I own this zoom lens and I love it. I payed 600 euro for it and do not regret it one bit. The stabilization is out of this world, so good that this is a lens where I do not use auto iso, but the lowest iso. Even at F8.0 or higher even, the photo's will stay sharp. 1/2 a second is possible, incredible.

Always appreciate your reviews and testing... extremely helpful to cut through the hype and anti-hype that comes with new releases. Cheers

Since the Tamron 17-70 has just been released and some may watch this video to compare this two lenses, I have a few remarks concerning your test sample, Christopher. My sample (9CA040## number range) has a buttery smooth zoom ring, that perfectly works for video and with the latest firmware 1.05 it has only little issues with focussing while zooming on my X-T3. Only when zooming back from the far end (80mm) it seems to struggle to identify in which direction it has to focus. The rest (with AF-C preset 2) is nice and smooth. I'm very happy with the overall sharpness of this lens, although it seems I got a very good copy. It's at least as good as my 18-55mm kit-lens, wich is undeniably better for video. I also own the 18-135mm (3rd copy, had to send it back twice, because of decentration issues) and the 16-80mm is a world better. I only kept the 18-135 for use on the old X-T1, where the lower resolution isn't that visible and take that combo to harsh conditions like a sandy beach, when it's windy or if I want to take photos in heavy rain. Currently the 13mm f/1.4 and the 16-80mm f/4 and the 9mm f/2.8 are my to-go lenses. BTW: Thank you for your very professional and helpful reviews, Christopher! Your'e one of the most helpful resources on youtube.

One of the best KZfaq camera reviewer that I trust. Thanks Chris.

Subbed! So thorough and methodical, the visual tests really give a feel for the lens without ever using it.

Review that I've been waiting. Thank you so much for pointing out the zooming in / out behavior. Helped me a lot as videographer. Surprised it behaved that way. That makes me think twice. Currently using 18-55mm x-t3.

Chris, thanks for the review. I for one remain very happy with the so-called kit lens; the other zooms. Very happy with its performance and use primes when can, and have 23/1.4, 23/2 ( as its a more modern design), 35/2 and, to my mind, excellent 18-135 zoom 10-24 zoom.. Have read all the rave reviews on the stellar 16 mm, rented one for a week, but just didn't suit my shooting. Find I have the 23 and 35 primes on the most. We are all different.

A man with a shiny face and head was getting very excited about this lens the other day, I'm glad I watched this more balanced review...Thanks Mr Frost!

I watch you videos even if I'm never going to get the lens. I really enjoy you talking about them :)

I bought this lens just this week. Since the firmware-updates are out, some of the weaker features are now really good. I love this lens, can't wait to go on the next hike with it! Thx for the review!

great review. extremely helpful. thank you Christopher Frost

Good review! Thinking of adding this lens + a 2nd hand XT-2 to my camera bag to complement my X100F with a WR zoom option.

Great review, thank you very much. Some things that come to my mind: - This lens will be a commercial hit for Fujifilm, good zoom range for general purpose use, good OIS, WR, price acceptable. It is already out of stock in most (online) shops. So there is a huge market and it's a smart proposition from Fujifilm. - It's still a 5x zoom, we all know that it means there will be compromises.

Thanks Christopher! great review as always! perfect travel lens, but price is a bit much compared to the more versatile 18-135. I guess it depends which camera you would use this with that makes the difference. IMO, this is better suited for the non-IBIS fuji cameras. The 18-135 seems like a much better alternative if you have an X-H1 with IBIS to get those low light images with less noise. Other than that the 18-55 is still the winner for its cost and image output. just my two cents

16-80/F4 + one prime lens = Amazing travel photography

Such a versatile lens! Usually @80 mm its for portrait so centre sharpness is more important than in the corners

Your review is very consistent with the MTF chart published by Fuji. With this kind of long zoom, I don't expect much in term of corner sharpness. It is a good all-around zoom lens but at $800 the compromised sharpness is really a hard pill to swallow.

That 6 stop OIS looks absolutely fantastic.

Bought 16-55mm f2,8 recently and I'm totally happy with it.

Thanks much for reviewing this new Fuji Zoom Lens, Chris. ;-)

So it could be considered a good 23/50 with decent/softer extra reaches to 16 and 80. Versatility, weather resistance, aperture ring... overall I think I'd prefer it to the 18/55, but anyway very honest and complete review. Instantly subscribed to the channel.

The only thing I'd love to see mentioned in your video Chris is comparison with similar lenses. In a vacuum, all the things you said are true. In reality, this lens is almost revolutionary, I've yet to see another zoom in this similar focal range that performs remotely close!

2:26 loving the two ladies speaking in signs language at the bottom of the frame.

Thanks for testing. I could't resist and ordered the 16-80 with the intention of replacing my 18-55. Now i compared week for week and can't decide to sell my good 18-55 copy or the 16-80 lol.

When you zooming in/out i see it flickers?? iv seen this problem in the 18-55.. making video unusable when zooming in/out in constant aperture.

Good review, thanks. I was interested in the lens being with WR and longer than the 18-55. But some of the IQ criticism has put me off. As per someone earlier, how does this compare to the 18-55? Barring the obvious aperture hit and its weather proof!

Great lens and brilliant review. Greetings from Brazil.

Great review. Sounds like an excellent travel lens for jpeg shooting to me.

Thanks for this excellent video Chris! Would request you to make a comparison video among Fujinon 18-55/16-55/16-80 lenses. Thanks in advance!

Thanks, not as good as I hoped after the hype but such a useful review! Could still be right for me with that stabilisation

Thank you very much for this! Really appreciated

Thanks, an excellent review!! I love the comment, "Barrel distortion is pretty wild!!"

Regarding losing focus when zooming, the 16-55mm does the same. Its because they are variable focus lenses, as opposed to parfocal, which are quite a bit more expensive.

It is interesting lens and I was considering it but size meant went with the 18-55mm, I wanted the small package. Great review.

Hi Chris, best of all for 2020. My brother would like to enhance the focal length of his XF18-55 and previously, according with your review, my advise was to hold the old lens. Now, after the firmware 1.02 upgrade, would you say the buy is a good decision?

Great Contrast, color, build quality, decently sharp, just what I wanted. Plus, weather sealed with marked aperture!

Thanks for the demo of the corner sharpness issue. Have any firmware updates helped with this as we live in 2022. I've got one ordered, but I doubt I'll keep it given the corner sharpness issues. I have a 16-55mm. I guess I'll just lug that around instead, and carry a 50-140mm when I need more zoom.

Hi, where can I find information on how to use this lense, especially what is that A symbol in red text meant for

Thanks for uploading the video Chris. Interesting how the pictures that Chris uploaded look really nice in the center and the corners but the chart performance is just OK and not impressive. This is a good example where you shouldn't pixel peep so much and judge based on output especially if you don't print large.

There are, with all lenses, batch variations, I got this p/xd the 18-55 2.8/4. Mine, thankfully must be a “good one” sharpness is very good everywhere.

hi Christopher, do you recommend this lens for fashion photography in studio? im considering also the 16-55mm which do you recommend? i currently have the 35 f2 and 23f2 on an xpro2. thanks in advance!

Hi Chris, thanks a lot for this review! I have the Canon counterpart, namely the EF 4.0/24-105mm L IS USM Mk. II. Purchased it via eBay from an UK seller. I’m very happy with it. Best wishes, Ralf

Is this a pre-production version because mine is excellent. Not sure about this review because night and day from mine. The lens I received last week is not going to leave my X-T20 and my X-H1 will be used with my primes. Although video with my X-H1 and the 16-80 is stellar!

Fantastic review as always 👍 If you get chance please do review on zoom lens Fujinon 100-400 !!!

I’ve got 16 1.4 and the 18/55 2.8 dont know whether I would benefit buying this 1 for holidays

Hi have this lens, but I shoot mainly video. What better option would you recommend?

the stablisation combined with my XH1's IBIS would be increadible for handheld shots and video

WR my a**, so I got the lens 6 months ago, I took 2-3k photos in gorgeous weather. I always keep my lenses with caps, in sealed bags and those bags inside sealed pouches or backpacks (that are inside closed cabinets). And It has dust inside, just like the xc 35mm f2 :)

I’m thinking about getting a Fuji camera for quite some time now. This lens looks great, but I’m used to having a 18-150mm lens with me on holidays. Could you try and review the Fuji 18-135mm lens for me, to see what’s the better choice?

it must take a lot of patience to make these videos. thanks!

What I love about this lens is that you can choose to have this in the fuji kit instead of the standard 18-55mm kit lens.

I think it would be very interesting to see how the 18-135mm's image quality compares to this one's, given the similar price points of the two lenses. They could both serve the purpose of a very convenient one-lens landscape photography solution, so it would be good to know how much image quality exactly the older 18-135mm gives up for the extra reach. There are a lot of subjective opinions out there, including opinions about how the softness people complained about on the older lens is from bad copies from when the 18-135mm was made in China and the newer ones made in Philippines have better quality control, so an objective review of the 18-135mm on your excellent setup would be very useful.

I`ll be keeping my 18-55,it just didn't`t have the performance in 16mm that I was hoping for.

Thanks for the review, Reason it’s slow in focusing in low light is due to your camera model XT20, the newer XT4 and Xpro 3 focus a lot better faster in low at -6ev

Oh dear, I nearly pulled the trigger on the X-T4 + 16-80 kit, but now I'm having second thoughts. My intended main use is travel and landscape photo- and videography, for which this lens seemed a perfect allrounder. What initially drew me to this lens over the 18-55 was my understanding of it being parfocal, its extended range and weather resistance. Out of these three advantages, only the last still seems to be standing: weather resistance; the lens clearly isn't truly parfocal and the lens is rather un-sharp in its extended range. But even then, I don't understand to which extend so-called weather resistance is effective, i.e. whether it contributes significantly to improving body and lens longevity when exposing them to humid environments. If it's not that much of a game changer, I might opt for the X-T4 + 18-55 kit after all, for its lower price point, even lower weight, higher speed on the wide end and apparent higher sharpness. Then, extend my range with an additional wide and tele lens in the future.

Very nice review, thank you! I was hoping for slightly better image quality.

What’s the distance between the lens and your test chart? Or, asked another way, how large is your test chart?

As a pro photo video shooter who has owned this lens for over a year now, it is a really nice photo lens. The zoom range is very versatile, there are plenty of days where this is the only lens you need, and the OIS is quite helpful. However, this is a bad lens for video work. The issue with focus flickering was improved some with a software update, but the problem is that the lens is EXTREMELY not-parfocal. Zooming throws you way out of focus and the lens tries to autofocus to keep up but it just can't. You basically have to use it as a series of primes for anything that has a higher standard of quality than a vlog. It's also pretty soft, and doesn't always produce very pleasing images, at least to me. It's a very good utility lens, and I would definitely recommend it to photographers, but if you're doing anything video related, and already have some lenses in the fuji ecosystem, or an adapter, look at tamrons 17-70 f2.8 instead

Is the 750d compatible with the 100 to 400mm sigma

You are the best lens reviewer and I would love to see some videos based on nikon lenses like the kit lens which in my opinion is underrated

Great review as always Chris. How do you think the 18-55 range compares to the 18-55 zoom? It would be interesting to do a detailed comparison of the two.

This would be super sexy replacement for my adapted nikon mount tamron 17-50 2.8. Costs 1½ times of my camera thought. But adding to wishlist for later.

great reviews!

Hi Chris, that focus mechanism is that the camera automatically re-focuses the lens after zooming so that it maintains the focal distance, which means this is a very much vari-focal lens, it might just be the only one to make use of the re-focus technique that I can think of.

Thanks that was helpfull

thoughts compared to the xf 16-55 2.8?

I think the issue with wobbly focus while zooming during video is because the isn't parfocal, so the focus changes as you change the focal length. The camera is automatically adjusting focus as you zoom to try to maintain the same focus while zooming, but it isn't perfect. There's not much that Fuji can do to make this better. They could give an option to not auto-adjust and just have the lens go out of focus as you change focal length, but that option would only be useful for a very limited crowd of people.

Purely judging on the lens' image quality is not where this lens shines. I was reading and watching a bunch of stuff and one thing that many brought up is how 16mm is so important. Many also said that having 80mm gave them the extra reach so they don't need to carry an extra lens. The wider-aperture lenses and longer lenses in fuji's lineups are not cheap, and I can definitely see how 16-80 can be a good alternative to the kit lens if you need the extra reach. Also, since the IQ is very similar to the 18-55 and close enough in the 16-55, you really have a good balance between reach, IQ, aperture, and price. It's a good kit lens alternative, but definitely not the best of the best lenses fuji ever made in terms of image quality.

Contrast appears relatively low with this lens. Versus the 18-55mm f2.8/4.0, which would you prefer overall? Thank you./Warren

Thank you for the detail review. How do you compare this lens vs the 16-55 f2.8?

Thank you very helpful. What is the image quality performance at 35mm (similar to that at 23mm)?

did they fix the zoom focus problem?

I wanted to buy a Fuji X-H1 with the 16-80 lens until I saw the reviews criticising the soft corners (which is not good for landscape photography). Would you say that the Nikon Z 24-70/F4 or the Sony 25-105/F4 would be a better choice for landscape photography? They seem to be better in your tests but not sure how big the difference in real world is ... The lens you tested that impressed me most was the Sony 16-55 but unfortunately I don't like the A6xxx series ...

hmm, maybe I'll wait for a used one to pop up when it starts to ship as a kit lens...

That zooming behaviour is in all their zoom lenses. It is caused by being a non-parfocal lens, but the autofocus module refocusses the lens, despite being in Manual Focus. It happens in the 18-55, 16-55, 16-50, 15-45, 18-135 and 50-140mm (I owned every single one of them). In their short zoom lenses it just isnt visible, because of the increased depth of field. It also shoudnt be visible in this lens within the range 16-50 approximately, if it isnt an extreme example of a non parfocal lens.

Well, today all eyes are on the Nikon Z 50. I would really like to know what you think of the camera and almost as important, the two kit lenses on offer. Thanks.

Thanks

Hi Chirstopher I m bit confused with 18-135 or 18-55 with xt30 can u help me out

Focus breathing is noticeable in the corners (the lower left in particular) at 2:05, although it's not severe. It would've been nice to also show how much it breathes at other focal lengths.

Thanks for this video 😃. Can you do a review of the Fujifilm 18-135mm?. I hear IQ is slightly interior to other lenses. I am not convinced as all Fujifilm glass seen to be top quality. I would like to know you opinion.

I love your videos. Have you done the 56mm f1.2 ?

Thanx for the review. How did you manage to stop OIS from working...?

Hey Mr frost! Could we have a re-review of this lens for the new 40mp Fuji sensors

Very nice review, Christopher! I have the excellent Fuji XF16-55 f/2.8 Zoom, and have a major question...How does image sharpness on the XF16-80 (at 16-55) compare to that of the XF16-55 at say, f/8? The "Angry Photographer" rated the XF16-80 a "10", so I'm quite interested to see if it's even better than the XF16-55? Thanks!

Compared to the 18-135mm, is the IQ better on the 16-80mm and (finger in the air) by how much? Essentially, if I sacrificed the 18-135mm's range versatility am I getting back enough IQ to make it worth it? thanks

This lens seems to have the same pitfalls as the 18-135mm: quite soft when zoomed in or zoomed out to the maximum and an aperture of f/8 is required to take the sharpest pictures.

The 'wobbly focus zoom' likely is because the focus is changing when zooming (i.e. the lens is really not parfocal). And the focus motor compensates (a bit delayed) when you zoom. If the lens was a power zoom the compensation could work a lot better as the motors would be driven at the same time. But in this lens, the focus motor needs to follow the zoom ring position.

I like the red " angry bird" expression lol!!🤣

I was not expecting you to do this so early but man i am glad thanks chris

So I don't get this to be honest because I'm not a lens Guy. All of the Fuji zoom lenses have terrible distortion. even if the price was 5 times less it would still be a bad performance distortion vise? But at the same time people live Fuji lenses so my question is is the distortion irrelevantenough for the people not to care or they just don't see it because of the software adjusting? thanks for these reviews by the way because to me they are the best since I don't know much about lenses and you spell out everything ,thanks.

Serious bible commentaries! I just bought the lens as my first journey into Fuji. Looking forward to it.

Can I assume you prefer the lens XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 R LM OIS as far as overall image quality? I'm thinking of getting the XT3, with one or the other. Any advice or observations between the two?

Is it just me or does the saturation seem to be low?

Hi Christopher, do you rate this lens better or less compared to the 18-55mm Fuji kit lens? You reviewed that lens earlier.

Nice review. That focus is horrific! Probably not worth mentioning the price in Pounds these days as the way it is going as far as the exchange rates are going, it could be another 5 grand by the end of your video!

Seems like a good lens, stopped down. But I won't throw away my 16-55 just yet. Maybe Fuji can solve the wobble with video. I will wait and see.

Just a thought: If the corner softness is caused somewhat by distortion correction, can they be improved by using software that can turn it off on RAW files?

Waited so long for this lens to come out, but it's honestly no that much better than the 18-55mm f/2.8-4, so I'll just keep the 18-55mm and save my money. Thanks for the review, Chris.

Great review Chris ,-focus wobble ? Firmware update or perhaps a faulty sample -please check this out fully as I am sure many potential users will have concerns .😎😎😎

this or the 18-55 2.8/4 kit lens?