Fujifilm 50-230 mm/F 4 : I am truly amazed

Used this yesterday to try and take shots of a parade, it failed miserably, the auto focus just wasn’t up to the job, most shots came out blurred. I’ve nothing but praise for it though if you’re photographing static objects, does the job well then.

Got this as part of the fujifilm free lens promotion, but even if i had bought it, i would still have been impressed. Iq is very good indeed for a low end lens. Far better than i had expected. Colour rendition is superb and distortion well controlled as far as i am concerned, but maybe the pixel peepers who have plenty of time on their hands to find faults, wont agree. If you look hard, you can find fault in any lens. Even a zeiss or a leica, but what’s the point?. Just get out there and take photos with the lens and enjoy them.

I got this in a kit bundle with the x-m1 when i bought one last year. This is the more affordable version of the ‘xf 55-200mm’ lens and as such has had a few downgrades firstly there is a plastic mount, and the lens speed drops to just f6. 7 at the tele end and starts off at f4. The range is handy though it’s equivalent to a 75-350mm on full framebuild is good despite the plastics all round the body is quite well made, fuji use a harder more robust plastic than many makers (it doesn’t feel flimsy at all) as this is an xc lens there is no aperture control on the body you’ll have to use the control dial on the camera not a huge issue for most users. A few notes:- close focus magnification is 1:5 and around 1. 2 metres- you have 7 circular aperture blades- focus is ‘by wire’ the focus ring drives the motor it’s not mechanically linked (all of fuji’s lenses have this)- built in ois is good for about 3 stops or so, possibly slightly more if you are good at hand holding- front element does not rotate on focus or zooming handy if you use filtersi found the lens to be pretty sharp across most of the range a bit of drop off above 200mm but still very usable if not quite the same ‘bite’ as at shorter focal lengths. Distortion isn’t a problem either (there is some corrected pincushion at the tele end) and fall off isn’t an issue on this lens. Af speeds were pretty good on the bodies i’ve used it on, but due to the slower aperture it’s a bit leisurely in lower light and can hunt a bit. The loss of lens speed isn’t a huge problem as the ois mops up some of the light loss, but really dim conditions would benefit from a monopod.

I would not have considered purchasing this lens but it arrived bundled as part of a fuji camera purchase promotion. It has the characteristic feel of a kit lens with plastic lens mount, but the build is solid enough for the asking price and certainly no worse than other similar offerings. The full-time stabilisation works well, which is good news considering the tight end of the zoom only manages f6. The current fuji 16mp aps-c sensor works so well at higher iso that the lens is at least usable in lower light. I find the optical quality exceptionally good for a lens of this range. Suffice to say it, rather surprisingly, surpasses that of my canon 70-300is dslr zoom. It is also optically very nearly equal to the fuji xf55-200, just a little softer full open at the extremes of the (extended) zoom range. The fairly quiet af system can be a little sluggish in use on my ex-1 body and deteriorates into pronounced low light hunting more obviously than my other xf lenses. Forget continuous af mode – it can’t cope at all.

Wowwhat a piece of wonderfull glass. I have been shooting sony nex 5 n with the 18-200 sel and been very satisfied with it for a couple of years. By pure accident i came across the fuji xm1 with the xc 16-50 mm after reading raving reviews of the x trans sensor technology. To be short the pictures i take are sharpness and colortonalitywise miles ahead of the sony. . I needed a longer zoom range for wildlife and just for pure composition, so i saw a bargain offer on amazon uk and knew that if the xc 50-230 was only half as good as the 16-50 i would be satisfied. The lens is sharp and the stabilisation is extremely helpfull on slower shutterspeeds. Build quality it is plastic all around – high quality made though -but for me it is a bonus since both the lenses and the camera weighs close to nothing and to me that is the whole purpose of a mirrorless camera. Anyway should you buy at zoom and in doubt don’t be. Just buy the xc 50-230 and never look back.

Expected nothing as this lens didn’t cost me a penny, when i unpacked it i noticed how lightweight it was and the fact that it has a plastic mount. So it was just a cheap plasticky freebie lens, or so i thought. Fuji film has obviously made the effort to put top quality optics in this lens and the results from it are staggering, even as a nikon user of over 40 years, and the owner of many top marque lenses, i have to put this lens up amongst the very best. It is insha at every setting i can put it out, there is only slight softness at maximum aperture in the extreme corners of the image stopping down by as little as one stop removes it. Now it may be that i was fortunate enough to get an exceptional version of this lens, and there maybe some ‘rogue’ versions of this lens available in the marketplace, i hope that isn’t the case, but from my experiences, for the price ( i didn’t pay for mine remember ), this lens is hard to beat. It may be a combination of using it on the superb fuji film xm 1 body with all the relevant technical wizardry that produces that almost indefinable fuji colour, but that there is no doubt in my mind that this lens and fujis’ x-trans sensor in combination will produce outstandingly colourful and sharp images. Photography has become a pleasure again because i now have a lightweight kit which means i do not have to traipse around with the dslr which gives me backache after a couple of hours and yet i can produce images that are equal to or better than top mark dslr cameras – thank you fuji.

Fujifilm 50-230 mm/F 4.5-6.7 XC OIS Lens

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• 35mm Eq. 76-350mm
• 13 elements in 10 groups (Inc. 1 asph. element & 1 extra low disp. element)
• OIS built into lens

Got this lens as a freebie with a xm1 fuji uk promotion intending to use it with a xpro 1, it works very well. The first point is it weighs next to nothing which means i can always carry it in the bag. I didnt have high expectations for a xc lens but going to 100% magnification on the pc results seem very sharp with a lovely quality to images so im very pleased. The image stabilisation works very well i struggle to get a blurred shot. The only worry i had was the plastic lens mount, its very much a second lens to me so i’m fine with it but for heavy or pro use the metal xf version will be better. Just have to say again how unbelievably light it is, a joy to carry around.

Brilliant value and very impressed with quality; i could justify xf as i only will use this zoom occassionally.

I bought these lens as i needed to cover the mid-zoom area. Since i couldn’t afford an xf for this range (3-4 times the price) i’ve chosen this. First shoots (~200) were not very satisfying and i was really considering sending it backin the last moment i remembered seeing an announcement about a firmware update for these (v1. 10) so i went and gave it a try: the change was really noticeable.More stabilization ->slower shutter speeds possible ->more light ->better shotsit’s a delight taking it around an ‘shoot’ the forest inhabitants :)i also use a hoya clear filter. Just for protecting the glass. Auto-focusing it’s alright, but i prefer the manual one for stand still frames. I’m only a bit concerned about the mount’s robustness in time as it’s made of plastic.

I was apprehensive about buying a budget price lens. The lens is clear and sharp on my xe1, even in low light.

The 55-200 is way better but twice as expensive.

I am using this excellent lens on my fuji x e2. Like many, part of the reason for making the jump to fuji was the ability to mount a wide range of legacy antique lenses (the prime reasons where the fuji approach to shooting and image quality), so i have been shooting for some time with a range of excellent canon fd lenses. These look and work beautifully, but at the long end they tend to deliver soft images, and often lack contrast. Enter a modern tele-zoom with full auto-focus and optical image stabilisation; for a little cash this one does the job very well indeed. I have used the lens for a couple of days so far and had previously borrowed a copy of the lens to use on holiday – i will update this review in a few weeks when i’ve used it more. It works very well for reasonably static subjects, even in low light, and in bright light the focus does a pretty good job too. Some clear pros for this lens:compact and lightweight – the lens slots into my camera bag mounted or separately without any difficulty, and is substantially lighter than any of my other longer lenses. Sharpness – even wide open and at the long end the lens delvers sharp images. Close it down a little, say to f:8, and it’s very sharp indeed. Contrast and colour – both look great on a fuji body.

Fujifilm 50-230 mm/F 4.5-6.7 XC OIS Lens :

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