Photography by Mike Mander | First Fujifilm XF 16-55mm f/2.8 Tests

First Fujifilm XF 16-55mm f/2.8R LM WR Tests

February 11, 2015

I just received my new Fujifilm XF 16-55mm f/2.8 zoom lens and this one is a final production version that I am, of course, allowed to share photos from! Generally speaking, first impressions are positive with a lens that is quite sharp throughout its range and flare resistent as well. The extreme corners are not tack sharp at f/2.8 at the wide-angle end of the zoom, but the centre certainly is and the overall field seems to become quite uniform for sharpness by the time you reach f/5.6, maybe even a bit sooner. The lens does exhibit quite noticeable barrel distortion at the wide end, and distortion compensation is something I need to further fine tune in PhotoNinja, which is what I used to process all these files. However, by the time you hit about 22mm, the distortion is effectively gone although I will assume for now (but not tested yet) that it may transition to slight pincushion at the long end of the zoom.

Note that a tripod was used for all these tests. The bokeh seems rough and nervous in frame 4, but I am not convinced that it's not due to some strange characteristic of those specific LED lights, for example a hard texure in the clear plastic surrounding the bulbs. Again, further testing on that front is required as well, especially since with some other tests I did, the bokeh seemed nice and smooth. I mostly tested the wider end of the zoom tonight but, weather permitting, I will test it throughout its range soon, so more to come in the future!