Although it has a small and light design, weighing in at just 180g, the Fujifilm XF 23mm f/2 R WR is still well crafted with an all-metal design. The small size arguably makes it more suited to the flatter design of the X Pro 2 (or X Pro1), but it would also work well with other cameras in Fujifilm’s range, such as the X-T2 or the X-T20. At its widest point around the aperture ring, the XF 23mm f2 has a maximum diameter of 57mm, but again this tapers beyond the aperture ring to 45mm by the time you reach the 43mm filter thread at the end. Meanwhile the lens barrel measures 52mm in length, making it a fairly compact walk-around lens, albeit not quite in the pancake territory of models like the XF 27mm f2.8. There’s no doubt in my mind that this is an excellent lens for street photography. It produces beautiful images and has industry leading autofocus speed. If you’re a Fuji X shooter and are looking for a 35mm full frame equivalent lens then this is the one to get.

I was taking pictures more carefully. My snapshots turned into more composed shots. Still, I was not focussing on a specific genre of photography. I really liked that camera, but within 5 years I had autofocus problems three times. So I thought it was time to get a new camera. I decided to buy a Fuji X-T3 with the 23mm F2 lens, which I never regretted a second yet. The Fuji 23mm f1.4 is not weather-resistant like the f2, so your shooting environments are more limited. This means you can use the f1.4 outdoors, but in unpredictable weather, it may not hold up as strong as the f2. WeightSet your aperture at f8 and focus at 12 feet and the blue depth of field scale at the bottom of the viewfinder shows approxiamtely 6 feet to infinity as being in focus. Just the way it should be. FINALLY! Of course, the depth of field was still in the shot even though the in-camera scale was incorrect but it’s nice to know you can use this scale when setting up your shots moving forward. The XF 23mm 1.4 R weighs 10.58 oz / 300 g, so the weight saving is not huge when compared to the 6.35 oz / 180 g for the XF 23mm f/2 R WR. The closest lens in Fuji’s catalogue, at least in terms of focal length, is the older XF 23mm f1.4. This employs 11 elements in eight groups including one aspherical element, sports a maximum focal ratio of f1.4, uses seven aperture blades, and has a closest focusing distance of 28cm for a maximum reproduction of 0.1x. Again there’s no optical stabilisation.

Since my teenage years, photography was always present in my life. My dad used to have film cameras when I was young and he carried them with him on our family trips and holidays. When I was getting older I also had a small film camera. Later, when digital cameras became more and more affordable, I bought a Pentax K-30 with an 18-135mm lens. This camera boosted my photography. In the past, Fuji cameras have had notoriously inaccurate depth of field scales when shooting in manual focus mode. They’ve finally fixed this problem with the X-Pro2 (latest firmware) and the 23mm f2 lens! When shooting at the widest aperture of f/2, it’s possible to see some slight drop-off in light at the corners of the image. This is particularly noticeable when shooting a white wall, but is unlikely to be overly noticeable for normal subjects. By f/2.8, the effect is lessened, and has gone completely by f/4. Distortion is kept to the absolute minimum in both raw and jpeg files. Below is a breakdown of the 23mm f2 features and an explanation of how each one makes this lens the gem that it is and why I love it. Fuji 23mm f2 Review – Sturdy Handling / Built Quality The f2 is nearly half the price of the f1.4, so unless the latter specifically calls to you, a pretty penny could be saved by getting the f2.The Fujifilm xf 23mm f2 lens has found a home in many a travel photographer’s gear bag, including mine. Fujifilm 23mm f2 Lens Review Using the 23mm F2 WR along side the 35mm F2 WR felt very natural. The lenses work very well together and, with both using the same 43mm filter size, I definitely appreciated the ease of switching filters between the two, without having to mess around with step-down rings. The bayonet style fitting of the 23mm F2 WR lens hood feels a little more substantive than the screw-in hood of the 35mm F2 WR, but both are a little plasticy and it would have been nice to see a little more effort when compared to the quality build of the lenses themselves.