Fujifilm Fujinon XF 55-200mm f/3.5-4.8 R LM OIS Lens Review

Fujifilm Fujinon XF 55-200mm f/3.5-4.8 R LM OIS Handling and features

For its size, this lens is actually reasonably lightweight, tipping the scales at 580g. Even so the lens is very well built with the combination of metal and high quality plastics giving this lens a reassuringly robust feel. Thanks to the reasonable weight, this lens balances well on the Fujifilm X-Pro1 body used for testing.

Focusing is performed internally and a central lens barrel lens extends by around six centimetres at maximum telephoto. Even so, the 62mm filter thread does not rotate, making it perfect for use with polarising and graduated filters. The focusing and zoom rings are well damped, making fine adjustments easy to apply.

As with other X-series lenses, a manual aperture ring is provided, although the implementation of this is different on this lens. No aperture values are marked on the ring and it can be rotated all the way around. A separate switch for selecting automatic aperture control is provided instead of the A setting being on the aperture ring.

Thanks to the new linear focusing motor and improvements to camera firmware, autofocus is reasonably quick in good light, only hunting as the light levels drop at the telephoto end of the zoom range. When the lens was first mounted on the X-Pro1, the camera prompted for a firmware update to be completed. The process for completing this is fairly straightforward, so long as you have a USB card reader to copy the update to a formatted card.

Optical image stabilisation is included on this lens, which promises to allow sharp hand held images to be taken at shutter speeds up to 4.5 stops slower than would be possible without this feature. So long as a pause for the system to catch up is allowed, with care sharp images are possible around half the time at shutter speeds as low as 1/8sec at 200mm that's an incredible five stops slower than the usual rule of thumb for hand-held shooting would dictate possible.

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