Fujifilm sat down with Camera Kitamura to talk about the Fujinon XF150-600mmF5.6-8 R WR and I personally can’t wait to receive mine. It sounds like Fujifilm struck a pretty unique balance when designing this lens and I can’t wait to push it to the limit by shooting some color moons that fill the 1800mm frame this lens can capture with a 2xTC. Below you can read some of the key points that were clear in the interview thanks to google auto-translate which is good but not great for viewing these videos. I also included a color moon shot at the bottom.
- When the 5th generation sensor was put into development video was going to be a big step up
- Fujifilm decided that a Fujinon XF150-600mm f/5.6-8 R LM OIS WR would be a good lens to pair it with the 5th generation sensor
- The Fujinon XF18-120mm f/4 LM PZ WR was another lens Fujifilm felt would pair well with the sensor
- Fujifilm already had a Fujinon XF100-400mm so they decided the new lens should be 1.5x different
- Fujifilm considered making the Fujinon XF150-600mm f/5.6-8 R LM OIS WR faster, but the weight was also a consideration
- Most 150-600mm are 2kg and some are 2.8kg and Fujifilm wanted to be about 20% lighter than 2kg and ended up at 1605g
- Increasing the aperture speed to f/6.3 at 600mm would have exponentially increased weight and Fujifilm would have ended up stuck at 3kg which was beyond their weight goals
- Fujifilm saved 400g by giving up 2/3 stops of light gathering
- Fujifilm also had to make sure the lens was built to tight tolerances using the right materials and rigidity to make the lens work well so magnesium was used internally and plastics were used on the surface instead of aluminum
- The lens is white to reduce heat transmission since the lenses can be moved around due to temperature changes
- Internal zoom was also important because the front element is heavy and it minimizes lens movement
- Similarly, the zoom right is weighted to minimize shake while zooming
- If you are shooting down or up with a non-internal zoom lens the zoom tends to slip if it is not locked
- The internal zoom makes the lens very easy to use
- They are using 4 super ED elements to handle chromatic aberration
- The Fujinon XF150-600mm f/5.6-8 R LM OIS WR will allow you to capture very beautiful sharp images
- Many are surprised with how good this lens actually is
- You can even use Fujifilm’s teleconverters with the Fujinon XF150-600mm f/5.6-8 R LM OIS WR which can extend your reach up to 1800mm which matches the Moon perfectly
- Fujifilm is trying to match the spatial resolution of 15 line pairs and 45 line pairs with a narrow spatial frequency matching the mtf of medium and 30 size, but Fujifilm is 1.5x higher than 15 and 45 line pairs
- The lens is designed for APS-C so the image will be a little different
- The lens focuses very quickly with linear motors
- The lens has 8 function buttons so you can operate them in any photo position
Fujifilm X-H2S:
B&H Photo / Amazon / Moment / Adorama
Fujinon XF18-120mm F4.0 LM PZ WR:
B&H Photo / Amazon / Moment / Adorama
Fujinon XF150-600mmF5.6-8 R WR:
B&H Photo / Amazon / Moment / Adorama
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