Fujifilm Unveils XF8mmF3.5 R WR Lens: A Compact Walkaround with an Expansive Field of View
Fujifilm Corporation, under the leadership of President and CEO Teiichi Goto, is delighted to announce the upcoming release of the highly anticipated “FUJINON Lens XF8mmF3.5 R WR” (XF8mmF2.5 R WE) in June 2023. This remarkable lens joins the prestigious XF lens family, renowned for its exceptional image quality achieved through Fujifilm’s proprietary color reproduction technology, and is designed specifically for lightweight and compact mirrorless digital cameras in the X Series.
The XF8mmF3.5 R WR lens is an extraordinary ultra-wide-angle (UWA) prime lens with a focal length of 8mm (equivalent to 12mm in the 35mm film format), making it the widest lens in Fujifilm’s XF lens lineup. It offers a remarkable viewing angle of 121 degrees diagonally and 112 degrees horizontally. While the human field of view is considered wide-angle, the visible area that can be perceived clearly is typically limited to around 60 degrees. However, the UWA 8mm lens (equivalent to 12mm in the 35mm film format) captures information from an area that is approximately double the effective visual field, surpassing the capabilities of human vision. Thanks to Fujifilm’s unique optical design, this lens delivers edge-to-edge visual clarity, enabling users to capture intricate details with stunning precision, whether it be the delicate branches and leaves in a vast wilderness or the ornate architectural features of a majestic cathedral or temple. Despite its wide-angle capabilities, the lens maintains a compact design, providing exceptional portability for users to effortlessly explore the world of UWA photography.
The XF8mmF3.5 R WR lens excels in image-resolving performance, featuring a configuration of 12 lens elements in nine groups, which includes three aspherical elements and two extra-low dispersion (ED) elements. With its UWA focal length of 8mm (equivalent to 12mm in the 35mm film format) and a diagonal viewing angle of 121 degrees, this lens is perfectly suited for capturing expansive landscapes and achieving dramatic perspectives unique to UWA photography. Its exceptional image-resolving performance ensures that every corner of the frame is rendered with outstanding clarity, delivering breathtaking results.
Despite its remarkable capabilities, the XF8mmF3.5 R WR lens remains impressively compact, measuring only 52.8mm in length and weighing a mere 215g. It also features a versatile filter thread size of 62mm, which is uncommon for UWA lenses. This design allows for increased creative possibilities in landscape photography, a genre highly favored by UWA lenses, and enables the use of various filters for long-exposure snapshots and travel photography.
The upcoming release of the XF8mmF3.5 R WR lens reaffirms Fujifilm’s commitment to pushing the boundaries of optical technology, providing photographers with innovative tools to capture the world in all its magnificence.
2. Product features
(1) Widest-angle prime lens that extends Fujifilm’s wide-angle lens lineup
- This is a prime lens with the focal length of 8mm (equivalent to 12mm in the 35mm film format), the widest angle in Fujifilm’s XF lens lineup. It covers the viewing angle of 121 degrees diagonally and 112 degrees horizontally, much wider than the effective visual field of human eyes, which is said to be around 60 degrees. This makes it an ideal choice for expansive landscapes and shooting situations involving a subject with high information volume.
- The lens consists of 12 lens elements in nine groups, including three aspherical elements and two ED elements, thereby controlling lens distortion, spherical aberration and astigmatism to deliver advanced image-resolving performance. It can capture full information of the subject that fills the wide-angle frame in the finest detail.
- The wide-angle lens’s characteristically short moving distance for the focusing lens is combined with the use of the Inner Focus system to achieve a fast AF speed of as fast as 0.02 seconds. This is particularly useful when shooting dynamic action photography that takes advantage of the UWA perspective. As a wide-angle lens, which typically has greater-than-normal depth-of-field, its aperture can be stopped down to facilitate pan-focusing. Coupled with advanced image-resolving performance, the lens resolves all information in the frame with edge-to-edge clarity.
(2) Compact design that brings the world of UWA to walkaround use
- The effective positioning of the aspherical and ED elements has enabled appropriate aberration correction and the compact and lightweight design at the same time, defying the typically large UWA lens form factor. It is just 52.8mm long weighing 215g, bringing the world of UWA to everyday walkaround use.
- Placing distortion-controlling aspherical elements at the front has effectively reduced its overall size and kept the filter thread size to the versatile 62mm, facilitating landscape photography, a popular genre for UWA lenses, and accommodating the use of a variety of filters.
(3) Dust- and weather-resistant and capable of operating in temperatures as low as -10℃
- The lens barrel is weather-sealed at 10 locations to achieve dust- and weather-resistance and capability of operating in temperatures as low as -10℃. The front lens element is applied with fluorine coating to repel water and offer protection against stains. This means users can enjoy the lens with peace of mind to take photos in all shooting conditions including landscape photography in light rain or in dusty places as well as snapshots and travel photography thanks to its compact and lightweight design.
