This little, low-cost lens is perfect for those who want to bring the far away up close and keep a bunch of their hard-earned money. It’s light, versatile, and with image stabilization, it’s easy enough to use as an everyday walk around length. Fujinon Aspherical Super EBC XC 50-230mm f/4.5-6.7 OIS II is a bargain at $389 and can be used on any Fujinon X-series cameras.
Fujinon XC 50-230mm F4.5-6.7 OIS II Features
It’s small, inexpensive, light-weight and has high-quality optics. The 13 all-glass elements in 10 groups, including 1 aspherical lens element and 1 ED lens element, coupled with image stabilization, and an APS-C sized sensor, allow this highly versatile lens to deliver super sharp images.
With an equivalent focal length of 76-350mm, it’s ideal for landscape, sporting events, wildlife, or any object you want to bring closer.
The f/4.5 -6.7 aperture range doesn’t allow in as much light as an f/2.8 would. That’s the trade-off for the great sharpness, low weight and low price.
Build
The Fujinon XC 50-230mm F4.5-6.7 OIS II is ergonomically simple. It comes with a plastic mount and barrel, with a stylish silver finish.
There are two rings. The big zoom ring is wide, and has a rubber grip with ridges, making it easy enough to move with just one finger. Focal lengths are marked and because zooming isn’t internal, the lens will extend.
The manual focusing ring is in front of the zoom ring. The ridged ring, without rubber coating, is smooth and well-damped. There are no hard stops at either end. There are also no buttons or switches on the lens, and the red mounting index is flush, making it really hard to find by feel.
With the Optical Image Stabilizer (OIS), stabilization gives you around 3.5 stops, even at the furthest 230mm reach, resulting in reduced camera shake.
The package includes two caps and a plastic hood.
Autofocus
The high-precision stepping motor lock on quickly, efficiently and quietly. The autofocus can get lost or stuck if you’re shooting in real low-light conditions. There’s some hunting around 230mm, especially with movement of the subject. It’s easy to use with various filters because the lens does not move.
Manual focus
The by-wire system means that an encoder communicates with the camera body in order to change focus. Manual focus done by you turning the ring quickly is not as precise compared to you moving the ring slowly.
Image Quality
Distortion is undetected except at 50mm where it’s almost invisible.
Not much chromatic aberration and just a bit of light fringing along some areas of high-contrast. Falloff is completely invisible, but again, at the 50mm end and at f/4.5, you could see some light shading in the corners of the image.
The lens stands up great without the necessity of electronic correction. You won’t find hardly any ghosts, flare, spherochromatism, or color fringes.
At the smallest apertures, the seven rounded blades of the diaphragm produce soft sunstars and decent bokeh.
7-blade rounded diaphragm, which results in an overall pleasing bokeh
Macro
It gets close and is super sharp, even wide-open. And though it’s not designed as a macro lens, its focal length makes it okay for some typical macro subjects, such as flowers.
Pros
- Excellent sharpness
- Versatile
- Optical Image Stabilization
- Compact and light
- Great Value
Cons
- No OIS switch
- No aperture ring
Fujinon XC 50-230mm F4.5-6.7 OIS II Review Conclusion
The Fujinon XC 50-230mm f/4.5-6.7 OIS II may not be in the pro-level XF series, but the image quality and versatility make it worth much more than its low cost. With Ninja-like ability, the the quick, precise and quiet aperture, along with optical image stabilization is a great investment for anyone wanting to bring those long distance shots a whole lot closer.
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