Fuji Fujinon XF 18-135mm WR First Impressions

[Lightmancer]

Well, I picked this lens up today from my friendly local crack dealer, London Camera Exchange in Guildford, with £250 off courtesy of the Fujifilm offer on the X-T1. It hasn't taken me long to take it out for a quick wander.

First Impressions:
This is a chunky lens. It tips the scales at just under half a kilo (490g) which makes the 18-55 at 310g look like Twiggy. In fact it's not much lighter than the 55-200 which comes in at 580g. In terms of size it comes neatly between the two, thus:

Fujifilm XF 55-200 18-135 18-55 compared par Lightmancer, on ipernity​

Fit and finish:
Finish is what we have now come to expect from Fuji - solid, chunky and well-made. The barrel extends when zooming and is clearly plastic. There are two vents on the underside for the WR capability, but otherwise it is familiar territory for anyone who has used a Fujinon lens before; nicely weighted zoom, aperture and focus rings with the finely milled "dust trap" grips. There is some resistance to zooming out to 135mm but otherwise everything is smooth. Held face down there was no zoom creep. The lens hood is a petal-type affair as we have seen on the 18-55 and others, although this one is significantly bigger, as befits the 67mm filter thread. It's not a tight fit, and I feared I might knock it out of true, although this didn't happen today. The only other controls on the lens are the familiar aperture/auto and OIS sliders in the same place as on it's older siblings.

Mounting on a camera:
I bought this lens to fit on my X-T1, thereby giving me a weather-resistant DSLR capability - ideal for Frimley in the Autumn. It fits, of course, on the other cameras in the X stable, balancing surprisingly well on the X-Pro1 but looking (and feeling) more than somewhat top-heavy on the X-E1.

Fujifilm XF 18-135 fits on an X-Pro1 par Lightmancer, on ipernity

Fujifilm XF 18-135 fits better on an X-T1 par Lightmancer, on ipernity

Fujifilm XF 18-135 fits on an X-Pro1 2 par Lightmancer, on ipernity

Fujifilm XF 18-135 fits better on an X-T1 2 par Lightmancer, on ipernity

Fair to say, however, I wouldn't try it without the vertical grip attached. Together the X-T1 and lens would make a substantial dent in the floor if dropped - I wouldn't recommend it.

In use:
Now, there is nothing scientific about the following shots. I have simply set out to use the 18-135 as I would in real-world conditions. For the purposes of this exercise, I left it mounted on the X-Pro, just because I could. I used it (mostly) in aperture priority mode, wide open. A couple of the shots are in Program mode - the slider switch is quite easily knocked as you heft the weight of this lens. On the X-Pro I used it solely in EVF mode; it would work with the optical viewfinder at the wider settings, but I didn't see the point for today's exercise. All shots are uncropped unless clearly stated and have received no PP. The camera was set to "vivid" throughout; the mono conversions were done using Topaz Labs.

Subject matter is my desk, followed by the local cemetery, a short walk away. The statues stand still and were ideal for the purpose. It was an overcast but mild day; when it rains I'll take it out with the X-T1 for a "wet test".

So, first meet Tigger. He holds my business card, for I can never remember my 'phone number:

Fujifilm XF 18-135 1 @ 135mm par Lightmancer, on ipernity

And again with a 100% crop:

Fujifilm XF 18-135 1 @135mm 100% crop par Lightmancer, on ipernity
This at 1/80 sec at an equivalent focal length of 206mm.

Now off to the graveyard.

These shots illustrate the difference in angle of view between 18mm and 135mm; they are taken from the same spot:

Fujifilm XF 18-135 6 Madonna @18mm par Lightmancer, on ipernity

Fujifilm XF 18-135 6 Madonna @ 122mm par Lightmancer, on ipernity

And these the difference between 55mm (the top end of the 18-55mm) and 135mm in practice:

Fujifilm XF 18-135 10 Angel @ 55mm par Lightmancer, on ipernity

Fujifilm XF 18-135 10 Angel @ 135mm par Lightmancer, on ipernity
...the second shot is not a crop of the first.

Another at the 18mm end:

Fujifilm XF 18-135 4 @ 18mm par Lightmancer, on ipernity

...and 135mm. I've converted this shot to mono, and done a 100% crop. This was wide open at f5.6 and shows "interesting" blur in the OOF highlights:

Fujifilm XF 18-135 10 Jesus @ 135mm par Lightmancer, on ipernity
...more noticable in the mono renditions:

Fujifilm XF 18-135 10 Jesus @ 135mm mono par Lightmancer, on ipernity

Fujifilm XF 18-135 10 Jesus @ 135mm mono 100% crop par Lightmancer, on ipernity

Here's a bit of gratuitous greenery:

Fujifilm XF 18-135 7 @ 80mm par Lightmancer, on ipernity

And some plinth action:

Fujifilm XF 18-135 8 Plinth @ 50mm par Lightmancer, on ipernity

Fujifilm XF 18-135 8 Plinth @ 50mm par Lightmancer, on ipernity

Fujifilm XF 18-135 8 Plinth @ 50mm 100% crop par Lightmancer, on ipernity

And finally what wander through a churchyard is complete without a bit of a gargoyle:

Fujifilm XF 18-135 11 par Lightmancer, on ipernity

Verdict:
Overall, I like this lens. It isn't as sharp as the primes, but it acquits itself well in real-world use. I was surprised how well it matched with the X-Pro1, although for me at least that isn't the intended body. I had toyed with the idea of selling off the 18-55 as surplus to requirements, but the weight of this lens in comparison means that the 18-55 still has a place in the bag for a day spent wandering around in the city if I don't want to carry all those extra grams. I like the handling, and although I haven't really challenged either the OIS or the WR yet, I don'd doubt they will do the job. I'll probably invest in a collapsible rubber hood for wet weather use - I suspect the petal hood won't really protect that big front element from wayward drips and splashes. Mine wears a filter already and I would advise anyone else to do the same. This isn't the cheapest, fastest or lightest lens on the block, but it is a damn useful range of focal lengths in a handy package and deserves to sell like the proverbial hot cakes.

Well done, Fuji - another winner.

You can see these images full-size and a few more with this lens here: Fuji XF 18-135 First Impressions on Ipernity

 

[Phoenix]

I saw this post in SC as well, looks like a winner specially when you consider the usefulness of the range, but yeah I have to agree, a third party hood is a must. I have to say I'm not a big fan of Fuji's lens hoods, not that I tend to use em' these days anyway.

 

[flysurfer]

Thanks for the write-up! I noticed several shots are overexposed with blown highlights, so the DR function would really have come in handy (or a lower exposure).

Overall, I am quite happy with the lens. I posted a bunch of samples in the past weeks (almost nobody commented, so I guess the interest for this lens is limited among our group of enthusiasts).

I am still doing performance evaluations with this lens. Later today, I am once again going to shoot more action with two different copies of the lens on different cameras.

I started evaluating this lens in May, when it was basically still a prototype that didn't work, then went on to pre-production, and finally production samples since mid-July.

Sadly, Fuji dropped the ball by delaying the lens until after the vacation season. The original plans were to release it together with the X-T1 in January, then the delays started mounting. It's unfortunate.

Generally speaking, this could be my only lens for travel purposes. I am looking forward to read more feedback from actual users. Is the quality consistent among several samples? How is AF-C performance compared to, say, the 50-200mm? Personally, at 799 EUR, my expectations are quite high.

 

[Ambler]

It looks a good lens as you would expect.
Is it as good as the 55-200, which in my case is noticeably better than my 18-55?

 

[Lightmancer]

@Rico yeh, especially the Jesus shot. I should have pointed out that all of these (except the mono conversions) are SOOC jpgs to save time; no raw files were hurt in the making of these images.

I agree about the timing - I've just returned from two weeks in the Greek islands and this lens would have been useful in a twin-lens kit with the other being the 23 or 35mm for speed. It definitely delivers the goods in average conditions; interested to see how it performs with action.

@Ambler From what I've seen, the 55-200 is sharper, but then I would see them as complementary - overlapping - rather than either-or. With the two you would have a 27-300 reach with an 80mm overlap to keep the need to change to a minimum - useful in fast moving circumstances.

 

[Frank]

In some review on the 18-135mm is this not so good from the test if the 18-55mm. The 18-55mm is very good from the many reviews. Now even a comparison of the 55-200mm vs the 18-135mm and than i can hopefully make a choice.

 

[Lightmancer]

The 18-55 is indeed an excellent "standard zoom" - one of the best I have used, and I have used a few over the years including Leica R, Nikon and Zeiss with Contax SLRs. The 18-135 doesn't better or replace it. It doesn't replace the 55-200 either, because of that lens' extra reach.

Optically I suspect that it will also lag a bit behind the exceptional 55-200 at equivalent focal lengths. Where it does score is in its' versatility covering as it does so many useful focal lengths from wide to mid-tele. If I get a chance in the next couple of days I might shoot it alongside the 55-200 and see what pixels I can peep ;-)

 

[Frank]

If you of the versatility goes out may indeed be a big winner.