Introduction

Ease of Use

With a maximum diameter of 84mm and a length of 71mm, the Fujifilm GF 63mm f2.8 R WR is a standard fixed focal length optic that's well-suited to the GFX 50S camera that we tested it with. Weighing in at 405g, it's not especially heavy for what is after all a medium-format lens, proving to be well-balanced on the equally new GFX 50S.

The Fujifilm GF 63mm f2.8 R WR lens mounted on a Fujifilm GFX 50S

The Fujifilm GF 63mm f2.8 R WR lens mounted on a Fujifilm GFX 50S

The Fujifilm GF 63mm f2.8 R WR lens mounted on a Fujifilm GFX 50S

TThe Fujifilm GF 63mm f2.8 R WR lens alongside the Fujifilm GFX 50S

The Fujifilm GF 63mm f2.8 R WR boasts excellent build quality. The lens is dust and moisture resistant and it features a metal bayonet.

The focus ring is generously wide, smooth and beautifully well-damped in action without being loose, and has a ridged, rubberised grip band. There are no “hard stops” at either end of the 50cm-infinity focus range though.

Focusing is usefully internal and manual focusing is possible when set via the camera body. Full-time manual focus override is not available at any time simply by rotating the focus ring.

The side of the Fujifilm GF 63mm f2.8 R WR lens

The side of the Fujifilm GF 63mm f2.8 R WR lens

The Fujifilm GF 63mm f2.8 R WR lens has a traditional aperture ring on the lens barrel, which allows you to set the aperture in 1/3 steps, complete with full aperture markings. The aperture is also shown in the viewfinder or on the LCD screen. The aperture ring is nicely damped and makes a distinctive click as you change the setting. The aperture ring toggles between auto aperture control (the ring is set to A) or manual aperture control (the switch is set to one of the aperture values) or the new C (Command) position which allows you to set the aperture via the camera body rather than the lens.

The front of the Fujifilm GF 63mm f2.8 R WR lens

The rear of the Fujifilm GF 63mm f2.8 R WR lens

The Fujifilm GF 63mm f2.8 R WR lens is comprised of 10 lens elements in 8 groups including 1 extra-low dispersion element. It accepts 62mm filters via metal threads.

There’s no built-in optical image stabilisation in either this lens or the GFX 50S camera body, but the Fujifilm GF 63mm f2.8 R WR’s fast maximum aperture partially alleviates the need for it.

The side of the Fujifilm GF 63mm f2.8 R WR lens

The side of the Fujifilm GF 63mm f2.8 R WR lens

A soft cloth bag and a plastic circular lens hood are supplied in the box.

The Fujifilm GF 63mm f2.8 R WR lens in-hand

The Fujifilm GF 63mm f2.8 R WR lens with the supplied lens hood fitted

Focal Range

The 90mm focal length gives an angle of view of 46.9 degrees on a 35mm full frame sensor, which is equivalent to a focal length of 50mm.

 Field of view at 63mm

Focusing

The Fujifilm GF 63mm f2.8 R WR's manual focussing ring spans a significant width of the lens barrel and is exceptionally smooth to operate. It also has a large rotation angle which enables precise focusing and moves smoothly without any play. Two different focusing aids are provided - auto magnification and focus peaking. In conjunction with the GFX 50S' high-resolution electronic viewfinder, we found it very easy to accurately determine critical sharpness.

When it comes to auto-focusing, the Fujifilm GF 63mm f2.8 R WR is a slightly noisy and slowish performer on the Fujifilm GFX 50S that we tested it with, taking about 0.5 second to lock onto the subject in good light. We didn't experience too much "hunting" with good lighting, with the lens accurately focusing almost all of the time, but it was prone to hunting in more dim environments.

Chromatic Aberrations

Chromatic aberration (purple fringing) is a non-issue with the Fujifilm GF 120mm f4 R LM OIS WR Macro lens, only appearing in very high contrast situations.

Light Fall-off and Distortion

Light fall-off is noticeable wide open at f/2.8, though this is to be expected for such a fast lens and can easily be corrected in Photoshop. Stop down to f/5.6 and the vignetting is already less prominent, but it is still visible when shooting pale scenes that fill the frame.

Light fall-off

Macro

A 50cm minimum focus distance makes the lens fairly useful for shooting close subjects, and the maximum magnification ratio is 0.17x. This image is uncropped and shows how close you can get to a Compact Flash card.

Close-up performance

Bokeh

A major appeal of fast, wide-aperture prime lenses is their ability to produce an eye-catching separation between a sharp subject and a very soft out-of-focus background. The Fujifilm GF 63mm f2.8 R WR generates smooth out of focus areas thanks to having 9 rounded aperture blades. Bokeh is however a fairly subjective part of a lens’ image quality, so check out these 100% crops to see the Fujifilm GF 63mm f2.8 R WR’s bokeh quality for yourself.

Sharpness

In order to show you how sharp this lens is, we are providing 100% crops on the following page.