PC shoots with the incredible new Fuji 50-140/2.8 pro zoom

[Puma Cat]

I went over to Keeble and Schuchat Photography in Palo Alto, CA today for their annual December “big event”. Heard a nice lighting seminar, and Fujifilm was there with the new Fujinon XF 50-140/2.8 as well as all their lenses. The 50-140/2.8 has been highly anticipated by working Fuji pros, because this lens is the equivalent to the classic working pro zoom, the 35mm-equivalent 70-200mm/2.8, a lens specification that you would have to pry from the cold, dead hands of many, many a working pro.

I shot a few frames on my X-T1 with the XF50-140/2.8 and also the 56mm f/1.2 prime (85mm in 35-e). These images are all straight out of camera RAW files, virtually NO adjustments to them other than to sharpen (R-L Deconv at 0.39, 16 iterations) and convert them from RAW to TIFF in Iridient Developer, and cropping. These are all downsampled, converted to sRGB and JPEG (you should see the original files on my 27” iMac 5K Retina display! Yowza!) There is virtually nothing special about these images, they are merely snapshots in a very crowded camera store, but I thought folks would like to see them anyway.

OIS works pretty well, this is 1/25th second handheld, f/2.8.


I have another shot taken of a person at 1/7th of a second, and his face is sharp! Crazy stuff!

Point of focus were the eyeglasses on the Canon rep in the blue shirt. Shot at f/2.8. Once again, Fuji nails white balance (in mixed lighting) and skin tones.


Point of focus was the Canon rep in the blue shirt. Shot at f/2.8.


Regarding the Fuji XF50-140/2.8: Fuji has raised the bar yet again with this lens. The build quality, fit ’n finish, are unmatched in my experience. The aperture ring has the perfect amount of resistance. You've got to hold and use this lens to appreciate it. It was also much lighter and faster on AF than I anticipated, the AF speed was surprisingly fast. I think I can actually use this for motor racing action. The OIS looks to be amazingly good. Of course, the image quality looks to be absolutely gorgeous. The Fuji rep told me that they literally cannot build this lens fast enough to keep up with orders. I am looking forward to putting this bad boy up against my Canon 70-200/2.8 L IS II, 'cause I think the Fuji can give the Canon a serious run for it's money. That's saying something, 'cause the Canon 70-200/2.8 L IS II is the finest, sharpest, fastest pro zoom I've ever used...until today, that is.

I also shot with the dreamy 56/1.2. Oooh! I was pleasantly surprised how fast the AF was. Focus was the Tamron rep's face. Nice bokeh both in the foreground and background. I've been resisting getting this lens up to this point, but after shooting with it, I'm likely going to cave...it truly is dreamy. I swear Fuji must know these lenses are like crack to X-shooters!


I also shot with the new X100T, which I liked a LOT. Again, with the "ooh's!" as soon as I took this camera in my hands. These are straight-out-of-camera (SOOC) JPEGs with zero editing other than cropping and downsampling to pixel dimensions shown here. Very impressive performance and image quality.




X100T JPEG at f/2.8, ISO 800 converted to B&W with NIK Silver Efex Pro 2. Virtually no other editing other than cropping and downsampling to these dimensions.


I used previous X100s extensively (rentals for two weeks at a time) and they were nice, but ultimately, I didn't prefer them over my X-Pro1, and I never took the plunge with those cameras. Fuji has made improvements everywhere, though, some big (like the pop-in EVF when using the OVF) and some subtle, like they changed the pattern of knurling on the lens barrel and the 1/3 stop increments for aperture adjustment. The camera is also really zippy-feeling in operation, notably more so than previous models, the AF is really fast, and the wonderful leaf shutter effectively silent. It all adds up, IMO, to a VERY nice camera, one that has been refined to a “T” (pun intended). It now feels even more like a precision photographic instrument. I will be getting one of these, though, I absolutely loved it. This is getting to be one helluva good camera.

But that XF50-140/2.8! Oh, my god....I left with the strong impression that this is the finest X-series lens that Fuji has released to date.

No portfolio shots here (LOL!), but I hope you find this post informative and enjoyable.

We really are suffering an embarassment of riches these days, aren't we, gang?

Cheers,
Stephen.

[Jerome W]

Stephen,

Incredible quality pics ! Congrats on the new lens !

[Puma Cat]

Hi Jérôme,

Thank you for the kind words, my friend, but these really are just snapshots.

And I didn't buy the lens, this was a demo lens that the Fuji rep had available to try out. The lens is just now becoming available for sale in the United States, and there are many, many pre-orders for it in place already. As mentioned above, Fuji literally cannot build this lens fast enough to keep up with present demand.

I will be buying this lens at some point in time, but probably not until the beginning of next year. My next photographic-related purchase will probably be a set of monolights and soft boxes.

Cheers, mon ami!

Best,
S

[Puma Cat]

Oh, one more thing. I attended a lighting seminar sponsored by Photoflex at Keeble today as well, and took a few snaps of Photoflex setting up a series of shots with the model and bike against a green background for compositing into a new background layer stock image of a gathering storm over a highway.

This image was taken at ISO 1600....with no noise reduction in post. Just silly good noise performance at high ISO*.



Lovely model and she was a sweetie, also.

*-I remember when we thought ISO400 film was high ISO; now ISO four times that high is a piece of cake.

[crwilli]

Good stuff and extra thanks for the last shot Chicks and bikes = can't lose subject