Conclusion
Pros
- Solidly built, weather-sealed lens with great feel on the zoom, focus and aperture rings
- Handles well considering size and weight
- Fast and accurate autofocus in good light
- Truly excellent sharpness throughout the zoom range right from f/2.8
- Very pleasing bokeh in most situations
- Exceptional control of lens aberrations, with essentially zero field relevant chromatic aberration
- Very nice performance against bright light
- Low distortion and vignetting
- Excellent color and contrast
- The best optical stabilizer on any lens I’ve ever used
- Super smooth tripod-collar and great hood design for access to a polarizer
Cons
- Large and heavy for a mirrorless lens
- Autofocus slows down in low light and can hunt on low contrast subjects in dim conditions
- Tripod foot is too close to the rear of the lens, causing conflict with the X-T1’s vertical grip
- Bokeh can get nervous in certain situations and has a cat’s eye shape to highlights away from the image center
If you couldn’t tell from the rest of the review, the Fuji 50-140mm f/2.8 OIS WR is a simply outstanding optic. The lens is very sharp, has nice bokeh in most situations, is amazingly adept at controlling lens aberrations, is built extremely well, focuses fast in good light and has absolutely incredibly good optical stabilization.
On the flip side, the lens doesn’t focus that fast in lower light and the bokeh can get ugly in the right circumstances. I also don’t understand the lens designers opting to place the tripod foot far enough back to cause problems when using a vertical grip. I’m sure I’ll get comments on the other (and first listed) ‘con’ in the list above, as I received many comments about the same ‘con’ when I reviewed the excellent, but also fairly large Olympus 40-150mm f/2.8. The lens is big and heavy.
I get it: you can’t cheat physics, and those who are looking to use this lens are going to use it in the situations they’d be carrying even larger gear with a DSLR. I understand all that. It’s still a big lens with regards to the Fuji X series, and it’s important to bring it up for this reason: You’re likely going to need a different bag to carry this lens in your Fuji kit.
While the size can cause some issues in transport and carrying with the rest of the kit, it’s fine once you start shooting with it. And I have to say, I really liked this lens. I review and use a LOT of gear, and most of the time when it’s time to return the review sample, I’m OK with it and move on. However, I miss this lens already. It’s truly an outstanding lens, and I am likely to start socking away some cash to pick one up sometime in the future. It’s a brilliant optic with a few minor faults, but when taken as a whole it’s one of the very best zoom lenses I’ve ever used.
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Sample Images
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