Fujifilm Launches World First F/1 Autofocus Lens

2020.09.03

Today, the widely known Fujifilm XF 50mm F/1R WR lens was officially launched. The company announced they were working on an F/1 last year which was originally intended to be a 35mm which would produce a normal field-of-view when mounted on a camera with an APS-C sensor. The optics required to build such a lens proved to be too heavy for practical use and so Fujifilm announced that they would built a 50mm F/1 instead. Here it is.

The new Fujifilm XF 50mm F/1R WR joins a select few extremely bright lenses designed for mirrorless cameras. Having a short flange distance allows these lenses to produce much better image-quality than previously possible for this type of lens. Fujifilm is promising exceptional optical performance for this new X-mount lens.

Given that it is to be mounted on mirrorless cameras with an APS-C sensor, the XF 50mm F/1 will produce a 31° field-of-view, similarly to a 75mm lens mounted on a Full-Frame. Crop-factor also affects Depth-of-Field which will be equivalent to an ultra bright F/1.5 lens, again on Full-Frame. This huge aperture produces very shallow depth-of-field favored by portrait photographers.

This new lens becomes the brightest autofocus lens ever made. Until now, autofocus was only possible with lenses of F/1.2 or smaller maximum aperture. The extra brightness allows the Fujifilm X-T4 to focus down to -7 EV, an unprecedented level of darkness. The body of the lens is fully weatherproof and freezeproof to -10C, as one would expect for such a high-end product.

Fujifilm excepts to ship the XF 50mm F/1R WR this fall for $1500 USD or $2000 CAD.

• Lens