Fujifilm Fujinon XC 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 OIS Lens Review

Fujifilm Fujinon XC 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 OIS Performance

At 18mm and maximum aperture, sharpness is already excellent in the centre of the frame, with clarity towards the edges of the frame being very good. Stopping down to f/5.6 results in outstanding sharpness in the centre of the frame, with clarity being excellent towards the edges of the frame at this aperture.

Zooming to 35mm results in very good sharpness across the frame at maximum aperture. Peak clarity across the frame is attained with the aperture stopped down to between f/5.6 and f/8 where sharpness is excellent in the centre of the frame, and very good towards the edges.

Finally, at 50mm, there is a reduction in clarity across the frame at maximum aperture with clarity dropping to good levels across the frame. Peak sharpness across the frame for this focal length is achieved at f/8. Here clarity is excellent across the frame.

Resolution @ 16mm

Resolution @ 35mm

Resolution @ 50mm

How to read our charts The blue column represents readings from the centre of the picture frame at the various apertures and the green is from the edges. Averaging them out gives the red weighted column. The scale on the left side is an indication of actual image resolution. The taller the column, the better the lens performance. Simple. For this review, the lens was tested on a Fujifilm X-Pro1 using Imatest.

Chromatic aberrations are well controlled throughout the zoom range with fringing remaining below half a pixel width at all focal lengths. This low level of fringing should be very hard to spot, even in images with high contrast areas towards the edges of the frame.

Chromatic aberration @ 16mm

Chromatic aberration @ 35mm

Chromatic aberration @ 50mm

How to read our charts Chromatic aberration is the lens' inability to focus on the sensor or film all colours of visible light at the same point. Severe chromatic aberration gives a noticeable fringing or a halo effect around sharp edges within the picture. It can be cured in software. Apochromatic lenses have special lens elements (aspheric, extra-low dispersion etc) to minimize the problem, hence they usually cost more. For this review, the lens was tested on a Fujifilm X-Pro1 using Imatest.

Falloff of illumination towards the corners of the frame is well controlled with the corners being 0.9 stops darker than the image centre at maximum aperture throughout the zoom range. Visually uniform illumination is achieved with the aperture stopped down by two stops from maximum.

Very mild barrel distortion is present throughout the zoom range. At 16mm 0.311% barrel distortion is present, dropping to 0.211% at 50mm. This low level should pose few issues in normal photography. If absolutely straight lines are paramount, you'll be glad to know the distortion pattern is uniform across the frame, which should make applying corrections in image editing software simple to apply.

Flare isn't much of an issue with this lens and the supplied hood does a reasonable job of shading the lens from extraneous light that may cause problems. A slight loss of contrast can occasionally be seen when shooting into the light.

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