privater's reviews

  • Fujinon XF 50-140mm f/2.8 R LM OIS WR

    9 out of 10 points and recommended
    Sharpness, f2.8, OIS, Build quality, Water Resist, Fast Focus,
    Price, Heavy, Large, Tripod collar hard to remove, OIS Noise, No lens pouch

    I have Sony FE70200 G to compare with it which almost has the same category and price tag. Sony I'm using A7rII
    ,Fuji with X-T1

    For build quality, Fuji is better, all metal construction, Direct Aperture control. But Sony has focus limiter switch and focus hold button which is very convenient. Sony lens consist of plastic and metal. Fuji is heavier than Sony, both because of material and lens elements.

    Accessories: Sony has Lens pouch, Fuji only has a lens warp, Sony's Lens hood is well made with high quality plastic with same paint as lens barrel and rubber ring with black cloth inside which is very high quality and professional, Fuji on the other side the hood is very plastic, feels cheap and hard to put on. So sony Wins with accessories.
    Sony has better designed tripod collar, Fuji is very difficult to remove

    Focus: both very fast, I'd say they're even but Fuji is better in min focus because it stays the same from 50 to 140mm, Sony is variable 1M at 70mm but 1.3m at 200mm sometime it's annoying to step back for the shot.

    OIS: Fuji is a lot better (50% better more or less) BUT with drawback: the OIS in fuji lens looks like some magnetic float system, you can hear the noisy when you're at some quiet place like home or church. Sony looks like use traditional OIS without any noisy but not as effective, and whether you enable the OIS or not, the noisy is there and can't turn off, so I suppose the floating element is fundamental in Fuji's lens, it's working all the time.

    Sharpness: Fuji is better. especially on the long end(That's why we want a telephoto lens right?) I bought this kind of lens for it's reach and bokeh, I don't really care the wide end, thus Fuji give me the best result: the best focal range is 140mm, which is exactly what I want. The Sony on the other hand is very disappointed: it's best range is from 70-130mm, the 200mm f4 is very soft. I can't use it for critical, I have to use f5.6 or small to get sharp result in center.

    Bokeh: Both very good with their largest aperture

    Aperture: f2.8 is better than f4.

    Overral I prefer Fuji than Sony, but I just wish Fuji has done better job on accessories.

    reviewed December 10th, 2015 (purchased for $980)