Let’s start it short: The Fujinon XF 90mm F2 R LM WR is my favourite lens to date! Besides the Fujinon XF 35mm F2 R WR it is the lens which I use most with my Fuji X-Pro 2. That’s mainly because of two things: It is insanely sharp and the bokeh is simply astonishing!
Fuji XF 90mm F2 R LM WR – an astonishing piece of glas
The Fujinon XF 90mm F2 R LM WR is quite a big and heavy lens, especially when attached to the Fuji X-Pro 2. Everything is made from metal, except the lens hood. It feels really massive, that’s how I like it!
The autofocus ring is buttery smooth, and the aperture ring makes a distinctive noise when you operate it. You can adjust the aperture in 1/3 of a stop. Fuji accomplished to built the mechanism so precise, that you can feel a tiny difference between full and third stops. It’s a very subtle difference, but I can feel it when operating the camera in front of my eye. These are the tiny things which I love Fuji for!
Impressive optical performance
As I said, the lens is quite big. It’s a good idea to buy the X-Pro 2 hand grip as it increases the height of the camera a bit. So when you put down the camera on a flat surface, it’s not wobbling around anymore. Additionally you will get a lot more surface to hold the camera. This will give you more confidence with the additional weight of this lens.
The autofocus is surprisingly fast, virtually noiseless and the lens does not extend during focusing. It will even work good in continuous autofocus when you’re shooting moving objects, although it can’t compete with todays fastest SLRs. But that’s a drawback from all mirrorless cameras, which are dependant on phase detection. Don’t be worried, you will be able to catch even fast moving jets (see my pics below) or your running dog with ease. Just don’t expect a 100% hit rate in a series of images.
Where the XF 90mm really, really shines, is it’s sharpness from corner to corner, even wide open! From F2,8 to F4 this lens has it’s sweet spot concerning sharpness. Although Fuji lenses in general perform above average in my opinion, this is the one which stands out sharpness-wise!
The second thing I love about this lens, is it’s bokeh. It’s so smooth, so creamy, so beautiful, both in front of the focal plane and behind it, that I sometimes wish to take a bath in it’s tender heavenliness. I used and owned a lot of different cameras and lenses from different brands in the past, but I have never seen this kind of blur perfection. I take my hat off to Fuji, this lens alone justifies my switch to their system.
My verdict
The Fujinon XF 90mm F2 R LM WR is my absolute favourite in their lens line up. It is water resistant, it’s massive and will take a beating with a wink. It’s quite fast, it’s virtually noiseless, and it will definitely convince everybody who has two functioning eyes. If you plan to jump into the Fuji ecosystem, get a prime lens between 35 and 50mm and the XF 90mm. This will take you a far way!
One last request: If you read this Fuji, please built a XF 200mm F2,8 with the same magic ingredients you used for the XF 90 mm F2. Then I will be your first customer!
Please don’t steal my images – just kindly ask, if you want to use one of them. All rights reserved.
