Fujifilm Fujinon XF 27mm f/2.8

 

 

Welcome to Fujifilm’s most overlooked and forgotten lens, the brilliant Fujifilm XF 27mm f/2.8 lens. This stunning little lens was released in 2013 to expand the ever-increasing lineup of excellent lenses for Fujifilm digital cameras. I bought this lens to replace my Fujifilm 18mm F2 lens, which I dislike so much. I read about this lens from the Eric Kim blog and thought it might be the perfect everyday walk-around lens for my Fujifilm XT1.

 

This small pancake lens consists of 7 elements in 5 groups, has 7 rounded aperture blades, is constructed of metal, and weighs in at 2.75 oz. (78g). The lens does not come with a lens hood like most other Fujifilm lenses, and this is to keep with the minimal design of a pancake lens. Anyway, boring specifications mean nothing in real life. I prefer to see how a lens performs in real life by shooting with it. Charts and graphs tell you little about real-world performance.

Now, I will be completely honest at the beginning of this review: before I ordered this lens, I had some serious doubts that a lens this cheap could be any good. So, I bought this lens secondhand. It arrived without the lens box, so I cannot tell you anything about the lens packaging.

 

Taking the lens out of the box, I was surprised by how light it was. As I held the lens in my hand, I couldn’t help but think that this lens must be utter rubbish. It’s made of metal and well constructed, yet it has no aperture ring, only a tiny focus-by-wire ring, and no lens hood. I mounted the lens to my camera, and it was tiny compared to the Fujifilm 18mm F2 lens.

 

 

The lens on the XT1 made the camera feel small and light, very similar to the X100. I bought the XT1 to replace my damaged Fujifilm X100, and with the 27mm f/2.8 lens, I nearly had an identical setup. The Fujifilm 27mm f/2.8 lens offers a field of view of 41mm, which was much more comfortable for me to shoot with than the Fujifilm 35mm f/1.4, which was always too long for me.

 

 

For me, this lens is my street lens. I bought this lens to shoot at f/8 on the streets while I walk around each day in China, and this lens is just perfect for that. What makes this lens so good, in my opinion, is that it is sharp wide open at f/2.8, and if you stop it down to f/4 or even f/8, you don’t really gain anything in image quality. If you stop this lens down, it is to control your exposure and depth of field. That makes shooting on the street so much easier.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This lens delivers some outstanding photos and easily beats the pants off the Fujifilm XF18mmF2 R lens. The images are sharp, they have good contrast, and almost no chromatic aberrations to speak of. This was the perfect replacement lens for the Fujifilm XF18mmF2 R lens and it now lives on my camera. It is my go-to, everyday lens that I always have on my camera or in my camera bag. I never leave home without this lens.

 

 

 

The lens is, unfortunately, a slow prime lens though. It is also really hard to get any out of focus areas or bokeh  with the lens because you really cannot focus all that close up to a subject so getting some bokeh is not easy but when you do, it is not as smooth as the Fujifilm XF 35mm F1.4 R lens. It is not bad, but it is hazier and busier compared to the buttery smooth bokeh that the Fujifilm XF 35mm F1.4 lens produces.

 

 

 

 

The lens on the Fujifilm XT1 really makes the camera look small and unobtrusive, letting me get away with shoots that I never could do with a larger lens on my camera. This is helped by its super-fast focusing. This lens is much faster at focusing than the Fujifilm XF 35mm f/1.4 lens or the Fujifilm XF18mm f/2 R lens. I have almost zero missed focus shots with this lens in good light, and even in poor lighting, this lens still focuses well. I would say that out of all the Fujifilm prime lenses that I have owned, this is by far the fastest focusing lens.

 

 

 

The build quality of this lens is really good. I dropped the lens the other day outside in the freezing cold, and it went smashing onto the concrete sidewalk. This was the first time I had ever dropped a lens in my life, and I screamed like a little girl when the lens fell out of my fingers. As the lens bounced along the concrete sidewalk like a tennis ball, I had nightmarish visions of smashed glass elements. But when I picked the lens up, there was only a little scratch in the paint on the focus ring. The rest of the lens was in perfect working condition. I really have to say that the toughness of this lens is incredible. It can really take a beating and keep going. Some lenses need to be handled with kid gloves and pampered, but this little lens can take a beating and keep going.

 

 

The only negative that I have for this lens is that there is no aperture ring. You have to change the aperture on the camera, and if the lens is not mounted on the camera or the camera is powered off, you will have no idea what aperture you will be shooting at. If this lens had an aperture ring and was weather-sealed, then I would say that this lens is a must-have for all Fujifilm XF photographers.

 

 

I love this lens. I simply cannot say enough good things about it. I have used it nearly every single day since buying it, and I would highly recommend it to any Fujifilm camera owner. It is truly a hidden gem in the Fujifilm camera lineup. The only time I would say pass on this lens is if you own the 23mm f/1.4 lens. Even then, I would recommend you buy this lens and use it as a body cap on your camera. At least that way, you are protecting your expensive lens, and your camera has a lens on it to shoot with while it is in your bag.

 

 

 

 

 

Buy it, shoot it, and love it, like all the other Fujifilm shooters out there that have discovered this hidden gem of a lens.

Rating

• Image Quality: 4 out of 5
• Focus speed: 4.5 out of 5
• Build quality: 4.5 out of 5

 

Shaun.