more than just “good enough” in the real world on 26-megapixel sensors at least. 40 megapixels may be a different story…based on real-world use, we are happy with what the lens can deliver … and specifically that the burden of carrying it around wasn’t unbearable.
…From a lab perspective, the results are very good until about 500mm, with “very good” meaning that 99% of the users will be perfectly happy. At 600mm, you may miss some biting sharpness – more so on 40-megapixel bodies. Image distortions are surprisingly low, even in RAW images… The same applies to vignetting, so it’s obvious that the lens has not been “underdesigned” like so many others. Lateral CAs are slightly higher than you may expect from a pro lens, but you won’t notice this with auto-correction… The bokeh quality is similar to what we have seen from other tele zoom lenses – meaning that out-of-focus highlights can be a bit busy in difficult scenes.
The build quality of the lens is excellent and aligned for professional use. We especially like the non-extending zoom mechanism… The pearl-white-ish color scheme… does the job of reflecting heat better than anything black… The five f-stop image stabilizer is pretty efficient for a lens of this class. As far as the AF goes – at this point, we only had a “measly” X-T30 for testing, but even so, the AF speed was pretty snappy and reliable. It’ll be better on a pro-grade camera body such as the X-H2 and X-H2s, of course.
Overall – well done, Fujifilm. Whether this is a lens for you depends on your budget and your speed requirements. The speed and optical quality have been balanced with portability. Ultimately, we think that this was a good choice within the scope of the X-mount system. Therefore highly recommended (for the use on 26-megapixel cameras).
Fujinon XF150-600mm f/5.6-8 R WR:
B&H Photo / Amazon / Moment / Adorama
Fujifilm X-H2S:
B&H Photo / Amazon / Moment / Adorama
Fujifilm X-H2:
B&H Photo / Amazon / Moment / Adorama
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