[Music] Hi I'm Dustin Abbott now as many of you Know I've been working through some of The new for example s sigo or Tamron Lenses that have been re-released on Fuji X Mount seeing how they hold up to The higher standard of the new 40 Megapixel sensor on my Xh2 I've been interested in seeing However just as a point of comparison Since I've compared and contrasted the Sigma 18 to 50 mm versus the Tamron 17 To70 mm and I I drew some conclusions There relative to what I'd seen Previously on Sony e-mount but I was Really curious to see how some of Fuji's Own standard zoom lenses most notably The 18 to 55 and then the premium option Here the 16 to 55 MIM f2.8 and this is r Lmw and I'll break down what that means In just a moment I wanted to see how it Handles the standard and how the opinion My opinion has shifted since my original Review now I reviewed the 16 to 55 mm Basically right on 5 years ago and it Wasn't a new lens at that point it's Just that I was new to Fuji so I did That on the xt3 the review I did that And actually did primarily while Traveling to Myrtle Beach now ironically Five years later I had planned another Trip to Myrtle Beach so I thought let's Redo this review let's take a look at How it holds up the lens itself was
Actually released back in 2015 and so it Is now 9 years old and it's still at Least as far as the price and you know The overall feature set it is still the Premium lens uh in the class at this Point on Fuji X Mount but considering Some of the evolving standards during That time does this Lin still hold up It's definitely the most expensive Option available you're going to pay About ,100 for this lens the uh Fuji 18 To 55 mm f2.8 to4 o ois it runs about $700 that compares to the Tamron 17 to 70 mm f2.8 it also has image Stabilization it is $700 and then the Sigma 18 to 5050 mm F2.8 DM it runs anywhere between $500 to $550 so uh basically about half the Price of this lens so this lens is Obviously it is large it is heavy it is Expensive but is it still the worthy Option on the newer higher resolution Bodies we're going to dive into that and Find out in today's review today's Episode is brought to you by Phantom Wallet the minimalist modern wallet that Is now even better with the new Phantom X that is crafted from aluminum right Here in Canada it is 22% smaller and 35 % lighter while still making it easy to Access your cards and money when you Need them thanks to their unique Fanning Mechanism you could even customize your Wallet due to its modular design with
Accessories like a money clip cash Holder ID display and even chipolo and Air tag tracking integration visit Store. fanom wallet.com to check out Their unique sizes Styles and finishes That span from aluminum to Wood to Carbon fiber and use code Dustin 15 for 15% off when you're ready to check Out now it's not my intent to completely Redo my review here today and if you Want my original findings and a little More detail on various aspects of build And performance you can check out my Original review and either video or text Form those will be linked here this lens Has a focal length that is the full Frame comparison of 24 millim wide in to 84 mm on full frame and so it goes from Wide to a decent amount of telephoto a Very very useful focal range I will Mention that in many ways is still the Most compelling though you know Obviously Tamron 17 to 70 mm also has an Argument there as far as the size this Is easily the largest lens in this class It is 83.3 MM in diameter uh with a Pretty large 77 mm front filter thread It is 106 mm in length that's 3.28 in by 4.17 in and it weighs in at a whopping 655 G or right under 1 and2 lb that's 370 G more than the sigma which does Have a slightly smaller Zoom range but Shares the same uh you know maximum Aperture throughout that Zoom range so
Obviously this lens is very arguably Larger than what it needs to be at this Point now looking at this lens as far as Fuji's design language the new lenses Really don't look all that different in This so Fuji has kept a consistent Design language and has kept a Consistent feature set now I have a bit Of an issue with that because I think With the evolving of hybrid type uh Cameras like the xh2 that you know are Amazing also with video cameras I think That Fuji needs to evolve their design Of their lenses to be a little bit more Cognizant of the fact that people are Using them for video which I do find That to be a limitation with with Fuji's Lens designs but on the positive side Here though this lens is 9 years old it Doesn't really feel all that different Than what we're seeing currently coming From from Fuji at this point now the r And the W in the name stands for R Stands for ring or aperture ring which It does have an apture ring here and Then the WRR refers to the fact that it Does have weather resistance or weather Ceiling and so that's not just a gasket At the lens mount but some internal Seals as well and so it you know kind of Retains that positive of Premium Standard there now I will note that uh I Don't know that time has been overly Kind to the copy of the lens that uh
That Fuji Canada loan me and thanks to Them for the loan uh to to evaluate here The clicks are really really strongly Defined and obviously as I've already Alluded to there are no video focused Ideas when it comes to the apture ring So there's no dclick option you're going To not going to be able to do anything Like aperture racking because it doesn't Move smoothly at all but what it does Allow you to do is to have clearly Defined detents for the oneir stops in The aperture range from f2.8 to F22 and Then also the option to put it into an Automatic mode and control it from Within the camera now the manual focus Ring itself has a decent feel to it but What I really note with these older Fuji Lenses is that manual focus is very much A matter of steps I mean literally I Could do almost like a little click If I was trying to bring something into Focus because it's not a smooth focus at All but very much just uh just one one Kind of step after another so it's not Exactly a a refined or fun manual focus Experience at all and so I I just I find That doing Precision manual focus is Basically only possible if you're kind Of following those Tiny Steps it's not a A smooth um process and so again there's Some areas where the age of the lens Shows up when it comes compares to Modern design now another positive that
Does pop up here however is the fact That back when I evaluated the lens on The xt3 this was before uh Fuji was Starting to roll out image stabilization In their cameras embody image Stabilization and so this lens had kind Of a serious deficiency compared to say The 18 to 55 MIM that had the optical Image stabilization built in and so Either you kind of got the the premium Build of this lens and the constant F2 Paint aperture or you had to choose to Go with the smaller lens that had a Variable aperture but did give you image Stabilization I found that in using the I used actually three lenses on this Trip I used the sigma and by the way I Will do a comparison video between how The sigma compares to the both the 18 to 55 and the 16 to 55 so watch for that But what I found using all three of These lenses side by side by side is That I really didn't see any difference Between the non image stabilized lens And those the the lens that did have the Optical stabilization they behaved Basically equally because of the Inclusion now of the optical Stabilization in the camera body and That was true for either video or Stills So that's no longer really a Disadvantage so long as you own one of Now Fuji's many cameras that do have Image stabilization built into the
Camera body itself so let's talk about The autofocus performance for a moment This is another area where I'm kind of Interested in to see how an old older Lens holds up in the Modern Standard and So what I found again is a bit of a Mixed bag there are some good areas There's some not so good areas so this Has uh Fuji's linear motor which is a a Higher powerered Focus motor that's Positive obviously it is you know Quieter and smoother than some of the More Buzzy micro motor designs and what I found is that for the most part Autofocus holds up pretty well when it Comes to Stills we'll come back to video In just a moment you can see here from The autofocus pools that they're fairly Quick my only the only way I kind of see Some of the age is that there's a bit of A double clutch um right you kind of Focus 95% of the weight there's like a Little bit of a pause and then a the Finish of the focus and I did see that Sometimes you can definitely see it in My Optical test more indoors than Outdoors but you can also see here that It does you know obviously image Tracking was not really a Fuji Technology when this lens was released Or really in the last time I did my Review you can see however now that on The xh2 it does a good job of staying Locked on to one eye even as I move the
Camera around I also found on the posit For the video front is that autofocus Pools were fairly quick and confident There's a minimal amount of focus Breathing I did this test about middle Of the range somewhere around 27 28 mm And you can see that there's not really An issue there I also noted that my hand Test that that result was fine so if I Was just doing the control test it Wouldn't look so bad but the problem is I used it quite a bit out in the real World and what I found out in the real World is that there is a serious issue With Focus just not settling in real World shots and you can see for example In the shot of the flags up above you Can just see there's a pulsing in and Out of focus in the shot of the harbor In Charleston you can see again that Focus just doesn't stay confident and Locked on now there's other Clips where Focus looked fine and stayed fine but Obviously I I would say probably about 40 to 45% of my video clips were in some Ways marred even ruined by Focus not Being consistent so I don't feel like The autofocus is fully reliable for the Video side of things it's an area where It you know it's showing some age that This was a a lens that maybe wasn't Designed with video in mind in the same Way that modern cameras and lenses are Designed around
So that's another area where it shows a Bit of its age the biggest thing however And the real reason why we're here is That the optical standard has vastly Changed obviously there was the step up At around the xt3 time to the 26 Megapixels that I last tested this on From the previous 24 megapixel so there Was that shift to XTR and of course now There is the shift to the 40 megapixel Sensor like is in my xh2 and I have Found that it is an incredibly demanding Platform that frankly a lot of the older Fuji lenses just don't rise to the Challenge on they tend to look rather Soft on it now looking back at the Original MTF chart you can see that it Is more consistent on the wide end than What it is on the telephoto end and We're going to see that that really kind Of get magn gets magnified on the xh2 Now as far as some of the other kind of Issues which I've covered before there Is some significant Barrel Distortion About a plus 22 to correct for on the Wide end vignette is much more moderate I only used a plus 49 to correct for it So under two stops I also found that Fringing continues to be well controlled Even when there's more pixels and so Thus more potential to see fringing I Really didn't see it there and so I have No complaints when it comes to either Longitudinal or lateral chromatic
Aberration I feel like that is something That has held up well over the last N9 Years I also feel like on the wide end The lens does quite good and both at When I tested at 16 mm and then the next Marked Zoom point or point on the zoom Range is 23 mm and both of those metrics I feel like the lens performed quite Well and I'll show you a breakdown in The future comparison to the sigma for Example and then to the 18 to 55 and There's some give and take but it is It's you know about in range with that Lens but starting at about 30 Millimeters I really noted a decline in Performance to where if I was view Reviewing this as a new lens I would be Disappointed uh I found that that at 35 And then at 55 millim that the lens is Just noticeably softer and doesn't Really improve that much when stopped Down and that really echoed what I saw Out in the real world uh I get spoiled Sometimes because the LCD and the Viewfinder on the xh2 are really great And so a lot of times images look pretty Good here so I'm reviewing them and I Have a positive feel then I go and I Review them on a a big monitor my 4k Monitor and I and move you know review Them at a higher magnification and I'm Much less impressed and that was Definitely the case here I was actually Really disappointed by how soft some of
My real world shots were basically Anywhere past about 25 millimet and I Just didn't love the results past 25 Millim I would take the Sigma 18 to 50 Or the Tamron 17 to 7 70 mm any day uh When it comes to you know the more the Telephone photo end of the zoom range Here I also found that the bouquet Quality in some situations looks good Basically when there's not bright Specular highlights when there is bright Specular highlights there's some really Odd effects that I'll show you in the Optical breakdown at the end of the Video here on the the positive side of Things colors still look really Fantastic and the overall look of images Looks really really great and so again My initial reaction looking at the back Of the camera looking in the viewfinder It's like okay uh these images look Fantastic this lens is still holding up It's and so globally looking at them Lenses or images still look great Fuji Color is great and Fuji's glass produces Really nice color and so the overall Look of the images I'm very happy with It's more when I do any kind of pixel Peeping that I'm really disappointed With and I was in particularly Disappointed for people type shots when You tend to be zoomed in towards the Telephoto range a little bit more and I Just it just did not hold up at all so I
Would say that the small inexpensive Sigma 18 to 50 mm it best it in a a Number of optical metrics at this point So my conclusion is this it is kind of Hard to justify the size and the price Of the XF 16 to 55 millimeter on today's Market particularly if you're shooting With the higher resolution 40 megapixel Camera I had the newer Fuji 56 mm f1.2 Along with me as well on this trip and I Was reminded of just how much better Fuji's recent premium lenses are you can Tell that they're designed with this Higher resolution point in mind and it Really shows the images just Sparkle in A way that they frankly don't with the 16 to 55 mm along with a lot of the Older lenses from Fuji so I would say That both the autofocus and the Optics Are showing their age a bit and it is Time for a refresh at the same time if You already own this lens um and you you Love it already there's a reason why you Own and you love it and that is because It does produce beautiful images they Just don't hold up quite as well when You hold the the magnifier of the modern Camera and modern standards to it but if You have this lens already and you love It don't be discouraged by this review Continue to love it continue to love the Images that you get but if you're Currently shopping right now I would say Wait you know either go for something
Like the Sigma 18 to 50 mm F2 .8 and Save yourself a ton of money or wait Until Fuji invariably replaces this lens With a newer design because if you're Shooting with one of the newer cameras I Think that you're going to be Disappointed in what you get for the Amount of money that you spend here I'm Dustin Abbott and if you want more Information you can check out my Original reviews in the description down Below there's also buying links there if You'd like to uh purchase one and now if You want to see what I'm referring to in Detail when it comes to the optical Performance on 40 megapixel let's dive In [Music] Together so we'll start by taking a look At vignette and Distortion obviously This is not something that's necessarily Going to change with higher resolution But just to revisit since before I did It back in the day before my current Test chart you can see with corrections Turned off that there is a significant Amount of barrel Distortion and a Moderate amount of vignette in the Corners now while the best way to Correct that is going to be through the Buil-in correction profiles if you need To manually correct it which I've done Here to give us a look at what's Actually being corrected you'll see a
Plus 22 that mostly straightens things Out but you will see just a little bit Of a mustache pattern that remains Vignette is plus 48 so in the extreme Corners that's right under two stops and So not terrible um certainly for a lens Like this that's not bad on the vignette Front but the the amount of barrel Distortion that there is significant now When it comes to fringing I thought that Was actually reasonably well controlled Here and still continues to be the case You can see that on the letters here There's not really any fringing as we go Out of focus you can see on these Various lights that I've got inerted Here that in the bright areas there's no Fringing around that and as we Transition towards the defocused area You can see likewise there's very very Little fringing that's there Unfortunately what you can see is a Definitely a fair bit more outlining and Kind of some busyness in some of the Bokeh highlights uh much more than what I would prefer swapping things around With a little bit in the foreground here You can see that again we've not no we Have no real fringing showing up there And as we look at the reflective Surfaces here on the old Bellow camera There you can see it looks pretty good Everything's holding up quite well now Here's where things get tough and that
Is how does this now 9-year-old lens Perform on Fuji's modern 40 megapixel Sensors I examined these results at 200% You can see that at 16 mm in the center Of the frame it's not bad um we got good Resolution and detail there it's not Mind blowingly good but certainly not Bad looking at the mid-frame also fairly Good and over in the corner it is okay Looking at the other side you can see That the centering is not perfect on This copy it's definitely softer on this Corner than what it is over on the left Side where it looks pretty good up in That corner now if we stop down to F4 in The center of the frame we see that if Anything it actually looks a little bit Less sharp in the center of the frame That's not true elsewhere however Interestingly we can see that the Mid-frame here looks a little bit Crisper and up into this left corner you Can definitely see a little bit of Improved contrast and detail even if we Pop down to this corner where it is Softer to begin with you can see that it A little bit sharper there and so Interestingly it's only the center That's softer that Trend continues here At f5.6 you can see that there really Isn't any Improvement in the center of The frame however if we look elsewhere Again about equal up into this corner um You know roughly the same but I would
Say that F4 maybe looks a little bit Than f5.6 up in this corner you can see That things are about equal and down in This corner I would say there's a little Bit of improvement at f5.6 versus F4 now Something that is a much bigger Factor Now on 40 me megapixels versus the 26 Megapixel sensor I previously reviewed The lens on is that the fraction hits Both earlier and harder with the 40 Megapixel sensor so you can see that by F11 image is definitely starting to Soften a bit by F22 which is minimum Apture it is severely softened and even In the places where the lens has looked The best before you can see that it is Much more noticeably soft now when you Get down to F22 now the next marked Position on the lens is 23 millimeters It's communicated here as 22 millimeters But you can see looking here that the Center of the frame looks largely the Same as what we saw before uh stopping Down to f4 on the right not really any Improvement kind of the same pattern That we saw previously now if you move Off center interestingly the lens Definitely sharpens up at F4 and so There's definitely more of an Improvement in the mid-frame and into The corners uh versus the Improvement in The center of the frame and moving up Into this corner here you can see that There's a very noticeable Improvement by
F4 a little bit more Improvement by f5.6 As you can see here but due to Defraction between f5.6 and f8 you'll Find that defraction is starting to Introduce just a little bit of softness Into the image and obviously that Pattern will continue as we saw before Now at 35 mm we can see a more Noticeable Improvement in the center of The frame when sto down we can also see That there is definitely less contrast In the center of the frame at f/2.8 wide Open relative to what we've seen Previous to this point that low contrast Is visible here in the mid-frame you can See a little bit of improvement when We're sto down to F4 and into the Corners Corners looking quite soft here A little bit improved by F5 point or Excuse me by F4 we pop up to the upper Corner which this lens tends to be at Least this copy tends to be stronger There we can see that it's somewhat Improved by F4 but not as definitely not As sharp as what we've seen previously Stopping down to f5.6 really doesn't Make much of an improvement over F4 Taking a look a few other places I would Say it's very very slightly more Contrasty in that zone and here we can See that it's really about equal not Really any Improvement if anything a Mild step back at f5.6 so we can see That 35 mm definitely not as sharp as
What we saw at either 16 or 23 mm now Fortunately there is some bounce back at 55 mm contrast is still not fantastic But you can see that there's definitely A little bit more contrast and detail Mid-frame or excuse me in the center of The frame at at 55 millim than what we Saw at 35 millim we don't really see Much of an improvement at F4 in the Center however in the mid-frame we can See also that stopping down is not Making any kind of improvement up here In the corner we see the same is true Looking at the the other Corner same Story there stopping on down to f5.6 Makes a very slight Improvement but you Can see here that the corners are never Really all that sharp and even the Mid-frame actually is starting to Regress a little bit and just is not Nearly as sharp as what I would like at F5.6 it really doesn't get that sharp Anywhere here and you can see that Ironically in the center of the frame It's definitely looking softer as the Lens is stopped down from F4 to F5 .6 Unfortunately this also is consistent With what I saw in real world results What I found in real world situations is That my impression of the lenses the Lens performance really varied from Image to image this image here you can See that even at f2.8 while contrast Isn't off the page you can see that
Everything looks fairly good here all Throughout the frame even towards the Corners they look quite good now this Shot is also F at 16 mm except for now We're at F5.6 the lighting is really really good Here so this is an image that should pop And frankly it looks fairly good you can See the detail here is if not you know Off the charts good it's certainly good Enough that the image is very very Usable this shot also at 16 mm and again I find that it's holding up okay the Detail is fine here and as we look Towards even the edge of the frame again C contrast isn't amazing but but Everything is reasonably good here and Sharp throughout the frame unfortunately When the lens is zoomed in a bit however I was much less happy with my results And so here a portrait shot of some Friends and you can just see that Contrast and sharpness is really not Great the lens just looks a bit soft Here with more of a center composition And this is at F5.6 here's a shot at around 36 mm f2.8 And while the image is cute Um in its you know General appearance You can see that if we look in at a Pixel level it's really not super sharp There's just not a lot of detail or Delineation there the shot at 44 mm you Can see it looks fine again looking at a
Global level but again if we look in at A pixel level I'm really unhappy with The overall sharpness and contrast of This image it just looks a bit soft now Going back to around 18 mm here you can See that results are much better and and So detail is good once again so I like This lens fine on the wide end but once You get Past about 25 to 30 mm it really softens Up badly on this high resolution body Now on the positive note you can see That the colors are looking really Really rich and so I like the look of Images you know RIT large I just didn't Like them so much at a pixel level now The 18 to 55 mm has ever so slightly Higher magnification in my test but I Did find that the 16 to 55 mm held up Better up close and so you can see There's a decent amount of contrast and Detail there and so it did a better job Up close than what that lens did I also Felt like the color rendition continued To be really really exceptionally nice From the lens that's something that Fuji Glass does really really well and and so I could definitely tell a difference it Still holds up really well in that Regard here with a circular polarizer You can see that the colors really pop On there nicely and so everything stands Out in fine detail and you can see here Again because we're shooting at The
Wider end of the zoom range you can see That the detail is holding up nicely Throughout the building and throughout The image in general one final shot to Illustrate this again with the polarizer On there I love the pop of the whites Versus the blue again the Fuji glass is Really really nice for colors and we can See here that again it's not pin sharp Throughout but at wider focal lengths it Looks looks fine I mean detail is good Certainly usable there's plenty of Information there all throughout the Image I also like the performance a Little bit better when it comes to flare Resistance on the wide end than on the Telephoto end and so you can see in the Wider shot here that uh there's just a Little bit less of the ghosting Artifacts and as we look at the the Telephoto and you can just see that There's a little bit more veiling and a Little bit more loss of contrast there Shooting in into the sun here's another Shot on the beach here and you can see Again the uh at a wider angle of view There's just a little bit of localized Uh flare artifacts there but for the Most part contrast has held up fine and The image looks good you've made it to The very end thanks to those of you that Are faithful and are sticking around to Hear me say have a great day and let the Light
[Music] In
