Fair's fair. I'm actually putting my XF90 and XF56RWR on the market, I've decided that my Sigma 50-100/1.8 is pretty much doing every thing that those two do. I figure if I need to get back a 56mm prime I will gun for the Meike. I would love an indepth head to head Meike55 vs XF56 :D Thanks again Dylan, I appreciate the honesty and potential door shutting your reviews cause. Your integrity is not to be in question.
Are you using the fringer AF adapter, and can I ask which camera you are using with the Sigma lens? I bought that Sigma lens this year, used with my X-T5 and I was shocked how good it was resolving the 40MP sensor. I was in love, but sadly I sold the lens so I could fund my trip to Japan, and now I have acquired the Viltrox f/1.2 duo, from which the 75mm f/1.2 is like a middle ground for the Sigma's range and performs better. However I still plan to acquire a new copy of the 50-100mm f/1.8 just because it's the only zoom of it's kind for APS-C in existence!
Unbiased review as always. Respect for being honest in Your insights! Other TH-camrs should learn from You, how to be fair in reviewing gear sent by a company for testing 😎
I had similar AF issues with the Sirui Sniper 75. Completely unreliable, even with still objects, especially far away. Sirui told me they would work on the firmware and I should be patient, but manufacturers need to do this prior to launching, not after, it's not hard to spot these issues. The promise "it will be fixed" is no guarantee to ever happen either. So thank you for your honest review while a lot of your colleagues upload biased reviews overlooking issues solely to grab affiliate link money. Fantastic slide show as always.
Interesting to hear that! I've seen this a few times with products I've tested before launch and it does happen, but as you say, at the point of the product hitting market, things should be very close to perfect if not perfect. This is an otherwise pretty great lens that's let down by not being able to completely trust it. I've actually got a Sirui lens that I'm working on right now and haven't noticed a large number of out of focus issues. Perhaps it's limited to the 75mm? Hopefully, they'll get on their firmware and rectify this before it sours your taste too far.
@@DylanGoldbyPhotographer It's actually quite similar to my experience with the Sirui. The 75 is optically brilliant for the price & size. When the image was in focus, it had a great pop and I loved it more than what came out of the Meike 55. But I just had to double check focus and overshoot all the time like you said, and as I use my lenses in uncontrolled environments, that was just a dealbreaker. It could be that the thin DOF of the 75 is harder for them to nail than the wider ones. I'm excited to see if their 85 f1.4 is good, could be a great alternative to the 90 f2.
Thanks for your review! I gotta say that I prefer this Brightin Star lens design over all the other non-XF 50mm/56mm lenses, but sadly has no aperture ring. I hope they can fix the AF, and I agree it is quite pricey. But funnily enough I do not see offers available in Amazon, I wonder if it's sold out already lol.
Thanks for watching. My guess with Amazon is that the lenses haven't arrived at the warehouse yet. The listing is up and the lens is available directly from Brightin Star, so I guess it won't be long before Amazon gets theirs.
So many compromises with these cheaper lens. Flare, ghosting, autofocus, image quality/sharpness, no weather sealing, generally largeish/heavy. I'm really unsure why so many people think that because the lenses are cheaper they've got a bargain. You haven't, it's cheap because it's been built to lower standards.
As an owner of an XF90 and XF56 (that I have on the market for sale currently), I wouldn't completely agree with that. I'm not saying that you are wrong, in many ways you do pay for what you get, and whilst optically the XF56RWR is superb, its AF is most certainly not, so when factoring in the price and seeing how quite a few other 50-56 options exist without the AF hurdles then the XF56 seems to be overpriced if anything. Fuji also have some pretty poor QC at times. At the end of the day its about knowledge and acceptance that x lens does y and if you're ok with that (and of course factoring in the price) then all is well. I like that there are a lot of options out there, its good to have choice.
For people just starting photography, having lenses like the TTArtisan 56mm f/1.8 that has quick auto focus, a good build quality, good image quality, it's firmware can be upgraded and now for less than $150 USD it is a bargain. For the DSLR days you could only only rely on Sigma, Tamron and maybe Samyang for lenses around the $400 mark with IQ very similar to the new budget lenses.
Not really true. Yes, this one I don't find particularly great, it's too heavy for what it does. But in general many XF lenses aren't perfect either, especially older lenses. The new primes are supreme, but many others aren't. It's false to assume cheaper means worse, you have to count in labor costs. Chinese manufacturers can produce similar quality at lower cost, translating that price to the consumer. That's not only a development with lenses but also in many other industries, where the US, JPN, GER economies struggle.
I think the other thing that factors in here is that no everyone can afford the finest XF lenses and many of these budget lenses come in at a price that suits many more people than Fujifilm's own lenses. They allow people to experience a fast prime at a much more reasonable price and not everyone needs the absolute best of the best to achieve the images they want to. Horses for courses, if you will.
Fair's fair.
I'm actually putting my XF90 and XF56RWR on the market, I've decided that my Sigma 50-100/1.8 is pretty much doing every thing that those two do. I figure if I need to get back a 56mm prime I will gun for the Meike.
I would love an indepth head to head Meike55 vs XF56 :D
Thanks again Dylan, I appreciate the honesty and potential door shutting your reviews cause. Your integrity is not to be in question.
Are you using the fringer AF adapter, and can I ask which camera you are using with the Sigma lens?
I bought that Sigma lens this year, used with my X-T5 and I was shocked how good it was resolving the 40MP sensor. I was in love, but sadly I sold the lens so I could fund my trip to Japan, and now I have acquired the Viltrox f/1.2 duo, from which the 75mm f/1.2 is like a middle ground for the Sigma's range and performs better.
However I still plan to acquire a new copy of the 50-100mm f/1.8 just because it's the only zoom of it's kind for APS-C in existence!
Super beautiful pictures! Thanks!
1:45 Coming here a few weeks later and it’s a good call that you thought it was for full frame as they just announced the FE version for Sony E
Unbiased review as always. Respect for being honest in Your insights! Other TH-camrs should learn from You, how to be fair in reviewing gear sent by a company for testing 😎
I appreciate that. It's a decent lens that is priced a little high and better suited to larger systems. Appreciate you watching, as always.
I had similar AF issues with the Sirui Sniper 75. Completely unreliable, even with still objects, especially far away. Sirui told me they would work on the firmware and I should be patient, but manufacturers need to do this prior to launching, not after, it's not hard to spot these issues. The promise "it will be fixed" is no guarantee to ever happen either. So thank you for your honest review while a lot of your colleagues upload biased reviews overlooking issues solely to grab affiliate link money. Fantastic slide show as always.
Interesting to hear that! I've seen this a few times with products I've tested before launch and it does happen, but as you say, at the point of the product hitting market, things should be very close to perfect if not perfect. This is an otherwise pretty great lens that's let down by not being able to completely trust it. I've actually got a Sirui lens that I'm working on right now and haven't noticed a large number of out of focus issues. Perhaps it's limited to the 75mm? Hopefully, they'll get on their firmware and rectify this before it sours your taste too far.
@@DylanGoldbyPhotographer It's actually quite similar to my experience with the Sirui. The 75 is optically brilliant for the price & size. When the image was in focus, it had a great pop and I loved it more than what came out of the Meike 55. But I just had to double check focus and overshoot all the time like you said, and as I use my lenses in uncontrolled environments, that was just a dealbreaker. It could be that the thin DOF of the 75 is harder for them to nail than the wider ones. I'm excited to see if their 85 f1.4 is good, could be a great alternative to the 90 f2.
Thanks for your review! I gotta say that I prefer this Brightin Star lens design over all the other non-XF 50mm/56mm lenses, but sadly has no aperture ring.
I hope they can fix the AF, and I agree it is quite pricey. But funnily enough I do not see offers available in Amazon, I wonder if it's sold out already lol.
Thanks for watching.
My guess with Amazon is that the lenses haven't arrived at the warehouse yet. The listing is up and the lens is available directly from Brightin Star, so I guess it won't be long before Amazon gets theirs.
So many compromises with these cheaper lens. Flare, ghosting, autofocus, image quality/sharpness, no weather sealing, generally largeish/heavy. I'm really unsure why so many people think that because the lenses are cheaper they've got a bargain. You haven't, it's cheap because it's been built to lower standards.
As an owner of an XF90 and XF56 (that I have on the market for sale currently), I wouldn't completely agree with that. I'm not saying that you are wrong, in many ways you do pay for what you get, and whilst optically the XF56RWR is superb, its AF is most certainly not, so when factoring in the price and seeing how quite a few other 50-56 options exist without the AF hurdles then the XF56 seems to be overpriced if anything. Fuji also have some pretty poor QC at times.
At the end of the day its about knowledge and acceptance that x lens does y and if you're ok with that (and of course factoring in the price) then all is well. I like that there are a lot of options out there, its good to have choice.
For people just starting photography, having lenses like the TTArtisan 56mm f/1.8 that has quick auto focus, a good build quality, good image quality, it's firmware can be upgraded and now for less than $150 USD it is a bargain.
For the DSLR days you could only only rely on Sigma, Tamron and maybe Samyang for lenses around the $400 mark with IQ very similar to the new budget lenses.
Not really true. Yes, this one I don't find particularly great, it's too heavy for what it does. But in general many XF lenses aren't perfect either, especially older lenses. The new primes are supreme, but many others aren't. It's false to assume cheaper means worse, you have to count in labor costs. Chinese manufacturers can produce similar quality at lower cost, translating that price to the consumer. That's not only a development with lenses but also in many other industries, where the US, JPN, GER economies struggle.
I think the other thing that factors in here is that no everyone can afford the finest XF lenses and many of these budget lenses come in at a price that suits many more people than Fujifilm's own lenses. They allow people to experience a fast prime at a much more reasonable price and not everyone needs the absolute best of the best to achieve the images they want to. Horses for courses, if you will.