Fujifilm Fujinon XF60mmF2.4 R Macro

I bought this lens about a year ago. At first I didn't like how it coupled with the XPRO 1 since most of the photos were nothing special, it was slow, and the focus sometimes missed the subject. But after the update, its a whole different lens. Its quicker and more precise. The colors are saturated and amazing. I love the shots of flowers and plants and while I had toyed with the idea of selling the leans a few months ago, now I wouldn't dream of it. Its definitely a speciality lens and more limited than some of the others in the line up, but its a great lens if you like photographing flora. Its not a true macro in the scientific sense but you can get interesting macro shots with it.

2020 update: I wrote this originally about 5 years ago. That makes this one of the older X-series lenses. Matched with the newest Fuji bodies I find the 60mm more useful even than when new.This is a very nice moderate general purpose telephoto with an angle of view equivalent to a 90mm lens on a full frame or 35mm film SLR. It can be used as a “macro” lens but “close-up” would be a better description. It can be used as a portrait lens so long as you don't need/want the super thin DOF an f/1.8 or wider aperture lens can provide.Some of the slow focus issues have been mitigated with firmware update to Fuji's camera bodies. On an X-E1 I find it fast enough for that body's capabilities but fast enough to sing and celebrate about. Update: AF has improved when used on an X-E3 and X-H1.It's strong points are compactness, light weight, accurate (but not particularly fast) auto focus and really good optical qualities.The only thing that really bugs me sometimes it that there is no mechanical stop to tell you when you have focused as close or as distant as possible. This is in manual focus mode, of course. The focus ring does not move the internal lenses directly. It send an electrical signal to the body which then sends a command to the focus motor in the lens. This works fine 90% of the time but if you are trying to make a very small manual adjustment to the focal distance at very close objects the disconnect between your fingers and the focus mechanism can frustrate. If Fuji hadn't called this a “macro” lens I probably would not even bother with this paragraph and give it 5 stars. If you REALLY need/want a REAL macro capability go with Fuji’s 80mm. Or if i’m a budget, try a good used pre-AF Nikon (or Canon) 105mm macro with a Nikon(or Canon)-to-Fuji X adapter.As long as you recognize and accept what this lens is and is not it's a keeper.Update about focus stacking: (This update is obsolete if you are using wine of the newer bodies that has a “focus bracket” feature. This makes focus stacking pretty easy and the results can be spectacular.) Like some other Fuji lenses the focus ring is “focus by wire”. That is, there is no mechanical connection; rather turning the ring sense a signal to the focus motor. Normally this is unimportant. You may not even notice the difference. However, if you are going to do focus stacking it may be a little imprecise and awkward. Not impossible just something to be aware of. I would suggest that you take care that each image is completely written to the SD card (watch the blinking light) before making the next shot. On an X-E2 the focus doesn't respond smoothly while the writing takes place - the insides of the camera is mstly computer after all and it's trying to multi-task.Another update: in close focus and macro situations you often want to stop down a lot to get more DOF. Avoiding camera motion blur when hand held becomes a challenge. This issue is mitigated now that the latest (2020) Fuji bodies have IBIS.2021 update: just tried it with the X-S10. I think that overall AF is now limited by the AF motor. However, AF at close up and macro distances improved with this camera as “hunting” seems to cured -finally.

This is not one of Fuji's more impressive lenses. It's VERY slow to focus and I'm honestly not impressed with image quality or sharpness when it does focus. Most macros tend to focus slower than normal lenses because they need to focus much more precisely, but this lens takes a looooong time. It's also not a true macro lens because it only focuses down to 1:2, not 1:1. This means you won't get the true ultra close-up shots a macro lens normally provides. Macro is still a weakness of the Fuji system, so you'll need to consider that if switching from Nikon or Canon. I've read where some people find this to be a great portrait lens, but I don't see how unless you have very patient subjects that are willing to wait for it focus. I recommend you pass on this one and wait for Fuji to come out with a true macro.

For years I've done close-up photography such as flowers, insects, etc. while traveling. I added this lens to my X-T1 kit for its compact size and light weight, which will work very nicely for traveling with a small camera bag. The focal length (90mm equivalent on full-frame) is ideal to maintain good subject distance and the 0.5 maximum magnification is about the top that can be hand-held with any reliability yet still get pretty close.Upon receipt, I took some test exposures using a resolution target “star-chart-bars-full-600dpi.png” downloaded and printed from the internet: five such targets in the frame, one in the center and one in each corner. I had the camera (on tripod) about 128" from the targets. Examining the camera JPGs, the results of this test were amazing. Even wide open at f/2.4 the image character in all four corners was the same as the center. No distortions or aberrations were visible. For each f-stop f/2.8, f/4, and so on, I noticed very slightly increasing detail up to f/8. The lens passed this quick informal test with flying colors.Separately I took a few exposures of microscope slides (with permanently mounted specimens) backlit on a slide sorter. This was to get an idea of the lens behavior at or near its maximum magnification. The results, closely cropped at 1:1 pixels, resemble micrographs, though limited in detail of course by the sensor resolution.

(My last review of this lens discussed a lens that produces solid image quality marred with a slow auto and manual focus, however, the focus issues have been fixed by a firmware update.)Look and feel: this portrait angle lens is a relatively small low profile that fits well in proportion with the x-pro1 body. The lens hood is quite large and doubles its lens length. Lens and hood (!) is all metal in construction.Operation: The firmware released late September 2012 improved the function of the lens greatly bringing up the speed of manual and autofocus. Hunting can still occur when contrast focus misses, but those 10 seconds of hunting has been drastically cut down to what feels like ~3 seconds. Manual focus is fast and now quite usable.Usage of EVF is recommended as opposed to the usage of OVF for purpose of confirming focus on subjects.Recommended.