Fujifilm Fujinon XF 27 mm f/2.8 review - Build quality

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Fujifilm Fujinon XF 27 mm f/2.8

19 September 2013

Arkadiusz Olech

3. Build quality

There are many „pancake” lenses in different mirrorless systems; although none of them features exactly the same parameters as the tested Fujinon, there are many similar ones it can be compared to, as shown in the following chart. As you can notice the Fujinon doesn’t compare favourably here. The Panasonic company has developed the potential of the small Micro 4/3 sensor to the full and it enabled them to offer a tiny lens with an excellent aperture fastness, that of f/1.7. However, even companies with APS-C/DX sensors provide “pancakes” with a better fastness than the Fujinon’s f/2.0. Only the Sony is slower but firstly it offers you a macro mode and secondly in that system you can also find another 2.8/20 pancake. It is obvious Fujifilm didn’t make any great effort when it comes to the parameters. The competitors showed clearly that near 50-60 degrees you can construct a small pancake with f/2.0 without a problem. It’s a pity the Fujinon gives us just f/2.8.

In the photo below the Fujinon XF 27 mm f/2.8 is positioned next to a standard lens of that system so the Fujinon XF 35 MM F/1.4 R.

Fujifilm Fujinon XF 27 mm f/2.8 - Build quality

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The tested lens starts with a metal mount which surrounds a rear element with a really big diameter – that of 22 mm.

On the proper body of the lens first you can find a black, smooth, immobile ring, covered by plastics, which is 1 cm wide. It features a red square which makes an alignment with a body easier, a focal length value and, on the other side, a sticker with the name and the parameters of the lens, its serial number and the info that the lens was produced in China. It is a slight surprise – so far all XF series lenses were produced in Japan, only XC plastic devices were made in China.

The next element of the lens is a manual focus ring, ribbed and 8 mm wide. Its work is based on servo mechanisms so it moves beyond reproach. Running through the whole distance scale takes a turn through about 180 degrees - a precise value depends on how fast you turn the ring. Additionally, even a small movement changes the position of the focus so you can set that parameter manually with a great precision. It is also worth mentioning that, when you pass to the minimum focus distance, the front element set extends slightly and sticks out of the proper body of the lens.

The front element is 14 mm in diameter, surrounded by a non-rotating filter thread, 39 mm in diameter and then by a flat part of the casing with the name and the parameters of the lens. The producer didn’t include any hood option so there is no appropriate mount on the lens. However it is hardly a flaw – you don’t buy a small “pancake” device to make it bigger by attaching a hood.

When it comes to the optical construction you deal here with 7 elements positioned in 5 groups, one of them aspherical. Inside you can also find an aperture with seven blades which can be closed down to a maximum value of f/16.0.

Buyers don’t get anything more than two caps in the box so you can say the producer is very consistent in their minimalist tendencies.