The Fujifilm GF 50mm F3.5 Review | A Must-Have GFX Lens?

Needless to say, I’m seriously impressed.

First Impressions

It'll cost you roughly a thousand bucks to own Fujifilm's most minor, digital medium format lens. For this price, you're getting a lens that's noticeably under two inches tall and 350g in weight. While it carries a wide diameter, the filter size shrinks down to 62mm, complementing the GF45mm and 63mm quite well.

Everything on this lens feels slim and compact. The manual focus ring is noticeably thinner than other Fujifilm GF lenses but still carries that solid rubber texture that you can easily grip. Despite the small surface area, this makes it easy to find and control. As with most Fujinon glass, I appreciate that this lens in particular maintains a dedicated aperture ring. The ring itself clicks firm and pleasant where it never feels like it's going to shift out of place. You have a range of F3.5 to F32, with an auto mode for shutter priority shooting and C mode on the far end to control aperture with a command dial.

What takes this construction over the goal line is the fact that this relatively tiny lens also ships with weather-sealing. It's a modern and welcome benefit that all lenses should have and will give you the confidence to take this thing with you everywhere. From an engineering perspective, this lens is conducive to capturing images in any given situation.

Image Quality & Experience

With an equivalent focal length of 40mm in the full-frame perspective, the GF 50mm F3.5 packs a versatile view in a compact package. This lens dares you to take your digital medium format everywhere and reinforces that message with phenomenal image quality. Seriously — this thing is damn good. While only one of the nine pieces of glass in this lens is an aspherical element, this lens manages to capture sharp images throughout the aperture range.

If you're into pixel-peeping, you may notice the edges are less sharp at wider apertures but not enough that it'll make you think that this is flawed in a profound way — quite the opposite. Further, the contrast and detail you're able to capture will surely surprise you.

As you would expect with the GF line of lenses from Fujifilm, the color is consistent and natural-looking. There aren't any weird shifts or enhancements by the glass. You capture the details of the world around you with a high degree of fidelity and accuracy. You also have a linear motor for autofocus in the tiny lens package that is near-silent and stupidly fast.

For those keeping score at home, you have a quick-to-focus lens that's incredibly sharp, accurately captures the world, will perform in almost any condition it's thrown into, and all in a package that is—relatively speaking—really f*cking small.

So, what are the drawbacks?

The Cons & Challenges

There isn't much for me to nit-pick here. The only real problem I had was that this lens could only pull focus at around 2 feet, which feels much more expansive when you're using this further in the field. There would be times where I wanted to push in for a tighter frame, and it just wasn't possible, where other lenses that share this 40mm focal length have trained you to be able to get into a pocket to snap your shots.

It may be a dealbreaker for some, but for the vast amount of work you'll be doing with this lens on your GFX camera, you probably won't hit this roadblock often. Besides, there's something else that's far more egregious, and that's the lens hood.

This lens hood is ugly and barely works. It somehow makes this industrial, cold, ominous product seem dinky. In any case, there isn't much else to complain about this lens. It's excellent and brings so much value to the table.

The Competition

Compared to the market, this lens sits between the GF 45mm F2.8 and the GF 63mm F2.8, lenses with a 36mm and 50mm equivalent focal length, respectively. If you prefer one of these focal lengths over the other, this isn't a tough conversation; you pick the one you like. That said, if you're willing to be a bit more open, this is an interesting comparison to have.

The GF45mm is noticeably sharper and brighter; the GF63mm is probably just as strong and has an aperture of F2.8, so on paper, they seem like the better product. However, they're both considerably larger, and neither have a linear motor to focus as quickly as the GF 50mm F3.5. So, if you're a GFX travel or street photographer and looking at which of these lenses to get, you have this dilemma between the ceiling of image quality and operability in the field.

I've spent considerable time with the 45 and 63, and I went with the GF 50mm. For me, I was happy to forgo the marginal gain in sharpness and light-gathering for a lens that would make me shoot more. With a lens like the GF 50mm, your entire camera kit feels more approachable, where the idea of having it by your side for 6-7 hours doesn't seem like a death sentence. Now, I know this will vary from person to person, so I can only go with my experience, but if you're open to any of these three focal lengths being part of your GFX solution, I genuinely believe the GF 50mm F3.5 brings the most value to the table.

Final Thoughts

The GF 50mm F3.5 is not a lens you buy for the aperture. You get this lens because it changes how you work and, more importantly, how often. The small profile, the fast focusing, and the premium construction make this an empowering lens to have in your kit. If you are already or hoping to bring your Fujifilm medium format camera outdoors more often, I believe that this lens has to be on your shortlist.