Review Fujinon XF 27 mm f/2.8

19 August 2015

The Fujinon XF 27 mm f/2.8 is a pancake lens and at first glance evokes a feeling of, “Is that it?” Once placed on the camera, this lens appears to stick out less than 2 cm, and the front lens looks more like a contact lens than a lens for a camera. And the weight, not even 80 grams, amplifies that feeling. The lens design is simple: just 7 lens elements divided into 5 groups.
Mind you, the fewer lens elements, the less chance of internal reflections. Only in moderation is the master revealed. The field of view is the same as a 40 mm lens on a full-frame camera. That makes the perspective standard. With a super-wide angle, you can make use of the very specific perspective; the image will be drawn out, as it were. If you want to compress the subject a bit, then you use a telephoto lens. You don’t buy a 27 mm for a distinct perspective, but more for a particular field of view that you want. Besides, the difference between 40 or 50 mm full-frame is rather limited, and a 27 mm on APS-C can be more or less described as a “standard lens.” The brightness of our pancake, f/2.8, is just a bit higher than an inexpensive kit lens and is rather disappointing. But that’s the price we pay for being a pancake. Is this minimalistic lens going to disappoint or surprise us with its image quality?

Fujifilm27210

Fujinon XF 27 mm f/2.8 + X-E2
The Fujinon XF 27 mm f/2.8 fits well with the Fujinon 14 mm f/2.8 R and the Fujinon 60 mm f/2.4 Macro; the differences in field of view are negligible and can often be compensated by moving a bit. The subjective quality impression of the 27 mm is, due to the low weight and the use of plastic, less than that of the 14 mm and the 60 mm. A Fuji X-E2, the successor to the X-E1, serves as the test camera. The 27 mm is also the only available pancake for Fuji cameras at this moment.

Build
There is no aperture ring on the lens. And it’s a real aperture ring on a lens that provides the high operating comfort that we’re accustomed to from Fuji. It probably cost a few grams extra weight and a few mm in length to build in an aperture ring, and Fujinon was thus reluctant to make one. It’s a bit of a pity, but yeah, you’re minimalistic or you’re not. There is no distance scale or DOF scale either, but remember, what’s not on it can’t break. There is no lens hood available; the front lens is deeply recessed. I still find a lens hood useful; it also serves as mechanical protection for the front lens or filter.	{insertgrid ID = 289}
Vignetting
The vignetting amounts, in JPEG, to barely more than half a stop. In practice, you will not have to think about this.

Distortion Fujinon XF 27 mm f/2.8
The distortion amounts to about 0.4%. Not bad, but honestly I had expected a lower percentage. After all, a focal point of 27 mm is not all that distinctive. But perhaps that is the price of so few lens elements. Usually, one lens element provides a correction for a lens flaw that is caused by another lens element.
Focusing
The automatic focusing goes along with a bit more noise than, for example, the 14 mm. The test measurements also show that the AF is very accurate. There is no MF/AF switch on this lens; if you want to focus manually, then you will first have to set the camera to M. Manual focusing is “by wire,” so that you have little feeling for precise focusing.
Sharpness
The measured resolution in the center is high starting at full aperture, but does not achieve that extremely high peak value of the Fujinon 14 mm. The edges and corners lag a bit behind but at f/5.6 reach the same great, high values as the center. Still a fine performance by those Fuji boys (and girls) to achieve such high resolution with an image sensor of just 16 MP. In short, one of the sharpest rendering lenses so far.

Chromatic aberration & flare
Chromatic aberration—colored edges at sharp contrast transitions in the corners of the image—is low. This lens also has very little trouble from internal reflections or flare with backlighting.

Bokeh Fujinon XF 27 mm f/2.8
Due to the compact design, a pancake lens is very handy. Even so, the selection for the APS-C format is very small. Canon delivers a 24 mm f/2.8, suitable for full frame. This is a bit heavier and larger than the Fuji pancake tested here. The differences, however, are not great. The Canon test camera has an image sensor of 24 MP; the Fuji, “only” 16 MP. In sharpness, despite this large difference, these two lenses do not differ much from each other. The Canon does have a lower list price.
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Conclusion Fujinon XF 27 mm f/2.8 review with Fujifilm X-E2
{insertgrid ID = 387} Use the Lens Comparison or look in our list of reviewed lenses in order to compare this lens with other lenses.
WYSIWYG score: This table shows the performance of this lens if you store the files in the camera as jpg, where you have applied all available in-camera lens corrections. This score gives you for this lens/test camera combination: “What you see is what you get”.	{insertgrid ID = 308}
Pure RAW score: This table shows the performance of this lens if the file is stored in the camera in RAW format. This score approaches the intrinsic quality of the combination of lens and test camera.	{insertgrid ID = 309}
Pros High sharpness Low chromatic aberration Little sensitivity to backlighting Light in weight and very compactly built	Cons No aperture ring No built-in image stabilization Rather weak brightness Manual focusing does not feel good A bit noisy AF High list price
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If we look at the optical performance, then the Fujinon XF 27 mm f/2.8 is a top lens with very few optical weaknesses! The Fujinon XF 27 mm f/2.8, mechanically speaking, is rather minimalistic. No aperture ring, no lens hood, relatively low brightness, no image stabilization and a low weight. The AF is a bit noisy, but accurate. The price for what is offered, however, is quite stiff. Compare this lens to the Canon 40 mm f/2.8 STM. Optically equivalent, but a good bit less expensive. Apart from the price, Fuji again shows with the 27 mm f/2.8 that this brand can build really beautiful lenses.