Fujifilm Fujinon XF 23 mm f/2.8 R WR review

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Fujifilm Fujinon XF 23 mm f/2.8 R WR

19 December 2025

Maciej Latałło

11. Summary

Pros:

shapely, lightweight and solid barrel at the same time,
excellent image resolution in the frame centre,
good resolution on the edge of the frame,
slight longitudinal chromatic aberration,
imperceptible lateral chromatic aberration,
lack of any more serious distortion problems,
low astigmatism,
sensible appearance of out-of-focus areas for these parameters.

Cons:

distinct vignetting in RAW files,
high level of focus breathing,
culture of work of the autofocus mechanism leaves a lot to be desired.

In many aspects the Fujinon XF 23 mm f/2.8 R WR really surprised us in a positive way. Before the test of such a midget I had expected a lot of compromises but, to my surprise, their number was very limited indeed. You get a lens that is optically excellent, with just one flaw, high level of vignetting, something that, with such dimensions, is completely normal.

If not for the autofocus slip-up we would get a 'pancale' as close to ideal as it is possible. Unfortunately the focusing mechanism is simply weak for contemporary standards and indeed, it remains the biggest flaw of the tested lens.

Taking it all into account the price, amounting to 1950 PLN, seems a bit over the top. Of course I know you deal here with excellent optics that is hidden inside a solid barrel, mostly made of metal; still neither the aperture fastness nor that unfortunate autofocus allow me to call this price affordable.

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Buying this lens as a part of a set with the X-E5 body is a solution of a kind. In such a case the surcharge reaches 1500 PLN so the price of the lens looks far nicer. Of course it is still a lot of money and I suppose in this case a value closer to 1000 PLN would be a far more sensible level.

I don't want to end this summary in a negative way because the Fujinon XF 23 mm f/2.8 R WR doesn't deserve it. Fujinon optics specialists did do a pretty good job here and they should be recognized for it.