The Fujinon XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 R LM OIS lens isn’t exactly going away (you’ll still be able to buy it easily) but it will stop being Fuji’s go-to kit lens.
As per a recent report from PetaPixel, this popular lens for Fuji cameras, including some of their best and newest models, will be supplanted by a new kit lens for future releases.
This new lens will instead be the XF 16-50mm f/2.8-4.8 R LM WR and there’s a good chance that quite a few users will miss it, not only for its quality but also for long it’s been the standard kit lens of many Fujifilm cameras.
The XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 was first introduced as a new optic by Fujifilm back in September of 2012, almost 12 year ago and soon became a key kit lens option among Fuji’s mid-range and premium cameras.
Essentially, it has been an upgrade option that was available for people who didn’t want the company’s XC 16-50mm f/3.5-5.6 OIS and later XC 15-45mm f/3.5-5.6 OIS PZ lenses as their kit optics.
Considering how long the XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 spent as Fujifilm’s first-impression lens for so many photographers buying their first-ever Fuji X-series camera, it became one of the brand’s single most important lenses.
The interesting thing about the XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 however was that, despite being an introductory kit lens, it wasn’t just something to use while getting used to a new Fuji X camera.
Unlike many kit lenses among other camera brands, the XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 was genuinely good enough to work as a strongly performing long-term optic for all kinds of quality photography.
It may not have been one of Fujifilm’s best or most versatile lenses, but it covered the essentials very well and continues to do so.
Essentially, as Petapixel mentions, the Fujinon XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 went against the grain of what to expect from the usual kit lens and its typically negative connotations.
It pulled this off by being not just good enough as a starter lens for out-of-the-box work but also something more that delivered long-term quality.
Fujifilm, instead of just picking a lens that would work at a basic level but make buyers want to spend on additional lenses, chose the XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 as a kit model that itself represented Fuji quality.
In other words, the company took a more far-sighted view of customer service instead of focusing on doing whatever generates immediate lens sales and the XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 spent years as a genuinely good starter lens for generations of Fujifilm camera buyers.
Its replacement as the standard Fuji kit lens will hopefully be just as good.
Fuji camera users who want a solid lens that has a proven track record can of course still get the Fujinon XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 R LM OIS at a very reasonable price.
