Fujifilm Fujinon XF 50 mm f/1.0 R WR
4. Image resolution
Let's remind here that the best fixed focal length Fujifilm X lenses, tested that way, are able to reach as high as 80 lpmm and the decency level is set near 44-45 lpmm. The resolution record for this sensor amounts to about 83 - 85 lpmm and the best result so far belongs to the Viltrox AF 23 mm f/1.4 XF - that lens was able to get to 85.3 ±0.9 lpmm.
Let's check how the Fujinon XF 50 mm f/1.0 R WR compares – its results in the frame centre and on the edges shows a graph below.
Please Support UsIf you enjoy our reviews and articles, and you want us to continue our work please, support our website by donating through PayPal. The funds are going to be used for paying our editorial team, renting servers, and equipping our testing studio; only that way we will be able to continue providing you interesting content for free. |
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
The tested Fujinon is a very fast lens and good aperture fastness always makes you question image quality at the maximum relative aperture. The Fujinon defends itself in that place very well, reaching almost 48 lpmm so a bit over the decency value. With stopping down image quality improves very quickly and the lens reaches its maximum near f/4.0 where it gets to 81.5 ± 0.9 lpmm.
As it was mentioned at the beginning of this chapter, a top-of-the-range lens should be able to exceed 80 lpmm. The Fujinon 1/50 manages to do so, overall, you shouldn't have any reservations. Still, if you take a closer look you might start feeling a bit unsatisfied. From a lens with such parameters you would expect record-breaking levels and here the lens's performance is a bit short of that. If the cheap Viltrox was able to break records, the same should be expected from the expensive and fast Fujinon. What's interesting, also the cheaper and slower Fujinon XF 2/50 could reach resolution on a level of 82-83 lpmm; it's hard to understand why the faster and more expensive Fujinon can't get better results.
Does the performance on the edge of the frame is able to improve our opinion about the Fujinon XF 50 mm f/1 R WR? Not really... First of all, image quality by f/1.0 and f/1.4 leaves a lot to be desired. In order to get images of a sensible quality the lens should be closed down to f/1.6-1.8. After a more distinct reduction of the aperture the lens is able to reach a good level near 60 lpmm but it's still not enough, especially when compared to our expectations. Fast telephoto lenses, a real show of strength of their producers, usually didn't feature such a big difference between the frame centre and its edge. It's enough you remind here of the performance of the Sigma A 85 mm f/1.4 DG HSM or the Zeiss Otus and Milvus 1.4/85. The Fujinon fares not so well and once again it loses the resolution duel with its cheaper and slower 2/50 brother.
At the end of this chapter, traditionally, we present crops taken from photos of our resolution testing chart which were saved in the JPEG format along with RAW files, used for the analysis above.
| Fujifilm X-T2, JPEG, f/1.0 |
 |
| Fujifilm X-T2, JPEG, f/4.0 |
 |
