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Andrew James is here to lend a helping hand with all your technical needs, including macro lenses
I want to buy a macro lens for my Fujifilm camera. The best option I have found is a Samyang 100mm f/2.8 lens. What do you think? Fujifilm macro
The Samyang 100mm f/2.8 Macro certainly gives you a very good macro option, Todor. It is available in a Fujifilm mount (as well as for Canon, Nikon, Sony and Olympus). There are a couple of things you should be aware of with it. First, you’ll need to focus it manually. This may not be a big issue for you: in many cases when shooting macro, you will probably be better focusing manually anyway. Nor does it have any image stabilisation system; that’s not a problem if it’s tripod-mounted but could be something you’d miss when shooting handheld in less-than-ideal lighting conditions.
If you are OK with the lack of both these functions, the Samyang is a very good budget option. At current UK prices, it is retailing at around £400, which is a very reasonable price viewed next to Fujifilm’s own X-series macro lenses, the 60mm f/2.4 and the XF80mm f/2.8. The former doesn’t give you full macro and is priced at around £580, while the latter is a true macro lens with 1:1 reproduction, but costs over £1,000. That said, it does have optical image stabilisation and offers a full (and silent) autofocus system.
If money was no object, I’d opt for the Fuji 80mm lens, but if you are operating on a tight budget and can work around the lack of AF and image stabilisation, the Samyang is worth strong consideration.