Fujinon XF27mm F2.8 R WR is well know as a Fujifilm Pancake Lens. It is fantastic companion on my travels. This Pancake is tiny, highly portable, delicious and sweet looking lens attached to any of my Fujifilm camera, weighing only slightly above 80 grams, which makes my camera setup light and compact. It allows me to be super quick and agile to take any kind of photos with normal field of view making the scenery exact what I see with my eyes.

Fujinon XF27mm F2.8 R WR

SPECIFICATION

Fujinon XF27mmF2.8 R WR

Focal length: 27mm (equivalent to 41mm full frame)

Weight: 84g

Filter size: Ø 39mm

Aperture: f/2.8 to f/16

Miminum focus distance: 34 cm

Build quality

Build quality of this Pancake lens is great, the tiny body is solid, made out of metal and it feels very nice in the hands. Also, there is high quality rubber gasket around the mount and several sealing points in the body, that provides weather and dust resistance, which is very important for my use case during the travel. The aperture ring is firm, accurate and responsive, and couldn’t be accidentally turned, which I appreciate. Focus ring for its size is decently wide and could be used precisely. This Pancake is the smallest lens in Fujifilm X system, weighing only 84 grams. The size and weight, and also the built quality are perfectly suited for travel and everyday carry, making this lens highly portable and durable piece of gear.

autofocus

Autofocus is very accurate and reliable in daytime when there is plenty of light and it is decently fast and snappy for photography, especially on the newer Fujifilm camera bodies like X-T5. Since Fujifilm only updated the body of this lens and added an aperture ring and weather sealing, autofocus mechanism remains the same from the old lens and therefore this Pancake makes noise when focusing, which is not noticeable on the crowded streets, but in quite places like museums, libraries and galleries, it could make some noisy sounds that could be noticed by nearby people.

IMAGE QUALITY

Optical qualities for such small and compact lens are fantastic. It is decently sharp wide open at f2.8 aperture and it gets pretty sharp and detailed when stoped down to f5.6 with very nice detail rendering especially on the new high-resolution X-Trans 5 sensors, so it could be used on professional level. Contrast and colour rendering are fantastic, I’d say that they are on the neutral side of the spectrum compared to the other X mount lenses I own. It is worth mentioning that this lens has the old Fujinon optics formula that has organic look and filmic qualities, so it renders images very closely to the vibe of the analog cameras and it has decent amount of vintage cinematic look that everyone is talking about in case of the old Fujifilm lenses.

final note

Despite being the smallest and the most compact piece of glass in the X system, Fujinon 27mm f2.8 WR does not compromise the image quality for the size and weight. Paired with any of my Fujifilm cameras it makes the most portable interchangeable camera and lens combo, without any constraints in performance for my travel or everyday photography. The old saying that the best camera is always the one you have with you comes true to life when you can carry a camera and lens setup everywhere without fatigue in the hands, which eventually makes me to take more photos compared to times when I am using heavy and bulky camera gear. The focal length of this Pancake is also very versatile with normal field of view, that is similar to the view of the human eye, covering large variety of photography genres from daily or travel snaps, street photography scenes, architecture and environment photos, or even landscapes. Hopefully in the future I will start using this lens for more projects and share more the results as sample images from the lens.

Fujifilm Pancake Lens