Review Fujinon Fujifilm XF 8mm F3.5 R WR – APS-C Super wide angle

Introduction

The Fujinon Fujifilm XF 8mm F3.5 R WR is a new ultra-wide wide angle for Fujifilm’s APS-C cameras. The angle of view corresponds to that of a 12mm for 35mm. There was already an option for users of Fujifilm’s APS-C system with such a wide angle, in the form of the XF 8-16mm F2.8 R LM WR. That is a lighter but also much heavier zoom, weighing over 800g. The Fujinon XF 8mm F3.5 R WR is half a stop less bright, but its weight, at 215 grams, is almost a quarter of that of the zoom. That’s very nice if you want to take less with you, for example when travelling.

It is also a big advantage for, say, filmmakers who want to use this lens in combination with a gimbal or vloggers who want to keep their camera at arm’s length. Then a difference of almost 600 grams is suddenly a lot. Another advantage that the Fujinon XF 8mm F3.5 R WR has over the zoom is that this lens can be used with 62mm screw filters. The zoom has a convex front lens, which makes filtering very difficult.

Build Fujifilm XF 8mm F3.5 R WR

The Fujinon Fujifilm XF 8mm F3.5 R WR is a lens in Fujifilm’s higher price range. It is therefore solidly built, with a metal body, and well weatherproof. Hence the WR designation. It is quite compact at 53mm long and its weight is also pleasantly low at 215g. The lens has a focus ring on the front (without focus clutch) and directly behind it is the aperture ring that engages at 1/3rd stops and can be locked in the A position. The lens has a 62mm filter size which makes it very easy to use with screw filters or a filter holder.

The optical design consists of 12 lens elements in 9 groups. 3 of those lenses are aspherical and 2 are made of ED glass. The lens comes with a tulip-shaped lens hood.

Focus

The Fujinon Fujifilm XF 8mm F3.5 R WR has – of course – autofocus and that still remains a big advantage over fixed-focus wide-angles from other manufacturers such as, for example, Laowa’s 9mm F2.8 Zero-D or NISI’s 9mm F2.8. You don’t always need autofocus. In fact, manually, with the focus set to 36cm and the aperture set to F8, you can get everything in focus from front to back. But at F3.5, it’s a different story and with autofocus you can then respond faster to rapidly changing situations. And you can of course focus manually with the Fujinon (just like the Laowa) but you can’t use autofocus with the Laowa. The XF 8mm’s autofocus is fully internal and the focus breathing is low, according to Fujifilm. The shortest focusing distance is 18 cm. and the maximum magnification ratio is an unimpressive 0.07x, but of course that has everything to do with the huge angle of view.

Image quality

The MTF curves do not seem very impressive at first glance, especially for the curves at 45 lines per millimetre. The score at the centre may be very high, but there is an immediate gradient to the corners. For an extreme wide-angle, however, this is quite normal. The gradient to the corners sets in slightly earlier than with the XF 8-16mm zoom at 8mm, but the gradient is less than with the zoom. Fortunately, both lines are also fairly close together, which is usually good news for chromatic aberrations. For a full verdict, we will have to wait for test results from our own lab.

Conclusion test Fujinon XF 8mm F3.5 R WR