The Fujifilm GF 80mm F1.7 R WR is an attractive option for portrait photographers, for example.

The Fujifilm GF 80mm F1.7 R WR is a bright telephoto lens for Fujifilm’s medium-format system. With a brightness of F1.7, Fujifilm claims that this lens is even the brightest lens for digital medium format. The lens is half a stop brighter than Fujifilm’s own GF 110mm F2.0 R LM WR and at least one and a half stops brighter than all other GF lenses. That makes this lens the first choice when it comes to photography in low light. In combination with the built-in image stabilization of cameras such as the GFX100 and the Fujifilm GFX100S and the good performance of these cameras at high ISO values (up to 12,800), the Fujifilm GF 80mm F1.7 R WR offers a good set for available-light photography.

Of course, many portrait photographers will also look forward to this lens with interest. Thanks to the large aperture of F1.7, you get a very small depth of field with this lens and therefore a nice blurred background. Due to the shorter focal length, the GF 80mm F1.7 R WR gives a less shallow depth of field than the Fujifilm GF 110mm F2.0 R LM WR at the same shooting distance. Because you will be closer for the same image with the 80mm than with a 110mm, that will not matter much in practice. At the shortest setting distances, 0.7m for the 80mm and 0.9m for the 110mm, the depth of field is exactly the same. 

For portrait photographers, it will therefore come down to your personal preference. Do you prefer to work with a slightly shorter telephoto or a slightly longer one? The 80mm corresponds to 63mm on full frame. You could almost say that it’s a fairly long standard lens. This is ideal if you want to shoot something more than just a portrait, say larger head-and-shoulder portraits. It’s also nice if your space is limited or if you like working a little closer to your model. The 110mm corresponds to an 87mm on full frame and is therefore a bit more the classic portrait telephoto.

BUILD

The GF 80mm F1.7 R WR is a relatively compact and light lens when we consider the high brightness. For example, it is well over two ounces lighter than the GF 110mm F2.0 R LM WR. The lens is solidly built and is weather resistant (WR). It has a wide focus ring on the front and a narrower aperture ring behind it. The aperture ring also has an A setting to let the camera take over the setting of the aperture.

The optical design consists of 12 elements in 9 groups. The lens has 1 aspherical element and two elements of SuperED glass. The diaphragm has 9 rounded blades. The filter size is 77 mm. There are now a number of 85mm lenses for full frame that now have a larger filter size. That also indicates that the 80mm is a relatively modest lens.

FOCUSING

The high brightness of the GF 80mm F1.7 R WR ensures that with cameras like the GFX100 and GFX100S, you need up to half a stop less light to focus. The minimum value is now -5.5 EV, which is an unprecedented value for medium format. The shortest setting distance of the GF 80mm F1.7 R WR is 70 centimeters. This ensures a maximum magnification scale of 0.15x. This is certainly not a macro lens. For portraits, however, it is a perfectly workable distance.

IMAGE QUALITY

As soon as we have the GF 80mm F1.7 R WR in our test lab, we will publish a full review. The MTF curves look good at any rate. If the lens performs like this in practice, you can expect a high center sharpness with a small gradient to the corners and low chromatic aberrations.

ConclusiON: REVIEW Fujifilm GF 80mm F1.7 R WR oN Fujifilm GFX100S