frankinfuji

The 60 f2.4 is much better with the latest firmware.  Still not a lens for action shots or low light use - but a decent portrait lens that is compact and a good price.
 
56 f1.2 gets great results - but it costs a lot more in weight and $'s

After receiving comments/suggestions and positive feedbacks on the 16-55 lens, I've ventured out and purchased a Fujinon 35mm f2.0 mainly because it is a WR lens to compliment the XPro2 body. Over the weekend, managed to take about 50 shots around the house with the 35mm and I'm very happy with the results. I'm not retiring the 16-55 at all but after my first impression, the 35 f2.0 will be the go to lens for street scenes. 

Wouldn't do it even if it took only 2 seconds. Most of the time I'm travelling with family, and thus don't have time to keep changing lenses as well. Also, being a klutz I am, I would have the tendency to drop the lenses during the change, so I'd rather not take the chance.  
Hardly a bar of gold, really. Got it for effectively €400, but all the more reason to treasure it since I can't afford to pay the original price!

Hi Everyone
 
 
Not sure where my intro post went..?
 
Anyway i to all.
 
I hope I can learn and contribute here.
 
I'm a Hobbyist now.. Not a working photog any more.. However you can still 'teach an old dog'
 
best
 
Grazuncle

Hi everyone, 
I'm John Rourke, a Fuji X Photographer at AdrenalMedia.com
Shooting extreme sports and motorsports on the XPro1, XT1, XPro2 and now on the XT2 
I also shoot fashion, street and travel when possible.
 
We are the official photographers for the FIA WEC, ELMS, GT3 LMC and the 24HR LE MANS
So i travel the world shooting everything I can.
 
I was a Canon shooter since forever but finally saw the light about 2-3 years ago!
Loads of my stuff goes on Insta @adrenalmedia and @thefujipro

What do you want to know
cheers
John
 

this is the 35 at 1.4
 
this is the 56 at 1.2
 

 
 
 
But as you can see the distance with the closest subject is such that even here you don’t get all that much separation.
 
 
this is a 50-230 at 6,7 
 
 
this is a 55-200 at 4,8
 

It is not impossible to get a nice out of focus background with that lens, but it aint as easy as with a longer faster lens.
 
Focal length, Aperture, and distance of background effect the quality of out of focus area
 
Shoot wide open @50mm at F/5.6 (I think that is the XC wide open at 50mm), position your subject as close as possible to the camera and as far away from the background as possible
 
Lenses with more reach, and  fast aperture are the easiest ways to get a shallow DOF.
You can get loads of old lenses if you don't have the money to pay for Fuji glass.
 
If money is no object the XF56 F/1.2 has probably the best Bokeh in the XF lens line up (but this is subjective)  
 
have a look at this calculator http://www.cambridgeincolour.com/tutorials/dof-calculator.htm
 
I did a test with 3 lenses the XF35 F/1.4, the XF60 F/2.4, and a Petri K mount 50mm F/2 (lens was next to free and adapter was £10). the downside of adapted lenses is manual focus only, I do like the petri lenses as they feature an aperture ring so you are not stuck always shooting wide open (if the adapter does not have any way of changing aperture)
 

The choice of a lens is always a personal thing and depends on your style of shooting. May be it helps if I describe my yourney.
- 18-55 came with the camera, is my daylight general purpose lens
- 55-200 came two weeks after I bought the camera because I was missing the reach that I was
used from my point & shoot. IMHO this lens is a very good compromise in quality,
reach, speed, weight and price. It is/was my zoo lens.
- 23/1.4 my low light lens. In some low light situations 2 stops better than the 18-55 are
really helpful. Some times I wonder if I need a 35 mm lens. But instead of changing
lenses I prefer to zoom with my feet or to crop from the 23 mm. I am sure, at one
point my GAS will win and I will buy a 35.
- 56/1.2 for portraiture and bokeh ("Ah, the bokeh" as Milandro would say )
In real life I use it much less than I wanted to. It gets it's time when I am
shooting a concert from in front of the stage.
- 18/2.0 planned as stealthy street lens. In fact, I think it is not that much less
conspicuous than the 18-55. So I do not use it a lot any more.
- 12/2 Samyang, for people in narrow environments, people with a lot of background, landscape
- 100-400 as better zoo lens and to satisfy my GAS. The quality is very good but the thing
is very heavy, I mean, really really heavy compared to other Fuji equipment.
At the moment I am a little bit torn between the comfort of the 55-200 and the
longer reach of the 100-400 and I carry both with me when I go to the zoo.
Stupid, I know.
 
BTW, for me the difference in quality between all the lenses I have mentioned is so small that it will never really improve (or degrade) the overall quality of any picture I have taken. But then, I am more into composition, light, timing and colors than the last bit of sharpness.

No such thing as a "Final Lens"!!  Are you kidding?  I am always looking forward to my next lens.  I must also go with the 55-200.  I have the 18-55 + 55-200 and they are truly my go-to lenses.  Now if most your photography is landscape then possibly the 10-24, but only if you are very heavy on landscapes.

I'd insist on 55-200.

I went to Spain in September and took the XC 50-230mm with me.  I did not use it that much, but I had a chance to take it to the Bioparc in Valencia to give it a good try.  Great lens!  Also, when people look at you using it, they all comment: "look at the size of that lens!" haha it does get pretty big when at 230mm.
 
Here are some of my favorites, and in the end the link to the album in flickr with all of the images.
 
Suricato. Bioparc Valencia. Spain by Marcelo Valente, on Flickr
 
Giraffe. Bioparc Valencia. Spain by Marcelo Valente, on Flickr
 
 
Bioparc Valencia. Spain by Marcelo Valente, on Flickr
 
Chipanzee. Bioparc Valencia. Spain by Marcelo Valente, on Flickr
 
Chipanzee. Bioparc Valencia. Spain by Marcelo Valente, on Flickr
 
Bioparc Valencia. Spain by Marcelo Valente, on Flickr
 
https://flic.kr/s/aHskoNGFs1

I enjoy using this lens a lot. Great for landscapes and floating around the city. Only €200 from eBay new. Bargain I'd say

When you read about the 60mm, (one of the first 3 Fuji XF lenses) just remember that a lot of those reviews were written using an original X-Pro1 with 1.0 firmware. Many generations of "Kaizen" down the line - the 60mm is not nearly as bad as some of those early reviews suggest. That said, in the Fuji line up the LM lenses are the fastest focusers. Those linear motors are equivalent to AF-S in Nikon speak, or true (ring) USM in Canon parlance. Thus, it's really hard to beat the 18-55 as an all-around snapshot lens....