Fujifilm Fujinon XF 16 mm f/2.8 R WR review - Summary

Have you rated your lenses yet?

Fujifilm Fujinon XF 16 mm f/2.8 R WR

23 July 2019

Arkadiusz Olech

11. Summary

Pros:

shapely, solid, weather-sealed casing,
excellent image quality in the frame centre,
slight longitudinal chromatic aberration,
low lateral chromatic aberration,
lack of any spherical aberration problems,
sensible performance against bright light,
silent, accurate and fast autofocus.

Cons:

a bit too high coma at the maximum relative aperture,
huge distortion for RAW files,
big brightness loss on RAW files.

Looking at the results of our test I have no doubts the Fujinon XF 16 mm f/2.8 R WR is a very sensible device and will find many fans especially that, costing just $400, it remains one of the cheapest system lenses. Paradoxically, the Fujinon XF 18 mm f/2.0 R, just a tad more expensive but faster, might become its biggest and most serious rival. Still these 2 mm difference in focal length might be important for many users. Why? It's enough to move with the focal length in an opposite direction. The Fujinon XF 14 mm f/2.8 R, as fast aperture-wise as the tested lens but with the focal length by 2 mm shorter, costs over two times more.

Please Support Us

If you enjoy our reviews and articles, and you want us to continue our work please, support our website by donating through PayPal. The funds are going to be used for paying our editorial team, renting servers, and equipping our testing studio; only that way we will be able to continue providing you interesting content for free.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - advertisement - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

I regret just one thing: a tad better aperture fastness. If you produce a prime which parameters cover those of zoom lenses available in the system, your potential customers might expect something optically outstanding or really small. I'm still waiting for the 2/16 model but, I suppose, I will have to wait for a long time... Unless Fuji will surprise me very nicely, by presenting something like a 2/14 or 2/12 lens. Still, if Samyang have managed to achieve that much why not Fujifilm?