advertisement


Fuji users lens advice please

Rockmeister

Rockmeister

pfm Member
Doing some research, for fun, but hoping it may be realisable soon.
Body to be an XT-3 probably, XT 4 if richer at the time.
lenses needed from (in old money terms) 24 to 300mm.
Important to be with aperture ring
weather sealed would be nice
reasonable weight and a good balance on the body.
There must be one super sharp prime, somewhere around 35-50mm and the rest in zooms maybe?
Contenders are, in order of least likely first...
10-24 R OIS
18-55 R OIS kit lens
16-80 OIS WR
55-200
one from 23 f2 wr, 35 f2 wr, 23 1.4 R, and 35 1.4 R (why are the better lenses NOT weather sealed...odd decision by Fuji?)
and either the 16 f2.8 wr or the 16 1.4 wr if I don't go for the 10-40 zoom.
All thoughts. experiences, comments and links to pic quality much appreciated. TA.
 
I'm absolutely no expert, having only got into decent cameras this year really but I own the 18-55 and the 55-200. With these two, you're pretty versatile, and neither are huge heavy monsters you wouldn't want to carry around. You can't put a price on spontaneity, and both of these on an X T-3 round your neck will slip inside a zipped up fleece if the weather turns, and encourage just picking up if you're going out, and the light looks good.
Of the two I use the 55-200 ninety percent of the time, and it is IMHO a rather better bit of gear, sharper and obvs bigger reach - the reach is seductive. It's handy having the 18-55, but I'd be lost without the 55-200.
 
I had the 16-80 and its good. But the 10-24 I had for a couple of weeks and then returned for a refund, I just couldn't get anything sharp out of it.
 
There are no 'bad' lenses in the Fujifilm lineup, some are better than others but there are no bad lenses. In 24-300 in old money you are looking at 16-200, to meet all your zoom requirements this could be done with two lenses 16-55 and 50-140 +1.4TC - Great optical quality and WR but there is a weight penalty.

With regard to the F1.4 primes not being WR, these were first and second release primes and at the time there was perhaps less interest in WR. Both the 1.4 versions are notably 'better' IQ than their F2 (WR) Fujicron brothers.

The 16mm F1.4 is an astonishing lens, certainly one of the best primes for IQ, and has the ability to focus really close, its also WR and the one of my favourite Fuji Lenses. Other primes that are loved by Fuji users, are the XF90mm F2, XF56mm F1.2, XF35mmF1.4 and XF23mmF1.4. The XF14mm is also a great lens, a little wider than the 16mm, its only problem is that the XF16mmF1.4 exists!

@ff1d1l makes a good point about the 55-200 which is another great lens, what you gain in weight saving you lose in the fact that its not got WR. Its bokeh is a little fussy compared with the XF90mm and the 50-140 but its still a very good lens. The XC50-230 is also a very underated lens, although its got a plastic body (more weight saving) its still optically good, and for the typical s/h price of £100-£150 its a bit of a steal.

The 18-55 'kit' lens is good, much much better than other manufacturer equivalent offerings, and although its a lens that I now rarely use, its still a great lens.

We are all different in our preferences, and although I have a bucket of Fujifilm lenses, I try and go out with as little as possible. If I wanted to cover your focal length range on a day's expedition, I would take XF16mm F.14, Zeiss 32mm F1.8 (this is my preference over the XF35mmF1.4, but there are lots of happy 35mm F1,4 shooters out there) and the XF55-200mm. My preference is to use primes and 'work the scene' and I'd leave the 18-55mm at home, if I added anything to that bag it would either be the XF23mmF1.4 or the an X100F !!

Whatever you decide I'm sure you will be happy, you can't really go wrong, just select what suits you.

Sorry for such a rambling post.
 
Last edited:
Don’t be sorry! Exactly the kind of info I like to have. Many thanks. Zeiss ‘Touit’ I didn’t know about. Big Zeiss fan, so good news thanks.

Thanks to all so far.
 
Rockmeister said:
Don’t be sorry! Exactly the kind of info I like to have. Many thanks. One question. I didn’t know that third-party makers fitted fuji bodies. How do you manage to use Zeiss lenses? Ishould ‘google’ this I know!
Click to expand...

There are a lot of 3rd party lenses with Fuji X Fit, many are Manual Focus, but some are Auto Focus

Zeiss made 3 Touit Lenses, 12mm, 32mm and 50mm (Macro) for the X series - all with Autofocus these were all with co-operation with Fujifilm and even appeared on the Fujifilm Lens Roadmap. The Zeiss Lenses never really took hold in the market, partly because Fujifilm accelerated their road map and reasonably rapidly filled in the holes in their lens range.

Samyang have also produced several manual focus lenses, the popular ones being the the 8mm Fisheye and 12mm WIde Angle, the latter especially for Astrowork

Viltrox make some autofucus lenses, and some other Chinese manufacturers 7artisans, etc make a range of MF lenses, and Lensbaby have several FujiX fit lenses.

If you are big into colour commonality, then just be careful with 3rd party lenses, as they in the main don't render colours in the same way as Fujifilm glass, they are not bad or even wrong, but different.

I like the Zeiss 32mm, I've got on better with it than the Fujifilm 35mm F1.4, but it is a personal choice.
 
OK, I'll throw in my reflections having moved from a much loved and abused compact X10 to a more comprehensive set-up this year. I think to some extent it depends on what you're used to & what you predominantly photograph; so I purchased:

X-T30 direct from Fuji refurbished. Immaculate condition seemingly brand new it came with the 18-55 effectively for free. Love the camera, with an L bracket and thumb support on all the time the size and handling are perfect for me but others would still find it too small. Can't fault the output and although I don't often shoot video I recorded an event a couple of weeks ago on full auto & it was very good

I've always favoured zooms and use the camera particularly for travel where flexibility is an advantage. My 18-55 seems a good copy; I reckon it's better than the 16-80 from what I've seen and although you lose the long end you gain a bit of speed

10-24mm bought second hand. Again immaculate condition, hardly used but an earlier 'made in Japan' lens. Unlike alanbeeb mine seems very sharp which may be because of it's heritage. Will keep it for sure as it's a perfect landscape lens and a good companion for the next one if you only want a 2 lens set-up

Favourite film lens was an FD Canon 80-200, so no surprise that I ended up with the 55-200. Very pleased with this, bought with Fuji & LCE combined cash-back. If you're not in a hurry take your time and wait for the offers

I guess mine is the classic Fuji set-up and haven't missed anything yet, although a fast prime would be nice, just not sure of the focal length. I like colour consistency between lenses coming from a film background so would probably stick to Fuji. I felt re-assured about the lack of WR after listening to Andy Mumford's comments

Hope that helps
 
Last edited:
I don't have any Fuji zooms but I have a selection of primes and they're all wonderful the 90mm/2.0 and 56/1.2 at the portrait/tele end to the 16/1.4. They're my favourites. I'm still using the Pro2 so I have a couple of the weather sealed, small sized lenses for 'walkabout' the 35 and the 23 both 2.0, and they don't give up much to their big brothers - I sold the 35/1.4 for the 2.0. They're all WR lenses except the 56 which is a bit older - the earlier lenses were not, in answer to the question.
 
Fuji users tend to be keen on primes, and for very good reasons... Fuji don't really produce any poor lenses, which is why they get criticised for their lenses being expensive, but quality lenses cost money, and comparing my Fuji 16mm f1.4 - around £800 in 2020, with my Zeiss 18mm f4 that I paid more than £1k for in, I think 1998, so equivalent of nearly £2k now - a great lens, but, sorry, not a patch on the Fuji in any comparison.
So, you need to decide what you want your lenses to do. My son uses Fuji in his video business, and his main lens is the 18-55 Zoom 'kit' lens, and he supplements that by borrowing from my collection of primes.
The 50-230 plastic XC lens proved rather fragile, but image quality was superb. The 18mm f2 was probably the weakest prime I've owned, but was nice and compact, but the 27mm pancake is superb and makes the X-E2/3 into a coat pocket street camera. The 35mm f1.4 is superb for indoor low light use, though autofocus is a bit slow compared with the best. The 90mm f2 is so good I don't use anything longer any more as it out resolves my Zeiss 135 and 200 lenses, so I just crop to get a 200mm capture angle, on the rare occasion I need it.
I sold my XC 16-50 to a friend who is a pro wedding photographer, and can borrow it back when needed - useful lens for situations like demo's when things might get a bit 'iffy' as it would be cheap to replace. It's not as good as my 16, nor as good as my Zeiss 50mm f1.4 but that combo is at least four times the value.
I'd start with one or two primes, unless you are too used to the zoom idea (I don't possess any zooms at all) - and get used to the handling of the lenses. WR is vaguely useful - especially in the UK, but we lived with cameras that leaked like a sieve for generations, and we used plastic bags when it was raining. I'm not sure any of mine are WR. Third party lenses - Zeiss, obviously, but I actually prefer the Fuji (ironically one of my reasons for getting my first X-E1 was the availability of the Zeiss lenses!) - Samyang 12mm f2 useful, I really like my quirky £50 Neewer 25mm f1.8, and will eventually get a Laowa 7.5mm as I'm an ultra-wide fanatic. I have a couple of Russian lenses and some Zeiss telephotos that rarely get used, but just about anything can be (manually) adapted to a Fuji body.
The other thing to consider is handling, as some of the lenses are quite big and heavy, though the XT body balances the bigger lenses better.

I've recently started doing photo mentoring (www.theimagementor.co.uk) and what has become apparent quite quickly is having too much kit is much more of an issue than not having enough. It's almost that having a vast library of lenses means that you get bogged down by the choices and don't actually take any (good) images. Less does seem to be more!
 
Over the few years I've been using Fuji, first the XT-1, now an XT-3, I've accumulated a few lenses. The one that tends to stay on the camera for speedy use is the 18-55 f2.8:4, but next favourite's probably the 10-24 (for those Lake District scenes), closely followed by the 35mm f1.4, which his superb. The 55-200 f3.5:4.8's mostly for trying to capture elusive wildlife (red squirrels have acute anti-camera sensory perception). The little 18mm pancake tends to get left in the drawer, which I suspect is a bit of a mistake, but you can't take 'em all! I really need to get a water-resistant lens at some stage, and I guess the 16-80mm f4 makes the most sense.
 
16/1.4, 18-55/2.8-4, 27/2.8, 35/1.4, 55-200 and 56/1.2 here. These days I seem to be using the 18-55 more often than not. 16/1.4 is stunningly good but you don't really need f1.4 on a wide angle IMHO. 27/2.8 sits on my wife's camera body, it's surprisingly good for a pancake lens. 35/1.4 is a cracker. 55-200 is good, and the reach is appreciated. Not as sharp as the others but has OIS. 56/1.2 difficult to use well. It's poor hunty AF lets it down, and combined with a wafer-thin DOF wide-open, I've missed a good few shots to OOF....
 
PS. If anyone is interested, I might be willing to swap my 56/1.2 for the 90/2 +/- cash adjustment if anyone is interested.
 
So the 18-55 kit lens is a cracker. Almost a 'must have' in some respects, though I've just acquired the 16-80 and it's great too - not much bigger (the 16-55 2.8 is MUCH bulkier and heavier) and only really loses a stop at the wide end, which I figured isn't so important for me. The OIS in the 16-80 is excellent too, working very well with the XT3. I too was thinking of going for the 4 for IBIS and some video niceties, but for me I can kit out a 3 (especially as there are some great secondhand ones now) with cage, external monitor and gimbal if needed and still have a wodge of change left over.

Of the primes I've the 16/2.8 (lovely, remains to be seen how much I use it now I have the 16-80) the 35/2 and the 50/2. I love them all. 50 is great for portraits, the 35 (nifty fifty in old money) is tack sharp and fast AF (in the AF department!). I'll keep them and probably get the 23/2 soon as they just sit so well on the X-Pro2. Bigger lenses just seem a bot odd on it to me, whereas they sit happily on the XT3. Buy any of these secondhand and you'll lose very little selling on if you don't like them - there are a few on sale on the UK Fuji Gear For Sale FB page. If you need a contact who does great SH and new Fuji gear look here and give Adrian a call, he's a good source if you're not in a hurry...
 
well thank you chaps
OFC this thread has been no use whatsoever since I am now swinging wildly from 2 bodies (an X100F and an XT3, since the 100F is not that pricey now compared to the 23mm 1.4 and on weight is lighter than the 23 1.4/XT 3 combo, and fun to use to boot), and various primes/ zooms and etc.
Settled and really self choosing is the XT 3 55-200 combo. That's IN. After that, front runners are the 35 1.4 ( I love 50mm) and the 18-55 zoom with the 16 1.4 and somewhere there will be the/an answer. ;)
Since the 18-55 is a total bargain as a kit lens that's also a shoe in I think, so the primes will be based around the gaps.
I'm keeping the FF Nikon and 2 primes for 'special contract' duties, so it's really about much lighter weight with little loss of IQ.

Since someone has actually now bought my harbeths, it looks like this is really on!

I have to DO something? Bugger.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.


advertisement


Back
Top