Howdy again everyone when you think bird And Wildlife photography the first Thought in your mind might not be medium Format cameras but Fujifilm are aiming To fix that with this little monster the Longest GF telephoto lens the GF 500 mm F 516 r l m o i s w r i call it a little Monster it's actually smaller and Lighter than I thought it would be quite Manageable to work with actually it's The fullframe equivalent of a 395 mm lens with the equivalent depth of Field of about a 4.5 that's about the minimum you want For bird photography and it can get you Deeply out of focused backgrounds too Potentially useful for portrait work Well if you can get a bit of space Behind your subject that is f5.6 isn't Very bright for sports work though Although you could give it a try if You're happy to use some very high ISO Levels in your camera and if the Equivalent 395 mm isn't telephoto enough for you Then if the lens is capable of resolving 100 megapixel you could always crop as You can see here interesting the lens is Priced at $3,500 and in the UK £3,500 that might Seem expensive but for a high quality Long telev lens on medium format Complete with image stabilization that Price might be about right here actually
I'd like to thank Fujifilm UK for Loaning me this lens for a few weeks Although as usual this is a totally Independent review they also leared me a 1.4 times teleconverter which turns the Lens into a 700 mm f8 the full frame Equivalent of 553 mm so we'll see how Well that performs too it's expensive if You want to buy one though at $850 or £750 here in the UK first thing to note About the lens is that it's pretty big But at a weight of 1.3 kg or about 3 lb It's actually lighter than I thought it Would be I found it quite comfortable to Shoot with out in a field its Construction is a mixture of metal and Plastic to keep the weight down and it's Well weather sealed with a nice gasket Around the huge rear Fujifilm GF Mount Then comes a heavyduty metallic tripod Mount it's welld designed easy and Smooth to turn and the bottom part can Be removed to save on weight when Carrying the lens around with you then Come side controls for the autofocus Focus presetting and image stabilization Here's some footage view with Stabilization turned off and now turned On where you can see it making an Absolutely fantastic difference to the Steadiness of your image fantastic work From Fujifilm there then comes an Aperture ring which has nice positive
Clicks every third of an F stop and can Can also be locked in or out of Automatic mode a useful feature then Comes the rubberized manual focus ring Which again turns lovely and smoothly The focus response to turning that ring Is a little jerky on big Focus pulls Like on other Fujifilm lenses in terms Of focus breathing the lens Zooms in a Fair bit as you focus more closely to Your subject the lens is autofocus motor Runs quickly quietly and accurately no Issues here at all except for a little Hunting now and then when shooting with A teleconverter I found that the Autofocus slowed down a bit you might be Asking how is the Fujifilm gfx100 S2 at Bird and Animal autofocus well its AI is Very good at detecting birds in your Scene and the continuous autofocus locks Into them quite well but it struggles a Bit more than other camera systems when Those animals start moving you won't be Getting loads of Keepers here but the Images you do get in Focus will look Fantastic and besides shooting birds in Flight is a big challenge for any camera System the lens has a 95 mm filter Thread size and comes with a decent Sized plastic Hood with a hole for Adjusting your filters there also some Focus hold buttons at the front of the Lens overall the build quality is Excellent here the extensive weather
Ceiling is a nice bonus it's autofocus Fine and its image stabilization is Incredibly good I'm glad to it's not too Heavy either more importantly though Image quality I'm testing it out today On a 102 megapixel camera the Fujifilm Gfx1 100s Mark I these are images with Fujifilm's in camera Corrections at f56 The lens is razor sharp in the middle of Your images with excellent contrast you Want to hear some further good news that Brilliant sharpness continues right Across the image frame straight into the Very Corners amazing here's f8 about the Same and even f11 is very sharp although F16 and F22 get softer due to defraction Still an incredible result here it is The sharpest medium format lens I have Yet covered okay well let's add that Telecon converter shall we and now we're Working at 700 mm and f8 the lens Continues to be bitingly sharp in the Middle with again excellent contrast Corner image quality is just marginally Margin Ally softer here still completely Excellent so really here's f11 and F16 Well actually with a teleconverter you Can stop down to F45 if you really happen to like Defraction softening overall though the Fact that your images are so sharp even Where a teleconverter says an awful lot And for bird and Wildlife photographers It'll be well worth investing in all
Right let's bypass Fuji's automatic Corrections by processing some raw Images with third party software and see About Distortion and vignetting at 500 Mm we see just a touch of pin cushion Distortion but at f5.6 vignetting is Surprisingly high in the image Corners Stop down to f8 and they brighten up Considerably if you're shooting with a Telecon converter then it's about the Same result very low Distortion but high Vignetting at the brightest aperture Stop down to f11 to brighten up those Corners so if you're shooting in raw be Sure to make sure that viting is being Adjusted correctly the lens's minimum Focus distance is about 2.8 M so its Magnification is just about good enough For birds and other small subjects at F16 closeup image quality is Fantastically sharp but contrast is a Bit slower stop down to f8 for contrast To get back up to normal if you use the Telecon converter then of course your Magnification will be 1.4 times better Picture quality Remains the Same sharp But with low no contrast at f8 but Excellent again at f11 let's see now how The lens performs against bright light It's a fairly good performance here with Soft flaring only really emerging when Bright lights are directly in your image Next Boger as I mentioned and as you've Seen this lens is happily capable of
Really throwing your backgrounds out of Focus and those backgrounds look pretty Gorgeous to me in virtually every Situation even quite difficult Backgrounds nice Okay well overall the Fujifilm gf500 mm F5.6 is an astonishingly good lens one Of the best on the system and I pretty Much loved every second of using it the Telecon converter's performance is Excellent too you should really invest In that as well well if your budget Allows that is medium format cameras are Slower than their full-frame Counterparts which makes Wildlife Photography with this thing more Challenging but your reward is 102 Megapixel images which you can crop Right into very handy The Lens comes Highly recommended without a moment's Hesitation and it's great to see Fujifilm diversifying their GF lens Range in such an exciting Way okay that was fun medium format Photography might not be for everyone It's certainly a challenge but having a Telly lens in your kit as well can make It seriously reward in anyway a special Thanks to all my patreon supporters who Make such a big difference to keeping This YouTube channel going check out my Patreon page in the description below Where supporters get all kinds of Exclusive bonus content ciao for now
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