{"id":7551,"date":"2018-06-02T09:22:47","date_gmt":"2018-06-02T14:22:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/?p=7551"},"modified":"2024-09-05T16:46:57","modified_gmt":"2024-09-05T21:46:57","slug":"review-fujifilm-fujinon-xf-80mm-f-2-8-macro-r-lm-ois-wr","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admiringlight.com\/blog\/review-fujifilm-fujinon-xf-80mm-f-2-8-macro-r-lm-ois-wr\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Fujifilm Fujinon XF 80mm f\/2.8 Macro R LM OIS WR"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Fujifilm has developed an exceptionally robust lens lineup over the last several years, but the one area that had been lacking was in a true 1:1 macro lens.  Fuji remedies this with their 80mm f\/2.8 R LM OIS WR Macro, a lens with a slightly longer field of view than many macros, 1:1 magnification, an optical stabilizer and weather sealing. In this Fuji 80mm f\/2.8 Macro review, I’ll go in-depth on this versatile prime lens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Fuji 80mm f\/2.8 Macro R LM OIS WR<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

If you\u2019re not familiar with my reviews, I review from a real world shooting perspective. You won\u2019t find lens charts or resolution numbers here. There are plenty of other sites that cover those. I review products on how they act for me as a photographic tool.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Construction and Handling<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Fuji 80mm Macro is the first 1:1 macro from the company, and to get that magnification, along with all the other bells and whistles, the lens isn’t able to achieve the compact size of its earlier, shorter brother, the 60mm f\/2.4 Macro.  The 80mm is sized typically for macro lenses in this focal length, but is a bit larger than most of the other Fuji prime lenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lens is constructed predominantly of a high grade plastic exterior, though I’d imagine the interior construction uses metals extensively. The lens is very tightly assembled, and has no flex anywhere on the body.  The 80mm is an internally focusing lens, and as such, it stays constant length throughout the focusing range.  The exterior feel is very similar to that of the Fuji 55-200mm lens, with the broad rubber focus ring and plastic construction.  The use of plastics does help keep the weight below what it would have been otherwise, but the lens is still fairly hefty at 750g.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Fuji 80 Macro has a smooth plastic exterior<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The OIS element inside the lens is loose when the camera is powered off, so an audible thunk<\/em> is heard when moving the lens around, by design.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lens handles pretty well on Fuji cameras with a grip, so X-T1\/2 and X-H1 owners will have no issues at all.  Those with the X-T20 or X-E cameras will want to use one of the accessory grips for longer use, as it’s a bit unwieldy without the grip.  On my X-T20, I used the metal hand grip exclusively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The very broad focus ring is clad in ribbed rubber and has good damping, though the focus by wire makes manual focus a bit less tactile than I normally like for macro lenses.  The metal aperture ring is very well damped, perhaps even a bit too damped, and I think the detents on this lens are a bit weaker than on some of Fuji’s other recent lenses, so it isn’t as satisfying to use as the f\/2 primes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Fuji 80mm with included lens hood<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Autofocus and Image Stabilization<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Fuji 80mm macro features a linear motor system for fast autofocus.  There is also a focus limiter switch, which restricts the lens to focusing in the macro range, outside the macro range, or in the full focus range of the lens.  The autofocus in the Fuji 80mm is pretty quick.  For non-macro shooting, it provides very speedy performance, locking quickly on the subject with excellent accuracy.  In the macro range in good light, the lens also retains pretty quick and quite accurate autofocus.  However, in dimmer light, things slow down considerably. At moderate distances, the AF speed is still decent in dim light, but once you start focusing closer up, the lens slows down a lot, and can take quite a while to focus on your subject.  However, accuracy was still quite good.  In all, it’s a better autofocus performance than a lot of macro lenses, but falls short of the best focusing Fuji primes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fuji 80mm f\/2.8 Macro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The image stabilizer in the 80mm f\/2.8 Macro is rather good, as you’d expect from a Fuji lens.  For everyday shooting, it’s good for 4-5 stops of stabilization, allowing for handholding in dark conditions without having to raise the ISO.  At macro distances, it’s less effective, but still provides much needed stability at these high magnifications. I found that at 1:1, I could get fairly consistently sharp shots at around 1\/40s, which is around 2-3 stops better than unstabilized, with some shots sharp as low as 1\/20s.  I typically require around double the typical handholding rule when shooting at macro distances, so this is a fairly good performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue: Image Quality<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Image Quality<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Macro lenses tend to be some of the best lenses in a system’s lineup due to the extreme resolving requirements to produce quality images at high magnifications, and as such, I had very high expectations for the lens.  For the most part, the 80mm f\/2.8 Macro met these expectations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sharpness<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

One area where the lens certainly meets expectations is in image sharpness.  The lens is extremely sharp right from maximum aperture, across the entire frame, and stopping down just a bit brings everything just a tick sharper.  This is true both in the macro range and towards infinity, though it may be just slightly lower resolving at those longer focus distances.  With that said, you will not want for sharpness anywhere in the range. There’s really not much more to be said here, as there’s very little to nitpick. Click here<\/a> for a 100% crop of the focus area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Butterfly – Fujifilm X-T20 with Fujinon XF 80mm f\/2.8 Macro @ f\/5.6, ISO 320<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Bokeh<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Bokeh, on the other hand, is a bit of a mixed bag.  Like almost all macro lenses, bokeh when shot close up is quite smooth, due in part to the extreme amount of blur that is created at these focus distances. It is, however, somewhat high contrast, which can make it feel a little chunky at times if the background is busy.  At portrait distances, this is accentuated even further due to the lowered amount of blur.  It’s not a bad performance at all, as the bokeh doesn’t produce double edges, and the blur discs are still relatively even, but it also doesn’t really wow me.  There’s also quite a bit of a swirly character to the bokeh at medium focus distances that may or may not be to your liking, depending on personal preference.  Perhaps the worst thing about the bokeh is that specular highlights can show extremely pronounced onion ring artifacts due to the aspherical elements in the lens.  These are visible even when resized for web use, as can be seen in the white highlight below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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At the park – Fujifilm X-T20 with Fujinon XF 80mm f\/2.8 Macro @ f\/2.8<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

However, overall, the bokeh from the lens is quite good, and will produce pleasing blur in the majority of situations. It does, however, fall short of truly excellent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Color, Contrast and Chromatic Aberration<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The 80mm f\/2.8 follows the tried and true Fuji formula for color, producing rich tones and a consistent look with other Fuji lenses.  Contrast follows the same mold, with an even contrast that stays consistent throughout the aperture range. Spherical aberration is almost entirely corrected, so there is no loss of contrast at f\/2.8 and even at 1:1 magnification, as one would hope from a macro lens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lens exhibits very low chromatic aberration, with lateral aberrations being essentially absent in real world usage, and longitudinal chromatic aberrations being very well controlled. There is a very slight green fringe on out of focus items behind the subject, but it’s very mild and won’t have a major effect on your images in real world use.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Distortion, Flare and Vignetting<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Most macro lenses tend to have very low distortion, but the 80mm f\/2.8 macro minimizes them to essentially zero.  Lines appear perfectly straight, and it’s hard to do much better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lens has a bit of vignetting at wider apertures, but it’s fairly negligible in real-world use.  No issues here.  the lens also performs quite well with regards to flare.  Due to the deep hood and narrow angle of view, it’s pretty hard to get any sort of light source to hit the front element obliquely, so the only real situations where flare can be an issue is when the sun is in the frame.  As you can see below, the lens does an admirable job in this situation, with no major ghosting or loss of contrast, just a touch of a purple tint around the sun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Sun on the Tip – Fujifilm X-T20 with Fujinon XF 80mm f\/2.8 Macro @ f\/16<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Continue: Conclusion and Image Samples<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Conclusion<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Pros<\/h4>\n\n\n\n