Best Fuji Lens for Video in 2023

Fujifilm’s X-Mount camera system is a top-rated mirrorless camera lineup that’s popular among amateurs and professionals for a wide variety of uses, including videography.

Below we’ve listed the ideal Fujifilm lenses for that exact purpose and we’ve also included the features, advantages, and disadvantages of each to help you narrow down your search.

Fujifilm has launched several good lenses in the past to accompany its X-Mount system, but of late, they have been upgrading their older lenses. In this discussion about the best Fuji lenses, we’ll look at some older and a few newer lenses.

Related Article: Best Sony Lens For Video 2023 [Latest Guide]

QUICK OVERVIEW

Best Fuji Lenses

Products	Features
EDITOR’S PICK 4.7 200+ 200+ Fujinon XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WRFujinon XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR	Designed for the X-mount 24-84mm (35mm format equivalent) PRICE RANGE: Under $1200 Designed for the X-mount 24-84mm (35mm format equivalent) PRICE RANGE: Under $1200 Check price at Amazon
MOST REVIEWED 4.6 400+ 400+ Fujifilm XF 55-200mm F3.5-4.8 R LM OISFujifilm XF 55-200mm F3.5-4.8 R LM OIS	Two ED elements Super EBC coating PRICE RANGE: Under $700 Two ED elements Super EBC coating PRICE RANGE: Under $700 Check price at Amazon
BUDGET PICK 3.9 50+ 50+ Rokinon RK21M-FX 21mm F1.4 ED AS UMCRokinon RK21M-FX 21mm F1.4 ED AS UMC	One ED element Ultra Multi-coating PRICE RANGE: Under $350 One ED element Ultra Multi-coating PRICE RANGE: Under $350 Check price at Amazon
BUDGET PICK 4.7 150+ 150+ Fujinon XC 35mm F2Fujinon XC 35mm F2	Stepping motor AF system Two aspherical elements PRICE RANGE: Under $200 Stepping motor AF system Two aspherical elements PRICE RANGE: Under $200 Check price at Amazon

Fujinon XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR

This lens has been designed for the APS-C X-mount Fujifilm camera system. The lens offers a 24-84mm focal length on an APS-C sensor – 35mm format equivalence. That means this is an excellent walkaround lens you can snap onto your camera and leave there for many different projects.

At 84mm, the lens is almost at the lower threshold of the portrait photography sweet spot. So, this lens works as a portrait focal length lens. Then on the other end of the spectrum at 24mm, this is a wide enough focal length for shooting landscapes, interiors, group shots, and street photography. This is indeed a very versatile lens.

This lens offers a focal length bigger than the standard and is a trendy 24-70mm f/2.8 lens.

At f/2.8, a fast wide aperture, the lens can capture a lot of light. This is very useful, especially when shooting in low-light situations. Additionally, the fast wide aperture and the 9-blade aperture diaphragm are perfectly suitable for beautiful background blur.

Fast wide apertures are helpful for background separation, which is great for cinematic creativity when shooting videos. You can easily isolate the subject from the background using the wide-open aperture.

Wide angle and wide aperture lenses are prone to surface reflection-induced lens flare and ghosting. This lens has been treated with a Nano-GI coating and HT-EBC coatings to ensure that the lens does not suffer from the effects of ghosting and flares.

One lens construction consists of both aspherical and extra-low dispersion elements, which take care of the issues of color fringing. The lens has extremely sharp color accuracy across the focal length range.

Autofocusing for this lens is primarily designed to assist video shooting. The twin linear motor-driven autofocusing system delivers smooth, almost perfect performance for shooting videos. It also creates minimal sound when engaged, meaning it won’t interrupt your videos.

Plus, the lens features weather sealing, which ensures that you can take this lens to any event in any conditions. Be it inclement weather or a dirty and dusty environment, the lens performs admirably in any situation.

This lens is a great companion to weather-sealed camera systems like the Fuji XT-4 and will work with that camera’s built-in 5-axis body-based image stabilization.

Fujinon XF10-24mm F4 R OIS WR

This wide-angle zoom lens is perfect for street photography, group shots, weddings, landscape, interiors, and everything in between.

Keep in mind that the lens is designed for APS-C format cameras only. It’s designed specifically for the Fujifilm X-Mount system.

This is version two of the original 10-24mm. The newer version has weather sealing which is very useful for landscape photographers. Such a wide-angle lens will surely see a lot of action outdoors, and the weather sealing feature will come in handy in inclement weather.

One of the critical differences between the original lens and this upgraded WR version is the presence of optical image stabilization. Optical image stabilization is a critical functionality, especially when shooting videos because it helps stabilize the footage, which is impossible to do when hand-holding. Optical image stabilization is unnecessary if you shoot with a tripod and can be turned off.

Speaking of turning off the optical image stabilization, there is no button on the lens body to control the on and off the functionality of the optical image stabilization. You must dig into the camera’s menu to turn optical image stabilization on or off. I find that to be a very troublesome thing to do.

The lens has a manual aperture ring. It clicks every one-third of a stop when you turn the ring. For many videographers, a de-clicked version is a better option than this one. Although it does tend to do its job well, I would have preferred the de-clicked version.

There is one major issue with the lens. That is, when you are zooming in and out, there seems to be an exposure correction that’s happening. You’ll notice that the exposure is suddenly either too bright or too dark and then the lens automatically corrects it. This happens even though the lens has a fixed aperture across its focal length.

Fujinon XF56mmF1.2 R

Explicitly designed for Fujifilm’s X mount camera systems, this is a medium telephoto lens ideally suitable for portrait photography, a bit of sports photography, and a few other genres in between. I’m saying this is a medium telephoto lens because when mounted on a Fuji APS-C camera, the crop factor makes this an 84mm lens.

At 84mm, this is a good lens for shooting portrait photography. The super-fast f/1.2 aperture is why the lens can capture a lot of light. Even though the depth of field will be the 35mm format equivalent of about f/2, it’s still excellent, even in low-light situations.

You can also push the shutter speed to crazy numbers, and in broad daylight, you can use the fastest shutter speed on your camera for freezing action.

And thanks to that aperture, you can play around with the depth of field as much as you want to. You can produce a stunning shallow depth of field, work to isolate a subject from the background, and play around by pushing the plane of focus across the frame while shooting innovative B-rolls as you please. This lens is good enough for the primary camera and the camera shooting the B-roll.

The only downside is, as the depth of field is very narrow at f/1.2, even the slightest movement of the subject or your hands at the precise moment you’re about to push the shutter release can lead to your subject shifting out of focus.

The lens has no image stabilization on it. Would you miss it? Not really. Especially if you’re going to shoot using a tripod and wide-open, wide-angle lenses. Though I would take it if it’s available, in this case with the f/1.2 aperture, there is no reason to miss it.

One more thing is this lens does not have weather sealing on it. So if you’re going to use it to shoot videos outdoors, you may want to use protection and carry some weatherproofing material with you.

Fujinon XC 35mm F2

This is the predominantly plastic economy version of the more expensive 35mm f/2 lens we have seen. This lens has the same optics as the more expensive version; however, due to the plastic body, the overall price becomes much more affordable.

With plastic comes the question of construction quality. But if you’re sure you can handle the lens with care and won’t expose it to bumps and knocks, then the plastic body will save you a lot of money.

Regarding video shooting, the f/2 aperture is beneficial even if the effective aperture drops down because of the crop factor.

Still, on the topic of aperture, the f/2 opening ensures you can experiment with the background and capture some cinematic background blur. It’s also helpful in isolating a subject from the background and producing a beautiful background blur (bokeh).

The lens lacks image stabilization and weather sealing. I would have loved to have both these features in the lens, but considering this is the cheaper XC version rather than the XF version, you have to understand that you’re getting what you’re paying for.

That said, if you are a videographer and prefer to shoot outdoors in inclement weather, this is not the lens for you. It would help if you instead opted for the XF version of the lens. On the other hand, if you are going to take precautions when heading outdoors and you are not expecting too much abuse to the lens, then you can easily go for the XC version or the version we’re talking about.

The XC version also loses out on the aperture ring. I would have loved the aperture ring to have manual control over my depth of field.

This is a very basic entry-level lens, something that every entry-level videographer would love to use. But do not expect too many bells and whistles with this version.

Fujinon XF 23mm F1.4 R

A 23mm lens is a very versatile glass. The lens’s effective focal length is 35mm on a 35mm format equivalent. Thus, it qualifies as a standard lens and can be used in many photography situations.

A few things are different in this lens compared to the newer 23mm f/1.4. One of those things is that the older version (the version we’re reviewing here) is a little lighter and smaller.

Plus, this older version has a built-in manual focusing clutch, something that the new lens does not have, and that could be an issue if you’re used to Fuji’s manual focusing clutch. For someone who is used to the manual focusing clutch and yet not happy with the autofocusing accuracy of the old lens, this will be a Catch-22 situation. This is because the new lens is better at autofocusing and, as I just mentioned, does not have that manual focusing clutch.

I don’t usually delve too deep into the elements of the camera, but in this case, the elements are rather important to the general image quality this lens can produce. The Fujifilm XF 23mm f/1.4 R consists of one aspherical element that helps contain distortion and increase sharpness as well as a super EBC coating that counters ghosting and flares, which ensures that the lens performs admirably in difficult lighting conditions.

The quality of the bokeh is good – there are only seven rounded aperture blades on this lens, so the bokeh circles are not perfectly round. But then, I am nitpicking, and no one is going to zoom in and check for bokeh shapes in your videos.

Fujinon XF8-16mm F2.8 R LM WR

This is one of the best Fujifilm lenses in the business. The XF8-16mm F2.8 R LM WR is one of the premier lenses in the Fuji lineup, and it matches the expectations of the users as one of the top-performing lenses. This is an XF lens which suggests that this is one of the better build lenses in the lineup. The primarily metal build barrel is designed to withstand any abuse, and it should be easy for the lens to survive any shooting environment.

The lens has weather sealing, one of the necessary features for videographers shooting in outdoor situations. You can take this lens in inclement weather, and the lens will perform without any issues. The company states that the lens can withstand temperatures as low as 14 degrees F.

Speaking of outdoor shoots, this is the sort of lens that you would love to take with you outdoors. Whether it’s to shoot stills or to shoot videos, you would love the sharpness, the autofocusing accuracy, and the handling of the lens.

The 35mm format equivalent focal length of the lens is 12-24mm, which makes it a wide-angle lens and perfect for shooting landscapes, street photos, architecture, group shots, and everything in between. If you’re headed to an exotic location, this is the lens you should be packing.

The presence of the linear motor on the lens ensures that autofocusing performance of the lens is very fast and accurate. This motor is quiet when operating, which is a prime reason why videographers will find the lens to their liking. There is, however, a bit of focus hunting in low light situations, and for such situations, you will need to switch to manual focusing for perfect results.

The fast wide aperture ensures that you can emphasize a subject and blur out the rest of the scene using the f/2.8 aperture. Bokeh is also very good. The lens has a rounded nine-blade aperture diaphragm, ensuring that the bokeh is rounded and creamy.

You’ll need to get used to the lens’s front element being too large, which entails standard screw-in filters that are impossible to mount.

Rokinon RK21M-FX 21mm F1.4 ED AS UMC

This lens has been designed for the X-mount APS-C camera systems of Fujifilm. Keep in mind that this is a manual focusing lens. That means you won’t get to autofocus the way you usually do with Fujifilm lenses. This Rokinon lens has been designed for precise manual focusing.

The lens is versatile enough for several shooting situations. You can use this for shooting street photos, landscapes, group shots, weddings, and cityscapes.

The fast, wide f/1.4 aperture is great for shooting with a fast shutter speed, but it’s best to shoot setpieces or slow-moving subjects due to the lack of autofocus. If you try to shoot anything moving fast and coming in and out of the plane of focus, it would not be easy to adjust the focus manually and quickly.

Also, because there is no electronic connection between the lens and the camera, you will have to calculate exposure in your mind and do the basic stuff you would typically expect your camera to take care of.

The manual focusing ring is large and very smooth, which allows you to adjust the focusing without any issues conveniently. There is also an aperture ring on the lens. You can control the depth of field directly from the lens barrel. But the thin aperture ring isn’t very convenient when changing the aperture quickly on the go.

Regarding build quality, that isn’t the lens you would take with you if you’re headed outdoors and in bad weather. There is no weather sealing on the lens. The construction of the lens is good. It’s made mostly with plastic, and some corners have been cut, reflecting the build quality. It will not be able to withstand inclement weather and dirt and dust. Please note you’re only paying a small amount compared to some of the original Fuji lenses, which is why the adjustments may be worth it.

Rokinon Cine CV12M-FX 12mm T2.2

This compact lens is designed for Fuji’s X-mount APS-C camera systems, though other mounts are also available. This is a manual focusing lens, so all you autofocusing lovers will be a little bit disappointed. But if you’re shooting from a tripod and shooting something steady, even manual focusing lenses can be beneficial. Especially to shoot videos where you can control the focus and push and pull the focus plane as per your requirement is a great feature to have.

In terms of sharpness, the Rokinon 12mm is a very sharp lens, even at f/2.2. Sharpness improves when the lens is stopped. There is a slight corner softness when shooting at a wide-open aperture. This tends to go away when the lens is stopped.

What I don’t like about the lens is the amount of distortion it produces. For a wide-angle lens, this amount of distortion is expected and photographers can easily correct distortion using Adobe Photoshop or Camera RAW lens profile adjustment. However, this lens is meant more for shooting videos than stills, and correcting distortion in video format is not easy, so distortion remains one of the major issues about this lens.

Color fringing is another issue that’s present in the lens. Color fringing does not go away even if you stop down the lens to f/5.6 or f/8.

What I do like about the lens is that the bokeh is decent. Even though wide-angle lenses are not known for their bokeh properties, the performance of this lens is an improvement. Plus, you can play with the shallow depth of field. It’s possible to capture a shallow depth of field by putting a subject close to the camera and focusing on it while using a wide-open aperture.

This lens is good enough for shooting videos because it has that shallow depth of field effect For background separation and the precise manual control of focus achieved by the manual focusing ring.

Fujinon XF18-135mm F3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR

This superzoom lens has an optical zoom range of 18 to 135mm, translating to 27 to 203mm on a 35mm format equivalent. This is the lens you strap onto your camera system and forget about – a single-lens-does-it-all solution for Fuji’s APS-C sensor camera users.

The lens has a maximum aperture of f/3.5 that drops down to f/5.6 when the lens zooms in to 135mm. Speaking of aperture, there is an aperture ring, but nothing is marked on it to give you a visual clue. You can use the Auto to Manual aperture selection button to switch between the two modes.

Autofocusing on the lens is powered by a linear motor drive. With precise focusing performance, this is a much quieter and more accurate focusing motor. When you manually adjust focus from one extreme to the other, there is a slight bit of focus breathing.

This is a short to medium telephoto zoom lens, one factor that works in favor of the lens. The lens extends quite a bit when you turn the zoom ring. Still, on the subject of the zoom ring, the zoom ring feels a bit tight, especially when you’re at the wide end.

The lens also features Fujifilm’s optical image stabilization technology. As Fuji calls it, OIS is a very useful feature, especially when you’re shooting hand-held and using it to shoot stills and videos. OIS stabilizes the footage quite well, and the best part is that it’s not even noisy.

This is a WR lens which means the lens has weather resistance built in. it will be able to withstand the vagaries of nature even if you take the lens in inclement weather. For an all-purpose kit lens that you would prefer to keep on your camera most of the time, this is a lens that needs weather sealing to be truly versatile.

All in all, this is a well-made XF lens and one that you would be happy to shoot both stills and videos with.

Fujifilm XF 55-200mm F3.5-4.8 R LM OIS

The Fuji XF 55-200mm f/3.5 -4.8 R LM OIS lens is an all-purpose zoom lens for everyday use. The effective focal length is 83-300mm on a 35mm format equivalent. That means the lens covers the entry-level focal length for portraiture and, from there, reaches a medium telephoto length. All that at a price that is still affordable for the high-quality optics that this lens stands for.

This is a very versatile lens, and just like the XF18-135mm F3.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR I discussed above, this is the sort of lens you would love to keep on your camera for as long as you possibly can.

You can use this lens for portraits, landscapes where you zoom in tight on the subject, headshots, and candid photography. The only thing this lens will not be able to do is take a wide-angle shot.

The aperture control ring allows you to adjust the aperture manually. A switch lets you choose between manual and auto-aperture control. However, there is no indication or guide on the aperture you select on the lens barrel.

Optical image stabilization is a very good addition to the lens. OIS helps to capture steady shots even when the camera is hand-held. For video captures, at least, this is a great function to have.

The zoom ring and the focus ring are very smooth and zooming extends the barrel length. The focusing ring is very smooth to operate. The lens has very little focus on breathing, if any at all.

In terms of performance, the lens is very sharp and wide open at the center of the frame. Even corners are acceptably sharp. Corner sharpness is a little softer when the lens is zoomed in compared to when the lens is zoomed out. Stopping down the lens improves both middle-of-the-frame sharpness as well as corner sharpness.

Conclusion

Budding or professional videographers have many Fujifilm options at their disposal and we hope this list has helped you narrow down which one is ideal for your requirements.