Lens Review of XF 50-140mm f/2.8 for Fuji Cameras

Here is my input or a review of Fuji XF 50-140mm f/2.8 R LM OIS WR which I have rented recently for few jobs.

Fuji X-T1 with Fuji XF 50-140mm f/2.8 R LM OIS WR

I would like to start with pros of this lens: Fuji XF 50-140mm f/2.8 R LM OIS WR is a good lens and it has few features that I like such as image stabilizer (by the way the previous lens for my Nikon D300 didn’t have this and it would very difficult to shoot with once your hand gets tired), ED element which reduces dramatically chromatic aberrations and color fringing. Also the inner zoom is great since nothing on the outside moves when you are zooming in and out which WR is good for as well. The WR stands for weather sealing and I don’t know how well it’s sealed but when photographing in Chicago there was light drizzle in the morning and the lens was still in a good shape after that.  The F2.8 feature is great with low light and for a nice bokeh (background blur) when photographing portraits. Now I did use this lens for event photography and architectural use when I went to Chicago and to me it seemed very good if it’s on a tripod for both photoshoots. The OIS (image stabilizer) is great and I was able to photograph at 1/60 and below that and the images did come out sharp without tripod. The other great thing about this lens it doesn’t feel cheap, yes there is a little bit of plastic and rubber but most of it is metal casing. Also this is a very sharp lens and I mean very sharp with little bit of or almost none of distortion at the corners of the photos.

And this is a good way to get into the cons of this lens: coming back to the sharpness of this lens and autofocus is just ok. I had lots of trouble when photographing event and architecture that it would just try to focus and I could hear the motor working but had trouble focusing. I understand if there was not enough of detail to focus on but Fuji XF 50-140mm f/2.8 R LM OIS WR should have been able to focus when there is lots of contrast to pick up on. When photographing event which I was hired for, it was low light conditions in some rooms but in the main hall there was plenty of light but the lens just panics and doesn’t want to focus at all not only because of low light but because the subjects moving and for this reason this is not a good lens for weddings because you could miss the shot while the lens is thinking. Also the motor is kind of loud and I didn’t notice this until I was photographing inside the church in Chicago because of almost dead silence you will hear the motor working not only when its trying to focus but even when just standing still and already it found the focus.

Since I didn’t have model release for this event all I can post is close up images, which for very close up images is where the lens had a hard time to focus.

The images on the left is with wide angle lens but the image on the right is with the 50-140mm lens (which I did have to come a little bit closer to get this close up shot of balconies).

This is the church in Chicago where I really heard the motor of the lens working.

The main big image on the right is where the lens struggled to focus even though there is tons of area for the lens to focus.

Over all this is a good lens, it’s not light but then this is a tele-photo lens so I was not expecting feather light lens, and one last thing don’t try to use it as a micro lens. The closest you can get is up to 3 meters and after that it will not be able to focus so use this lens as a tele-photo lens and if you know how to quickly manual focus then this is the best lens.

Photos Provided By: Denver Architectural Photographer and Dever Wedding / Portrait Photographer