Ultra-Wide Angle Fujinon XF8mmF3.5 R WR

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With the FUJINON XF8mmF3.5 R WR, Fujifilm introduces the shortest fixed focal length for the Fuji X system to date.

The classic fields of application for this focal length (KB: 12mm) are architecture and landscape. In classical photography it offered rather an exotic image impression due to the large angle of view of about 120°, but due to the availability of ultra-wide angle lenses in smartphones the focal length has become much more popular

The Fuji XF8mm is surprisingly small (52.8mm x Ø 62mm) and light (215g), making it easy to take along on hikes and city tours.

Fujifilm Launches “FUJINON Lens XF8mmF3.5 R WR”

• Introducing a prime lens with the widest-angle focal length among interchangeable lenses for the X Series of mirrorless digital cameras
• Capturing every detail in vast expanses of landscape; Compact design to bring the world of ultra-wide angle photography to everyday use

XF8mmF3.5 R WR

When mounted on the mirrorless digital camera “FUJIFILM X-S20”

TOKYO, May 24, 2023 – FUJIFILM Corporation (President and CEO, Representative Director: Teiichi Goto) announces the launch of the “FUJINON Lens XF8mmF3.5 R WR” (XF8mmF3.5 R WR) on June 29, 2023. The lens joins the line-up of XF lenses, interchangeable lenses for the X Series of lightweight and compact mirrorless digital cameras, renowned for their outstanding image quality based on Fujifilm’s proprietary color reproduction technology.

The XF8mmF3.5 R WR is a prime lens with the focal length of 8mm (equivalent to 12mm in the 35mm film format), the widest among the lineup of Fujifilm’s XF lenses. It is a perfect choice for capturing expansive wilderness that spreads out in front of you, or bringing out the background broadly to add a dynamic touch to a subject. The lens’s compact design enhances its portability, bringing the world of ultra-wide angle (UWA) photography to everyday use.

The XF8mmF3.5 R WR is an UWA lens, consisting of 12 lens elements, including three aspherical elements and two ED elements, in nine groups. It has the diagonal viewing angle of 121 degrees and boasts exceptional image-resolving performance with edge-to-edge clarity. The lens captures every intricate detail of a subject, covered in its characteristically wide field of view, including tree branches and leaves in expansive wilderness or ornamental details at a majestic cathedral. It also measures just 52.8mm long and weighs 215g despite being an UWA lens with the focal length of 8mm. The resulting portability means users can not only enjoy typical UWA applications such as landscape and architecture photography, but also take it out for a wide range of situations including as an everyday walkaround lens or for travel snapshots. The versatile filter thread size of 62mm facilitates the use of a variety of filters to broaden the scope of image production.

The XF8mmF3.5 R WR joins Fujifilm’s extensive lineup of a total of 42 interchangeable lenses to cover a broad range of photographic genres, offering users the joy of photography with the X Series of APS-C digital cameras.

1. Product features

(1) Widest-angle prime lens in the lineup of Fujifilm’s XF lenses

• XF8mmF3.5 R WR offers a 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 for UWA photography. This makes it an ideal choice for expansive wilderness photography and shooting situations involving a subject with high information volume.
• The lens consists of 12 lens elements, including three aspherical elements and two ED elements, in nine groups, thereby controlling lens distortion, spherical aberration and astigmatism to deliver advanced image-resolving performance. The lens captures every intricate detail of a subject, covered in its characteristically wide field of view, including tree branches and leaves in expansive wilderness or ornamental details at a majestic cathedral or temple. As a wide-angle lens, which typically has greater-than-normal depth-of-field, its aperture can be stopped down to facilitate pan-focusing*1.
• The lens uses the Inner Focus system, which drives compact and lightweight elements in the middle of the barrel. The wide-angle lens’s characteristically short travel distance for the focusing group of elements has boosted the focusing speed to as fast as 0.02 seconds*2, which is particularly useful in dynamic sports photography, taking advantage of the UWA field of view.

• *1 Photography where everything in the image, from the foreground to the background, is in focus
• *2 Using an internal measurement method compliant with the CIPA Guidelines, when mounted on the mirrorless digital camera “FUJIFILM X-T4” with Phase Detection AF activated and the High Performance Mode turned ON

Consisting of 12 lens elements including three aspherical elements and two ED elements in nine groups

©Rafa Perez

Presenting every detail of the subject in vast UWA field with impressive clarity

(2) Compact design that brings the world of UWA to day-to-day use

• The compact lens measures just 52.8mm and weighs 215g. The effective positioning of the aspherical and ED elements has reduced the size and weight of this UWA lens, defying the typically large form factor of UWA lenses.
• Placing distortion-controlling aspherical elements at the front has kept the filter thread size to the versatile 62mm, facilitating the use of a variety of filters to enable long-exposure photography and landscape photography, a popular genre that takes advantage of UWA’s field of view.

(3) Dust- and weather-resistant and capable of operating in temperatures as low as -10 degree Celsius

• 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 degree Celsius. 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 snapshots in daily life, travel photography and outdoor photography in light rain or in dusty places.

[Astigmatism]

I have one of these on order from B&H and will post about it in a few weeks when I get it. I do like exotic lenses, though I think perhaps the OP's suggestion of "an everyday walkaround lens" may be overoptimistic. An 8 mm everyday walkaround lens?

Doesn't matter, I think wide angle lenses are amazing and will be happy when the chance arrives to play with it!

[Edp]

I too have a pre-order set up - I’m excited to compare this to the 9mm laowa I currently have.  

[SGinNorcal]

I have not yet ordered it but doing so is probably inevitable.  Maybe you guys will say its crap and save me some money!  I love the 10-12mm range on the 10-24 so pretty curious about this lens.  I've heard some complaints about the f3.5 but I rarely have my 10-24 at f4 so I doubt it will be an issue.  Although double duty as an Astro lens would have been nice. 

[Edp]

Given the inverse rule, a stable shot at 1/8 second not even including IBIS, there aren’t many compelling reasons for needing faster than f/4 on this UWA lens.    Astro maybe, but nearly every other use case it’s not really there.  You aren’t going for subject separation on 8mm, nor “bokeh balls”. 

[jerryy]

Considering that a lot of landscape work is captured at f16 and often combined with focus stacking, … and architecture is very seldom captured with shallow dof, f3.5 does not sound like it will be a serious constraint for a lot of uses. Some perhaps.

Some of those “fast” lens are actually not good for astro because they have too much coma and ca when wide open — they have to be stopped down to get rid of the issues, which is a shame, why buy a f1 or so lens if you cannot use it there?

[BobJ]

I just read a comment in The Online Photographer (I highly recommend this blog by the way) that suggests that Fuji will not sell many of these. What do you think? Is it too specialist? I would love one but cannot afford it right now, which is just as well!

[SGinNorcal]

8 minutes ago, BobJ said:

I just read a comment in The Online Photographer (I highly recommend this blog by the way) that suggests that Fuji will not sell many of these. What do you think? Is it too specialist? I would love one but cannot afford it right now, which is just as well!

That's probably true and probably why the price is a bit higher than other small Fuji primes.  Its going to take longer to recoup development cost than a 35, 50mm or other really common, multi-use focal lengths.

[Astigmatism]

5 hours ago, SGinNorcal said:

recoup development cost

Yes, this is interesting. I read Fuji also has a patent on a 7 mm rectilinear design. Coming from the industrial R&D world, I understand you more or less always have to have some irons in the fire like this, but I also understand it's expensive.

Then, there is another way a lens helps the bottom line. Some of us choose a product line (such as Fuji) based on how wide the product offering is, without necessarily planning to buy the entire width. There's value in knowing the product line has extremes you can go to in the future. After all, there is a bit of commitment involved. People aren't likely to get camera bodies from many manufacturers just to access particular lenses each manufacturer offers. I know I'm kind of committed to Fuji X for the foreseeable future now.

[Edp]

6 hours ago, BobJ said:

I just read a comment in The Online Photographer (I highly recommend this blog by the way) that suggests that Fuji will not sell many of these. What do you think? Is it too specialist? I would love one but cannot afford it right now, which is just as well!

Fuji has already issued an apology letter that due to demand the supply of 8mm will not be adequate, and they are doing what they can to meet expectations!  Seems like there’s a lot more desire for this lens than anticipated.  

[SGinNorcal]

The 7mm design patent might have been written to protect a feature of the 8mm patent and they have no intent to make a 7mm version.  Not sure if this happens in the lens world but it probably does to avoid another company making a slight change as a patent work-around.

Yes, it is nice that Fuji is filling out the family of lenses.  Now that the roadmap is complete, I wonder what's next?

[Astigmatism]

22 hours ago, SGinNorcal said:

The 7mm design patent might have been written to protect a feature of the 8mm patent and they have no intent to make a 7mm version.

True. They did also have an 8 mm patent. And I know nothing about what features in the new 8 mm lens appear in either/both of these patents. What's claimed in a patent (that is, what protection the patent gives the holder or assignee) can have little to do with what appears in a product. Since a lens design would be easy to reverse engineer just by taking apart the product, they're not going to keep design details as trade secrets -- though they may have manufacturing techniques that aren't visible in the product, such as how they keep everything aligned during assembly or how they adjust things in stages or how they measure the optics.

22 hours ago, SGinNorcal said:

Now that the roadmap is complete, I wonder what's next?

Me too. I think (as somebody else has posted about) the product line is quite lean in the telephoto prime department; after 90 mm there's only one (!) and it's quite costly (!!), so that would be a good target area I think. Many product lines will include a catadioptric (mirror lens) offering, for example. There are 3rd party ones, but they lack autofocus as far as I've found.