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Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm back for
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another episode in my banger series. A
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lot of you asked that I would take a
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look at APS-C bangers and so that's what
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I'm doing here today. A quick caveat,
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however, I actually only own one APS-C
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body and that's a Fujifilm XH2. I tend
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to do my reviews on Nikon and then on
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Sony on the APS-C mode of one of their
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highresolution full-frame cameras. And
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so, as a byproduct, I don't actually
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have the same kind of investment in
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APS-C. And so, a lot of the lenses I'm
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going to mention, I don't actually own.
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However, in going back through my
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reviews and callulling what has been the
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absolute best, the standouts in my mind
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at a variety of different price points.
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We're going to go all the way from well
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under $200 all the way up to $6,000
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today. And so I won't be able to show
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you all these. However, I will share
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images from all of them that I've taken
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in using them in my reviews or having
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owned them at some point in the past.
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Also, this is going to be APS-C in
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general, and so I'm going to be looking
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at lenses for Fuji, Sony, third party
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lenses, and so there'll be a variety of
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brands that are represented here today
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as well. The final note is that the
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price I'm giving is a snapshot of the
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price today on B&H Photo. There's a lot
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of play in prices, sales up and down,
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and then obviously variance from market
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to market. And so I'm just giving you a
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snapshot in one market at this moment
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here today. So all of those caveats
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aside, let's jump in and let's take a
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look at the bangers here today. Starting
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with an inexpensive one, the Viltrox 9mm
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f2.8 from their air series. I started
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off the full-frame bangers with the 14mm
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f4. And in many ways, the 9mm f2.8 is
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even better. It goes wider. It's even
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sharper. It's an incredibly good lens.
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And what really stood out to me is how
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amazing this lens was on Fuji's very
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demanding 40 megapixel uh APS-C sensor.
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That APS-C sensor has a pixel density
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equivalent to over 90 megapixels on
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full-frame, which means if lenses are
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not really, really good, they look
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really, really bad on that platform.
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This lens looks amazingly good. And in
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fact, it is a match of anything that I
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have shot on the Fuji platform,
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including their very expensive 8 to 16
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millimeter f2.8. And so, it it really is
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a fantastic value. My second APS-C
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banger is actually a wide- angle zoom
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lens that is a bit of an unknown. This
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is what I would call an underrated gem.
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It's Tokina's 11 to 18 mm f/2.8. Tokina
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has spent some years in the wilderness
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where they have been a relatively
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unknown manufacturer that was making
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lenses that often were not highly
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competitive with the best in the class.
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However, this is kind of a resurgence
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for them. this zoom lens. It was
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released in 2025. It runs for about $600
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US. It obviously has an amazing zoom
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range. It's 11 to 28 millimeters. It's
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an internally zooming lens and so it
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zooms very nicely. And while I wouldn't
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say it is the sharpest wide angle u zoom
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that I have used before, it is quite
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sharp even on I'm testing it on the 40
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megapixel Fuji sensor. But on top of
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that, I find that the the colors and
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just the general look of images. It has
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a bit of a sparkle to it. The images are
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really crisp looking. I actually really
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really like the optical glass in this
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lens. I like the overall build of it.
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It's a you know, it's it's still
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compact. It's lightweight and it has a
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great focal length. And so actually
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really really like that lens. It's not
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pictured here in front of me, but we're
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going to go into the wide angle fast
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aperture category with Sigma's 12mm
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f1.4. 4 from their contemporary series.
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It currently runs about $580 US and
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while that's not cheap, it is a
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fantastically good lens. It has um has a
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good set of little feature set on it. It
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has weather sealing and what's more, it
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is just really really sharp. It delivers
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really great looking images and I
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actually liked it better than I did
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their 15mimeter f1.4 that's been
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released more recently. That's also a
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good lens, but the 12mm to me is the
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standout. And so if you're looking for a
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fast wide angle prime, you want to do
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some astro work, some low light work, I
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definitely recommend the Sigma 12
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millimeter f1.4. It is fantastic. Also
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not pictured, but a really great
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consideration whether you're shooting on
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Fuji or the Sony platform or even on
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L-mount is the Sigma 17 to 40mm f1.8.
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Back in the day, the 18 to 35mm f1.8 was
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pretty much a cult classic. And while
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that lens had some focus issues, it was
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beloved by a lot of people because it
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gave you that really fast maximum
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aperture across a very useful zoom
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range. Well, Sigma managed to expand the
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formula, making it both wider on the
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wide end and longer on the telephoto
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end, maintaining that fast, bright
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aperture of f1.8. Not to mention that
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this lens is fantastic in autofocus.
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It's extremely sharp. If you're looking
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for a lens that can, you know, literally
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be that bag of primes and replace a lot
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of prime lenses, there's no question
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that it is definitely one to consider.
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It's not cheap, $920, but it's also a
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unique zoom lens that is basically
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unmatched by anyone else at this point.
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So, well worthy of consideration if you
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need something brighter, but also can
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cover a lot of that standard zoom and a
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little bit into the wide angle category
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as well. My favorite standard zoom
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across all brands at the moment actually
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comes from Fujifilm and that is their XF
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16 to 55mimeter f2.8 RLMWR
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and it is the M2 lens. The MK2 lens is
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smaller, lighter, sharper. It's just
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better in every way. And it has not only
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stands up to the 40 megapixel sensor,
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which I didn't feel that the predecessor
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did, but what's more, I believe it has
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even nicer rendering. It has that extra
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bit of sparkle when it comes to the
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color and contrast that really stands
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out. I don't think that all of Fuji
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lenses are standouts. I think that some
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of them are overpriced for what they
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are, but when Fuji nails it, they really
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nail it and their best lenses are very,
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very special. And I think that the 16 to
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is definitely one that falls into that
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category. Thus far, it has been hard to
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go wrong with any of Viltrox's Pro Ser
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Pro Pro Series lenses for uh be it Sony,
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Fuji, or Nikon platforms. They have all
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been uniformly fantastic. And while I'm
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not going to cover it today, I do give
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an honorable mention to the first of
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that series, which was the 75mm f1.2. An
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amazingly sharp lens. And I'm going to a
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different one here just because I feel
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like Phil Rocks has even improved the
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metrics a little bit more. But the
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second in that series was the 27
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and it is just a gorgeous bit of optical
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glass. 27 millimeters is a bit of an
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oddball focal length for some people but
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it delivers such amazing image quality.
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It has that beautiful combination of
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great sharpness but then also
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beautifully soft uh bokeh. The rendering
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is gorgeous from it. I've used that lens
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extensively and if I was to use one kind
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of fast mid-range prime, that's
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definitely the one that I would go to.
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It'll set you back about $580, which
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kind of is the standard price basically
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for all of those Pro Series lenses, but
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it remains a fantastic value for the
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optical performance. It's got weather
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sealing. It's got a robust feature set.
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It's just a gorgeous bit of glass. Now,
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if you're on a tighter budget and you're
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looking for essentially a standard prime
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lens, I recommend the Viltrox 35mm f1.7
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from their Air series. It's only $180
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and so it's the cheapest lens here that
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of all the lens we're covering today,
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but it has a really nice combination of
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sharpness and bokeh. In many ways, I
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think it is a good match for the much
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more expensive Fujifilm 35mm f1.4 4 uh
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WR, which that lens is a gorgeous lens.
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I really, really like it, but it's going
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to set you back like four times as much
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as this lens. And so, it's a little bit
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hard to justify that expense when this
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lens does such such a great job and
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holds up to the 40 megapixel sensor just
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Also, from the Pro series, the newer 56
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millimeter f1.2 is, in my opinion, a
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really, really special lens. and they
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upgraded the formula. And the reason why
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I chose this over the uh 75mm, which I
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think is also excellent, is the fact
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that this was the first of their uh
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their Pro Series APS-C lenses where they
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put their hyper VCM focus motor into it.
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And so now you have even better
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autofocus along with just amazingly good
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optics. And it is a lens that competes
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very nicely. I do own the the Fujifilm
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56mm F1.2 2WR which I would say I very
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slightly prefer in a in a couple of
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areas but this lens is um it's it's
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every bit the match for that lens in
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many ways and it's you know close to
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half the price and so I think it's a
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fantastic value and again you can get
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this all across uh you know Sony Fuji um
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and then into Nikon as well and so it it
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provides a tremendous value. Let's talk
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finally some telephoto lenses. My
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favorite kind of standard telephoto
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APS-C zoom is from Sony. It is their 70
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to 350 millimeter f4.5 to 6.3 goss lens.
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It's not cheap at about $1,200, but it
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is the best of the telephoto zooms that
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I have used for APS-C brands. It just
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really does a fantastic job. It's sharp.
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It has great autofocus. It's got that
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built-in image stabilization. I just
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really, really like it for a lot of
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reasons. And I liked it so much that in
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my review I said it was a it was a
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worthy pickup even for those that were
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shooting on, you know, sometimes on both
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full-frame and APS-C because putting
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into APS-C mode, it still delivers a
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nicely compact, great telephoto
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performance for someone that's
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traveling, for example. And so I think
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it is a great lens. And finally, at the
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most expensive end of the spectrum, we
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have the Fujon XF 200mm F2 LM OISWR.
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It's a really expensive lens at about
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$6,000 that does come with a dedicated
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1.4 times teleconverter which so it
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gives you also the option of having that
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280 millimeter f/2.8 focal length. The
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reason why I wanted to include this is
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that it is a uniquely amazing lens that
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no one else has done for APS-C. It's got
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that big long focal length, that bright
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aperture. It had great autofocus,
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amazing uh stabilization. The OIS in it
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is fantastic. I found that it would
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allowed me to track beautifully and
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that's even on Fujifilm. I don't love f
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autofocus on Fujifilm, but this lens is
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so good that it makes up for some of the
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deficiencies in some of the actual
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focusing hardware. It's just an
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amazingly good lens and it's something
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that I, you know, I kind of wish was
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available for other platforms, something
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similar to that for those that are into
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APS-C and would like to have something a
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little bit more exotic. And so if you've
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got deep budget and you love APS-C, that
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is a really, really gorgeous lens that
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allows you to take the kind of images
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that are hard to replicate on APS-C with
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basically any other lens. Now, a few
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honorable mentions that I do want to
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just quickly mention uh that I haven't
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covered here is a couple of other
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options for standard zooms. I've got one
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of them here. I use it, you know, often.
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It's Sigma's 18 to 50mm f2.8. This lens
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is not new at this point, but it re
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remains a great package for being
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compact, nicely made, and you know,
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obviously covering a really uh important
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series of focal lengths with a nice
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bright maximum aperture. If you want to
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go a little bit bigger and expand that
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zoom range a little bit more, Tamron 17
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to 70 mm f/2.8. Um, it does have image
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stabilization. It's about 600 bucks for
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it, but it's it's also on the bigger
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side for an APS-C lens, but it it's
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covers an amazingly broad focal range
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with that bright maximum aperture of
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f2.8. And so I found it to be when it
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first came out for Sony, I called it a
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system seller and I think that remains
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true even when it's expanded out into
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some other platforms as well. And so
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it's another lens that is certainly
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worthy of your consideration. So there
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you have 10 bangers with two bonuses
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there. And hopefully amongst those
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there's something that stands out to you
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as being special to you, something that
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is worthy of consideration for your
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APS-C package. But if I was choosing a
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set of lenses and I could choose of any
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of the APS-C lenses that I've tested,
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that's probably the kit that I would put
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together. It's a lot of really, really
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great glass. If you want more
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information about any one of these
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lenses that I've mentioned, look in the
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description down below. I have links to
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both text and video reviews for each one
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of them so you can explore a little bit
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more thoroughly. As always, thanks for
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watching. Have a great day and let the
