Tested: Fujinon XF 500mm f/5.6

Fujifilm’s latest addition to its XF range is a monster of a 500mm telephoto, scaled up to the equivalent of a 762mm when paired with an APS-C camera such as the X-H2. Despite this it’s lightweight and portable, and straightforward to hand hold.

WORDS & IMAGES: TERRY HOPE

TIME WAS WHEN a super telephoto optic would be hugely unwieldy, overweight and designed solely to be used off a sturdy tripod. They also cost a fortune, and were largely the domain of professional sports and wildlife photographers, who would use them from the sanctity of a hide or a dedicated press position to pull up the distant action they were looking to record.

All of which is fine, and their restrictions were considered to be all part of the job for those involved in these particular genres. However, just as camera design has developed to give specialists tools that deliver such things as impossibly high, yet still usable, ISO ratings and ridiculously fast frames-per-second speeds, so too has lens design moved on, and the professional is now being offered lengthy optics they could only once have dreamed about, at price that, while still high, are a fraction of what equivalents might have cost a few years back.

Using the example of the recently launched Fujinon XF 500mm f/5.6 R LM OIS WR as an example, they are also surprisingly compact, lightweight and easy to handle, while the incorporation of image stabilising technology means that it’s perfectly practical to consider hand holding them if necessary, although a tripod is still a useful ally to have if you have that option.

Long and longer

This is, in fact, the second 500mm f/5.6 optic to be unveiled by Fujifilm this year, the first being a version designed for the company’s medium format GFX system. The lens for the X System is closely related, being based around the same optical design, namely 21 elements across 14 groups, including two Super Extra-low Dispersion and five ED lenses. Given the larger sensor of the GFX series the effective focal length for the medium format optic is actually around 400mm, whereas the XF version weighs in at 762mm, which can be extended to a mighty 1067mm equivalent using the Fujifilm Teleconverter XF 1.4xTCWR (at a cost of one stop), or to an awesome 1527mm with the help of the 2x version (with a two-stop loss).

This kind of reach would have been the stuff of fantasy not so long ago, and all based around a lens that weighs in at just 1335g, while measuring 104.5mm by 255.5mm. There is also 5.5 stops of OIS on board, and so here we have an incredibly adaptable piece of glass that is eminently transportable and adaptable, and yet which, at a price point of £2899, is not unaffordable should your particular professional genre require you to work with a super telephoto.

A tour around the lens

We’ve mentioned the relatively light weight and dimensions of this lens, but it’s still something of a pleasant surprise to pick up this outfit – I had it paired with the excellent 40MP Fujifilm X-H2 – and find that it is so comfortable to work with, with no impression of it being unwieldy or cumbersome. This certainly opens up some interesting doors, and presents no end of fresh possibilities, though it has to be said that the reach is huge, even without converters, and we are talking specialist end users here. For those working in the fields of wildlife and sport, however, this kind of optic is going to be something of a must have.