I’ve tested the Fujifilm 45-100 mm f/4 against two other Fuji GFX zooms, the 32-64/4 and the 100-200/5.6. In this post, I’ll be comparing the lens to the Fuji 63/2.8 at f/4, f/5.6 and f/8. I’ll be looking at center and corner sharpness using a 22-inch-diameter low-contrast Siemens star target that I printed for this test.
The scene, at f/4 with the 45-100:
Target distance was 14 meters.
Test conditions:
- The heaviest RRS legs
- Arca Swiss C1 head
- ISO 100
- Electronic shutter 1/10 at f/4, 1/5 at f/5.6, and 1/2.5 at f/8
- 2-second self-timer
- AF-S, medium spot size
- 3 sets of shots at each test condition
- Developed in Lightroom
- Picked best shot of each test condition
- Sharpening amount 20 radius 1, detail 0 (much less sharpening than the default)
- Adobe Color profile
- White balanced to grey background
We’ll look at some tight crops at about 130% magnification.
Gosh, the zoom is sharp at 63 mm! The sensor is the limiting factor here.
The prime is a tiny bit sharper.
The prime is a tiny bit sharper again.
In the upper-right corner:
Look at that! The zoom is sharper.
Now the prime is sharper.
About the same, with the zoom winning by a whisker.
This is impressive performance from the 45-100/4 zoom.
This really is an impressive performance from the new zoom. I typically expect modern zooms to be weakest in the center of the range.