Fujinon XF55-200 vs. Legacy Prime Lenses

Hi folks,
Few days ago I received my new Fujinon XF55-200 zoom lens. It is not the prettiest lens and nor the fastest, but very well built, has AF, OIS and cost only $700. Obviously my first question was how this lens performs compare to old classic prime lenses.

I ran a quick test today against: Minolta MC Rokkor-PG 58/1.2, Minolta MD Rokkor-X 85/1.7, Nikkor 105/2.5 AI-s and Nikkor ED 180/2.8 AI-s.
Here is my observations and preliminary conclusion.
I did two sets of tests, one with the flower in close range (~15 feet) and another one with a tree at infinity. All photos were taken at ISO200, aperture was set 5.6 on all lenses, tripod, self-timer. RAW files were converted in Capture One Express.

At close range:

 @58mm

* Apparently I back focused Minolta lens in this case. Fujinon wins :) Will re-do this one later.

@85mm

On par

@105mm

On par

@180mm

On par or Nikkor 180 ED is slightly better

At infinity:

@58mm

On par

@85mm

On par or Minolta 85 is just slightly better

@105mm

On par or Nikkor 105 is just slightly better

@180mm

Nikkor 180 ED is slightly better

So here is my conclusion:

Fujinon XF55-200 didn't disappoint me, another excellent lens from the Fujifilm Lens Masters. Well built, AF is fair and OIS is probably the best I've seen to date. The lens performs very well at close range and either on par or just slightly behind some well regarded prime lenses at infinity. It may not be in the same league as Fujinon 35/1.4 or 14/2.8 (as expected) but, for the zoom, it definitely does excellent job, well beyond your typical "kit tele zoom".

Couple more XF55-200 samples:

Birding is fun again :)

Bokeh

Thanks for dropping by,
vkphoto