Switching Gears - Fuji 55mm-200mm walkabout

Taking a break from all this Austin City Limits concert coverage, Fuji recently sent me the newish Fujinon 55mm-200mm OIS Zoom to play with on the X-E1. I'll admit that this is not exactly the type of lens that I usually invest in, but I was still anxious to take it out for a spin.

With a 35mm equivalent range of roughly 82mm-300mm, this optic covers a lot of useful territory. in typical Fuji fashion, the construction is impressive and the optical quality outstanding. Metal, plastic, rubber and glass combine to form a substantial lens that feels good in the hand and on the camera. The OIS (Optical Image Stabilization) function helps keep your shot steady and is critical on the long-end when the speed slows down to f/4.8 (still much faster than your typical kit or super zoom). I won't bore you with technical evaluations but take a look at some samples from my walk around Town Lake / Zilker Park, here in Austin TX.

Depending on the FOV and distance from your subject, the bokeh (out of focus areas) can be either smooth or a tad nervous, but I found both to be attractive.

Color rendition is typical Fuji-tastic with greens and blues that pop.

Detail can be stunning. Claims that this lens is soft are way off-base. I found the detail to be almost overwhelming in some images.

What about operational speed? Focus varied from very fast in good light, to some occasional hunting. I wouldn't buy this lens to primarily cover fast action, but with some smart pre-focusing you can certainly come away with your share of keepers. I took the lens to my son's baseball game and was very pleased with the results.

I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised with the 55mm-200mm. Coming from a background of fixed, fast aperture zooms with shallow DOF and creamy bokeh, I was expecting to be disappointed, but that was not the result. The 55mm-200mm Fuji is priced competitively for what it offers and as an all-purpose zoom, it is absolutely capable in almost every regard.

Thank you very much to Fuji for sending the lens so I could spend some time with it and share my thoughts. Please feel free to post comments below and thanks to Thomas Menk for the Scoop It.

Best of the Fest

Here they are, a curated selection of snaps from weekend one of the Austin City Limits festival, in Austin, TX. Just in time for weekend two to kick-off tomorrow! I'll be taking it easy this second round and skipping the fest on Fri and Sat to enjoy some after shows and heading back in on Sunday to do some documentary coverage for a local band.

Some notes about gear. After ten years of faithful service, I gave up my Canon system and started to use a combination of mirrorless system cameras - I am an official Fuji X-Photographer - and a Sony SLR kit, comprised of an A900, Minolta and Zeiss primes.

For this festival I was hoping to take out the new Fuji 23mm (35mm equivalent) f/1.4 to cover all my wide shots but alas, it did not arrive so the Sony RX1 was put into service. It is a full frame compact that is a marvel of engineering and performance. The sensor in the RX1 is rated by DXO Mark as the third best camera sensor ever tested (behind the Nikon D800 and D600). Low light performance on the RX1 is outstanding and the Zeiss 35mm f/2 pairs nicely to the sensor. While the quality is there, the speed and function of the body can be at times frustrating, but it stood up well to the harsh environment of festival shooting.

On the A900 I exclusively used the Zeiss 135mm f/1.8. Coupled with the in-body stabilization, the combo made for a great shooting tool that provides a look unique to the run of the mill 70-200mm combo you see on most camera bodies in the photo pits.

Enough about gear, enjoy the photos.