It is optically close to perfect, with sharpness being definitely its super-power. In fact, Fujifilm itself said that with this lens they did focus on resolution to make it fit for “future higher resolution cameras” (aka Fujifilm X-H2).
I know, some might say that lenses are more than just sharpness. And I get the point. I mean, I totally love my XF35mmF1.4, which probably isn’t the sharpest Fujinon X mount lens out there, but has an overall vibe in the images that some describe as “magical”, and indeed, it took some of my favorite images ever.
But if what you need is the ultimate sharpness, then look no further, as the Fujinon XF18mmF1.4 might just be what you were looking for.
Hold on a second… there was one thing I wanted to say.
I did handle the Fujinon GF100-200mmF5.6 at the store, and was surprised that it is actually so light, hence definitely portable for my hikes in the Dolomites.
However, I did put the purchase of that lens on hold, as in 2021 I already bought the XF80mm, XF27MKII, GFX100S and GF32-64, and it’s getting more and more tricky to convince my wife that we really need yet another lens.
And things have not become easier after Fujifilm launched a massive rebate on guess which lens? Exactly, the GF100-200!
For the sake of my bank account health I am still resisting, but Fujifilm keeps up fighting for my money, this time by dedicating their latest Focus on Glass episode to the Fujinon GF100-200mmF5.6.
Well, I’ve watched the episode, and here is what Fujifilm engineers and managers say about this lens:
Fujifilm wanted to make a tele-zoom suitable for handheld shooting
they needed to develop a smaller and lighter lens
at planing stage, they set their target at 1 kg
the lens has 5 stops OIS
this makes handheld shooting easier
Fujifilm hopes you will use this lens to take images that you have never experienced before with a 35mm format lens
with GF teleconverter it covers up to 221mm (35mm equivalent)
during the development tests, Fujifilm has conducted repeated toughness tests
it is a rugged lens while maintaining lightness and compactness
although it’s a zoom, resolution is superb and able to resolve the high megapixel of GFX cameras over the entire zoom range and even at f/5.6
in order to make the lens brighter and still have higher resolving power, a greater number of elements in the lens are required
but the more elements you use, the more the lens gets bigger
that’s why Fujifilm designed ever lens element to be as thing as possible
every effort to save size and weight was made
the engineer is proud of the final result
you can easily shoot handheld in places where you can bring a tripod
Fujifilm designed a small focus lock mechanism to fit in the lens
toughness test were contacted to overcome weaknesses on by one
But was is triggering my GAS more then what the managers and engineers said, is the photographers and their work shared inside that video. Definitely check it out in the video down below.
ZP productions tested the GFX100S and GF80mmF1.7. He loves both, and owns both.
But there is one note he makes.
He says that when Fujifilm launched the GFX system a few years ago, it had sheer perfect lenses. But he noticed that with the latest lens releases, Fujifilm traded in a bit of that perfection to release less perfect, smaller and more affordable lenses.
In this context, he compares the GF110mmF2 to the GF80mmF1.7, the first one being expressions of Fuji’s perfection, the second one, while still being excellent and he actually totally loves to shoot with it, just not being just as perfect as the GF110mmF2.
I’ll make a summary down below of his 17 minutes long video below and would love to hear what you guys think about it.
Time to update our previous X and GFX gear timeline, which was not only limited to 2021, but lacked of some gear we rumored in the following months.
Also, I’ll include a list of products that will not come as the fake rumors keep spreading and I notice a tendency in forums to believe just everything that is written or talked about somewhere, may it be a monochrome camera, and X-T40 with IBIS coming very soon, the X-H2 coming 2021 and totally random stuff like that.
But luckily there is a 100% efficient anti-fake-rumors-vaccine called FujiRumors, so check out the list down below to know what Fujifilm really plans and when it will come.
FR-reader Moritz made me notice on Twitter here, that a couple of weeks ago MacOS Big Sur added uncompressed RAW support for additional Fujifilm cameras.
This means you can now edit RAW files from Fujifilm X-T4, X-S10 and more in all major image editing apps on iPad as well as apps on macOS that use the RAW engine provided by iOS (Apple Core Image RAW), such as Affinity Photo or one of my favorites, RAW Power.
