Quick Facts about the Fujifilm 50mm F2
- Weight: 7.05oz/200 Grams
- Weather Sealed: Yes
- Filter Size: 46mm
- Angle of View: 31.7 Degrees
- Focusing Distance: 1.28 feet/39 centimeters
- Max Aperture: F2
- Minimum Aperture: F16
- Image Stabilization: No
- Mount System: Fuji X
- Price: $449
- Maximum Magnification: .15x
Table of Contents
Who is the 50mm F2 designed for?
A lot of people have always said that the Fuji-cron lenses where what seperated Fujifilm from other camera manufacturers. After all, there are no full-frame options that are even remotely comparable.
(Fujicron= 23mm F2, 35mm F2, and 50mm F2)
These lenses are small, portable, and well-balanced on all Fujifilm cameras. Additionally, they are minimal in cost compared to other Fujifilm lenses and full-frame counterparts. (For example, the 50mm F1 is $1,499 while the 50mm F2 is “only” $449.) Finally, the lenses are weather-sealed.
These characteristics all lend itself to the premier, travel lens combination of the entire Fujifilm ecosystem. One can fit the 23mm F2, 35mm F2, 50mm F2 along with the X-T5 in a 5 liter sling bag (source: I own one), and they are set for almost every single photography situation.
Now, the 50mm F2 is the longest of these lenses, with a full-frame equivalent focal length of around 75mm. This particular focal length is great for portrait photography, sometimes event photography, and it’s just short-enough that it could pass for a street lens.
This lens is really designed for the masses.
What other XF Portrait Lenses Exist?
TTArtisan 50mm f/1.2 Lens
A third-party, manual focus lens that is less than $100. Within the Fujifilm and Canon systems, there are few alternatives that rival this price point. I have not tested this lens yet (I will be purchasing it soon), but it would be hard to be disappointed with this lens.
- Fujifilm 56mm F1.2 (non-WR)
The first version of this lens is slow, but it can be found for less than $500 in a used state.
- Fujifilm 56mm F1.2 ADP
Something to do with smoother bokeh…
Noisy motors and slow autofocus detract from an almost perfect lens.
- Fujifilm 90mm F2
This is the other popular prime telephoto within the Fuji XF mount, and it is probably the 56mm F1.2 WR’s direct competitor.
The 135mm equivalent lens us faster to focus as it contains linear motors, and it’s a popular focal length. BUT it’s only F2.
The jack of all trades for the telephoto zoom options, the Fujifilm 50-140 is the best-performing lens in regards to sharpness for a zoom.
Dials, Switches, Buttons, and More
A no-frills design, the lens body doesn’t leave much room for any external buttons, dials, or switches.
The only thing to really note about the Fujifilm 50mm F2 is the marked, aperture ring. This lens has an aperture range of F2 to F16. (7 Hard-Stops)
Finally, the aperture-ring does create some clicking noise when rotating through.
For the manual-focus ring, it took about three, full rotations before going from the minimum focusing distance to infinity. This lens is certainly focused on photography-first.
Build Quality
A while back, I reviewed the 30mm F2.8 lens, and I have a couple questions. Both the 30mm F2.8 and the 50mm F2 have almost an identical body…..
The build-quality is excellent, with a metal-based construction. It fits right along with the silver, metallic body of the X-T line.
There are no major concerns about the long-term quality of this lens, as I do believe it can stand-up to long-term abuse that travel sometimes entails.
I searched for any critical points of failure in regards to weather-resistance, and I didn’t see anything concerning.
50mm F2 Color Fringing
Wide-open at F2, there is a lot more purple and green fringing than I expected on this lens.
The fringing is still even present at F4, but I would imagine as the photos suggest, it would be should be gone after F4 or so.
Bokeh Review
The bokeh on the 50mm F2 was surprisingly good. So much so, I feel like it was actually better than some lenses such as the 90mm F2.
The transitions from the in-focus to out-of-focus parts of the photo were pleasant/good/natural whatever adjective you want to use.
Bokeh Balls
The bokeh balls begin the disappointing section of the 50mm F2 review.
As you can see, the lens suffers from the cat’s eye affect heavily in the corners, and there is little you can do to remedy the situation.
Additionally, there is a slight onion ring effect. Some might argue that as you stop down, you can start to get rid of these problems, and that is true as evidenced by the F4 photo.
However, F4 is pretty difficult to get to in near-dark conditions.
Sharpness Test
The Fujifilm 50mm F2 is not going to be the best performing, clinically sharp lens like the 56mm F1.2 WR. However, it is very sharp for the expectations. It’s comparable in image quality to the 16-55/50-140 in total output, but it is certainly better than any other zoom lens that Fujifilm offers. (Looking at you, Fujifilm 16-80…)
Corners are good to excellent throughout the entire frame from around F2 until F8, but I did find that at about F4-F5.6, the sharpness was the best.
Meanwhile, the center of the frame is excellent, but it drops off around F11.
Autofocus Tests
Photo Autofocus
All around, I think the autofocus on the 50mm F2 was okay. It was really quick, but it showed some minor hesitancy.
It stops for less than half-a-second, and then it will eventually finish focusing.
Video Autofocus (Continuous Tracking)
This is also present in the eye, autofocus tracking too.
Again, this is not the camera body, and feels like it’s due to the optical construction of the lens.
Distortion Test
There is some pincushion distortion with this lens. The Capture One Correction Profile is excellent, however. The image cropping with the Profile does take out the outer-portion minimally, so if the frame is tight, it might be worth it to take a step back.
Vignetting
There is almost no vignetting. Not even worth including a picture.
Sunstars, Ghosting, and Flaring
On the downside, it did not have a single great sunstar. On the upside, the flaring is controlled exceptionally well.
Thigh might be due to the small front lens element (46mm), or the coatings are actually that good.
Macro Test
Not really worth talking about, the macro performance is lackluster.
Sample Images
Pros of the 50mm F2
- Price
- Balance
It balances well on both the small and large Fujifilm bodies.
Cons of the 50mm F2
- Bokeh Balls
- Color Fringing
My Rating
Price: 5/5
Reliability: 4/5
-.5 for the bokeh balls.
-.5 for the large amount of color fringing. It’s up there with the 50mm F1 in the worst color fringing I have seen out of a FUjifilm lens.
Functionality: 5/5
It can be used for numerous styles of photography.
Style: 5/5
As quoted in the 30mm F2.8 review, “It’s kind of funny looking, but the paint is high-quality. The metal body is solid. Looks cool on the small, X-TXX line. (X-T40, etc.)
Total: 19/20
Honestly, unless you know you need the 56mm F1.2, the 50mm F2 is a worthy competitor of every Fujifilm 50-ish millimeter prime lens. I would purchase the 50mm F2 over the 50mm F1, and it would cost about $1,000 less…