[Music] Foreign Hi I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here today To give you my review of the fujinon GF 55 millimeter F 1.7 and this is the rwr I just recently did my review of the new Gfx 100 Mark II and it is a Powerhouse Of a medium format camera but it isn't The only new thing coming from Fuji There are several new lenses including This 55 millimeter F 1.7 and I have used It exclusively as a part of my review of The gfx 100 Mark II this is a really Welcome addition for one thing I love This focal length it is the full frame Equivalent of 44 millimeters so a Slightly wider normal angle of view Which I really really like it also ties The largest maximum matcher available on The platform at F 1.7 with the GF 80 Millimeter F 1.7 And overall I would say this has Probably been one of my favorite GF Lenses to review because as I mentioned I love the focal length this has amazing Optics it has pretty good autofocus and The ability to produce really stunning Images when paired with this amazing Camera that it's mounted on so the Question is is it worth 2300 US Dollars Obviously not cheap what we're going to Explore that together today after a word From our sponsor Today's episode is brought to you by
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One-third stops throughout with the full Stop markings on there you also have the Ability to switch into an automatic mode Or even into a command mode and there is A lock here that allows you to switch in And out of those things and keep you From inadvertently you're bumping into Something else that's pretty much it When it comes to the features but more On that in just a moment the other thing That this lens is is that it does have WR or weather resistance and so that Starts with the gasket at the lens mount Internal seals and a flooring coating on The front element making this a thorough Weather ceiling designed for Professional use which of course it is a Professional grade lens So let's talk about the size of the lens For a moment it is virtually identical In every detail to the 80 millimeter F 1.7 like that lens this is 94.7 Millimeters or 3.7 inches in diameter It's 99.3 millimeters long or 3.9 inches And it is very very slightly lighter About 15 grams than the 80 millimeter at 780 grams or 1.7 pounds for the 55 Millimeter lens up front we have 77 Millimeter front filter threads which is Also identical with the 80 millimeter And is quite a common filter size Outside of that there are no features on The lens itself and so we have no D-click aperture which is unfortunate
When you consider particularly with this New gfx uh 100 Mark II how hard they've Gone after the video side of things I Think that they also need to bring some Of that same philosophy to their lens Design so the ability to click the Aperture maybe a few more features would Be quite welcome here what we do have is A nice big manual focus ring that falls To hand very easily it moves nicely if You're just feeling the ring it moves Nicely if you're actually manual Focusing it's not quite as pretty a Picture there is a lot of obvious steps And quite a lot of motor noise that you Hear as a part of actual and manual Focusing unfortunately the included lens Hood feels fairly nice nothing Exceptional but feels fairly nice and it Does have a locking mechanism on there To make sure that it's not going to Inadvertently come out of place once You've locked it into place now Typically Fuji's sticks to a fairly Tried and true formula for their lens Designs which as I've noted I like to See them shake up a little bit they have Done one minor new thing here and that Is that the aperture blade count has Increased from 9 to 11. that's a very Welcome addition because while you know At wide open F 1.7 the number of Aperture blades isn't going to change The quality of the vocab because they're
Fully retracted but when you stop The Lens down an 11 bladed aperture does a Better job of retaining a circular shape In this case than what the nine bladed Does and so it helps just with the Quality of the bokeh as you stop The Lens down a little bit now obviously as Noted this is the largest maximum Aperture that is currently available on Fuji's medium format so that's very Welcome on a lens like this it just Means that when the light gets dimmer You have more options you have more Options for depth of field and then also In my opinion makes it a more Interesting Lens for portrait work when you consider That you can still achieve a fairly Shallow depth of feel feel even working Out a little bit further a distance and So I really like it for that also Improved here over the 80 millimeter is That we have the ability to focus down To 50 centimeters or 1.6 feet but we Have a a higher magnification of 0.17 Times which is actually a little bit Above average for a 45 to 50 millimeter Type lens and so that is very welcome Because it allows you to get some really Beautiful up close work and with this Amazingly high resolution on this body You can further crop it and make it look A little bit more macro-ish so overall Pretty much what you would expect if
You're familiar at all with Fuji's lens Design on the GF system with the Exception of getting a few more aperture Blades in the iris itself and so Obviously that is welcome Now one thing that I continue to find Surprising and I think a lot of people Do is that rather than employing linear Motors on this obviously premium lens we Instead have a DC Focus motor which is An older recruiter technology and just Like we saw on the 80 80 millimeter I don't know if Fuji he has an issue in Employing their linear Motors on these Really large maximum aperture you know For example they released a in the last Year and a half a 50 millimeter F 1.0 Lens for the XF Mount and that lens also Employed a DC motor though at you know For the nicer lenses on XF almost all of Them have linear Motors and so I think That when these really large maximum Apture situations on these primes for Whatever reason Fuji's running into an Engineering challenge of employing Linear Motors and I would love to see Them take a a note from Sony for example That on a lens like this would probably Employ like four of their similar linear Motor type Motors to make sure that Focus is really quick and really quiet That's not what we have got here and so You'll definitely hear Focus sounds During autofocus it's kind of a scratchy
Sound as it goes back and forth and as You can see here autofocus speed is Fairly good it's not great but it is Fair really good and overall I found That Focus actually was quite good iaf Worked really well for portraits Sessions and it worked well for shooting Animals the one exception I will say to That is that if you're close enough to Where depth of field starts to affect The eye you discover that autofocus is Actually more on the eyelash or the Eyelid and not on the iris itself and About 80 percent of the time that's Where autofocus ends up so unfortunately That obviously Isn't ideal and I'd love to see them Refine that just a little bit further Probably has more to do with the focus System in the camera than what it does The lens itself truth be told now in Terms of the focus speed a kind of a Mixed bag there I certainly did not find It was fast enough to keep up with Nala If she was moving towards me you know Pull out a camera they immediately start To come towards you and and so I would Try to take pictures and it just wasn't Really all that successful however in a More controlled environment where I had My son run up to shoot layups shooting Basketball I found that you know the Tracking capability was fairly good with This lens and the gfx 100 Mark II I got
About an 80 percent Well-focused result which is frankly Better than what I've seen in times past I also found that in most backlit Situations Focus was pretty good this Photo of a friend golfing very strong Directional Autumn Sun backlighting him But you can see that once I brought up Exposure you can see that's very well Focused on face despite that and him Being in motion I also found that in a Few of these backlit photos that I got Good focus in one case it was just kind Of pulsing and wouldn't lock on to a Closer subject so I did have to manually Focus but for the most part I got pretty Good results in those situations I also Found that autofocus was good in low Light situations even shooting at by Necessity at ISO 12 800 at this Bookshelf that was completely in the Dark I was able to lock autofocus okay So good there and obviously having that Larger maximum aperture is useful Now when it comes to the video side of Things it was a little bit rougher and You can see with the focus pulls there Is some pulsing there's some uncertainty Some settling unfortunately pretty much Par for the course from what I expect on Fuji and particularly the GF platform But even the XF platform some as well Even in just you know a video shot of Just a landscape scene you can see that
Initially there's some pulsing before Focus settles down when I did my hand Test it was kind of a mixed bag it Didn't do too bad and I do find that Fuji's folk system works better when it Has an AI trackable object on frame and So it did better in transitioning from My hand to my eye but it didn't always Go where it should have gone in those Situations as you can see and so overall Autofocus continues to be the kind of Weakest area of lens design here either Lens design or camera design whatever The case may be it's hard to parse out The reality between those two things but There's still room from improve Government there though I do think there Is some improvement to what I saw on the 80 millimeter Now fortunately I Have No Reservations When talking about the amazing image Quality from this particular lens it was A delight to shoot with and I found that It had many of the strengths of the 80 Millimeter F 1.7 but with fewer Weaknesses leaving it as a stronger Overall candidate in my mind we're going To dive in and we'll do a deep dive into The image quality performance together So first of all let's take a look at Vignette and Distortion you can see that There is a mild amount of barrel Distortion but a much stronger amount of Vignette
I was able to correct the Distortion With just a plus five you can see it's Quite linear no real issues with that The vignette is much heavier at plus 86 Which that's over three stops a vignette In the corner so it's going to require a Significant amount of Correction now one Area of definite strength is there's Next to no longitudinal chromatic Aberrations before or after the plane of Focus you can see no real purple Fringing before very little green Fringing afterward likewise if we jump Into a real world image here against a Very you know kind of high key Background I typically see a lot of Fringing on Old cameras and settings Like this but you can see that in these Edges near the transitions everything is Really really well controlled so great Job there on the longitudinal chromatic Aberrations likewise here you can see That we've got foreground and then some Background areas and you can see that Number one detail is really really Beautiful here foreground bokeh is Really nice but fringing is not showing Up in any of the bow cast circles here Either before or after the plane of Focus likewise if we look for lateral Chromatic aberrations which show up near The edge of the frame you can see that The transitions from black to white are Really really excellent and so fringing
Is extremely well controlled on this Lens so how about contrast and Resolution well here using the 102 Megapixel this is the gfx 100 Mark II Sensor their newest camera and showing The results at 200 magnification we can See that even wide open at F 1.7 Extremely sharp and very high contrast In the center of the frame if we look at The mid frame just a stunning amount of Detail there it looks exceptional and if We pop all the way down to the corners We can see that detail is strong all the Way into the corner Now this last point is kind of the Highest distinguishing wide open between The 55 millimeter and the 80 millimeter I will get the edge across the frame to The 55 millimeter but you can see here As you get towards the corner that it is Significantly better there's a little Bit of softness here and lower contrast Towards the edge of the frame on the 80 Millimeter whereas the 55 millimeter Stays really really strong Even if we move back to the mid frame However you can just see there's just so Much more contrast and detail on the 55 Millimeter than what there is on the 80 Millimeter lens So when real world use you can see Number one that the combination of the Sharpness in the bokeh from this lens is Really really quite special if we pop in
And we take a look at a pixel level we Can see that the amount of detail there Is just extraordinarily good it's just Incredibly special what this lens is Capable of producing likewise for a Portrait shot here that if I punch into 100 magnification You can see that the amount of detail There in the eye that is in focus is Just incredibly crisp I mean the detail Is just stunning but everything else Looks really good as well the defocus The fall off it's all really really Special Now if we stop down to F2 we don't see a Significant difference you do see that There is a bit more contrast that is There we are already at such a high Level but there is just a little bit of An improvement there you can see that a Little less in the mid frame and a Little bit more down in the corner which Just has a little bit more brightness And thus a little bit more contrast The difference from F2 to F 2.8 is Roughly the same Then from F 2.8 to F4 not a significant Improvement and of course we're already At such a high level but you can see Just a little bit more contrast but Everything frankly already looks really Really exceptional everywhere that I Look in the frame so there isn't a huge Amount of room for improvement
So sharpness probably Peaks around F 5.6 And even from F5 5.6 to f8 you can see Just a very mild loss that comes from Diffractions starting to set in to where Contrast just isn't quite as intense as What we saw there at F 5.6 If you carry that on to f116 and then 22 You can see that by the minimum after of F22 diffraction has really really taken Away that contrast and that detail to Where now everything looks a little bit Mushy whereas at the larger apertures it Looks just fabulous Now this allows for exceptional real World results shooting at F 5.6 here you Can see that all up into the trees that I've got just amazing detail and all of These things and then as we kind of move Off towards the distance even while Contrast diminishes because of the Atmospheric environment you can see that The detail there is just fantastic also Just special is the colors out of this Lens they're just really really gorgeous It's something that Fuji does well Obviously anyway but you get into the Gfx system and you pair it with good Quality glass as we've got here it just Makes for a really really beautiful Colors that are just they're a joy to Edit because they're not over saturated Or over garish so just really really Rich and the various gradations and These larger pixels are just really
Really a joy to edit now we saw before That our minimum Focus distance is Pretty decent but let's take a look at Up close here you can see that even at Our minimum Focus that detail is really Really awesome and so that allows us to Have even better performance for real World results in that you can start with An image like this which isn't quite Macro level but the ability to deeply Crop on such a high resolution body and Then to see that kind of detail Obviously allows you a lot of Versatility in getting macro type lens Images even from a lens it only has So-so magnification Another shot here you can see that if You punch into you know the detail the The plane of focus on this image you can See that the detail is just really Really good and contrast holds up really Well I also find that the combination of Sharpness and then transition to Softness is really great the fall off on This lens for for light for color but Then also for sharpness is just really Really well done and so you can see We're super sharp here in the very Narrow plane of focus around this eye But as we transition away that even as We get towards the back of the ear for Example it's falling out of focus but Then the background just really really
Melts away in a beautiful fashion and Here that what makes this really special Is the ability to shoot at F 1.7 even Though obviously we're not crushing this Background you can see that the Foreground blur is very nice the Background blur is nice and then we've Got this really sharp place of focus Here where the subject stands out really Nicely and in that zone there's great Great sharpness on the actual subject Herself and then looking towards the Background everything just blurs Away Really nicely that allows me to put Things in the foreground and really blur Them out this is like Pine boughs in Front of here but I can use that as kind Of a natural vignette or frame and then If I look in at the detail on the Subject it is just fantastic and so I'm Really really impressed with that aspect Of of design Likewise when it comes to flare Resistance not too bad there's a little Bit of ghosting artifacts here at wide Open and as we stop on down we get kind Of this Prismatic pattern and just a Little bit of a ghosting blob here but Nothing particularly negative so finally Looking at our Como performance Obviously having an F 1.7 aperture makes This a little more intriguing for Shooting the night sky and we can see That it has the ability to pull in lots
Of stars and of course at 102 megapixels You get a lot of of great detail there There is some coma smears you get Towards the corner and so these Stars Start to look like birds or flying Insects and gain Wings here towards the Corners and here we've got you know Maybe some UFOs but point being is that It's not perfectly controlled from Chromatic aberrations but you can also See looking at images as a whole that it Looks pretty decent pretty compelling There so in conclusion this is easily One of my favorite GF lenses to date I Love the focal length I love the large Maximum aperture I love the images I can Get with it I am ready to see some Evolution in the features and that end Of the design to see them just progress A little bit more and what they're Including in these premium lenses I also Think it's high time for them to Discover a way to make linear Motors Work in an application like this to Where the great Optics of this lens can Be Unleashed in its autofocus Performance as well this is an expensive Lens at 2300 US dollars but at the same Time it is no more expensive than the Premium prime lenses on full frame Platforms and so I don't think that that Is necessarily the the hurdle to Overcome here people that get into Medium format typically do so with the
Understanding it's going to be expensive But the trade-off is that the image Quality is unique and unmatched with any Other smaller format system And so at the end of the day this lens Is really attractive and I will say this That if I were to dive into owning Fuji's medium format this lens would be Pretty much at the top of my list I Really really enjoyed it it's a lens That I could use frequently and be very Happy to use I'm Dustin Abbott and if You look in the description down below You can find linkage to my full text Review to the image gallery please like And subscribe if you haven't already Thanks for watching have a great day let The light in [Music] Foreign
