In this YouTube video, Dylan Andersen, a self‑described macro photography beginner, shares his first‑hand impressions of the Fujifilm XF30mm f/2.8 macro lens. He explains that the lens is his first foray into macro work and that he shot all test images with his high‑resolution Fujifilm X‑H2 (sometimes referencing the X‑H2S). Throughout the video he displays a series of photographs taken at various apertures, shutter speeds, and ISO values, commenting on depth of field, focus plane challenges, sharpness, bokeh, and low‑light performance. He notes the lens’s close‑focus capability (about 1.5 inches), its ability to resolve the X‑H2’s 40 MP sensor, and its behavior at wide apertures (f/2.8) versus stopped‑down settings (f/5.6‑f/11). He also mentions practical considerations such as buying the lens at Best Buy, the store’s lens‑exchange program, and the lack of optical image stabilization. The video mixes technical analysis (e.g., ISO 3200 grain, hot‑pixel behavior, IBIS usage) with personal anecdotes (shots of his daughter, car, spiders, and local foliage). Dylan concludes that while the lens isn’t as fast as his f/1.4 primes, it delivers respectable sharpness, usable bokeh, and a fun macro experience, encouraging viewers to explore macro photography despite its compositional challenges.
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Hey, how's it going? Welcome to another quick video. I wanted to give you my first impressions on a new lens that I got recently. This is the XF30 millimeter 2.8 from Fujifilm. Really, really fun macro lens, something I have never kind of dived into before. So I want to spend a little bit of time going through some photos instead of me sitting here and talking to you about what I like about it, what I don't like about it. Definitely mention some of that as we go. But I think it's really important to look at photos of what this lens is producing. So I'm going to show you some photos here. Everything is taken on the XH2. Everything is obviously 30 millimeters, different aperture ranges and kind of different shutter speeds. And sort of my disclaimer is that I don't really know what I'm doing with macro. It's definitely one of my first forays into this genre of photography. I don't think I'm very good. I don't think I've done amazing stuff here, so let me get that out of the way first. But wanted to share my experiences as someone who's not as well versed in this and someone who owns a high resolution camera like the XH2 and see how this lens performs. So first image here we have is taken at 30 millimeters F6.4. It's at a hundredth of a second. And so when we zoom in here, you're going to see obviously some blurring. XH2 has IBIs that's engaged. But even at 6.4, the depth of field kind of is pretty small. And again, I'm not used to walking up to stuff and taking photos. So this is all new for me. But I like the idea that you can get close to stuff and even have quite a bit of depth of field being this close. This is one of the first photos I took outside of Best Buy when I picked it up. Yes, they sell this lens. I definitely recommend buying from Best Buy. I'm not paid from them, but they have a really cool comp lens exchange program if you look into it. So this is a 3200 ISO on the X H2. Some good ISO performance. You know, a lot has been made of the high ISO performance on the X H2 and X T5 and maybe I'll make a video about that. But I wanted to show you know that it works really well and obviously it's a nice grain effect. But this is a standard kind of photo and this focal length is good. For everyday use on the way home from getting the lens, just a random shot out the car. And definitely some detail here. We're at 3200 ISO. We're at f 2.8, so we're wide open. The downside of this lens absolutely is low light performance because it just doesn't have the 1.4. Or maybe I'm spoiled by the 1.4 lenses that I've had recently. I'm filming on the Viltrox 13 right now and just love F1.4 on these new bodies. But yeah, I mean, you know, in everyday shot like this you're going to take stuff like this. This is 1/10 of a second. So I just, I thought it was cool how you know, there was still some detail here. Even at 3200 ISO, 2500 ISO, you're going to see a lot of kind of hot pixels here because I really pushed the shadows and really pushed the exposure. I mean you can see the camera was negative 3.3 on the exposure but 2.8-50th of a second again out my window. So you'll see some reflections of the vehicle I was in, but you're going to see a lot of these hot pixels and kind of things like that. And that's from me pushing the shadows and exposure pretty insane. So into some actual macro shots that I've taken. This is 125 ISO. I'm choosing to use XH2 versus I'm filming on the XH2s right now for these shots because I want to test the high resolution capability of the camera. And because this lens is supposedly, you know, made for the camera or can resolve 40 megapixels. So we're at f 3.6 200th of a second again under exposure by about a stop, on a full stop rather. So I, you know, after doing some, some work on this and doing a little bit of sharpening, still a little soft. And you know, this is again my error always let me get that out of the way. But there are some places where the focus sits really nice and it is pretty sharp. But I'm really close to this tree here. This is the bark of a tree. I mean I'm probably an inch and a half from it. So being able to focus that close is really nice. And if you don't know this lens can literally focus like just about here. It's pretty crazy. So there's that photo. I live in Irvine. We don't have a ton of flowers here. For whatever reason you're in Orange County. So there's just a lot of foliage and stuff like that that we can take photos of. This is at hundredth of a second, F 6.4. And one of the things I want to point out is obviously, physics wise, the closer you get to your subject, the more blurred the background is going to be. But you'll see here on this image. I mean, there's the. The focus plane for me is really difficult to kind of understand. And that's something that, you know, I'm learning as I go through macro. But this is really close in. Sort of this birds of paradise thing here. I don't know if this is a dead spider or what, but this is some spider webs that were left over from Halloween. Similar kind of image here of a real spider web. This time there is quite a bit of detail. And again, I'm on a 4K display here and you know, this, this video hopefully comes through. But, you know, there's quite a bit of detail here and it's looking really nice, really, really sharp in here. Yeah, there's just so much going on here. It's a terrible photo to take. But at 30 millimeters you really grab a lot of what's out there versus like an 80 millimeter macro where you're very punched in. So it's a little bit challenging and composed. But these are just some test shots. This is a cool photo of my daughter. F 3.62 N of a second at 160 ISO. Just to show you, even in regular use. I mean, this lens performs as well as my 35F2 that I used to have. Again, just random motorcycle. This is again XH2 resolution coming through here, which is really nice. So even in these, in these headlights here, you can totally see the text on this. I mean, this, this lens, when you have a high shutter speed at f2.8 and you got a low ISO, I mean, it looks incredible, right? I think. I think that's kind of sane enough. There's. But yeah, really normal photo looks really nice. The bokeh is not incredible in scenes like this. Feels busy to me. I use my 1.4 primes from caring so much about that. But when you have this lens on, it works really well. Some more macro here. Starting to understand a little bit more. This is 5.6 12-50-50 of a second. So I'm pushing my shutter speed, still underexposed according to the camera at 125 ISO. I mean, the detail here is pretty crazy. I. This is what's making me really want to explore macro photography more and really, you know, play with this but cool little photo. And again, just a ton of detail when you actually are in focus. And you know, again the challenge with a focal length macro like this, what I'm learning is the composition. It makes it tough. So you have a scene like this and you want to capture all these flowers and I want that plane of focus to be right here. So I'm all the way up at f11. And so I'm at 200th of a second. Super bright day. Still underexposed at 250 ISO, but I have a lot more in focus. And again I'm at F11, no ND filter, nothing. And I still have a pretty narrow plane of focus because again, I'm, you know, incredibly close to the subject. So 30 millimeters is challenging. It's a great lens. But again, it's another shot from here. But the detail that it can produce is pretty crazy. Pretty, pretty crazy. So this is f8, 800th of a second. This is one of my more favorite shots, I guess where got an ant here. And I don't know, when I look at an ant, I don't see this, you know, really intense body. I just see kind of this, this blur. But when you get close, you can really make sense of it and it's, it's pretty cool. I also love how the background gets almost black because you're at 800th of a second on F8 and you're. I mean, again, I'm centimeters or an inch from the actual subject, so really cool. Just a car photo walking by. I mean, I love it. I think it's just cool because you can use this lens for that. You're out shooting macro and then, ooh, something cool, right? And you can get shots like that shot of my daughter here. Really, really close. 2500 ISO in a restaurant, but you still get a lot of good sharpness. There's that noise that you'll see when you start pushing highlights and shadows and exposure on this sensor. But really want to make another video about high ISO on this camera because I think it's actually really good. It's not getting a fair shake. I saw this water and I was like, oh my gosh, please find a way to compose and have everything in focus. And at F4, you know, it's not super sharp just because again, I'm only at 200 of a second and I've got pretty shaky hands. I'm trying to do this on a walk with my daughter, getting A lot of these test shots, so, I don't know, thought it was cool. Ended up, you know, doing really well. But once you zoom in, you can see a little bit of the softness. But I still think it's plenty sharp. You know, sharpness is obviously something that we're all going crazy about these days, but. Yeah, more water here. This is 7.1, so we're gonna get more sharpness. 6 40th of a second, so it's even sharper. 500 ISO. Again, pulled back. Doesn't really look like too much. In fact, I didn't post this one anywhere because you really have to zoom in to kind of appreciate it. So, I mean, you can really see the details. I mean, we're all the way zoomed in here. I can keep going and going and going, but, I mean, the sharpness here is awesome. Just a photo of some cacti and outside of an apartment, you know, very respectable sharpness. Very respectable. This is 5.6 thousandth of a second. Just something cool. Here's again, probably my favorite shot. Spider. It's only a hundredth of a second, I imagine at F5. I imagine if I did this at a higher shutter speed, I would have had much better clarity and sharpness here. But when you're that close, I don't know. I'm not scared of spiders, but I certainly don't love them. When you're that close, you're kind of just trying to take the photo quickly. And maybe that's been my problem with macro, but see a little ant here too. So, yeah, really cool. Again, a little shot outside of where I was taking photos of that f4,250th of a second. Just awesome stuff. And then the last photo here, on the way back from my little test shoot on the hood of a car after it had rained. Pretty cool. Not something that I want to post and share with people, but I think it's. It gives the idea pretty well. So 7.1, 100th of a second, 800 ISO. So you see a little bit of grain in here, but I think it's manageable. So, yeah, so that is the XF32.8R LM WR Macro. It has almost all of the kind of notations on here except for ois, and also puts the notations around the barrel of the lens versus on the front. I believe that's for reflections. So thanks for watching. I know this was super long. I didn't want to make it this long, but I wanted to show some photos and hopefully you enjoyed come back soon if you haven't like this video and subscribe would really help out the channel. Thanks guys. Bye.
