As with most lenses, the 23mm f2 has its own pros and cons. This Fuji 23mm review is aimed at helping you better understand the lens and where it outshines other lenses. There is also a comparison to the Fuji 23mm f1.4 at the end for those who are contemplating which one to get. This lens has fantastic centre sharpness, but it starts to fade a little in the corners. This isn’t often a major issue for street photographers, though, and sometimes could be more noticeable. Most of the time, if you play around with f-stops, you’ll find the ideal sharpness for your subject. Fujifilm 23 f2 Review Glare and Flare The Fuji 23 2 has mild to moderate pincushion distortion as shot on Fujifilm's cameras which try to correct it. In the example above, both lenses render the out-of-focus LED lamps quite differently: the newer XF 23mm f2 on the left renders an asymmetrical cat’s eye shape that’s quite distinctive towards the corners, whereas the older XF 23mm f1.4 maintains a more rounded shape. The bokeh blobs from the XF 23mm f1.4 are unsurprisingly larger than the newer lens and while neither suffers from unattractive onion-ringing effects within the blobs, its’ the newer XF 23mm f2 that’s exhibiting more obvious outlining. There’s no right or wrong in rendering, but to me, the older XF 23mm f1.4 looks more attractive in this comparison, even looking beyond the difference in depth-of-field. In case you’ve not made a decision yet, here are a handful of my favorite photos from my trip to Italy last year, taken with. the Fujinon XF 23mm f/2 WR lens. Atrani, Italy. Photo taken with the Fujifilm 23mm f2 WR lens. Positano, Italy. Photo taken with the Fujifilm 23mm f2 WR lens. Ravello, Italy. Photo taken with the Fujifilm 23mm f2 WR lens. Pompeii, Italy. Photo taken with the Fujifilm 23mm f2 WR lens. Positano, Italy. Photo taken with the Fujifilm 23mm f2 WR lens. Where to buy this lens

The only real downside comes if you are very, very much into bokeh and shooting portraits, in which case only an f1.4 lens could satisfy you 🙂And finally the XF 23 f2 again not a World apart from the other pair for movie autofocus, although interestingly this time with a little wobble to confirm when pulling towards the closer bottle. Now the important stuff – how good are the images taken by the lens? Let’s break it down it into smaller sections. Its identically-priced sister the 50mm f/2 is much better at close distances. This lens is super sharp for normal pictures, so don't worry about it — you'll never see any difference in actual photos.

Returning to the 23 1.4 LM WR image wide-open once again at f1.4, let’s head into the corner where you’ll see the lens remains pretty sharp with only a little darkening due to vignetting. Introduce the XF 23 f2 on the right and you’ll see how the cheaper lens is noticeably softer in the corners than its pricier and newer sibling. Close the 23 1.4 LM WR to f2 and its result improves a little with a mild boost in sharpness and a lifting of the vignetting. Close both lenses to f2.8 and you’ll see the cheaper 23 f2 on the right may reduce its vignetting a little, but remains way behind the latest 23 1.4 on the left. But of course, they’re all different (that’s why Fuji makes them). So to narrow it down, here are the deciding factors to consider: The 23mm F/2 lens has an incredibly sturdy and robust build quality. The all-metal body and mounting plate give the user the assurance that this lens can deal with rugged use. On the lens itself, there are no plastic parts at all.As is the case with most Fuji lenses, the build quality and materials are far superior to what you’d find in its competitors (which tend to make even expensive lenses out of plastic, who knows why). Weather resistance I’ve always been a fan of Fuji’s 35mm f1.4 lens, and still consider it my favorite lens that Fujifilm makes.

The f2 WR lens has 10 elements in 6 groups. It contains two aspherical elementsthat are part of the focusing group. The lens hood is also added to stop flare, but even without it, the lens doesn’t let much flare into your images which is a great positive. Colour and Contrast Overall, the differences in performance between the f2 and the f1.4 are tiny. The price difference is larger, however. As is the weight. As you can see, the XF 23mm f2 and XF 23mm f1.4 have delivered 18 and 14 spikes respectively as expected from their nine and seven aperture blades. But in the crop above it’s clear how much better-defined the spikes are from the XF 23mm f1.4. This is most likely down to the actual shape of the blades themselves.

Where to buy this lens

The main issue that’s been documented with the Fuji 23mm is that it has a bit of softness at f2 and a close focus distance. Essentially, it means you won’t have as sharp of details if you focus super close to something and you’ve got the aperture set to f2. This Fujifilm 23/2 is an all-purpose, fast, weather-resistant wide-to-normal general-purpose lens for Fuji's APS-C X-mount cameras, equivalent to a 35mm lens on a 35mm or full-frame camera.