Review on Fujifilm XF100-400mm F4.5-5.6 R LM OIS WR Telephoto Lens by April Kahn

I thought a lot before purchasing this lens. Reviews, including those on YouTube, were generally good to excellent, but nothing superlative. There have been many complaints about the weight. Since I have an X PRO 2 with an extra handle, I wasn't sure about the ergonomics of the handle. In addition, the lens was expensive. I ended up taking the plunge and buying it. The lens is big but the weight isn't an issue as I thought. It is surprisingly easy to hold in hand. I place the flat bottom of the tripod mount in my left hand and use the electronic viewfinder with the camera firmly against my face. And it works fine. All I can say about the image stabilization is that it is amazing. I am an older person and more imbalanced than when I was young. But the IS's ability to noticeably lock into the viewfinder is very evident, and images at the 600mm equivalent focal length are very sharp in the centre, which is the most important place to use this lens. I use 1/250 second as the default shutter speed and have not evaluated IS at lower speeds. Suffice it to say my shots are sharp and focused. Additionally, the X PRO 2, which shoots at f5.6, 600mm equivalent and 1/250 second shutter speed, still lets you shoot in moderate light at ISO 3000-5000 with very little background noise and excellent color reproduction. As far as I understand, this lens is a keeper. It's expensive, but it costs a lot less than the Olympus Pro's equivalent 600mm lens. Despite the added weight, I plan to keep it in my lens bag and ditch my old 55-200 lens in the interest of overall weight reduction. Glory Fujifilm.