It’s overall a fantastic lens with the only real negative being its high price. I will share the conclusions below and the full review can be read here.
It’s moderately compact, but amazingly light and easy to handle, reaching out to distant subjects with its 500mm (762mm-equivalent) pulling power. This brings all those small birds and mammals into range, although for some wildlife it may be a little too long for larger mammals and shorter ranges. This is the master of long range photography for Fuji X users, and the results are beautiful. Add one of the Teleconverters and the closest focusing point does not change, so the magnification increases and that long range power pulls even more into our repertoire. There is a price tag, but the results are great and there are few lenses with such a long focal length that can even approach the versatility and ease of use. Highly recommended.
Today we have a rather important update regarding the fixed lens Fujifilm GFX camera.
Our trusted sources have told us that the fixed lens Fujifilm GFX will be “about the size” of the Fujifilm X-Pro3.
NOTE: our sources said “about” the size, not “exactly” the size. This means there will be a size difference, but it won’t be that big. On the contrary, they will be quite close in size.
I will include several videos, including the one of Edvard, who shares interesting findings about the X-T3 which potentially shows where the AF issues with Fujifilm started.
Summing Up All Videos – tl;dr version
everybody agrees that now autofocus is workable again, even Edvard
some got better results than others, I guess based on use case, testing scenario and settings
Adan in “video 7” for example is very impressed and applauds Fujifilm for the improvement and says he is confident to use it now for his professional video work
others aknowledge the improvement, say it is something you can rely on for work, but highlight it is not yet at the level of top tier AF of other brands
Edvard is the most critical and I will share his findings below (with some interesting findings)
UPDATE: Edvard published a second video, which I share below with his main findings
there is still room for improvement (and looking at Edvard’s video some of the improvements could be achieved by using parts of the algorithm used on X-T3 firmware 3.00/3.30)
and finally… Thierry in Video 1 has simply one of the most beautiful settings and light to record a video (I know it’s unreleated, but I appreciate it when photographers try to give us also a great scenery ;))
My take:
Having a usable and workable autofocus is nice. This takes away stress for those, who rely on autofocus for work.
And that it is workable has been now confirmed by the very same people, who made very harsh videos against Fujfilm in the last few months. So there is no bias there.
My fear:
Most reviewers seem to be overall pleased and happy. But the error the Fujifilm engineers could do now, is to consider the autofocus chapter closed. There is still work to do, and maybe some feedback they get today from these videos can help them to improve further.
Read for it?
Below I will share a couple of videos. I could ignore the postiive feedback, but I think it has just as much reason to exist as negative feedback.
What FujiRumors can do is just to share it all to give you the most comprehensive overview possible.
My personal experience?
Well, none. Because I am still waiting for my X-T5 to get the update, but my X-T5 has so far shot 0 seconds of video in its entire life so I would not be able to compare it to how it was before.
What the April firmware broke, though, was the stills side of it. It did fail on me when shooting still standing people. But the June firmware fixed that, so now I have no issue in taking family pictures.
But don’t ask me for video… my X-T5 does not even know it has this option.
But do you remember what I wrote in that very same article? I wrote: “I certainly hope this wasn’t a typo or mistake. You can never be too sure how much the people managing the company’s social media actually know.”
Well, fellow FR-reader Andreas reached out to Viltrox via email asking about the X mount version of the Viltrox 135mmF1.8 LAB, and here is what he got told: “Currently, there are no plans to release the AF 135mm F1.8 for Fujifilm X-Mount.”
So we have some at Viltrox who say it’s coming, others who say it won’t come, or at least there are no plans for now.
At this point all we can do is to wait and see what’s going to happen.
