Hands on: Fujifilm XF 400mm F4.5 R LM OIS WR review

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Fujifilm has launched a new X-mount super-telephoto prime lens: the Fujinon XF400mmF4.5 R LM OIS WR. This is only the second super-telephoto prime in the current X-mount range, lining up alongside the existing XF500mmF5.6 R LM OIS WR.

The new 400mm optic is 90g lighter and 16mm shorter than the 500mm lens, and its f/4.5 maximum aperture makes it marginally faster. The 400mm focal length equates to 609mm in full-frame terms, making this an ideal lens for sports and wildlife photography. The lens can also be teamed with Fujifilm's 1.4x and 2x teleconverters , where it'll provide full-frame-equivalent focal lengths of 853mm and 1,219mm, respectively.

Build and handling

The XF400mmF4.5 is built to Fujifilm's no-compromise R-series lens standard. Like the XF 500mm f/5.6, it sports a distinctive silvery-white barrel finish to help reflect solar heat. Along with the usual aperture ring, you'll also find a trio of switches on the barrel: a focus limit switch for locking out the closest 5 meters of focus range to help prevent focus hunting when shooting distant subjects, an OIS on/off selector, and a focus preset function with AF-L (autofocus lock), standard AF, and 'preset' options. The latter works in conjunction with the 'Set' button located beneath the mode switches, enabling you to instantly shift focus to a pre-defined position at the touch of a button.

Focusing is completely internal, with the wide manual focus ring providing plenty of travel for accurate manual focusing. Autofocus is achieved using a high-speed linear motor, while up to 5.5 stops of optical image stabilization makes hand-held photography a completely viable option.

At 1,245g, the new XF 400mm is surprisingly light for such a fast super-tele optic and feels well balanced when mounted to the X-H2s body provided for our initial testing. Even with the included lens hood attached, the whole set-up isn't too unwieldy, and I was able to shoot handheld for over an hour with no issue.

The lens's go-anywhere ability is further enhanced by full weather sealing incorporating 20 sealing points to guard against water and dust ingress. The front element also gets a fluorine coating to repel water and resist fingerprints. Much of my time with the lens was spent out in the rain, but the XF 400mm functioned perfectly, and the deep lens hood did a great job of keeping droplets off the front element.

The barrel contains a complex 21-element optical stack arranged in 14 groups. This includes 2 super ED (extra-low dispersion) elements and 4 ED elements (1 less than in the XF 500mm), with the aim of minimizing chromatic aberrations. Fujifilm says that the optical design is such that weight has been biased towards the rear of the lens, to help bring the center of gravity closer to the camera body for more balanced handling.

Performance

Having been blown away by the performance from the existing XF 500mm f/5.6, I had high hopes for the new 400mm, and it didn't disappoint. Even wide open at f/4.5, sharpness in the center of frame is superb. I can't yet give a definitive judgement on corner sharpness as my brief time with the lens was spent photographing birds of prey at a press event, with most of my sample shots having out of focus backgrounds. But having previously lab tested the sharpness of the XF 500mm with excellent results, I expect the XF 400mm to perform just as well in this area. Many of my sample images included areas of trees in front of a relatively bright sky - a classic recipe for fringing - but the lens managed to avoid generating any noticeable aberrations. Even so, we'll need to get a sample into our test lab to get a conclusive verdict on lens sharpness and fringing.

A lens like this is intended for fast-paced sports and wildlife photography, so autofocus speed and accuracy are paramount. Photographing fast-moving birds of prey proved to be a suitably tough test for the XF 400mm, but after plenty of trial and error finding the ideal AF settings for my X-H2S test body, I was able to get plenty of sharp shots of birds in flight, despite me being far from a seasoned bird photographer. No doubt with more time to finesse the correct settings my hit rate would get better still. But even with my relatively brief hands-on testing, I found the XF 400mm's autofocusing to be utterly smooth and essentially silent, plus it had no trouble keeping pace with the 15fps burst shooting speed of the X-H2S.

Verdict

You may wonder why Fujifilm has made this lens when it already produces a superb super-telephoto prime in the shape of the XF 500mm. Sure, the XF 400mm isn't radically different in concept or design to the XF 500mm, but it fills a niche for users who want a smaller, lighter and faster pro-level super-telephoto prime than the XF 500mm, yet still retain enough reach to capture distant subjects. For ultimate reach and focal length flexibility, the XF 150-600mm f/5.6-8 zoom is still king, but that lens is noticeably longer and heavier than even the XF 500mm, while also being considerably slower.

Although my time with the XF 400mm was sadly all too short, I was particularly pleased with lens's ease of use, even when shooting fast-moving subjects, and it's gorgeous image quality left me equally impressed. We'll need to get another copy of the lens into our test laboratory before we can give a final performance verdict, but right now I've got little to criticize.

The XF400mmF4.5 R LM OIS WR will be available to buy from the end of September, priced at $3,199 / £2,499.99 / AU$4,949.