Fuji 55-200mm on a Fuji X-T50

In preparation for shooting the New Year’s Day parade, I went out to take some shots with a Fuji 55-200mm lens on a Fuji X-T50.

I had hardly used the lens and so I wanted to get in some experience rather than find out the shortcomings on the day of the parade.

The Fuji X-T50 is a 40MP APS-C crop sensor camera. which makes the lens an 82.5-300mm full frame equivalent.

I have used a Nikon 70-300mm lens on a Nikon D500. That too is a crop sensor camera and equates to 105-45mm full frame, and so reaches even further.

But the X-T50 has twice the megapixel count of the D500, so the demands on the lens are greater.

Plus which the X-T50 and the 55-200 have image stabilisation, whereas although the Nikon 70-300 has stabilisation, the D500 body does not.

So here is what I learned from shooting the Fuji 55-200mm on a Fuji X-T50.

The X-T50 is a small camera and the lens doesn’t balance well on it.

Also, the lens extends when it zooms. Closed, the lens is 118 mm long. Fully extended it is 177 mm long. The inner barrel extends out as you zoom out to longer focal lengths. And that changes the balance of the lens.

Even with the lens collapsed to its shortest length it feels too heavy for the camera. With the lens is zoomed out and extended, it is hard to keep the focus on the person. I felt like I was weaving all over the place and I thought I was going to get blurry shots.

If the target is big and all in the same plane, then it doesn’t matter if you weave about a bit. But if the target is small and if you miss it you focus on something nearer or further away, then it matters because your shot will be out of focus.

What I didn’t appreciate is that the IBIS (in-body-image-stabilisation) on the camera works really well. The lens too has image stabilisation. And the two work together.

The bottom line is that I was surprised when I looked on the computer screen and saw that even though I felt like I was weaving about, the shots were sharp.

Recommendation

I think the lens would be more pleasurable to use if it was on a bigger camera body that I could hold steadier.

While there are older bodies, I suggest it means the Fuji X-T5 or the Fuji X-H2.

So how do they stack up side by side?

With battery and card the Fujifilm X-T50 weighs 438g. The X-T5 weighs 557g, and the X-H2 weighs 700g.

The only features on the Fujifilm X-H2 that are meaningful to me are a better grip and an EVF with 5.76M dots versus 3.69M dots compared to the X-T5.

However, the extra weight of the X-H2 takes it out of the equation because it doesn’t have other features to swing the balance in its favour.

The features on the Fujifilm X-T5 versus the X-T50 that are meaningful to me are a bigger EVF with 3.69M dots versus 2.6M dots on the X-T50, and bigger dimensions meaning I can grab hold of the camera and hold it steady more easily. So then the only downside is the extra 219g.

What’s the answer? I think as a carry-around camera with a short lens, the X-T50 wins. For a longer lens, the X-T5 wins.