Introduction

The GF 80mm F1.7 R WR is a very fast, short telephoto prime lens for the Fujifilm GFX medium-format mirrorless camera system.

This lens offers a focal length of 63mm in 35mm term and an aperture range of f/1.7-f/22. The maximum aperture of f/1.7 makes it the world’s brightest lens with autofocus for medium format mirrorless digital cameras.

It is comprised of 12 elements in 9 groups including 1 aspherical and 2 superED elements and has 9 rounded aperture blades for smoother bokeh,

This lens has a dust-, freeze- and weather-sealed physical construction that’s capable of operating in environments as cold as -10°C and the front element features a fluorine coating to repel dust, dirt, and moisture.

The Fujifilm GF 80mm F1.7 R WR is priced at $2,299 / £2,099 in the USA and UK respectively.

Ease of Use

With a maximum diameter of 94.7mm, a length of 99.2mm and a weight of 795g, the Fujifilm GF 80mm F1.7 R WR is relatively compact and lightweight considering the very fast maximum aperture of f/1.7 that it offers.

It doesn’t feel particularly unwieldy when mounted on the equally new Fuji GFX 100S camera that we tested it with, with even one-handed use not out of the question!

As with all of the the other GF lenses that we’ve previously reviewed, the build quality of the Fujifilm GF 80mm F1.7 R WR is excellent. The lens is dust, freeze and moisture resistant and it features a metal bayonet.

The Fujifilm GF 80mm F1.7 R WR lens is comprised of 12 elements in 9 groups including 1 aspherical and 2 superED elements and it accepts 77mm filters via metal threads.

Note that there is no built-in optical image stabilisation in this lens, so make sure to choose a suitably fast shutter speed when hand-holding the camera/lens.

The focusing ring is very wide, buttery smooth and beautifully well-damped in action without being loose, and it has a ridged, rubberised grip band. There are no “hard stops” at either end of the 70cm-infinity focus range though.

It has a very large rotation angle which enables precise focusing and moves smoothly without any play. Two different focusing aids are provided – auto magnification and focus peaking.

In conjunction with the GFX 100S’ high-resolution electronic viewfinder, we found it very easy to accurately determine critical sharpness when manually focusing.

Auto-focusing is a weak-point for this lens – it’s both slow and noisy. It doesn’t have the fast and quiet linear motor found in the GF 110mm F2 lens, instead using a DC motor, which makes the auto-focus operation very audible and quite slow to change from its near focus point of 70cm to infinity and back again.

On the plus side, we didn’t experience too much “hunting”, with the lens accurately focusing almost all of the time, evn in low-light conditions.

Focusing is usefully internal and manual focusing is possible when set via the camera body. Full-time manual focus override is available at any time simply by rotating the focus ring, if specified in the menu system, or you can set the focusing switch on the camera body to M, C or S.

The Fujifilm GF 80mm F1.7 R WR lens has a traditional aperture ring on the lens barrel which allows you to set the aperture in 1/3 steps, complete with full aperture markings. The aperture is also shown in the viewfinder or on the LCD screen as you change it.

The aperture ring is nicely damped and makes a distinctive click as you change the setting. The aperture ring toggles between auto aperture control (the ring is set to A) or manual aperture control (the switch is set to one of the aperture values) or the C (Command) position which allows you to set the aperture via the camera body rather than the lens.

A soft cloth bag and a large plastic circular lens hood are supplied as standard in the box.

Focal Range

The 80mm focal length gives an angle of view of 37.7° degrees, which is equivalent to a focal length of 63mm on a 35mm full frame sensor camera.

Chromatic Aberrations

Chromatic aberrations, typically seen as purple or blue fringes along contrasty edges, are only too readily apparent in high-contrast images, particularly when shooting wide-open at f/1.7.

Light Fall-off

Light fall-off is slightly noticeable wide open at f/1.7, though this can easily be corrected in Photoshop. Stop down to f/4 and the vignetting is already much less prominent, but it is still visible when shooting pale scenes that fill the frame.

Distortion

With a standard focal length of 63mm (35mm equivalent), we wouldn’t expect this lens to have too many problems with distortion.

Our sample images indicate that to be the case, with very little barrel or pincushion distortion visible.

Sunstars

The Fujifilm GF 80mm F1.7 R WR is capable of producing quite nice sunstars when stopped-down to f/22.

The lens is susceptible to flare when shooting directly into the sun, though, so make sure to use the lens hood that is supplied in the box.

Macro

A minimum focus distance of 70cm and a maximum magnification ratio of 0.15x doesn’t make the lens particularly useful for shooting close subjects, although the fast maximum aperture does at least make it easy to isolate the focus point.

Bokeh

With a maximum aperture of f/1.7, the Fujifilm GF 80mm F1.7 R WR is the fastest GF lens currently available, and it generates very smooth out of focus areas thanks to having 9 rounded aperture blades.

Bokeh is however a fairly subjective part of a lens’ image quality, so check out these 100% crops to see the GF 80mm F1.7 R WR’s bokeh quality for yourself.