It’s a breath of fresh air to have someone use fujifilm for wildlife. I always feel crazy telling people I use an X-T5 and the tamron 150-500mm for wildlife and flower photography.
You are not crazy, you are revolutionary ☺️ thank you very much! I think Fujifilm equipment is very capable and I just love their stuff! It’s great to read someone else enjoying it too 🙃
I feel like it's a small group of people who shoot wildlife photography with Fuji, for that reason I became super excited to see Victoria's channel here because it seems so difficult to find wildlife photographers on RU-vid that use Fuji.
This is super lovely and great feedback to know, there will be more wildlife stuff on the way with Fujifilm equipment 🙃 it was nice at the wildlife hides as I was the only one using Fujifilm, so nice to represent the brand ☺️
Excellent review Victoria. Excellent photos as well!! I appreciated most your effort to have the meta data for each photo!! Made a world of difference in appreciating the lens. Thanks.
This is a wonderful review. You are such a pleasure to watch and the content was so informative. I’m very much looking forward to watching your other videos now. 😊
I am waiting for mine to arrive. Been watching loads of reviews and videos. Yours is easily the best, inspirational, informative and joyful. Those red squirrel shots made me very happy ❤
I am so impressed with the number of beautiful photos you show us :) bravo! You're so lucky to be able to get so close to wildlife and take such great photos!
What a fantastic review Victoria. I just bought this lens with much trepidation, but already feel better from watching your video. I appreciate your tips at the end of the video about keeping the boxes and taking care of your lenses. Thanks for sharing this review.
WOW - your footage (both stills and video) is amazing, There is more at work than just the camera and les there. Having said that I NEED that lens now :) Thank you for a really nice review - looking forward to more.
Lovely review Victoria. The quality of that lens is superb. Need to win the Lottery to get it though but your review puts it up there in the must have category. Also love the music you use , it is very calm and suits your style of filming. Well done.
Thank you! Yes it is a brilliant lens, I do really want it! I’ll keep saving the pennies and one day i will :) thank you for this, I really do my best to provide a thorough reviews and that covers everything, it’s definitely worth it! And music choice too, I’m a big fan of music so like to pick the right stuff. Thank you again 🙃
Brilliant review Victoria loved the video footage but for me it was the badgers and the squirrel images they were fantastic, one day we will have this lens 🤞🤞
Watched this previously Victoria which really helped with my decision to go for it over the 100-400 ! Bought a UV filter with it and was getting poor results in low light, so was such a relief to hear you had a similar issue. Waiting for the time and lighting to absolutely put this through its paces ! Thanks ☺️
Really wonderful Review! Hopefully I can test this lens someday. The photos you took are awesome! The ones of the badgers are just truly exceptional :)
Thank you so much and I hope you do as well, it is a brilliant lens! and since making this review I have purchased the lens and taken it on a lot more adventures and have grow to love it even more :)
Awesome review, but obviously the results you've shown over the last weeks/months, and in also the new ones in this video, speak for themselves. Absolute quality! 🤩 I think you've made a case for wildlife photography on an APSC camera. The X-series cameras can truly handle it. This was a great promotion for Fujifilm as well. Hopefully they agree and will donate at least the lens to you. 🙏 Also, the outtakes were amazing. 🤣
Thank you so much! So glad you have enjoyed it all! I do have one more adventure vlog on the way linked to this lens! Hehe 🙃 It definitely can! And the stuff is so lightweight and easy to use, it is great! I really do love the x-series. Hehe please can you send this message to them so that they can give me one for free 😆 And thank you! Have to add some funny outtakes in! Ha! 🙃
@@wildandfreevictoria Looking forward to the next vlog. You're on a roll! Also looking forward to more Erik in the outtakes. He's such a good boy, and funny too. 😁
@@wildandfreevictoria Victoria, I shot Fujifilm several times in my past photography life, and I was always very delighted with the results I got. Some of my greatest results I achieved on Safari in Tanzania and Masai Mara with an X-T2 and the 100-400. Currently I am invested in a FF system, but often contemplate for myself to add either a X-H2 or X-T5 with the 150-600 for my wildlife photography. And I must say your videos make me lust very much to do so. So please keep going in exactly your style/way! Peter
Excellent review. And nice to see that you have really put it through its paces. I got the chance to use this last week on a Fuji experience day, and I was very impressed. Even though it is heavier than my 100-400, I found it more comfortable to use… maybe a balance thing?! You need to get yourself a website, because your images are great, and you’ve got so much experience that others will find invaluable.
Awwww thank you sooo much! This made me smile 😊 I really like to give a thorough and honest review, so I test it in all the places I would like to know if I was looking at this lens. Glad to read you have got your hands on it too! I agree, it is heavy but easier to use in some weird way, I think it is the balancing thing, it must distribute the weight better. Hehe thank you, I will definitely look into it I have been meaning to make one for a while now. Thank you again for your kind words, they do mean a lot and have a fantastic day ☺️🌊🦭
Thank you very much! and yes it is a brilliant lens! I am starting to get used to it more and it has performed very well for me in low light - but on super dark days it does struggle
It looks like this lens has excellent micro-contrast! It will be a tough choice for me to choose either this lens or Tamron's 150-500 for my Fuji XT-5. Thanks for your review!
Thanks for this, there are not many people yet using Fujifilm gear in wildlife fotography. So far I am quite happy with my 70-300mm which already is a range up to 450mm in full frame. The reach of the 150-600mm, the compact size and weight and quality of Fujis red badge lenses makes it worthwhile to consider. Enjoy your photography...
Aw I loved ready this! thank you! Yes I don't think there are many folk, so it's good to represent! I think Fuji is fantastic for wildlife work, it really it. Well that sounds like a great lens, sometime you don't need a longer reach than that! Yeah I was actually surprised with how light and portable the 150-600mm was, it is definitely worthwhile to consider. Keep enjoying your photography too! 🙃
Another fantastic video for Fuji X-H2S and the 150-600 lens. I am in the process of replacing my Sony A9 kit and am seriously considering the above combination. Just wondering if you have made a video covering the X-H2S camera settings for birds/wildlife that you use? If not, is it something you would make? Many thanks keep up producing the amazingly professional videos you produce. 👍🏻
Great video and such crisp photos. Hmmmmmmm, my camera bag is bursting at the stitches with my 100-400 and this lens might mean sacrificing other days lens’s. Although I love the lens sometimes it feels like I can’t quite get the reach I need. Thoroughly enjoyed your video. 🎉
Thank you Ollie, much appreciated! Yes, as it’s not collapsable it is a bit of a hefty lens! My bags are just getting bigger and bigger - i look like i’m going up Everest! You can always try a teleconverter for the extra reach. Thank you and I hope you are still trying filming and editing 🙃🌊
Love Your passion with Fuji!. Coming from sony i love my xt5. Thinking about going from sony 200-600 to 150-600 fuji. The 200-600 is abolutely a great lens, itś a difficult descission to make. Ím following Your passion for Fuji in Your videos I must Say ím impressed what You have achieved so far!. Ím on my way to 150-600!
Aww thank you so much! So glad to read too that you love you X-T5, it is a fantastic camera. Thank you, I really loved the 150-600mm but unfortunately I haven't purchased it yet as I had to buy some other gear and lenses. But I hope to buy it soon! 🙃
I love your passion and enthusiasm for nature and photography, it's so much fun to go through these adventures and photography experiences with you. I must say I've found that despite the fact I still use an SD card that's UHS-I it can keep up with my X-H2.. for the most part. I have to shoot lossless compressed raw otherwise with uncompressed raw my camera essentially hits a brick wall once that buffer is full and is unusable for quite some time while that buffer unloads onto the SD card.
Thank you so much! I just adore it all, so yes my vlogs are all from the heart. Well this is interesting to know! But also good! When I tested the XH2s i was shooting at 40fps and just pressing the button constantly- I wanted to test it’s maximum but to be fair it did do well on the SD card but the CF express was super fast. It will also be rare that I shoot like that, I just wanted to test how it performed 🙃 how are you finding your XH2?
@@wildandfreevictoria I totally understand, my inner nerd wants to check out those type of things just to see what the capabilities are too. I love my X-H2, I'm completely new to Fuji and have been on the Sony side just doing landscapes and travel photography for pleasure over the years....but have started to enjoy birding, especially hummingbirds 🤓and I wanted to upgrade to a camera with more features and a larger body frame because my hand is way too big for the Sony a6400 that I own. I really contemplated about the Canon R8 for the autofocus and subject tracking features, but something just called me to Fuji and to give it a try. I guess my only concern is the subject tracking features on Fuji, being that it's not anything you see being raved about online and I was curious to hear what experiences you've had on your H-X2S with wildlife tracking and how has it been with the 150-600 lens.
Sometimes that is just normal for a telephoto, especially when hand held and with a higher base aperture. It does do really well, both the camera and lens 🙃✌🏻
I bought the xf70-300 for general use but the more I shoot with the more addicted to long range and shooting birds ,I feel there's a lot more and im looking at this lens and wondering how this beast can behave with an X-T3. I Loved that video and images and became instant fan Thank you !
14:02 There are CFExpress Cards that are listed by Fuji as being 100% compatible that even cost less than SD cards for the same size, while being faster. Also, the buffer is smaller in the X-T5 indeed. Love your video, insanely beautiful shots :)
You have taken some stunning and beautiful photographs and you should be very pleased with yourself. When I was looking for a long zoom lens for my X-E3 in late 2022 there was a choice between a new 70-300mm and a used 100-400mm. After feeling the weight I decided to go for the 70-300mm because I considered the 100-400mm to be too heavy to be carried around for long periods. I now use the 70-300mm with an X-S20 and a 1.4X teleconverter and it works well. However, you appear to manage the 150-600mm lens with a heavy camera body with ease. Maybe I should re-evaluate my wildlife photography and consider the 150-600mm as a future purchase, however I am probably twice your age.
What an awesome and complete video! I have rented this lens last winter and i had the exact same thoughts as you and was actually a bit disappointed. I am going to rent it again in a few weeks to see how it performs in the summer! I do have one question for you that keeps bumming me. How do you feel that it compares to the 100-400 specially with the faster aperture of that lens. Do the images seem a lot prettier bokeh wise on the faster lens? Keep up these fun videos 👍🏻👍🏻
Thank you very much and I am glad you enjoyed it! Yes I struggled a bit in winter too but I think I was also getting used to the lens and the XH2s at the time so it probably impacted me using the lens. But I am very happy that I gave it another shot (excuse the pun) as I loved it! I think the 100-400mm is still a fantastic lens, the aperture is great and the compatibility but I think where the 150-600mm wins for me is stability and refinement, it gives a professional finish to your images/filming. I don't know if you saw the bokeh on this review with the 150-600 but it is still fantastic and the compression looks great as well 🙃
Thanks for the excellent and considered review. The photos were beautiful. The large size is a concern for me - how did you find traveling with it and your other lenses?
Thank you very much for this 🙃 to be honest, it wasn’t really a problem for me - although you do need a big bag to fit the camera and lens in. But I mostly carry around 1 prime when with the telephoto so it isn’t too bad for me 🙃
I really want to purchase this lens but I have an XT3. Do you think it will be an ok setup to achieve similar results like yours? Your pictures are beautiful.
Hi Victoria, amazing video thanks for sharing! You said both bodies are excellent. However, I've noticed that you used mainly the X-H2s for your shots and while you were holding the lens and explained you showed the X-T5. Is there a reason you mostly used the X-H2s? Is this because of the handling/grip of the h2s? Or slightly better performance or SD card issues as you mentioned?
Thank you! I didn’t use one more than the other, I split it evenly. It’s just the photos I ended up using for the vlog. I used the XT5 for my wildlife hides (which I have vlogs about) and it worked great. Just for the faster paced work I found the XH2s to be better suited for the - it is a speedy camera 🙂
Aw fantastic video, I have the lens but I'm using an XT3, I'm undecided on the two cameras but leaning to the XH2S, you've proved they're both fab!! It's just the buffer seems better on the 2S! Can you confirm this? The XT3 isn't too good at focusing at times... Great stuff though😊😊
Well I will be doing a comparison review soon of the XH2s and the XT5 which might help and yes, the buffer on the XH2s was faster - but I also think this was linked to my SD being 200mb/s, other people have said they use 300mb/s and it is no issue for them 🙃
If you had to choose just one of the camera bodies for wildlife and landscape photography which would you keep? Just for the photo side of it. Your shots are great. Looks like both are capable including your self. Great content. Thanks
Thank you for the great review - I have the 100-400mm Fuji lens - do you think the 150-600 is a superior lens? (And then I realised that this is a recurring question!).
Thank you very much! Ah that is a difficult question, I wouldn’t like to say it is superior as the 100-400mm is fantastic in it’s own way. If you are looking for more details and refinement then yes the 150-600mm is a step up - especially the stability and clarity. I hope that helps 🙂
Thank you! and it all depends on yourself, I can notice a big difference in the clarity and also the finish in the filming. But the 100-400 is still fantastic, so it is up to you!
Hi Victoria, great review of the lens which has come at good time for me as I have the X-H2 and was wondering what the autofocus of the 150-600 is it more capable/accurate than 100-400?
Thank you very much! And glad is comes at a good time. For me I thought the autofocus was great, i’ve not tried the lens on the X-H2 just on the X-H2S and X-T5 but I got some cracking shots with it - I only had a few problems that I mentioned in the review but I thought it did great! How it compares to the 100-400, yes I still thought it was fast and accurate 🙃
@@wildandfreevictoria Thank You 🙏 I am near to buying and I’m sure autofocus is a step up as it’s a newer lens. Thanks again and look forward to your next video 😊
Well put it this way, I love the 100-400mm, I took it to East-Africa and it did amazing. But even after that.. i still want to buy the 150-600mm, it is beautiful ☺️ thank you again and happy shooting! ☺️
Among the XT5, XH2, XH2s, which one do you consider better to have more detail in the capture? Soy de España (Entre la XT5, XH2, XH2s, cual consideras mejor para tener mas detalle en la captura) ((No hago video, solo fotografía) (I don't make video, I only photograph)
If you need something more portable I would recommend to test the 70-300 F:4-5.6. Its a huge difference from the 600mm, but with the 40mp sensor you will have some room to crop and still have a great image. And 300mm is still 450mm equivalent to full frame so its not bad at all. And its smaller, more portable and... cheaper ;)
I was wondering a lot about the two 40 mp cameras and this lens. I read a lot about them not beeing very good with it and the pixel density for low light and the f8 not beeing useful with 40 mp and so on. But watching your videos and the pictures you have taken with the X-T5 just show that 40 mp seem perfectly fine with this lens.
Thank you for watching and yes this point was raised in my badger vlog. I don’t watch anything on RU-vid (ironically as i’m on it!) so I can’t comment on what others have said but to fair to them, each day in photography is different and everyone tests their equipment with their own mind and some are a lot more technical than I am, I like to get to the point (if it works or not). So yeah but one thing that doesn’t make sense is why Fujifilm would introduce a new enhanced telephoto lens like the 150-600mm and a flagship camera like the XT5 with such a great sensor into their XSeries if you couldn’t use them together. It just doesn’t make logical sense and even from a business perspective it does, a lot of people will buy the XT5 for photography and it makes sense that you can use the 150-600 with it - just my thought on it. But like you say, the proof is in the pudding ☺️
Great video ❤ Nice to see Love your excitement At certain moments of talk eg @ 09:12 minutes, the video gets that misty soft movie type effect: was it because of a filter or edit or dull sun light... just wondering. It looked movie like beautiful (suddenly)
Thank you very much for watching and leaving a kind comment! I just rewatched it to see what you meant and I see what you mean, I think it was just the angle of the camera to the sunlight coming through the trees 🙃 but i see what you mean the movie vibe - just a bit of random luck 🙃
Thank you very much! Ah it is such a hard decision, a few folk have asked me this difficult question! I do miss the 100-400 for it’s aperture and compactness but unfortunately I will not be able to own both lenses. I still do have my 100-400 but I think eventually I will get the 150-600mm 🙃
Hi Victoria - Just bought this lens to use with my X-H2 and X-H2S. Quick question.... do you find that you are usually using the bird and animal autofocus settings when you use this lens? If not, what do you find to work best? Thanks!
Hello! Congratulations on your awesome set up! It’s a mixture really, I do use the animal and bird AF which is great - but just make sure you adjust your custom AF settings for speed and tracking sensitivity to match your subject. And if I don’t use that (say if there are multiple subjects) I will just use spot focus as I find this one easier or manual focus 🙂
Regarding SD cards…my XT3 has about a 30-32 shot buffer in lossless raw, which is how I always shoot. Sandisk extreme V30 cards take around 16 seconds to clear (based on my counting not a watch). With pricier V90 cards, the buffer depth doesn’t improve but it clears in 8-9 seconds or about half the time in other words. Shooting at lower speeds (CL) I measured more shots before slowdown kicks in. So I think it’s worth it if you are doing pre-shot ES or shooting high speed a lot. Waiting for the buffer to clear can be agonizing if you have something awesome in front of you and you want to keep going!
I’ve watched your review of the 100-400 and this two of the 150-600. I really like both. Trying to make up my mind. 100-400 smaller more likely to travel with it. 150-600 more powerful and will rarely be wanting for more reach. Is the 150-600 really that much better?
It is never an easy decision! I swapped my 100-400mm for the 150-600 for the extra refinement and the clarity/stability when filming. It is a beautiful lens and I just got some great shots with it away doing bear photography- vlogs coming out soon. But I did also take the 100-400mm away to East-Africa and it also did a fantastic job too. So it all depends really, maybe see if you can borrow them from Fujifilm through their equipment hire system and then you can have both in hand to compare 🙂
I had the X-H2S and 150-600 on loan for a week, (thank you Fujifilm 👍), it’s a lovely combination for wildlife. Re the 4 buttons on the end of the lens, I found this a great way of focussing. Loving the photographs you took, can you advise if these were RAW, or JPGs? Thanks.
So glad to hear it! Such a great combination and I really enjoyed using it as well. I imagine if I used the lens for longer I might set up the buttons but for the time I had I just did use them but they are a good idea. Thank you very much! They were shot in RAW but exported to JPEG :)
So what is your opinion now of the 150-600 vs the 100-400? In your previous video you seem also really happy with the 100-400 because of the brighter aperture and also for your closer action in Africa (you mentioned that 150mm was maybe too long for that trip). I would love to hear your opinion! thx Sjors
The joys of lenses - wanting them all! 😅 So I love both in their own realms, the 100-400 is super portable and I did think it was fantastic for safari. I do think the 150 would be too close because I had animals soo close to the safari truck that the 100-400 was pushing it with closeness. So it all depends on the situation and what you are shooting. I have recently purchased the 150-600mm just for the extra reach but also I find the quality for filming is a step up- but then you have the issue with the narrower aperture. For now I will forfeit the wider aperture of the 100-400 and stick with the 150-600. I am on a trip this week doing wildlife photography with the 150-600 and also the 200mm f/2 (not mine, just borrowing it), so it will be interesting to see the competition- I have always loved primes so this will be very interesting 😄 I hope that helps and hasn’t confused matters more! 🙂
Thank you for the thorough reply Victoria. I will just stop my G.A.S and continue to happily shoot with my 100-400 (and dont think about the 150-600 haha). Btw I decided to buy a 16-80 for close action for a safari trip.@@wildandfreevictoria
If you could only have one, would it be the 100-400mm or the 150-600mm? There is the option of adding a 1.4x TC and they would become very similar with different pros & cons.
Why would you do that to me 😆 egh such a tricky decision, with the 100-400 you do have the wider aperture and it is more compact but with the 150-600 you have the stability and a bit more refinement. There are definitely pros and cons with both, they fall in different ways but they are both great lenses. I think for the finish and refinement I would choose the 150-600 but I would miss the nippyness and ease of the 100-400mm 🙃
I have found that the Fuji X-H2s is a much better match for birds and wildlife photography than the X-T5. The X-T5 is my favorite travel camera, but it falls short for tracking birds.
Thank you, yes I found on darker conditions of fast moving subjects (and no tripod) to be quite tricky to work with but I have managed dark conditions with a higher ISO and you can still get a clear image but yes it is tricky in miserable UK weather! I would love to test it in East-Africa 😄
@wildandfreevictoria Thanks for the response. I'm using 70-300mm with 1.4x teleconverter, trying to have an idea about the reach of this 150-600 mm. Keep up with your good work 👏.
You are not doing any favours for my bank account! I have the 100-400 but the 150-600 is appealing. What really impresses me are the shots at f8. Vis cards, in my XT5 I use for polo games (ex-race horses galloping at 25-30 MPH) I use Sandisk 300MB/s, UHS-II, V90, U3 cards (that's mouthful) and have seldom experienced a slowing of the buffer write speed (setting RAW+Fine), despite being aware of it, during a run of play.
Hehe I know i’m sorry.. not for mine either! I swear Fujifilm sends me this stuff deliberately so I buy it - it happened with the XH2s! 😆 i have the 100-400 too and it is a fantastic lens but I did really love using the 150-600 and I really do want to buy it! Ooo that is really interesting and thank you for sharing that! What burst shot mode did you use? CH or CL? My SD card is a Sandisk but 200/MB/s so great to get some feedback from someone with a higher reading card, thank you for sharing this! 🙃
@@wildandfreevictoria I use CH/15. I have as a back up 170MB/s cards (so not different I assume to the newer 200MB/s cards) and they do hit the buffer fairly quickly in the XT5 (I believe the buffer in the XH2/XH2S is larger so not such a barrier). The issue with the 300 card is their high price, but I reasoned with a XT5 if I was to take advantage of the better AF system, then I had to splash out on one set of fast cards too.
Hey , Hii I am from India And while searching the best lens for shooting in RU-vid I got your channel and I have seen the Video this were so amazing 🤩 and Specially you are so so beautiful 😍 I put lens in 2nd position and you will be the 1 st beauty girl 👧🤭🤭 …. Support for the channel Dear ❤❤ lots of love ❤️ 🤭🤭🤭🤭
I bought a 70-400 mm lens had great images and now I bought the 150 - 600mm and I just cannot put it down the images I am getting are so pin sharp I used to have a series of Nikon cameras but now have chaged to Fuji I resently purchasedthe 70 - 300 and have pre ordered tth 33mm-1.4 looking forward to trying it out happy birding and nature in general yours Rob Lowe /B311NG
Either my copy is defect or it is optically incompatible with my old X-T1 because the image quality difference between your moon shots and mine are so different its like comparing a phone photo from 2008 with an iphone/samsung flagship pic from today I'm not even exaggerating
Yes it was a challenge for sure! but to be honest.. I didn't see much wildlife in the winter in the UK, so I think I would use this in the other months 🙃✌🏻
Haha I already own 2.5, don't need more kidneys 😛 I would love to buy this lens as well, I'll keep my fingers crossed that one day Fuji will give it too me 🙃
@@wildandfreevictoria well… Fuji dropped the price by £350 and I couldn’t resist. Collect mine tomorrow morning. Feels like being 5 years old on Xmas eve 😂
Well I use mine all the time and it’s fantastic. I actually film all my vlogs using the eye tracking setting and it’s great. So you are either unfamiliar with Fuji stuff or your need to learn to set up your equipment properly.
@@wildandfreevictoria eye tracking and Face detecting not importand. All Cameras fantastic to this area. But, animal, bird, cars and another subject tracking? Fuji is far behind other brands
@@sauron7187 well I managed just fine and got sharp and crisp images from a boat in choppy water 🤷🏻♀️ must be something you are doing as the proof is in the pudding
