Fujinon XF 16-55mm F2.8 R LM WR II Review

In 2024 I did a fresh review of the nearly ten year old Fujinon XF 16-55mm F2.8 R LM WR lens, and I concluded that it was due an update. It was clear that it hadn’t been engineered with future…
Dustin Abbott has been published in such publications as PhotoPlus, Photo News, Popular Science, American Photo, Pro Photographer, and Photography Week magazines as well as the Globe and Mail newspaper. He has been featured as a guest on many photography blogs and has had either articles or photos published in local magazines in multiple countries. He writes on a regular basis as a free-lance writer for PhotoNewsFlash, Alien Skin Software Blog, CanonRumors, B&H Explora eZine, and has also written for Photography Masterclass Magazine, Henry’s Photography Blog, PhotoNews Magazine, Digital Photography School, the Zeiss LenSPIRE blog, and Pro Photographer magazine. His lens reviews are respected around the world and can be seen on YouTube, too.
In 2024 I did a fresh review of the nearly ten year old Fujinon XF 16-55mm F2.8 R LM WR lens, and I concluded that it was due an update. It was clear that it hadn’t been engineered with future…
TTArtisan is definitely starting to get some serious attention over their series of low priced yet relatively high performing prime lenses. Last year’s AF 56mm F1.8 has proven to be a popular budget portrait lens (only $129 USD!), and I…
It was just a year ago that TTArtisan released the first version of this lens and I covered it in my reviews. It’s rare for a company to do such a quick refresh of a newly released lens, but clearly…
A good macro lens opens up a whole new world of photographic possibilities, but it also represents a very niche area of photography. Some people are born macro photographers; it’s their favorite type of photography. Others don’t mind dabbling in…
2024 has been the year where Canon has finally, grudgingly, let a third party lens makers creep in to their RF mount, though with one huge caveat. There are still (absolutely!) no full frame lenses from third parties allowed, but…
Sirui’s new Aurora series of full frame lenses has kicked off with the well received Aurora 85mm F1.4. I was interested in doing some direct comparisons with existing options. The most logical comparison is the Samyang AF 85mm F1.4 Series…
We now have a name for Viltrox’s series of small, lightweight, and yet surprisingly high performing lenses – the “Air” Series. We’ve seen 20mm F2.8 and 40mm F2.4 full frame lenses, a really excellent 56mm F1.7 APS-C lens, and now…
Tilt/Shift lenses are very complicated instruments, and Laowa has worked on making everything even more complicated by making their newest lens a macro lens, too. There’s no question that the new T/S 55mm F2.8 is big (168.55mm or 6.63″), heavy…
Just a few years ago, I had never reviewed a Sirui lens. I had reviewed a few tripods from the company, but I didn’t think of them as a lensmaker. They then approached me about covering a few of their…
I’m back with another Yongnuo (YN) review. I was interested in covering their most recent lens on the strength of what I’ve seen from the 11mm F1.8 WL Pro I reviewed on Sony and the 50mm F1.8 DSM Pro that…
When I first started using Sony E-mount, I was coming off a period of more than a decade where I had used the Canon EF ecosystem exclusively. It was a delight to find that there were adapters that would allow…
When I first started using Sony E-mount, I was coming off a period of more than a decade where I had used the Canon EF ecosystem exclusively. It was a delight to find that there were adapters that would allow…
My time spent with the Nikkor Z 50mm F1.4 reminds of past eras where first party brands like Nikon and Canada often had three tiers of 50mm lenses: a “plastic fantastic” F1.8 option priced low and built cheap, a mid…
One of the things that I perhaps hear most often in the chatter in my YouTube video comments or in message chats is the desire for faster zoom lenses. Yes, of course, the uninformed would always love to have a…
I’ve had a long lasting love affair with vintage glass. Even though my contemporary lens collection features dozens of great lenses, I still have 6 or 7 vintage lenses that I enjoy taking out periodically. Some of those include classic…
The LAB series is to be Viltrox’s “Otus” series; an optically superlative lineup of lenses that will eventually include 35mm, 50mm, and 85mm F1.2 lenses in addition to the 135mm F1.8 LAB lens that I’m reviewing here. Viltrox is unique…
I’ve just wrapped up a review of Viltrox’s smallest, lightest, and cheapest lens: the AF 28mm F4.5 “Chip” – a micro-pancake lens just 15mm long. That makes it somewhat ironic to immediately pivot to what is easily their biggest, heaviest,…
When I began to wholesale move to mirrorless, there were certain beloved lenses that were very slow to leave my kit. I had a whole kit of Canon EF lenses, and initially I just adapted those lenses to Canon RF…