Very interesting, Klaus. Many thanks for that. I see you now have the Fujifilm XTi body. How does it compare with your earlier Fuji bodies? I'm very tempted by it as I'm keen to downsize from my heavy Canon bodies/ lenses. Also the continuous focusing ability really appeals. I reckon this 55-200 zoom with the 18-55 f/2.8-4 would be a very desirable travel combination, which is most of the photography I do these days.
"there's a strong light falloff especially at all settings" - brilliant irony there!
Hum. Mix bag; esp given how difficult it was for you to get a 'good' version. I would think canon 70-200f4 is a better lens; though perhaps a bit more expensive. Also I guess not relevant if you own a fuji body. I think the two things that bother me are the vignetting which seems unsual for a tele zoom and bokeh.
Thanks for the review.
I'm confused though - for mechanical quality, it got 3.5 stars, after the decentered lens (pretty common) and the mechanical failure (pretty durn uncommon?)? Seems like a complete failure of the lens would knock it down a star or so, or at least it would've. Maybe it was a 4.5 star lens before the failure, could you clarify?
This is far from being a 4.5* lens as far as the mechanical implementation is concerned.
* no sealing
* it extends when zooming out
* the zoom action is way too stiff
I was a bit debating about giving it 4* but decided against it due to the poor zoom action.
This is an absolute scale so 5* are only within reach of high end pro lenses.
... sorry
