During the seven-day Princess cruise up to Alaska, I tried to mix up my lens usage for reviews and to challenge myself. I carried only a few lenses as I roamed the boat, seeing what I could capture.
One of my most-used lenses on this trip was the Fujifilm 60mm f/2.4. It’s the Fujifilm macro lens and not really talked about or mentioned much online.
For this reason, I wanted to dedicate some time to it and share some photos. I’ll do a full Fujifilm 60mm f2.4 review in a few weeks as well.
Cruising with the Fujifilm 60mm f2.4
I’ll start by saying this is probably Fujifilm’s best Swiss Army Knife jack-of-all-trades lens. It’s not as good as the 56mm f/1.2 in terms of bokeh and autofocus speed, but it’s also not as big and will let you shoot inches from the lens.
I actually didn’t bring my 56mm f/1.2 on this trip up to Alaska because I was concerned about size and weight, and I needed a more general-purpose lens like this 60mm.
Autofocus speed requires some patience as it seeks around quite a bit, but once the subject is found and stays in that relative area, it focuses fine.
Focus speed is just one of those things I’ve noticed macro lenses always struggle with; my Canon 100mm macro lens struggles, the Canon 70-200mm has a distance switch on it to help it out, and even the X100F struggles now when trying to shoot macro. The X100T has a menu toggle that tells the camera to focus close, which I think is superior to how the X100F now handles it.
In terms of sharpness, micro-contrast, color saturation, and overall rendition, the lens performs very well.
It’s not really great at any one thing or with one dominant characteristic; instead, it’s a solid all-arounder with great micro-contrast, nice corner-to-corner sharpness, nice color rendition, and decent bokeh.
The 60mm f2.4 was kind of perfect for walking around a massive cruise ship while shooting out from the deck at the epic landscapes, while still being fast enough to shoot indoors or at night and under the dim lighting of the ship.
I also used it quite a bit off the ship as well.
One thing I immediately noticed with the Fujifilm 60mm is that the images still look clear, sharp, and colorful, even when viewed from a distance or slightly out of focus. That’s usually what it means when a lens “renders well.”
What else I really like about the Fujinon 60mm f2.4 is the build quality. The lens comes with a metal lens hood, which is awesome, and the lens overall feels very well designed, with a firm, smooth aperture and focus ring.
It also survived my trip to Alaska, and that’s saying a lot considering how much I beat up my gear.
The worst thing I did happened when we went through College Fjord in the pouring rain. This lens isn’t weather-sealed, and it got fairly soaked. I know, it’s not great to take your gear out in the rain unprotected, and I probably invited a lot of moisture into the lens that will haunt me later, but I was in one of those once-in-a-lifetime situations, and you know, lenses can be replaced, life experiences cannot. So it was raining, I did my best to keep my gear dry, and luckily no problems.
So what’s cruising to Alaska like?
Cold and rainy, but with pockets of amazing weather and beautiful sunsets while riding through some of the most breathtaking landscapes on earth.
As far as gear, my most used gear on this cruise was probably my 23mm f1.4 and this 60mm f2.4, along with my Canon 70-200mm f2.8 II adapted to my Sony A7rII.
Bottom Line
I would include the Fujifilm 60mm f/2.4 on my list of favorite Fujifilm lenses. I think of the lenses I own so far, my top favorite lenses in no particular order are the 23mm f1.4, the 27mm f2.8, the 56mm f1.2, and this lens, the 60mm f2.4.
My least favorites are the 10mm-24mm and the 35mm f2, and I’ve yet to fall in love with the 14mm f2.8. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t like them; I’m just not drawn to them as much as I am to other lenses.
The 16mm f1.4 is fantastic, but not my favorite focal length to shoot at, and the only reason I don’t really love that 35mm f2 is because it’s just kind of boring. It’s got nice swirling bokeh, great color, and contrast, but has no other real drool-worthy features, like the 16mm, 56mm, and 23mm; the 35mm is also a good all-arounder.
The 27mm f2.8 I love simply because of its size and how well it pairs with the X-Pro2, and I can’t wait for the new one with an aperture ring.
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