The dedicated aperture ring is also mandatory for real photography, but absent on most other brands of lenses. The FUJINON XF35mmF2 R WR is a standard focal length prime lens which delivers sharp images with rich bokeh. The optical construction of 9 elements in 6 groups (including two aspherical elements) achieves the perfect balance of high image quality and compact size. While it’s not really going to give you a real up-close view of anything, nor a very wide view, I consider the 50mm to be sort of an everyday lens and it is especially nice for someone that also shoots a lot of portraits, friends or family but more importantly, it’s a great lens to travel and landscape. Let’s start this Fuji 35mm f2 review by looking at the lens itself. It has a dedicated aperture ring so that you can change your settings without looking at any screen.

The final difference between the XC and XF 35mm lenses is the construction of the lens, both for the barrel and the mount - metal on the XF lens, cheaper plastic on the XC lens. This is also is true of all the other XC branded lenses that Fujifilm have released so far. Another key difference in the design of the two lenses is the removal of any level of weather-proofing in the XC 35mm F2. Whereas the XF 35mm F2 R WR is both weather and dust-resistant, the XC version makes no such claims, and should therefore be used accordingly. The Fujifilm 35mm f2 R WR lens is one of those lenses that you can just fall in love with almost immediately. It’s small, fairly inexpensive and produces some really nice image quality.

The Fujinon XF 35mm f2 is a compact prime lens with standard coverage that performs much better than you might expect. With its tapered design and f2 aperture, you might assume the XF 35mm f2 plays second fiddle to the more serious-looking XF 35mm f1.4 which helped launch the system almost four years earlier – a simpler option perhaps, designed for smaller bodies or budgets. But in most of my tests, the newer lens out-performed the XF 35mm f1.4 to become my preferred choice. Having extensively tested this lens, I can say with confidence that it’s up there as one of my favorite X-series lenses. Yes, it’s a stop slower than the XF 35mm f/1.4 R, but its petite size is perfectly matched to X-series cameras such as the X-T10 and X-T1. The fact it’s less bulky makes the camera feel just that little bit more comfortable to carry around, and the tactile feel of the aperture and manual focus rings makes it pleasing to operate. The images below are showing the bottom left corner of a topo map. Shooting wide open at f/2, the corners and edges are soft. By f/4, things get a little better, and by f/5.6 the softness is relegated to the extreme corners. The centers are very sharp here and that sharpness works its way all the way out to the edges of the image. Since it is only the extreme corners that appear soft, I assume this might have something to do with the built in lens profile that corrects for vignetting. This lens is a lot of fun to use at night because at f2 we can still get some nice quality even in these low light conditions.

With the initial reveal of the XF 35mm f/2 R WR Fujifilm made it abundantly clear that the X-series lens selection is getting closer to completion. They can now start to add different variants of similar focal lengths, adding a higher level of diversity to the line-up. (I know about the 56mm APD. Thats a different story altogether). XF 35mm f/2 R WR @ f/2

For less money, the B+W 43mm 010 is an excellent filter, as are the multicoated version and the basic multicoated Hoya filters, but the Hoya HD3 is the toughest and the best. Filters last a lifetime, so you may as well get the best. The Hoya HD3 stays cleaner than the others since it repels oil and dirt. This lens feels unlike any of Fujifilm’s older lenses in that it feels solid. The focus ring as well as the aperture ring are buttery smooth but yet give some good resistance. This is something that was plaguing those Fujinon lenses since they started doing everything fly-by-wire and I’m really glad to see them moving in this new direction.

What you get for the price is really a really amazing piece of hardware and I don’t think there are really any other brands that have anything quite like this at this size. It focuses fast, is weather-sealed and isn’t terribly expensive either. Since this lens has the WR on the name, I have to talk about Weather sealing. While it is probably resistant to some weather conditions I wouldn’t particularly trust it. Because the real litmus test for WR is the IP rating, and there is none on this lens.ISO 250 | 1/80s | f/2.5 ISO 200 | 1/80s | f/2.8 ISO 640 | 1/80s | f/2.5 ISO 250 | 1/80s | f/2.5 ISO 380 | 1/80s | f/2.5 ISO 160 | 1/240s | f/2.8 ISO 160 | 1/2220s | f/2.5 ISO 160 | 1/500s | f/2.8 ISO 160 | 1/750s | f/2.5 ISO 2000 | 1/80s | f/2.5 ISO 160 | 1/140s | f/2.8 Portraits

The only alternative to this lens is the Fuji 35mm 1.4 which is a bit bigger, more expensive and not WR. Enter the Fuji 35mm f2, a lens that not only has a very attractive price point but is also keeps a rangefinder lens size. Sunstars have a rather boring pattern. They tend to flare out and aren’t really clean. You also really need to shoot at f11 to f16 before they are really very noticeable, but shooting this closed down also yields some red dot sensor flares. We also can find a nice coating, the Super EBC. Although I haven’t noticed much of a difference between the Super and the HT-EBC lens coating found on some of the other lenses. Perhaps it’s easier to keep clean and it repels more dust and water?Mercedes S550 wheel, June 2016. 10 MP Normal square JPG, Fujinon 35mm f/2 WR, f/5.6 at 1/180 at Auto ISO 400. bigger or full resolution to explore on your computer (mobile devices rarely display the full resolution data properly). The Fuji XF 35mm/2 is very good in the center even at f/2, but spherical aberration limits contrast at wide-open higher spatial frequencies as seen in the 45 cycles/mm graph. Likewise, sharpness wide-open falls off strongly in the far corners, as seen here in the lab. These curve correlate well with what I've seen in my lens. You can fit the hood that's supplied with the XF version to this XC lens, and also the more classical metal hood (LH-XF35-2), but they're obviously an added expense that you'll need to budget for if you feel that a lens hood is necessary. The technical characteristics of the 35mm f2 is where it sort of falls short which is understandable for the size. It has some problems with chroma and distortion, but it is controlled with the in-camera profiles, so you’ll never really see them unless you physically turn it off. The weather sealed metal body of the Fujifilm XF 35mm f/2 houses 9 optical elements in 6 groups, and has 9 rounded diaphragm blades that produce a very pleasing bokeh. The maximum aperture of the lens is f/2 which is fast, but not quite as fast as I’d like. The speed of the Fuji 35mm f1.4 in certain shooting situations would be much nicer.