Review: Fujifilm Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R Macro

Review: Fujifilm Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R Macro

Conclusion

Pros

  • Solidly built lens with an all-metal construction
  • Compact size
  • Very sharp right from maximum aperture
  • Beautiful bokeh, with even specular highlights and a creamy rendering
  • Excellent color and contrast
  • Good control of chromatic aberration
  • Mild vignetting

Cons

  • Autofocus is slow when using the whole range or in dimmer light, even with newer camera bodies
  • Lens hood is overly large for the lens
  • Distortion requires digital correction
  • Only 1:2 magnification

The XF 60mm f/2.4 Macro is one of the original lenses for the Fuji X system, and it is still a worthy member of the excellent X-series lineup.  It’s small, has a fairly wide aperture, is great for closeups of insects and flowers and works well as a portrait lens given it’s field of view, which is equivalent to a 90mm lens on a full frame camera.

The 60mm f/2.4 is sharp, has gorgeous bokeh, good control of chromatic aberration, outstanding color and contrast and packs its versatility into a very small and well-built package.  On the down side, the autofocus can be quite slow in some situations, though in good light on a newer Fuji camera, it does fairly well.  The metal lens hood is too big and clunky, and many would rather have true 1:1 macro capabilities.  Still, it’s a lens that is versatile and produces great images.  The Fuji X system only has two autofocus macro lenses available, this 60mm lens and the Zeiss Touit 50mm f/2.8 macro, which goes to 1:1 and is slightly sharper, though at the expense of size and a higher price tag.

If you need a small excellent macro lens, the XF 60mm f/2.4 is worth a long look.

Image Samples

Click on an image to enlarge.

In addition to the image samples here, very many of the product photos for my reviews have been taken with this lens.

Curly Fronds - Fujifilm X-E1 with Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R @ f/2.4
Curly Fronds – Fujifilm X-E1 with Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R @ f/5
The Look - Fujifilm X-E1 with Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R @ f/2.4
The Look – Fujifilm X-E1 with Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R @ f/2.4
butterfly2
Butterfly – Fujifilm X-T1 with Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R @ f/2.4
Heron - Fujifilm X-E1 with Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R @ f/5.6
Heron – Fujifilm X-E1 with Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R @ f/11
Leaf - Fujifilm X-E1 with Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R @ f/4
Leaf – Fujifilm X-E1 with Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R @ f/3.6
Looking Up - Fujifilm X-E1 with Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R @ f/2.4
Looking Up – Fujifilm X-M1 with Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R @ f/2.4
Blossoms - Fujifilm X-E1 with Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R @ f/2.4
Blossoms – Fujifilm X-E2 with Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R @ f/5.6
Butterfly - Fujifilm X-E1 with Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R @ f/2.4
Butterfly – Fujifilm X-E1 with Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R @ f/2.4
Colored Glass - Fujifilm X-T1 with Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R @ f/5.6
Colored Glass – Fujifilm X-T1 with Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R @ f/5.6
On the Deck - Fujifilm X-E1 with Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R @ f/2.4
On the Deck – Fujifilm X-E1 with Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R @ f/2.4
Tulips - Fujifilm X-E1 with Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R @ f/2.4
Tulips – Fujifilm X-E1 with Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R @ f/2.4
Lily - Fujifilm X-T1 with Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R @ f/4
Lily – Fujifilm X-T1 with Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R @ f/5.6
Butterfly - Fujifilm X-E1 with Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R @ f/2.4
Butterfly – Fujifilm X-E1 with Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R @ f/3.6

If you enjoyed this review, check out more of my reviews in the Review Index

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Comments

9 responses to “Review: Fujifilm Fujinon XF 60mm f/2.4 R Macro”

  1. azmi archer Avatar
    azmi archer

    Hi Jordan.. enjoyed reading your article.. I have discovered the lens hood for the 35mm f1.4 fits the 60mm perfectly.. and looks like it was made for it.. ps, the XT10 with the 60mm is my walk arround outfit.. & with the new firmware is a top camera for street photography.. all best..Azmi.

  2. […] review at admiringlight / Lakeland views – Fuji’s 18mm still a great lens at paulmellingphotography / 56mmF1.2: Autumn […]

  3. […] assessment at admiringlight / Lakeland views – Fuji’s 18mm nonetheless a nice lens at paulmellingphotography / […]

  4. Sam Taylor Avatar

    Great review Jordan – you really nailed it when you described this lens as versatile. I recently had a week shooting with the XF 60mm and thoroughly enjoyed the results it produced. It is a little gem of a lens. The autofocus was the only negative: in good light it’s noisey and slow, in low light it seriously struggles. However, knowing this limitation in advance I had no problem producing the images I wanted.

    The things that really impressed me about the XF 60mm were the versatility, the quality of the bokeh, and the size. I’m one if those people who has come from a full-frame DSLR to shoot the Fuji X series, and so the small size and light weight of this lens were immediately appealing. What I hadn’t expected was just how many creative possibilities this little lens affords.

    When the X series launched this lens looked like a bit of a compromise having to pull double duty as both a macro and a portrait prime: jack of all trades, master of none. That isn’t the case. Although a lot of very exciting lenses have been released since then, the XF 60mm remains a genuinely great lens. It also still embodies what made the X series attractive in the first place – great image quality and great creative freedom in a small package.

  5. Dennis Peterson Avatar
    Dennis Peterson

    Jordan great review of the Fuji 60mm xf lens, I have it and it is one of my favorite FL xf lenses.

    Just a note on your concern for the 60mm metal lens hood, the hood is constructed in 2 parts the barrel is metal and the tri spider connection is plastic held to the metal hood with 3 screws around the perimeter of the lens barrel, so it will not scratch the bayonet metal of the lens, but yes in reversing the hood it could scratch the lens barrel itself.

    Thanks for putting together a great site.
    Best
    Dennis.

  6. Daniel Avatar
    Daniel

    Hey Jordan,

    Do you prefer this Fujifilm lens to a m43 Olympus 60mm 2.8 combination or not ?
    I own both of these systems but can not decide which one to purchase.

    Regards

    1. Jordan Steele Avatar

      For macro work, I prefer the Olympus. The Oly 60 is my go to macro lens.

  7. Craig Schroeder Avatar
    Craig Schroeder

    When I’ve got studio light/umbrellas set up, the large hood is a very welcome item. It’s easy to have lighting setups that could produce flare otherwise. I think of it as a positive feature. Like someone mentioned, a smaller hood could be an easy and inexpensive thing to acquire for less demanding situations.

  8. Evan Avatar
    Evan

    Hi Jordan,

    Great review and images. In your experience, which do you think is a better trade off:

    1) Use a Canon macro (the 100/2.8, a fantastic lens) on my Fuji, 1:1, but limited to MF and f/2.8 only. Big and heavy.
    2) Trade for the 60/2.4, much more versatile, but 1:2 only (not sure how much of a limitation this is)
    3) Wait for some future, rumored Fuji macro lens

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