Fujifilm Xf 18-135mm F35-56 R Lm Ois Wr Review

Fujifilm's latest zoom is designed to match the much-lauded X-T1 compact system camera. Andy Westlake examines whether it lives up to expectations in our Fujifilm XF 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6R LM OIS WR review

When Fujifilm announced its SLR-manner X-T1 meaty system camera at the start of this year, it received enough of accolades for its combination of excellent image quality and intuitive handling in a relatively portable package. Just while the camera was dust- and splash-proofed for use in poor weather conditions, initially none of the lenses was sealed to match. At present Fujifilm has addressed this with the XF 18-135mm f/3.5-five.6R LM OIS WR, which immediately becomes the virtually natural companion to the X-T1.

Plenty of 18-135mm zooms are bachelor for APS-C DSLRs, and this type of lens doesn't generally take a bully reputation for image quality. Simply the Fujifilm version is a different proposition; rather than being a relatively inexpensive 'kit' lens with extended zoom range, it's a premium offering with a price tag to match. At around £700, it'll gear up you dorsum almost twice every bit much as similarly specified lenses from other makes.

Fujifilm XF 18-135mm f/three.5-5.6R LM OIS WR Review: Features

The long list of letters in the lens's proper name indicates its extensive fix of features. The R denotes that it has an aperture control ring around the barrel; this is unmarked and rotates continuously without end-stops, but with house click stops for each ane⁄3-stop change in discontinuity. A linear motor (LM) autofocus system gives fast and silent focusing, even during moving-picture show recording.

Fujifilm claims the lens has the earth's most advanced Optical Image Stabilisation (OIS) system, allowing the user to shoot handheld at shutter speeds 5 stops slower than usual without epitome blurring due to camera shake. Finally, WR refers to the lens's weather resistance, which uses sealing in 20 areas of the barrel.

In terms of optics, the lens employs a 16 elements in 12 groups formula, with four aspherical elements and two anomalous dispersion glass elements employed to minimise aberrations. Equally usual for a CSC lens, optical corrections are complemented by designed-in software corrections for distortion, lateral chromatic abnormality and vignetting. In principle, this gives the designers more liberty to correct other aberrations, with conscientious balancing of optical and software corrections potentially able to requite the best possible concluding results.

Fujifilm XF 18-135mm f/3.5-v.6R LM OIS WR Review: Build and handling

As with Fujifilm's other premium XF lenses, the build quality of the eighteen-135mm is excellent. It uses both metallic and loftier-quality plastics, and in that location's a rubber seal around the lens mount. The overall impression is of a lens made to a rather higher standard than its cheaper counterparts for DSLRs.

The barrel is dominated past three command rings. The manual focus ring at the forepart is electronically, rather than manually, coupled to the lens's focus grouping. It rotates very smoothly and allows precise focusing, aided by the fantabulous focus aids on recent Fujifilm cameras including the Ten-T1. Interestingly, while the lens is technically a varifocal pattern, with the focus position shifting on zooming, the camera automatically readjusts focus to compensate for this, fifty-fifty in manual mode.

The largest ring in the centre of the barrel controls the zoom, and requires 90° rotation to become from wideangle to telephoto. The zoom ring is slightly stiff and its operation can be a piffling jerky when y'all're trying to fine-tune composition.

The aperture control ring is placed close to the camera torso, and this position tin can take a little getting used to. I found that with practice I could modify the aperture using my middle finger without having to shift my forefinger and thumb from the zoom band. A minor switch on the side of the barrel sets the aperture control to machine (for shooting in program or shutter priority modes), with a second switch beneath it for turning the image stabilisation on or off.

Fujifilm XF 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6R LM OIS WR Review: Image quality

As usual for a longer-range zoom, the xviii-135mm's imaging characteristics depend strongly upon focal length. In the wideangle region – 18mm to around 23mm – information technology's very sharp in the heart of the frame, but noticeably less good at the edges, especially wide open up. The lens is at its best in the middle of the zoom range, giving more fifty-fifty sharpness across the entire frame. At telephoto (100-135mm), it's less able to resolve fine detail, but still quite respectable.

Similar most lenses for compact system cameras, the eighteen-135mm uses software corrections equally a fundamental part of its pattern. Images are corrected for baloney, chromatic aberration and vignetting in-camera, which means you'll see little in the manner of colour fringing or bending of directly lines at the edge of the frame. Because the viewfinder prototype is also corrected during shooting, well-nigh users probably won't notice that this is happening, permit lone care.

If you shoot raw, not yet corrections volition necessarily exist practical. Mainstream converter programs should automatically correct for baloney – by far the virtually important – simply not all will compensate for chromatic aberration or vignetting. Nevertheless, looking at uncorrected images reveals that neither is much of a problem.

Too as the sharpness of in-focus regions of the image, I've also been pleased by how the lens renders out-of-focus areas. Naturally it'll never match a fast prime, but when shooting close-ups it gives attractively blurred backgrounds that don't unremarkably detract from the subject.

Fujifilm XF 18-135mm f/3.5-five.6R LM OIS WR Review: Resolution

See here for an explanation of our lens review graphs

The test data reveals a lens that's sharpest overall in the centre of the zoom range, with slightly soft corners at wideangle and noticeably weaker results at telephoto. These are common characteristics of zooms with this range. Optimal results are obtained at apertures of f/five.6-eleven, regardless of focal length.

Fujifilm XF 18-135mm f/three.5-5.6R LM OIS WR Review: Shading

The charts show that only slight shading is visible in exam images with the aperture wide open at either end of the zoom. This reflects the fact that vignetting is corrected automatically by in-camera processing. Several raw converters will reduce it too, including Adobe Camera Raw and Lightroom.

Fujifilm XF 18-135mm f/iii.five-five.6R LM OIS WR Review: Curvilinear Baloney

Fujifilm uses software correction as an integrated part of the lens design, and the result is that final images from the 18-135mm zoom show relatively lilliputian distortion, just a trivial barrel-type at wideangle. This contrasts to like DSLR lenses, which generally bear witness strong barrel distortion at wideangle and pincushion baloney elsewhere in the range.

Fujifilm XF xviii-135mm f/three.v-5.6R LM OIS WR Review: Our Verdict

Fujifilm users who bought an X-T1 will doubtless be anxious to hear how well the 18-135mm performs, and whether it's a worthy companion to the camera. The good news is that in that location's no need to worry – the lens is well behaved and produces consistently adept-quality images. It's non going to be quite every bit sharp equally Fujifilm's excellent XF primes, but that'south the trade-off for the convenience of a zoom.

The autofocus and epitome stabilisation piece of work extremely well, and I got very few images that were blurred from misfocusing or camera shake. With its well-placed controls, the lens handles very well and weather-proofing is a real bonus.

Overall, the xviii-135mm is a general-purpose zoom of rare distinction. Lenses covering such a range are usually rather compromised, and accept to make uneasy trade-offs between sharpness and distortion. Only freed from the constraints imposed past DSLR systems, Fujifilm has produced arguably the best lens of its type currently available – but at a price.

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Source: https://www.amateurphotographer.co.uk/reviews/lenses/fujifilm-xf-18-135mm-review-37541

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