Fuji’s XF 90mm F2 R LM WR lens is a standout in their X lens lineup. This high-end portrait lens is known for its impressive image quality, and this excellent video review takes a look at just how good it is.
Coming to you from Christopher Frost, this insightful video explores why Fuji's XF 90mm f/2 lens is causing such a stir among photographers. The lens is remarkably large for an APS-C system, weighing over a pound. While it’s not a full frame lens, it boasts a large image circle that offers benefits like reduced vignetting and improved image quality, similar to Nikon’s recent portrait lenses. These features are particularly beneficial for portrait photographers looking for superior background blur and edge sharpness.
Fuji designed the XF 90mm lens with a mixture of metal and high-quality plastics, ensuring durability and reliability. It includes a metal lens mount with good weather-sealing, a smooth-turning metallic focus ring, and a precise aperture ring. The autofocus is fast and accurate, operating quietly. However, there’s a minor issue where the lens elements move slightly when the lens is detached or the camera is off, which can cause some anxiety for users.
Image quality is where this lens truly shines. The lens delivers sharp images with excellent contrast right from the maximum aperture of f/2. The corners remain sharp with minimal softness, improving further when stopped down to f/4. Distortion is virtually nonexistent, and vignetting is minimal, even at f/2. Stopping down to f/2.8 eliminates vignetting completely. These qualities ensure that the lens performs exceptionally well in various shooting conditions, providing clear, high-quality images with consistent sharpness across the frame.
Close-up performance is another strong point. The lens has a minimum focusing distance of 60 cm, allowing for impressive magnification of smaller subjects. Image quality remains sharp at close distances, even at f/2. This makes the lens versatile for different types of photography, including macro work. The handling of bright light is also commendable, with flaring controlled well, although using the lens hood is advisable to minimize any issues with bright lights at the frame's edge.
The lens excels in bokeh quality, thanks to its large image circle, which reduces the cat-eye effect in out-of-focus highlights. This results in a smooth, creamy bokeh that enhances the aesthetic quality of portraits and other images with shallow depth of field. Chromatic aberration is well-controlled, with minimal longitudinal aberration visible at f/2 and disappearing by f/4.
Overall, the 90mm f/2 R LM WR lens is an outstanding addition to the Fuji X system. It combines exceptional sharpness, reliable autofocus, and superior build quality, making it an ideal choice for serious photographers, especially those focused on portrait work. While its size and price might be a deterrent for some, the benefits it offers in image quality and handling make it a worthwhile investment. Check out the video above for the full rundown from Frost.
That's wild that anyone makes a lens projection that is slightly or significantly larger than the sensor it was made to work with. I wonder how much smaller this lens could have been?
Regarding "cats eye" bokeh, it has nothing to do with image circle size. You can predict almost exactly how far from round bokeh will appear, by looking through the lens from infront of the camera, at the edge of the field of view, and the oblique-ness of the front element/lens rim, will match the oblique-ness (or severity of cats eye bokeh) the lens will create. The reason this lens doesnt create this effect is the focal length, and its use on a crop sensor camera (providing a FOV of a 144mm lens). Sometimes i wonder if yall add in something patently untrue to every article in final edits, to increase your comment/interaction metrics lmao.