A. Schacht Ulm R Travenar 135mm f/3.5

Alternative to wide angle/short telephoto lens I wanted this lens which has been reviewed by many sources as an excellent choice for a wide angle plus telephoto lens needs. Often I find the 18-55 mm lens is not long enough. This lens fills the need as a great general purpose lens when you don't want to or can't switch out lenses without surely missing the image. It is a great wedding photography lens when you need just a little longer focal length than the shorter range lenses. It is optically stabilized which often allow significantly slower shutter speed when hand holding the camera to keep the image sharp (nulls camera shake). To hand hold a crop factor sensor camera, the rule for sharp image quality is shutter speed must be 4x 1/focal length used.

A dust collector is unacceptable for an otherwise decent lens The image quality is great, but had to return the item because just after an hour of use, a speck of dust entered the lens. This causes focus problems, and somehow with Fujifilm lenses, the dust appears bottom-center inside the lens. It does no justice for an expensive lens with very good optics and image quality comparable to the good kit f3.5, 18-55mm manual zoom. If the lens is redesigned with better materials to prevent dust getting in so easily, it would be recommended. Made in China, whether that made a difference here, I would not rule out.

Great all purpose lens. This is a perfect travel lens. Images definitely aren't as sharp or attractive as Fuji's primes, but the results are great considering the huge (27-200, FF equivalent) focal range. Image stabilization is startlingly effective as well. Lens is somewhat heavy, but balances quite well on an X-T1/2 (or a smaller camera with added grip) and feels very solid and durable in the hand. If the XF 18-55 were weather resistant, I'd probably go for that under most circumstances, as it has faster apertures available, somewhat better image quality, and is considerably more petite.