Fujifilm 27 mm. F2.8 WR Lens Review

I made a spur-of-the-moment trip downtown last Friday. I've been looking for a 27 mm. lens for my Fujifilm X-S10 camera. It's a pancake lens, only about 25 mm. thick and is about a quarter the weight of the 16-80 mm. zoom lens I've been using since I got the camera. This is the second version of the lens. It adds an aperture ring, weather sealing, and improved autofocus to the original version, but is the same optically.

But it's been in very short supply, and I've been looking for it for a couple of months. On a whim, I called Aden Camera in downtown Toronto, and they had just gotten one in this morning. So I said hold it for me and I hopped the GO Train downtown to get the lens (only the third time I've been downtown since the before times). 

As you can see, it is a very small lens. It makes the camera much easier to carry around or use at home when I want a quick picture of a family member or a pet. I have yet to do a side-by-side comparison with my zoom, but based on close examination of some of the pictures I've taken, it is sharper than the zoom, as expected. I have seen some reviews that suggest the lens is a bit soft in the corners fully open, but since I normally shoot at F5.6 or F8 that's not a problem. Here's a picture I took earlier this week.

Fujifilm X-S10 with 27 mm. F2.8 R WR, F8, 1/400 second, ISO 320, Velvia film simulation

I like the 27 mm. focal length, which corresponds to 41 mm. on a full-frame camera. It's what is called a true normal focal length because the focal length is the same as the diagonal of the sensor. The perspective is very close to what you see with your eyes. However, for the last 35 years, every camera I've used has had some sort of a zoom lens, so adjusting to using a fixed-focal-length lens is requiring some adjustment to the way I approach taking a picture. But given how much easier it makes the camera to carry around, that's not a problem.

As has been noted elsewhere, the autofocus mechanism is a bit noisy. This might be a problem if you shoot video using the built-in microphone. It is fast and accurate. I don't consider the F2.8 aperture a limitation considering how good the X-Trans sensor is at high ISOs, but you won't get the creamy out-of-focus backgrounds that a faster lens would give you. The lens comes with a small screw-on lens hood, which you can see in the picture above, and lens caps that fit with and without the hood. 

So if you have a Fujifilm X-series camera, I would recommend this lens as a standard lens.