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Fujinon XF 27mm f/2.8 (Fujifilm) - Review / Test Report |
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Lens Reviews -
Fujifilm X
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Page 1 of 3
Review by Klaus Schroiff, published November 2013
Special Thanks to Peter Barnes for providing the lens for testing!
Introduction
The center of gravity in the Fujifilm lens lineup is certainly around high quality prime lenses. This is how Fuji started the system and they are still busy adding new ones. A few months ago, they released the Fujinon XF 27mm f/2.8. It is Fuji's second pancake lens and priced slightly below the rest of the gang - this surely originates in the moderately complex design as well as in the simplified construction. Unlike other Fujinon XF lenses, Fuji decided to omit the aperture ring - a move that is probably not overly appreciated by a good portion of the user base.
The field-of-view of a 27mm APS-C lens is basically equivalent to a standard prime lens on a full format camera. While the max. aperture of f/2.8 can be generally considered as quite fast, it is rather slow within the specific scope of a standard lens. This is one of the drawbacks of using pancake lenses which tend to be slower than conventional designs. Still, it feels as if this could be a useful part of a compact set of lenses for e.g. street photography.
The build quality of the Fujinon is very good thanks to a tightly assembled combination of quality plastics based on a metal mount. The inner focus tube moves marginally during focusing (using a "linear extension focusing system"). As mentioned Fuji skipped the aperture ring, so you have to use the control dial on the camera for the purpose. The focus ring operates smoothly. Other than that there is little to tell here really - it is a rather simple lens.
The product image below shows also a comparison to the XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 OIS - it should be quite obvious that we are talking about a very dwarfish lens here. Since the Fuji cameras are comparatively big, the combination is still not really pocketable though.
The AF implementation feels a little coarse just like on the early Fujinon XF prime lenses. Thus it has not inherited the noiseless AF motor used e.g. in the XF 14mm f/2.8. The AF speed is reasonably fast on the X-E1 although surely a good deal faster on the X-E2 with its improved AF. Manual focusing works "by wire" so you actually trigger the AF drive when turning the focus ring. We weren't especially thrilled by the accuracy of the mechanism but it's surely "good enough" for such a lens.
| Specifications |
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| Equiv. focal length | "41mm" (full format equivalent) |
| Equiv. aperture | "f/4.2" (full format equivalent, in terms of depth-of-field) |
| Optical construction | 7 elements in 5 groups inc. 1x aspherical element |
| Number of aperture blades | 7 (circular) |
| min. focus distance | 0.34m (max. magnification 1:10) |
| Dimensions | 61.2x23mm |
| Weight | 78g |
| Filter size | 39mm |
| Hood | - |
| Other features | - |
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