Fujifilm XF50 mm F2 R Weather Resistant Lens, Black

Product Information

As with all Fujifilm X lenses, the construction is excellent. As the lens gets both the XF and WR designations, you can be assured that it is well constructed, feels solid, and will withstand a few splashes.

Personally, the TTArtisan 50mm f/2 is all about a freedom feeling. It gives you the option to go super lightweight and in an unobtrusive way. It is similar to the experience you get with Fujifilm's smaller f/2 lenses. If this 1,200×900 pixel crop is about 6" (15cm) wide on your screen, then the complete image printed at this same high magnification would be about 21 × 31" (1.7 × 2.6 feet or 50 × 80 cm). Really, it depends on your need. For example, I'm not going to sell my 56mm lens and it will still travel with me to every wedding. Here in the UK, the venues are dark and the weather is often dingy. I rely on the 1.2 aperture in low light. The F2 aperture of the new Fujifilm 50mm will not cut it in those cases (even though, as it's lighter, I can probably get away with a slower hand held shutter speed).

Fujifilm XF 50mm f/2 R WR Aperture range

In essence, I need both of them, but the Fujifilm 50mm F2 has actually opened up a couple of new angles for me. I find it much easier to shoot from the hip, and for those that use the XT-2 / 20 and the tilt screen, you will notice a huge difference using this lens to shoot through subjects to tell a story compared to the 56mm F1.2

The moral of the story is that all three lenses perform in a very similar manner at a long focus distance, particularly from f/2.8 onward, whereas the 50mm and 56mm have a slight advantage over the 60mm at a close focus distance. The only value at which the 56mm is visibly softer than either of its competitors is f/1.2, which makes sense given how fast this value is. Bokeh As for the corners, both the 50mm and 56mm are very sharp straight out of the gate (though not as sharp as in the centre) whereas the 60mm is most definitely softer. Compare this lens to Fujifilm’s wider f/2 primes and you’ll notice it’s a fraction longer than the XF 23mm f/2 R WR and not as stubby as the XF 35mm f/2 WR.

The best sharpness from theFujifilm 50mm f2 R WR comes when you use a flash. In this case, I used the X500 flash from Fujifilm and dialed the TTL compensation down. The result: a beautifully sharp photo. Extra Image Samples Moving onto bokeh-balls, I shot an ornamental tree with some LED fairy lamps behind it. Note the LEDs had a rectangular shape, so don’t look for perfectly circular blobs here. Like the previous example with the beer bottles, I focused close to the minimum distance of the XF 56mm f1.2, then repositioned slightly so the XF 50mm f2 roughly matched the subject size on the frame. The Fujifilm XF 50mm f/2 R WR is a compact and lightweight prime lens for Fuji’s X-mount camera system. With a full frame equivalent 76mm focal length and a fast f/2 maximum aperture, the XF 50mm f/2 is a fantastic option for portrait, travel, and street photography. This lens is also weather sealed and very well built, making it a great choice for photographers that get outside and are constantly on-the-go. Whereas the 50mm’s diminutive size makes it a good match for nearly any Fujifilm X series camera, including the smaller entry-level models, the 56mm handles somewhat better on larger bodies such as the X-T2 or X-Pro2. (There isn’t any physical limitation to using the 56mm on a smaller body; it just wouldn’t be quite as comfortable.) The 60mm sits in the middle and feels at home no matter which body you use. Vignetting is apparent in images taken at f/2, but it’s well controlled. Corners appear approximately 0.4EV darker than the centre and you’ll start to see an instant improvement as you begin to close the lens down from its maximum aperture. The vignetting correction that’s built into the raw file metadata did a commendable job of correcting corner shading on our raw files when processing through Lightroom CC.

The XF 56mm is, in many ways, the antithesis of the XF 50mm. Not only is it larger and heavier, as necessitated by the larger maximum aperture, but it is also twice as expensive. It is what many Fujifilm users affectionately call their go-to portrait lens for the system thanks to its gorgeous bokeh and excellent subject separation. The AF mechanism is slower than that of the 50mm but is still more than decent and it provides excellent sharpness. If you choose this specialised lens, make sure you shoot portraits on a regular basis – it is too good to be used only a couple of times a year!Weighing just 20g more than the 23mm f/2, the lens tips the scales at a very modest 200g. It is very compact and evokes the memory of the traditional rangefinder camera, something that will appeal to many photographers. Although the lens is slower than the Fujifilm XF 56mm f/1.2 R, there are benefits to be had from manufacturing a smaller front element and limiting the maximum aperture to f/2. In last place we find the 56mm, which won’t let you get any closer than 70cm. It has a rather poor maximum magnification of 0.09x. 56mm f1.2 Chromatic Aberration