1. Introduction 2. Design and Operation 3. Photographic tests 4. Photographic tests 5. Conclusion & samples

Fujifilm XF 14mm F2.8 R review

The Fujinon XF 14mm F2.8 R is the fifth lens for Fujifilm's nascent X system of mirrorless cameras. It's a premium wideangle prime, with a focal length specifically chosen to match the full (21mm equivalent) field of view of the X-Pro1's optical viewfinder at its wider 0.37x setting. This makes it a rather unusual beast, as one of only a few genuinely wide primes purpose-built for APS-C cameras. In terms of design and price point, it's most comparable to the Pentax smc DA 15mm F4 ED AL Limited and the Olympus M.Zuiko Digital ED 12mm 1:2 for Micro Four Thirds.

The 'R' in the lens name indicates that, like the other XF primes to date, the 14mm has a dedicated ring to control the aperture. This runs from F2.8 to F22, with click stops at 1/3 stop intervals, and has an 'A' position for automatic aperture control from the camera. It also features a manual focus ring with distance and depth-of-field scales, and hard end-stops at each end of its range; this is a welcome contrast to the continuously-rotating focus-by-wire rings used on the other lenses. Manual focus is engaged simply by pulling the ring back towards the camera body. This should (in principle) aid manual focus techniques such as zone focusing, which are commonly used with wideangle lenses.

Fujifilm makes some fairly grand claims about the lens's optics. Specifically, it says the lens is fully optically-corrected for distortion and requires no digital correction, which is often employed by mirrorless cameras (especially with wideangle lenses). It also says that chromatic aberration and vignetting have been minimized - the latter aided by the short backfocus distance of the X mount. But these premium optics come at a premium price, and the XF 14mm will set you back the best part of $900.

Headline features

• 21mm equivalent focal length range; F2.8 maximum aperture
• Aperture ring: F2.8 - F22 in 1/3 stop steps + 'A' (electronically coupled)
• Manual focus ring with distance and depth of field scales
• 0.18m closest focus; 0.12x magnification

Angle of view

The picture below illustrates the field of view, taken from our standard position.

14mm (21mm equivalent)

Fujifilm XF 14mm F2.8 R specifications

* Supplied accessories may differ in each country or area

If you're new to digital photography you may wish to read the Digital Photography Glossary before diving into this article (it may help you understand some of the terms used).

Conclusion / Recommendation / Ratings are based on the opinion of the reviewer, you should read the ENTIRE review before coming to your own conclusions. Images which can be viewed at a larger size have a small magnifying glass icon in the bottom right corner of the image, clicking on the image will display a larger (typically VGA) image in a new window. To navigate the review simply use the next / previous page buttons, to jump to a particular section either pick the section from the drop down or select it from the navigation bar at the top. DPReview calibrate their monitors using Color Vision OptiCal at the (fairly well accepted) PC normal gamma 2.2, this means that on our monitors we can make out the difference between all of the (computer generated) grayscale blocks below. We recommend to make the most of this review you should be able to see the difference (at least) between X,Y and Z and ideally A,B and C.

This article is Copyright 2013 and may NOT in part or in whole be reproduced in any electronic or printed medium without prior permission from the author.

1. Introduction 2. Design and Operation 3. Photographic tests 4. Photographic tests 5. Conclusion & samples