Fujifilm has announced a telephoto-zoom that's the longest range in its current line-up, the Fujinon XF 150-600mm f/5.6-8 R LM OIS WR. This new lens joins the extensive line-up of interchangeable XF lenses designed for the new Fujifilm X-H2S and well as other X Series APS-C mirrorless cameras, which are renowned for their compact and lightweight design.
The XF150-600mm f/5.6-8 covers focal lengths ranging from the telephoto 150mm to the super-telephoto 600mm, which is an equivalent to 229mm–914mm in the 35mm format!
This monster supertelephoto zoom also supports teleconverters, and once fitted with the XF2X TC WR, its range extends to up to an enormous 1200mm or 1828mm 35mm equivalent, this allows unrestricted framing by shooting distance to capture wildlife and wild birds, or tracking athletes across all corners of a vast stadium in sports photography. Furthermore, the lens boasts a lightweight design, fast and highly accurate autofocus, thus offering perfect operability and advanced subject tracking performance even at the super-telephoto end.
The super-telephoto range of 150-600mm is prone to image degradation with axial chromatic aberration, but the construction of the lens has been designed to minimize this, consisting of 24 lens elements in 17 groups, including three ED elements and four Super ED elements to deliver an advanced level of image resolution edge to edge across the entire zoom range.
At the super-telephoto 600mm focal length, the longest in Fujifilm’s current X-mount line-up, the size of camera shake becomes too great to be controlled with in-body image stabilization. It's therefore necessary to apply fine optical axis adjustment in the lens before an image is formed on the sensor. To combat this issue the XF 150-600mm features a high-precision sensing and control system to deliver a 5-stop optical image stabilization mechanism, one of the strongest for super-telephoto zooms, making it easier than ever to shoot at the super-telephoto range, most susceptible to camera shake. Users can now take full advantage of the mobility of the compact X Mount when shooting super-telephoto photography hand-held.
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The XF 150-600mm has also been designed with a focus on keeping it lightweight, the result is a non-extending internal zoom lens that weighs just 1605g and has minimal shift in weight distribution for a stable grip with reduced burden. Users are assured of ease of use, even during extended photography expeditions for wildlife, wild birds or sports photography in search for a decisive photo moment. The fast AF system, driven by the linear motor, attains a perfect focus quickly and accurately even in the super-telephoto range, where focusing is difficult due to a shallow depth of field, thereby assuring to capture a decisive photo opportunity.
Other key features include an HT-EBC coating, typically used on broadcast lenses, has been applied on all elements to achieve high transmittance and low reflectance despite containing 24 lens elements. It also supports the use of Fujifilm's XF2X TC WR and XF1.4X TC WR teleconverters.
Pricing for this new super-telephoto zoom lens is $1,999 / £1,899 / AU$3,549.
Read more:
Hands on: Panasonic X-H2S
Panasonic XF 18-120mm f/4 review
Panasonic XF 150-600mm f/5.6-8 review
