Fujinon XF 200mm F2 OIS Review

The Fujinon XF 200mm F2 OIS is Fuji’s most important lens in a long, long time. Not because of how many people it will impact; this is a $6000 lens, after all! It is important in the sense that the…
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.

The Fujinon XF 200mm F2 OIS is Fuji’s most important lens in a long, long time. Not because of how many people it will impact; this is a $6000 lens, after all! It is important in the sense that the…

There have been a variety of high end wide-angle zooms and primes released over the past 4-5 years, but very few in an important demographic – the affordable end of the full frame spectrum. Tamron is looking to address that…

The Tamron SP 15-30mm f Di VC USD entered my collection a few months after my review of the lens in February 2015. It resonated to me as a lens that, while large and heavy, really delivered a fantastic optical…

The original idea behind mirrorless cameras was they would be smaller, lighter alternatives to DSLRs due to the differences in technology while providing similar levels of optical performance. As I’ve noted in many subsequent reviews this idea is often lost,…

Sigma has faced a bit of an uphill battle with the FE versions of their ART series if the anecdotal feedback I have received is a valid indicator of the market. Size matters, and the ART series lenses were already…

When the idea of mirrorless cameras was first floated, one of the main advantages that was touted was the ability to have an optically excellent camera system in a smaller, lighter configuration when compared to a typical DSLR/lens combination. That…

Wide angle lenses and filters are a bit of a nightmare. One of the main challenges many photographers have to consider is that using anything but the bare lens involves expense, bulk, and inconvenience. Lenses with less focal lengths and…

Many of the lenses that I review tend to be quite expensive (photography is an expensive hobby for amateurs, and some lenses are priced either for working professionals like myself or those with a lot of disposable income). Others of…

Sigma’s first macro lens in the ART series has flown somewhat under the radar, overshadowed by the more flamboyant lens announcements (Sigma 14-24mm f ART, 105mm f) along with the announcement of the Sony FE retrofit of the ART series. …

The new lensmaker Irix came onto the scene a couple of years ago with the announcement of a beautifully designed 15mm prime lens available in two different build/trim levels. This has become Irix’s unique approach to marketing their lenses, offering…

Sigma may just be the bravest camera/lens maker in the market today. When they initially launched their new Global Vision (which spawned the ART series as one of the three branches of lens design), they began to tackle the established…

For many photographers Voigtländer is an unknown entity, but it is actually the oldest name in cameras, dating back to 1756 when it was founded by Johan Christoph Voigtländer in Vienna, Austria. This is a storied optical company despite its…

The rumors began swirling that Canon was soon going to release a new version of one of its “bread-and-butter” focal lengths. The rumors said the f version, or was it the f/4 version? It turns out that it was both,…

Sony has been vying to steal some market share from Canon and Nikon for some time, but, while their innovation and impressive spec lists have been widely applauded, the Sony E mount has lacked a competitive lens selection. In some…

This year Sigma announced that the majority of its ART series lenses are going to be released in a native Sony FE mount with a few fundamental tweaks to improve performance on a Sony platform. When they were announced, I…

See the autofocus section for some fresh observations from October 2018 after firmware update 2.0. In the past two years the “third party” lensmakers have really been taking it to the “first party” lensmakers (Canon and Nikon). Both Tamron and…

Towards the end of 2017 I spent time with my first Kamlan lens – the Kamlan 50mm f compact prime lens. There were things that I praised, including a very nice build quality (all metal and glass) and nice rendering…

In the 12 months Sigma has released two ART series lenses with very similar focal lengths but different purposes. Last year Sigma released the 12-24mm f/4 ART lens, which I reviewed here. This year Sigma followed up with the Sigma 14-24mm…