The pictures below illustrate the focal length range, taken from our standard position. The 55-200mm offers a similar angle of view to a 80-300mm lens on full frame.

For its size, this lens is actually reasonably lightweight, tipping the scales at 580g. Even so the lens is very well built with the combination of metal and high quality plastics giving this lens a reassuringly robust feel. Thanks to the reasonable weight, this lens balances well on the Fujifilm X-Pro1 body used for testing. The Fuji XF 55-200mm OIS is optically superb, has fantastic image stabilization and is faster and better made than other brands of APS-C zooms. The Fujinon XF 55-200mm F3.5-4.8 R LM OIS is the first telephoto zoom for Fujifilm's X system cameras, and offers an 83-300mm equivalent angle of view. It has built-in optical image stabilization with 4.5 stops claimed benefit, and uses linear stepper motors for silent autofocus. The lens features an (unmarked) aperture control ring, and offers high quality all-metal barrel construction.With a maximum aperture of f/3.5-4.8, the 55-200 ins’t an exceptionally fast lens, nor does it have the fastest AF motors. However, it has four things going for it: A very slight amount of pincushion distortion is present throughout the zoom range. With only 0.2% pincushion distortion, this shouldn't be noticeable in normal picture taking. If absolutely straight lines are necessary, the distortion is quite simple to correct in image editing software afterwards as the distortion pattern is uniform across the frame. The Fuji XF 55-200mm OIS is optically close to perfect, and is also very well built, making it the world's second-best APS-C telephoto zoom after the Fuji 50-140/2.8.

I have a few awesome telephoto lenses for Nikon including the legendary Nikkor 70-200 f/2.8 VRII and the fantastic Tamron 100-400. I always have one of these lenses with me when I’m out with my Nikon gear. But that makes my bag really, really heavy and a pain (literally) to hike with.So I needed a telephoto option for Fuji. Distortion is completely invisible, at least as shot as JPGs on my Fuji X-T1, which for all I know is correcting it automatically. If you are a Fujifilm shooter in the market for a zoom lens, then the Fujifilm XF 55-200mm f/3.5-4.8 would be an ideal place to start and finish. The all-metal filter ring is a pleasant surprise compared to the plastic rubbish from Nikon and Canon.Flare isn't much of an issue with this lens and contrast is retained well when shooting into the light, with or without a hood attached. However, on the flipside, I will say that I have used it in the coldest days of winter, rain and everything in between. It has not had any issues.