image courtesy: jonasjacobsson (Review PART 1)
XF 50-140
USA: BHphoto / AmazonUS / Adorama / EUROPE: WexUK / PCHstore / AmazonUK
In PART 1 of his review, jonasjacobsson tested the autofocus speed of XF 50-140 (on a X-T1). The subject? A dog running full speed in any direction. So how did it work? From the conclusions.
“The toughest test was for sure the first one, when he came towards me, resulting in 5 missed shots. Otherwise, for the most part, the lens performed admirably. Fast and accurate. And like I stated above, some of the missed once are a result of me not being used to shoot fast-moving dogs and it was really hard to predict the movement sometimes, so do keep that in mind. Without a doubt this is the best lens suited for action and sports among the Fuji lenses. In terms of autofocus speed the XF 50-140 is miles ahead of the slower XF 55-200, along with many other advantages like weather sealing and a fast constant aperture of f/2.8. It is however also almost 2.5-3 times as pricy as the older sibling. Once you lock on target the lens tend to keep that focus very well unless you do a some drastic movement that might interfere.”
In PART 2 of the 50-140 review, jonasjacobsson judges the IQ of the lens.
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Also engaged tested the XF 50-140 and they say:
“Image quality is fantastic throughout regardless of focal length, with pleasingly sharp details and accurate focus. Without Fuji’s current speed king, the X-T1, I wasn’t able to test out the upper end of its autofocus abilities, but it performed quickly enough on my trusty X-E2. As for bokeh, out-of-focus background elements were generally smooth and not distracting, meaning this should be a solid portrait lens if that’s your thing.”
22 Responses
good to know that it wasn’t a mistake ordering one. the only negative thing you can say about Fuji lenses is availability within the first half year after announcement.
And a new sensor to put behind it would be nice. 😉
Clearly the optics can handle more. We just can’t see it yet!
Doesn’t say much, subject is always in the middle of the frame where focusing is best. How does it perform in real life, meaning subject not in the center and not covering 50% of the frame, and with context (not high contrast scene: white snow, dark dog) on a normal focal length 35-50mm?
AF performance anywhere in the the phase detect zone of the sensor should be equal, it’s not like an old fashioned DSLR where only the centre AF point has the highest performance. Obviously performance at the edges of the sensor only using contrast detect will be worse, but it would be unusual to be using the far edges to track a subject. Your other complaint about using high zoom is a weird one, being zoomed in is more of a challenge to the camera and lens because you have less DOF, the OIS has to work harder etc.
I mean the context, if there is only one dog and nothing else in the frame, let’s call that easier to focus than for example on the road with a lot more information and things happening, where you want to track moving subjects, unless you zoom in for less things happening and only frame the subject (a bicycle, car, etc). With zoom in, i mean not technically but the style of image, zooming in you have less information. Focusing where 30-50% of the frame is the subject (the dog), or a kind of landscape photo were 2% of the frame is the moving subject to focus is a total different story.
PS:How many phase points has the XT1? Are they covering a lot of the frame?
I checked XT1 phase detection points & coverage. It’s only the center, about 25% of the frame (http://cameralabs.com/reviews/Fujifilm_X-T1/). Same coverage as Sony A7. I find this useless because centered subject is just borring composition.
You can easily compose on a 3rd and still be within the phase detect area. There’s also this thing called cropping you may not have heard of 😉
Looks difficult because the phase detection is just in the center of a 3rd rule. NO CROPPING, that is for hobbyists and is not so smart if you need every detail/pixel resolution for large format prints.
Unless you’re shooting stick thin subjects I imagine you’ll be fine. Mind you if you think cropping is only for hobbyists then you might want to go take a photography course somewhere rather than worry about getting a new camera.
Nah, i did 6 years fine art academy (master), i know what i want for my photography tools. Had expositions in Belgium, Netherlands, UK, Croatie, etc. I believe i know what i am talking about. (http://www.deschampheleer.be)
Good for you. You still don’t know what you’re talking about if you think cropping isn’t a valid tool for professional photography though. I can’t believe during your 6 years of fine arts you never saw negatives by famous photographers marked up for cropping given many of the most iconic photographs ever taken were heavily cropped, but never mind.
Sure, and how large were the prints of those negatives? Very very small. Presentation is nowadays very important in art work (small or large). If your work needs large prints, you don’t want to crop. Hobbyists crop to much like it is normal, they don’t think while composing, that’s when i call it hobbyits. Those famous photographers had one prime on the body, if they needed to come closer and they couldn they took the picture and cropped it from the negative. That is another story.
You sure know a lot about the habits of hobbyists. Thou doth protest too much perhaps?
Raz, you first told to crop, if i didn’t hear before about cropping, and about taking a photography course, that is silly. I make my point about cropping. People who can’t accept any critics will never learn.
Look I’m all for getting it right in camera, but the subject here is AF tracking, often getting a perfect composition on a moving subject is tough unless the subject is moving in a very predictable manner or quite slowly. I suggested using cropping to work around the limitations of the center weighted phase detect area on the X-T1. You’re the one who was making out cropping of any kind was an amateurish/lazy thing to do, which is nonsense. Anyway lets move on, this is a fairly pointless argument!
For the kind of shot where the subject isn’t filling a significant part of the frame, tracking AF is largely pointless because you can just set a higher f-stop and have everything in focus anyway. Plenty of people have tested the X-T1 in a variety of non-dog-against-snow scenarios and found it works pretty well.
Yeps, that’s what i do, i never use focus tracking, also never did on DSLR. I was just wondering how effictive it is in real life.
The article title should read “Admirably fast AF”, without ‘fast’ it doesn’t make sense. Unless you mean “Admirable AF”, which is also fine.
done
I’m getting good results with mine too…
Here’s my own little sequences with everyday real life examples like racing horses, flying snowboarders, bouncing SAE Baja carts or speed skaters at 40 km/hr and the likes…(X-T1 with 50-140,16-55 and even the 55-200)
https://flic.kr/s/aHsjVwSDVD
And here’s my very humble results at sport and action pics with an X (beware thought that some cropping may be applied to some the pics)
https://flic.kr/s/aHsjWVTspU
So I guess it is all a question of choices and Fuji is offering some new ones with these two Red Tag zoom….I’m happy
nice shots! Are tThese taken with AF-S or AF-C?
I wonder if it doesn’t make more sense to go with a Nikon D750 + a 70-200 f4 lens instead. The difference in price is about %20, but weights only 150 grams more (on 1.5 KG!) and is a full frame combo.