I recently had the opportunity to shoot the newest lens for the GFX medium format system, the Fujifilm 500mm f/5.6.  This isn’t a formal gear review as I don’t really do those, but I will tell you a few reactions I had after having the chance to use this lens that was on loan to a person on my workshop in the Palouse.  For those that are Fujifilm users, and more specifically GFX users, this is a lens that you should seriously consider adding to your bag.

I’ve owned my GFX50s for quite a few years now and absolutely love this camera, but I’ve always used it for wide angle and macro types of photography.  I own the GF 32-64mm, 100mm-200mm, and the 120 macro lenses to use with my GFX body.  These cover a nice focal range that suits the majority of my photography nicely, especially with the GFX body.  You see, with the GFX System, I tend to work slower and more methodical than with my X-T5 system and as such, using the wider focal ranges at a slower speed allows me to really craft my compositions and take advantage of the resolving power of the GFX sensor.  The drawbacks to the GFX System is that it has a slow frame rate (3 frames a second) which means I don’t ever use it for any action or motion.  Plus, the GFX System really didn’t have a long lens, other than the 250mm that’s been offered for a couple of years now.  I know several folks who use the 250mm plus the teleconverter to get some extended reach, yet I’ve never taken the plunge to go down this route.  For the last few years, I haven’t used my GFX as my primary or sole system when I’m out in the field as there are times when I want a faster frame rate or extended reach that I can easily achieve with my X-T5.  I’ve grown accustomed to bringing along both camera systems and using them for different shooting scenarios as the need arises.  Yea, I know, I’m a bit spoiled choosing between a medium format or APSC system depending on my needs and whims.

But back to the Fujifilm 500mm f/5.6.  Fujifilm has been putting a lot of R&D in to their medium format offerings for me posing with the new Fujifilm 500mm lensquite a few years now and they’ve known that they had a gap in their lens lineup that has held the system back a bit compared to other brands on the market.  50mp of the GFX50sII is almost standard these days for prosumer cameras and the Fujifilm GFX100 offers unparalleld resolving power, so Fujifilm has devoted resources to building out the lens lineup. Just a couple of months ago, they announced the release of the 500mm lens for the GFX System and it made a big splash in the industry because of the specs, price and creative possibilities unleashed with the GFX System.  Everyone that I know who owns a GFX camera was super excited about this announcement and many put down a pre-order as soon as it opened up.  When my Palouse workshop came around, an attendee with a connection to Fujifilm showed up with a production quality demo lens that they planned to use in the area.  Of course, I had to drool over it and give it a quick run on my GFX body out in the wheat fields.

Normally when you think of a 400mm-600mm prosumer quality lens, you are confronted with the reality that this will cost $8-11k as seen with the Canon and Nikon offerings.  But this lens, remarkably, has an MSRP or only $3499!  I was blown away by the retail price, especially since this is designed to work with 100mp sensors with no image degradation.  I may be a bit biased, but I’ve loved Fujinon lenses for years and they continually put out amazing lenses used in photography, broadcast television, movies, etc.  They take great pride in their lenses and I had confidence that they wouldn’t put out a sub-standard lens for the GFX.  But at that price??!?!?!?!?!  That’s just crazy.

The time came during the workshop when I asked to use the lens for a few test shots.  As I was working, I couldn’t devote a lot of time or effort to fully explore the lens.  I had to look after my folks and keep the workshop moving along. I wanted to share just a few reactions and sample images from this lens in case you are considering this.  There are a ton of formal reviews on YouTube and in blogs, this isn’t one of them. 🙂

My first reaction on picking up this lens was the weight.  It is incredibly light for what it offers.  When I shot Canon, I owned the classic 500mm f/4 lens, which I loved and hated.  I loved the image quality, but hated lugging around a heavy boat anchor.  I eventually sold this as my usage didn’t justify my ownership.  But this lens, at 500mm, weighs just over 3lbs!   When I had this lens in my hand, I reached in to my bag and grabbed my Fujifilm 100-400mm and felt that the 500mm weighed less than my much loved 100-400mm.  I was simply blown away how they could a GFX lens at 500mm that was so lightweight and compact.   It came with a lens collar and tripod foot and it fit right on to my GFX body just like every GFX lens I own. The size of the lens felt no different than using my 100-400mm, and in fact, was shorter overall than when I fully extend my 100-400. When I powered up the camera and looked through the viewfinder, I was overjoyed with the reach that I now had on my GFX.  I found a tree to use as a subject and shot a range of images at differing apertures, wanting to see how this lens performed with varying Dof.   Getting home to review the images, I was impressed with the image quality from this lens.  All of the beautiful attributes of the GFX sensor are fully revealed using this lens.  Here’s one of the images below, which won’t fully resolve in this blog, sorry!  Trust me, it looks gorgeous!

A tree shot with the Fujifilm 500mm f/5.6

 

As I was finishing up photographing the tree, a truck came along the gravel road and I quickly swiveled towards the truck and fired off a few shots.  The sharpness, depth of color and liquid tonality all impressed me with this lens.

A truck shot with the Fujifilm 500mm f/5.6

Of course, the Palouse screams for monochrome so I trained my lens on the Ladow Barn and was able to fill the frame from our vantage point and shot a few images with the Acros film simulation.

A barn shot with the Fujifilm 500mm f/5.6

I grabbed the lens on one other occasion a day later to shoot a distant silo and again was super impressed with the resolving ability of this lens!

A silo shot with the Fujifilm 500mm f/5.6

Everything I shot with this lens looked absolutely beautiful and using the Fujifilm 500mm f/5.6 lived up to being in the GFX lineup.  No image degradation, incredible resolving power, beautiful colors that Fujifilm is known for…it was simply fantastic!    Now comes the big question, will I buy one and should you buy one if you’re a GFX owner?

For me and what I shoot and how I shoot my GFX, to be honest, I’m a bit on the fence whether I will buy one.  Don’t get me wrong, I WANT one, for sure!  But do I “need” it?  That I don’t know for sure.  There are two parts to trying to answer this for myself. One, my first gen GFX is getting a bit long in the tooth with older EVF and sensor and I’m not sure I want to invest more in to this system, unless I’m willing to commit to upgrading my GFX body.  I completely love using my GFX System as it reminds me of the methodical process of shooting film and I “feel” more creative and artistic using it.  My X-T5 is a fantastic camera, it’s a bit more of a tool that I use for my business than the creative outlet my GFX represents.

And then two, a fixed focal length of 500mm presents certain advantages and challenges.  The advantage of a fixed focal length is that Fujifilm can create a fantastic, sharp lens while still keeping the engineering costs and MSRP reasonable.  Building a zoom lens that is tack sharp across the focal range is extremely difficult, and expensive.  Fixing the focal range lets them set and fine tune the lens elements to be tack sharp, period!  The fixed focal length also allows for a lighter weight, which is very much appreciated.  The GFX is not a light system and having memories of my Canon 500mm f/4, I really appreciate the lighter weight of this lens.  The challenge for me comes with the fixed length of the lens and fine tuning my composition in the field.  500mm is long and sometimes I don’t need or want 500mm, preferring something a bit shorter to compose my image.  As you know, with prime lenses, our feet are our zoom function and that’s fine, except when I can’t move far enough away from my subject or get to the “right” angle on the subject, them I’m kind of stuck compromising my composition because of gear limitations.  Early in my photo career I went down the prime lens path for a bit to try them out. I loved the simplicity, sharpness and ethos of prime lenses, however I realized I do prefer zoom lenses to fine tune my composition in the field instead of relying on cropping in post processing or compromises in the field. I’ll just say it, I’m a zoom guy. However, and this is a big however, the reach that the Fujifilm 500mm f/5.6 offers the GFX System is extremely desirable and is so strong I am seriously considering adding this lens to my arsenal.  It’s that good!

Should you buy it? If you are a GFX owner, I would strongly encourage you to consider this lens.  The price/value relationship seems to be worth consideration to add this lens to your lineup.  Rent it for a weekend, when it’s available, and try it for yourself.  You might not want to send it back.  For a medium format camera, to have a 500mm reach is almost unheard of.  Traditionally they have never had that capability.  Kudos to Fujifilm for creating what some consider a groundbreaking lens.  The Fujifilm 500mm f/5.6 is an amazing piece of engineering at an affordable price!