The full name of this lens is the Fujifilm XF 55-200mm f3.5-4.8 R LM OIS Lens. The OIS means it is image stabilised and the f3.5-4.8 means that it is a variable aperture lens. At the short end it has a maximum aperture of f3.5, and at the long end it has a maximum aperture of f4.8.
If it were a top class lens it would have a constant aperture at all focal lengths and it would be f2.8. And if not that, then f4. A maximum aperture of f4 lets in one stop less of light than f2.8. In other words, half as much light, because each ‘stop’ means a halving or doubling of the light that can reach the film or the sensor.
So f3.5-4.8 is not a bad compromise for a relatively cheap lens. And having taken more than 160 photos with it at the New Year’s Day parade I feel able to evaluate it.
I mentioned already that I am not keen on the way it telescopes, meaning that the inner barrel moves forward as you zoom out to longer focal lengths. It lengthens the lens and changes the balance of the lens and camera working together.
Something else is that I had the lens hood on backwards. That’s the way it is mounted when the lens is not being used because it makes for a smaller package. And for some reason I kept it on that way when I was shooting.
In this imagethe wide, ribbed section nearest the back of the lens is what you turn to zoom the lens out and back. And as you can see from the red outline that represents the lens hood on backwards – it hides most of the zoom ring when the lens is at its shortest focal length.
So I was faffing about and would not have suffered that if I had only put the lens hood on the right way around.
So why didn’t I? And the answer is that it makes the extended length of the lens even longer – like I could poke someone in the eye if I wasn’t careful where I pointed the thing.
I much prefer lenses with an internal zoom, meaning they do not get longer or shorter as you change focal lengths.
I could also have shoved the lens hood in my bag, but in the heat of the moment I didn’t think of it.
What Focal Lengths Did I Use
If you look in the metadata tab in Adobe Bridge you can scroll through all your shots and quickly see at what focal length you took each one. You can also see what apertures you used and the shutter speeds.
Lenses are not perfect. If they are near to perfect they are expensive. This lens is pretty good but it is soft at longest focal lengths. Of course there may be operator error or a camera focusing error because it is harder to judge focus when the lens is extended to its maximum and the target it proportionately smaller.
So perhaps the shots taken at the longest focal length are the least accurately focused.
Or they are the shots where lens sharpness is at its weakest.
I would have to take some shots of a static subject like a road sign to isolate where the weakness lies. I will do that before I publish this, but my guess is that I will find that the lens is softest at maximum focal length of 200mm.
Up to about 150mm it is absolutely fine. And bear in mind that on a crop sensor camera like the X-T50 I was shooting, 150mm is the full-frame equivalent of 225mm
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