A review of the Sigma 18-50mm F2.8 DC DN vs the Fujifilm XF16-50mm F2.8-4.8 R LM WR

The first X Series zoom I owned was the Fujifilm 16-80mm F4, but I found the lens a little too large for street photography. I don’t think I took any really good photos with this lens, and I certainly didn’t enjoy using it. I was planning to change it for the original Fujinon XF18-55mm F2.8-4 which is a more compact size for street when Sigma released the 18-55m F2.8 DC DN Contemporary – I was instantly sold.

Not only did this lens looks great with it’s minimal aesthetics, it was lightweight (285g vs the Fujinon XF18-55mm at 310g) and had a fixed f2.8 aperture.

Take my money!

For the past 18 months I’ve been using this wonderful lens on a Fujifilm X-S10 and, more recently, a Fujifilm X-T5. It’s my go-to travel lens, and I frequently choose it over my collection of primes during daily photo walks because of it’s versatility and sharpness. The image quality is absolutely fantastic at the wide end as well as the long end, even wide open at f2.8. I’ve taken some of my favourite photos with this lens, a selection of which are below:

Recently, Fujifilm launched a rebooted version of their classic kit zoom, the XF16-50mmF2.8-4.8 R LM WR. I wasn’t looking to change the Sigma, but this new Fujifilm lens has an aperture ring (unlike the Sigma), a linear motor, weather resistance and is isn’t a telescopic zoom – a big attraction for me. The only downside is the variable focal length when zooming, only getting as wide as F4.8 at the long end. I figured this might be a compromise worth accepting, so I tried the zoom out with a free Fujifilm loan.

The new 16-50mm F2.8-4.8 is more lightweight than the Sigma, weighing in at 240g, but there’s not a lot in it. The Fujifilm is a 65mm diameter compared to the Sigma’s 55mm though, which makes it feel a little bigger.

The big difference is when you’re zooming. The non-telescopic, fixed size of the Fujifilm lens is absolutely fantatic. The Sigma feels monstrous when you zoom in to 50mm. The Sigma also zooms the opposite direction to other zoom lenses, which is slightly confusing (but of course, you get used to it). Here’s a comparison with both lenses at full zoom.

Image quality wise, I couldn’t really tell the difference. I’ll let the pixel-peeping reviewers get into the nitty gritty of that, but for my street photography, I’d say they’re identical and both more than good enough for my needs even with the 40MP X-Trans 5 sensor of the X-T5.

I thought the constant F2.8 aperture of the Sigma might be a big benefit when zoomed to 50mm, but while this does give more background blur than the Fujifilm (which is F4.8 at the long end), it’s not actually that noticable. You could argue that the Fujifilm bokeh is more appealing?

If you’re into night shooting then this is going to make a difference, but I wouldn’t personally use either of these lenses at night. I’d be using my 33mm F1.4 prime for that.

So am I tempted to sell the Sigma and buy the Fujifilm? Well, it’s a tough call but there’s just not enough pull for me to do this. While the form factor, the weather resistance and constant size of the Fujifilm is tempting, it’s not enough. The Sigma takes wonderful photos, and I’ve been out in the mist and light rain with it and never had a problem with its lack of weather resistance. I’m sure if you were in heavy rain it would be a problem, but I’d be under an umbrella in this situation so it’s fine!

One note on the aperture ring on the Fujifilm. I love the aperture rings on my Fujifilm primes - being able to look down and see what F-stop I’m choosing it much better than having to look at a screen, but you don’t get this benefit with the variable aperture nature of these Fujifilm zooms. There is an aperture ring, but it’s not labelled. You can’t pick the F-stop value visually because it depends on what zoom level you’re at, so you have to use the screen! I actually much prefer using the front dial for changing the aperture with the Sigma, which you can’t seem to do with the Fujifilm because of the aperture ring.

Finally, it’s worth noting that Fujifilm make the ‘ideal’ zoom lens with the XF16-55mmF2.8 R LM WR, but this beast comes at a big cost – both financially at £1000, and physically because it’s over twice the weight of the others (a whopping 655g) and very chunky to boot (85mm diameter). No thanks! I heard a rumour that Fujifilm are going to be releasing a new version of this lens which will be smaller. If they do this, and can get it below 400g with a smaller form factor, that would be enough to get me to switch!