The Trio of XF Fujinon Premium Zooms

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One of the beauties of the Fujifilm X-Series compact system cameras is the fact that you can have a professional level camera and lenses with less weight of the equivalent DSLR.  This usually means I can take three camera bodies, eight lenses and all the support material in one carry on piece of luggage that weighs less than 12kg.  However there are some countries that carrying that amount of gear will raise questions at the point of entry and one of the places for potential issues is the People's Republic of China.

As regular readers of this blog will know, I am the Media Delegate for the World Endurance Championship and we visit China every year for the race in Shanghai.  I have a business visa in my passport as I am not a member of the press corps at the event and a business visa is a lot easier to obtain than a media visa.  Therefore carrying lots of camera gear might raise an issue at immigration, so for the past few years I have taken minimal equipment into the country.

In 2012 I travelled with a newly purchased X100 and it was this trip to China that opened my eyes to the possibilities of the X-Series.  In 2013 I took an X-Pro1 plus four primes and in 2014 an X-T1 plus the same prime lenses.  

 In 2015 I decided to travel with the X-T1 and just the three Fujinon Zooms and the 1.4x converter for the 50-140mm (plus the 35mm f1.4 for low light work - but I never used it during the trip).

 The zooms were the 10-24mm f4, the 16-55mm f2.8 and the 50-140mm f2.8 which covers a lot of focal lengths, especially when you factor in the 1.4x converter to extend the 50-140 to 70-196mm.  In full frame terms this covers 15mm up to 300mm with a maximum aperture of f4 and 24mm to 200mm with an aperture of f2.8.

 While the Fujinon zoom lenses are certainly not small, they are not overly big and the quality of the images they produce are second to none.  Fujinon also make the 18-55mm f2.8/4 and the 55-200mm f3.5/4.8.  I have never owned the shorter lens but I had the 55-200mm for a couple of years and it is a great lens for travelling with.  But the 50-140mm is step up in quality and the f2.8 maximum aperture is a big advantage over the f3.5/f4.8 of the lighter 55-200mm.

 As well as taking shots at Shanghai International Circuit during the event I also used all three lenses during my trip to the Water Town at Zhujiajiao.  One of the advantages over the primes is the fact you don't have to keep swapping lenses for different focal lengths.  I tended to favour the 16-55mm, swapping over to the wider and telephoto zooms as necessary.

 Now the question I had to ask myself is the flexibility of the three zooms better than taking the lighter and faster primes I own - 18mm f2, 35mm f1.4, 56mm f1.2, 90mm f2.  The problem with the primes is the the narrow focal lengths they offer (27mm to 135mm compared to 15mm to 300mm for the zooms) but they are certainly lighter and are a lot smaller than the zooms.  I suppose it is down to the individual photographer as to what they prefer to use.

 In use I found having the 16-55mm f2.8 almost permanently glued to the front of one of my X-T1s was the best option as the 24mm to 85mm equivalent focal length this superb piece of glass offered covered most options when walking about in the pitlane or around Zhujiajiao.  The 10-24mm is slightly smaller than the 16-55mm and was useful for getting a wider view and the OIS on this lens was useful in low light when I didn't have a tripod available.  The extra stop offered by the f2.8 of the standard zoom was useful and the fact this is the only lens of the trio that doesn't possess an Optical Image Stabilisation system wasn't a problem.

 The 50-140mm f2.8, and the 1.4x converter, was the most used lens at the circuit but the least used in and around Zhujiajiao due its large, intimidating size.  However I did use it for shots of building and for compressing the perspective on some of the waterways.

 The two f2.8 lenses are the only two of the trio to wear the red XF badge, denoting the professional standard lens.  The 10-24mm f4 was launched before the two F2.8 lenses and I am sure in future the ultra wide zoom will be given a red badge as the results are certainly worthy of this.

 I will admit that just using three zoom lenses for a week did cause me some concerns.  While I love the flexibility that zoom lenses offer, I bought into the X-Series system because of the fast apertures of the prime lenses.  But having lived with the zooms for a week I can say that the three premium zooms in the XF lineup are not a compromise on quality and I will not hesitate to use the solely use the zooms again if the needs arise.  For the recent trip to Bahrain I returned to my usual kit of a mixture of prime and zoom lenses but found myself reaching for the zooms - enough said really.

 Here are some samples from the three zoom lenses and there are plenty of blogs from the trip to China - follow the links below.

 Chinese Water Boat Men

 In and Around Zhujiajiao

Town God Temple

 Kezhi Yuan

 Seven Treasures
Fujinon XF50-140mm f2.8R OIS WR

Fujinon XF50-140mm f2.8R OIS WR

Fujinon XF50-140mm f2.8R OIS WR + 1.4x converter

Fujinon XF50-140mm f2.8R OIS WR

Fujinon XF16-55mm f2.8R WR

Fujinon XF16-55mm f2.8R WR

Fujinon XF16-55mm f2.8R WR

Fujinon XF10-24mm f4R OIS WR

Fujinon XF50-140mm f2.8R OIS WR + 1.4x convrter

Fujinon XF50-140mm f2.8R OIS WR

Fujinon XF50-140mm f2.8R OIS WR

Fujinon XF50-140mm f2.8R OIS WR + 1.4x converter

Fujinon XF16-55mm f2.8R WR

Fujinon XF10-24mm f48R OIS WR

Fujinon XF16-55mm f2.8R WR

Fujinon XF16-55mm f2.8R WR

Fujinon XF16-55mm f2.8R WR

Fujinon XF50-140mm f2.8R OIS WR

Fujinon XF16-55mm f2.8R WR

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