I did it. Finally. A couple months ago I bought the “Brick” (again). “Brick”? That’s the short name for Fuji’s Pro F/2.8 24-85mm full frame equivalent zoom. Fuji calls it the XF16-55mm F/2.8 R LM WR. Now why would having a zoom be such a big deal? Coz I’m a prime guy. Don’t like zooms. Then I went out and got one regardless … And it has taught me what a “Love/Hate Relationship” is. Please read on to find out more!
City park contre-jour, taken with X-H1 and XF 16-55mm F/2.8 R WR @16mm, F/8, 1/100 sec, ISO 400
Look at the above contre-jour picture taken in our city park during the early morning! I tell ya, images taken with this lens are tack sharp. Always! So, full disclosure here: I had it already back in 2017, on my X-T2 (my main camera at that time). But then sold it (despite loving its image quality), coz I found that it was not suited to low light photography in the golden hours at the beginning and end of the day having a max. aperture of “only” F/2.8. That’s 2 (two whole!) stops below my F/1.4 primes, without any OIS (optical image stabilisation) to compensate the loss of light. That’s why it’s a Brick! Or have you ever seen a Brick with image stabilisation? No? Well, I ain’t either. So, it’s a Brick. Now why would I buy a “Brick” again?
For sure y’all have heard of the “definition of insanity”: Doing the same thing over and over again and getting the same result, but expecting a different one. This quote is often attributed to Albert Einstein (also to Ben Franklin and Mark Twain …). But it was neither from those nor from Einstein, coz that quote would contradict the laws of thermal dynamics & chaos theory. Those teach us that it is actually highly unlikely that you get the same result when doing something the same way over & over … Go try shuffling a deck of cards in the same way several times and see how often you can get the same card to come out on top. See? It ain’t gonna happen, not if you’re not a halfway good magician … ;-) Actually this “definition of insanity” first appeared in 1981 in a document published by Narcotics Anonymous: A guide book to help narcotics overcome their addiction by persuading its members that it’s a futile exercise to continue using narcotic drugs and expecting to be able to stop on their own
So, maybe I ain’t “insane” after all - I got a real reason for buying “The Brick” again! Coz of what’s meanwhile changed: Fuji gave us the X-H1, first time sporting IBIS (In Body Image Stabilisation). So, on the X-H1 the “Brick” is stripped of its main reason for being a Brick: With the X-H1’s IBIS I can now use the Brick in a “Brick-less” environment (twilight, IBIS+F/2.8 @1/8-1/15 sec, comparable to no IBIS+F/1.4@ 1/30-1/60 sec). So, the X-H1 has given the Brick the chance to taste life as if it wouldn’t have been a Brick! Below another image I liked because of the subtle gradations from pure white to deep black:
White & black cars, seen with XF 16-55mm F/2.8 on X-H1 @55mm, F/8, 1/400 sec, ISO 200, -1 EV
Ok back to topic now. What are the pro’s & con’s of the XF 16-55mm F/2.8 and why do I have a “Love/Hate Relationship” with this lens?
Here the Pro’s (the “Love” relationship):
Fantastic image quality, comparable to Fuji’s F/2 primes already from max. aperture F/2.8 onwards. Only at its longest focal length you can find some very slight edge softness (no issue)!
Max. F/2.8 aperture over the whole zoom range & aperture values marked on aperture ring
Versatility: The 16 - 55mm range (substantial wide angle to portrait telephoto) is perfect for all-round photography, esp. when you don’t wanna change lenses (wedding, travel, dust, rain, …)
Flexibility: Y’all can switch from overview to detailed images at the turn of the zoom ring!
Excellent, extremely robust build (mainly metal, only front tube of high quality plastic): No play, no wobble. Rings have just the right resistance. Zoom doesn’t extend with lens pointing down
Build quality: Well centred, no dust / smears on inner lens surfaces (as some Fuji lenses have)
Completely weather & dust resistant (special seals to prevent sucking dust in when zooming)
Good close focus of 0.4m (0.16x magnification): You can take a frame filling image of your hand!
This is the kind of image I love this lens for: No need to change lenses when documenting festivities (weddings, anniversaries, parties, …) & superior, prime-like image quality from F/2.8 onwards:
Anniversary “selfie”, captured on X-T2 with XF 16-55mm F/2.8 @23mm, F/5.6, 1/30 sec, ISO 1600, flash -0.3 EV
The above image of me & my pretty wife at our anniversary was taken using the zoom’s moderate wide-angle setting of 23mm by hand-holding the camera with Brick and flash in “selfie” mode - quite a stunt to hold that rig steady at arm’s length weighing nearly 2kg (4.4 lbs) ! ;-)
And now the Con’s (the “Hate” relationship):
Even if the X-H1 takes care of image stabilization it’s still a Brick, as in big and heavy: Strap that Brick onto your X-H1 and you’re holding nearly 1.4kg (that’s 3lbs!) in hand! All the time …
This lens has no image stabilisation! Means it is less useful on non stabilised bodies (X-Pro2/3, XT-3, …), limiting how far you can venture into the golden twilight hours w/o a tripod. That’s why it was born to be a Brick! w/o image stabilisation the max. aperture of F/2.8 is just not enough …
It has a seriously intimidating effect on people (with a 77mm filterø it’s in full frame territory!). Try pull this thing out and point it at someone - people dive for cover and the person you wanted to take an intimate portrait of best case gives you a somewhat irritated smile & feels sorry for you!
I’ve a tendency to use this zoom mostly at its focal length extremes (i.e. at 16 and 55mm), less in between. This negates its flexibility a bit as I could just as well run around with 2 cameras with the XF 16mm/1.4 and YF 56mm/1.2 bolted on them!
I got the feeling that images taken with this multi-element zoom (17 elements in 12 groups!) somehow come out a bit “flat” (lacking the 3D pop that my primes exhibit). Just a feeling …
Edit 2020/7/20:
On the last item above, regarding tendency of multi-element zooms to maybe generate a bit “flat” image rendering … I really dunno, but if I look at below image taken with my XF 23mm F/2 in very similar circumstances as the first image of this post, I do kinda get the feeling it has more “3D pop”. Maybe I’m just imagining stuff … So, y’all please decide & let me know your comments! Take a look:
City park contre-jour, X-Pro2 with XF 23mm F/2 @F/8, 1/40 sec, ISO 400 - amazing “3D-pop”!
As you can see I’ve got quite an ambiguous relationship with this lens … In fact I don’t really use it that often, despite it’s fantastic image quality! It mostly only gets used when I absolutely need the flexibility of a zoom and/or need to work in dusty / wet environments, where changing lenses would freak me out (remember? I’d risk getting PTSD if any dust’d get onto my sensor!). The main issue I got with this lens is it’s (full frame-esque) size & weight. Holding those 1.4kg (3lbs) continuously in one hand gets annoying rather soon. If I compare this to taking along my 2 camera / 2 lens kit (2 X-Pro2’s with 23 & 50mm F/2’s attached in my compact Think Tank Hubba Hubba Hiney), I get a much more balanced kit for only 200g extra and only around 15% larger bag size. In this setup I have one camera in hand, that weighs only around half (!) of my X-H1 + Brick combo: It’s just way easier to hold only 800g in your hand over longer periods of time! Meanwhile the other camera/lens is in the bag nicely distributing the weight
Anyway, see below image I did with the 16-55 zoom. Especially architecture photography works well with zooms as you have to adjust the angle of view all the time & need in-between settings to match the image to the frame:
Town house, on X-H1 with XF 16-55 F/2.8 @17mm, F/5.6, 1/550 sec, ISO 400
Well, that’s about it with my short review of Fuji’s XF 16-55mm F/2.8 R LM WR lens: It’s undeniably THE best mid range zoom I’ve ever had (and I’ve seen ‘em all), at a very fair price of just over a grand. IF you can live with its weight & size handicap, that is. Ideally you’d combine it with an image stabilised body (X-H1 or X-T4) to enable low light hands free photography, despite the F/2.8 max. aperture
Please head over to Philip Sutton: He’s an avid user of this lens & you can learn a lot from his beautiful people photography! Actually he triggered me to buy the 16-55 again, thanks Philip!
As always, if you have any questions or would like to leave me some comments (constructive critique is always welcomed ;-)) please do so in the comments section below or send me a message via my “about” page. I will answer every one, I promise!
Wish y’all a good week & hope you stay safe & healthy,
best regards
Hendrik
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