How terrible is the 60mm AF?

I own the 2.4/60 since it has been released, until 1 year ago I even continued shooting with the very first X-E1 !

the optical quality is simply amazing for such a light, little and not so expensive lens.

i like this lens still a lot, because ....

- it is equally (very) sharp from the venter to the corners, as even confimed by objectiv MTF-charts. Even full open!

- it has a really WONDERFUL Bokeh and is therefore as good for Macro as it is for Portrait.

- it has nearly ZERO problems with light coming directly onto the lens and less than no problems with light from the side. This leads to nearly zero use of the big metal hood, also because the lens is well protected and so in a better position. Thus you have even more free space for close-up Macros and less problems with the light on your object.

I still love this fine lens a lot.

As for the AF:

you can imagine, that the first years on a X-E 1 this lens was not terrible, no seriuos problems with AF (if enough light exists) - but surely NOT a lens for Sports, dogs etc.

BUT: Fujifilm upgraded seriously its firmware for BOTH, the X-Cameras AND the kens itself.

now I have a X-E3 and I can assure you that the AF of the 2,4/60 has enormously advanced, there is just a little, irrelevant bit of delay of its velocity, but the advanced AF sensoring on the new cameras Sensors and fast prozessors lead to VERY satisfying handling for photography AND thus the precision is very good. I had the impression, that it helps a lot NOT to chose a very small field if you use selective one-point AF in camera. Chosing a bigger field makes the combination faster and more precise.

that being said... the AF of the 2.4/60 is now nearly 10 years old - you can advance as much as possible by the wonderful new AF in-camera and upgrade firmwares of both, the lens and the camera - but not overcome the technical limits of an older AF mechanism in that lens.

so - YES, this lens is wonderful optically and it is absolutely sufficient for normal photography - I can nothing but recommend it. This lens is absolutely underrated!

the downsides: no OIS (now compensated by IBIS, so no problem) and it makes some noise - but that is acceptable as long as long as you dont shoot in churches or so.

give it a try - you can either start to love it as we do - or sell it for the same price - I have the impression that there is more and more demand of this lens on the 2nd hand market..

@ valdei21

You can neither compare AF performance of the old ,4/35 nor the 2.4/60 on the old X-E1 or X-E2 with the performance on a X-3 or X-E 4!

the problems at the time of these old X-Kameras was NOT the lens itself, bit the AF performance of the bodies ITSELF!

I could make the PROOF, because these old lenses work now much better than before on my X-E3.

YES, you can still hear the AF, but the AF is less loud because on new bodies the signal of the body to the lens is more precise. So: less pumping compared with use on the old bodies.

But only the wonderful bokeh and the exceptional optical quality throughout the whole image easily overweights this nowadays irrelevant „problem“...

the X-E1 had a „macro“ button for limiting focus range, this was a good feature to reduce  AF-pumping on the X-E1.

would have been better to install this button on the lens, because this button (with a tulip on it) was later abandoned by Fuji.

so, you have to go now in the sheets of the LCD to block or release the focus range in Macro mode.

Not nice, but I can live with this.

Cheers