When it comes to street photography, getting close is a challenge many photographers face.

Especially if you’re new to it or you’re not yet comfortable in your own skin, it can be the defining difference between good and bad photos.

It’s so important that every time I shoot, I’m reminded of the quote by the late Robert Capa:

“If your photographs aren’t good enough, you aren’t close enough.”

To get close we have two real main options: move our feet or shoot with a tighter lens.

Since I shoot mostly with the V, I’ve done a lot of the former.

But I had yet to experiment more with tighter lenses, ones like 50mm and above.

So I picked up the XF 50mm f2 as a means to experiment and close this gap in my photography.

Here are my first impressions.

General Impressions

Upon first pickup, you get what you’d expect out of most Fujifilm lenses.

A well built lens that’s nice to hold and touch.

But there are a few key differences that make the 50mm unique.

Lets start with size.

Size

In the X-Mount lineup you have tons of options for standard portrait lenses.

Those being lenses in the 50mm focal length range (aps-c).

There’s the 50mm f1.0, the 56mm f1.2, the other 56mm f1.2, and even the 60mm f2.4.

With so many lenses to choose from it’s hard to know which one is right for you.

However, the key thing that makes the 50mm f2 stand out is the size.

In comparison to many of these other lenses, the 50mm is tiny.

It’s not a pancake lens but it’s quite portable and even pocketable (depending on the pockets you have).

Which makes it very convenient to bring around and use.

This lens makes up part of the “fujicron” family, along with the 23mm f2 and the 35mm f2.

These are small, portable, f2 aperture lenses that are affordable, high quality, and weather sealed.

And while the 50mm isn’t as small as the 35 or 23, it’s still reasonably sized.

This is probably due to the longer focal length which gives it a slightly longer nose.

Build Quality

As for build quality, it’s solid.

The lens has a decent weight without being too heavy.

It’s about 200g and feels mostly metal, correct me if I’m wrong.

I definitely prefer metal over plastic for my lenses.

It gives the lens a bit of weight to it so it doesn’t feel as cheap.

Which is ironic because size and weight is important to me as well, and metal is heavier.

So I like smaller lenses, I like a lighter setup, but I also want it to feel nice.

And I think the XF 50mm is a good blend or balance between the two.

The lens is also weather sealed which is a plus.

I’ve not yet had a chance to shoot with it in rain, but I’m sure it’ll come in handy.

There’s also an aperture ring with clicks.

Some people don’t like the clicks but I do.

It makes changing my aperture feel a bit more tactile and I can easily get a sense of how many adjustments I’m making.

Another upside of this lens is the linear motor autofocus.

It means that despite being roughly 7 years old now, it has decent autofocus.

So overall, I’m quite happy with the general quality of this lens.

It’s about what you’d expect from a Fujifilm lens.

Moving on.

Use with the X-Pro3

In my review of the X-Pro3 I mentioned buying this lens to help with a photography problem I was having.

My problem was: shooting with the X-Pro3 felt like a slower shooting experience, not a faster one.

Slowing down my photography to match this came with a few other problems.

The main one being: I wasn’t used to shooting slow and slowing down made it harder to get close.

And getting close is important for the reasons we mentioned earlier.

So the hypothesis was: the 50mm would make it easier to get close without literally getting close.

And for the most part, I was right.

A tighter focal length does indeed make it easier to get closer in street photography.

You can shoot from a distance, you’re less likely to be noticed, and you can take more time composing your shot.

However, this took some getting used to and I wasn’t prepared for the trade-offs that might come with it.

Because if something has upsides, it probably has downsides as well.

One such downside is that: it’s a bit weird to use in normal everyday situations.

The 50mm is more of a portrait focal length, so normal everyday scenarios like going to eat or getting coffee, can actually be too close.

Which can make it tough to take photos of food or even your friends - because you’re right in their face.

So for most everyday scenarios you’d be better off using a 23mm or 35mm (aps-c).

And after spending some time with the lens, I realized the 50 is a great lens to have in your bag, but more of a secondary option rather than a primary.

It’s not something you’d want to keep on your camera at all times because most of the times it’s too tight.

And you’re better off using it when you need it, rather than always having it on.

Unless of course you’re a portrait photographer, then your needs may differ.

Another problem with this lens was that it actually fed into my bad habits.

We mentioned earlier that one particular bad habit of mine is not willing to or being hesitant to get close to my subjects in street photography.

Some find it easy, I find it challenging.

Especially when it comes to strangers or environments I’m not used to.

So although the 50mm helped to “get close”, it also fed into that bad habit.

I no longer walked closer because I had no real incentive to get close.

And in certain photo sessions where I’d normally force myself to take a few extra steps, I didn’t.

Because with a tighter focal length I could just shoot from afar.

Which means that the real problem is me not the focal length I’m using.

So as you can tell, that’s been my experience so far with this lens: it’s a mixed bag…

Street Photography at Coachella

In my time with this lens I also had the chance to take photos at Coachella.

These are a bunch of photos I took back in April, and it was my first real time using this lens.

Thinking back on this experience and looking through these photos reconfirms many of my thoughts.

It’s great for some scenarios, but too tight for others.

Especially at an event like this, it was mostly too tight.

You’ve got massive crowds, big stages, and lots of people.

And for situations like these I prefer something wider.

It was however, quite useful for photographing artists performing on stage.

Especially since for an event like this, it can be tough to get to the front.

Everyone wants to get close, but there’s no space, it’s suffocating, and you’ll probably have to show up early.

But the closer you get, the better your photos.

So a tighter lens can help offset that if you’re further away from the stage.

All in all if you’re trying to take nice concert/event photos, it really depends what you’re trying to take a picture of and where you are in the crowd.

If you wanna photograph the artists, a tighter lens like the 50 and up can help.

If you’re looking to do more street style: taking pictures of people in the crowd, the venue itself, and the concert experience, stick to a 23 or 35.

That’s my recommendation at least.

A big aspect of this lens that did come in handy was the size.

The 50mm f2 is much smaller than many other lenses, especially ones of this focal length, so it was way easier to bring around.

Plus if I wanted a tighter focal length, it might mean a bigger lens - which wouldn’t be worth it.

Because listen, it’s like 90-100 degrees Fahrenheit out, you’re walking a lot, and you’re tired from an irregular sleep schedule.

The last thing I’d wanted to do was lug around a giant lens.

So the 50mm f2 is probably the best in-between for this particular scenario.

I’ve yet to use any portrait lenses that are this good, this small, and this portable.

Plus, my only other real option at the time was the 18-55.

With that lens, I could shoot tight or wide as needed, but it’s a bit bigger.

And the variable aperture was a caveat as well.

With the 18-55 I shoot mainly at f4, which made it difficult to get good low light exposure.

So the 50mm was great.

It’s smaller than the 18-55 and has an f2 aperture.

Which in my opinion is a great aperture for this focal length.

Many people might want more bokeh but personally, any wider than f2 might be too much.

You see, I’m not someone who needs a stupid amount of bokeh.

F2 feels perfect, and there is already decent compression with this lens because of its tighter focal length.

And if you’re worried about bokeh, it’s really up to you.

Personally, I found f2 to be good enough for my purposes.

So that’s been my experience testing this lens out at an event like Coachella.

Lets move on.

Would I Recommend It?

As you could probably tell, there are many ups and downs to this lens.

It’s not perfect, and it’s not supposed to be.

Rather there are certain aspects about this lens that make it good and certain aspects that I find limiting.

The key is to understand what those aspects are, what is important for your photography, and whether or not you can live with the downsides.

If you are a new photographer just getting started, I would not recommend this lens.

It’s focal length is quite limiting for everyday photography, and is more situational than anything.

And you’re better off starting off with a 23mm or 35mm aps-c.

The exception would be if you want to get into portrait photography or you know you need something this tight.

If that’s what you’re primarily doing, this could be a great first option, although I still might recommend a 35mm type lens, simply because it’s more versatile.

Now, if you’ve already got your standard primes and zooms and you’re looking for something of this specificity, that’s where this lens comes in.

In my opinion, it’s not going to be your primary everyday focal length, but a great lens to bring around and mix it up when you need to.

Plus, the best part about this lens is the price.

We’ve mentioned size, build quality, and you can also tell the image quality is quite solid.

But a quick search online will find you used copies for roughly $250-300.

And if we factor in all the other features, that’s a great price for this lens.

So overall, it’s a pretty good lens.

One that I think is worth trying out and seeing if you need it.

Anyways, thanks for reading.

Let me know your thoughts on this lens in the YouTube comments.

If you like photobooks, check out my photography zine “The Sinking Sun”.

Also get a free 4x6 print while you’re at it.

Have a great day - bye.