Fujifilm 23mm f/2 Lens Review: My First Love

My first ever Fujifilm lens and the lens that accompanied me on ten months of travel across Australia and South East Asia. It’s been a long time coming but this is finally my Fujifilm 23mm f/2 lens review.

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Let’s start at the end shall we? Unfortunately, I no longer own this lens through no fault of its own and, if I’m honest, the more time that passes the more I’d love to bring it back into my collection. This was the first ever lens that I bought back in 2016 alongside my Fujifilm X-T2 after painstakingly researching what the best prime lens was for travel photography at the time. It was brand new at the time too having been released in September 2016.

My Fujifilm 23mm f/2 has seen a lot; over 16,000km and 9 months roadtripping around Australia, hopping through Bali, Singapore, Phuket, Chiang Mai and Bangkok and daily life through Covid-19. It served me extremely well and I will always hold such fond memories, both literally through the photographs it captured, and emotionally due to how much I enjoyed using it.

As a means of honouring this great lens and I guess as a way of thanking it for treating me so well, I’ve decided to bring all of my thoughts and favourite photos together in this Fujifilm 23mm f/2 lens review.

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FUJIFILM 23MM F/2 LENS REVIEW

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FOCAL LENGTH

The two most popular focal lengths for photography, especially travel, have long been both 35mm and 50mm (in full-frame terms, 23mm and 35mm in the Fujifilm crop sensor world). My favourite focal length before switching to Fujifilm was always 50mm though when looking for a lens that was going to become my everyday travel lens I knew 50mm would be too tight. Therefore, I decided that I had to look at the 35mm focal length which has always been popular as the standard ‘point and shoot’ lens.

The Fujifilm 23mm f/2 was therefore the lens that satisfied my focal length needs and I always find that 23mm (35mm equivalent) offers the perfect field of view to document pretty much everything when travelling. A 23mm prime lens should be the mainstay of every travel and documentary-style photographer’s camera bag and could easily satisfy all your one camera / one lens needs (if you have those).

Strangely, as I write this post now and have looked back through my thousands of photos taken with this lens, I’ve noticed that I’ve utilised the 23mm focal length in landscape orientation more often than not whereas now, with the Fujifilm 35mm f/1.4 being my prime lens of choice, I almost exclusively shoot in portrait orientation.

F/2

The Fujifilm 23mm f/2 lens is commonly known as one of the three original ‘Fujicrons’; so-called because of their resemblance to or inspiration from Leica’s Summicron lenses. The other two lenses are the lovely 35mm f/2 and 50mm f/2; the latter being the only one of these three lenses I still own.

The f/2 aperture has enabled Fujifilm to create a tiny and lightweight lens that is perfect for travel photography and, if you own one of the X-Pro series cameras, the unique design allows for use of the optical viewfinder without blocking your view.

With the lens only being f/2 it means that it’s not brilliant in low-light situations (though I can imagine with the Fujifilm X-T5 and its IBIS, you could still get great images with lower ISOs) and, during the day, it’s flaws are evident in that shooting wide open at f/2 can result in soft images with close-up subjects. When you get down to about f/4 and f/5.6, images are more than sharp enough. I shot a lot of my images whilst travelling at f/2 for some reason or another so yes I have a lot of ‘soft’ images’ but I still consider them some of my favourite images ever taken and it wouldn’t put me off adding this lens back into my collection.

IMAGE QUALITY

As I mentioned above, the image quality shot wide open isn’t the best. By best I mean when you compare it to some of Fujifilm’s top lenses (like the 35mm f/1.4 & 50-140mm f/2.8) there is an obvious difference in image quality. However, with this lens, that slight reduction in image quality is more than worth the convenience of having a lens that is so small it can be pocketed, has weather resistance and is fast to focus.

Having said all of that, I used my Fujifilm 23mm f/2 for documentary-style travel photography; literally just capturing my day to day travels for over 10 months, where perhaps I didn’t need or expect super high quality 100/100 photos every single time. I love this lens for the images it produces and the memories it helps capture.

AUTOFOCUS

Super quiet and super fast. That’s how I’d sum up the Fujifilm 23mm f/2’s autofocus even on the Fujifilm X-T2. I can only image that the time to focus would be practically unmeasurable to the naked eye with some of the latest of Fujifilm’s cameras. Using the Fujifilm 23mm f/1.4 after having this lens for so long was a little of a shock as, to me at least, there was a noticeable slowness to its ability to focus (though this has no doubt been remedied in the newer version).

ALTERNATIVE OPTIONS

Here is where things get interesting. Given the popularity of the 23mm/35mm focal length, there are a number of offerings that give the Fujifilm 23mm f/2 a run for its money. A question for everyone would therefore be why would I pick the Fujifilm 23mm f/2 lens over an entire camera with a built-in lens like the X100 series or the two f/1.4 options; the old wise Fujifilm 23mm f/1.4 R and the modern Fujifilm 23mm f/1.4 R LM WR.

The question I faced, having already owned this lens, was posed (and quickly answered) during one quiet lockdown period; should I sell it and invest in the Fujifilm X100F. At this point, I already owned the Fujifilm 23mm f/1.4 R and so having two interchangeble lenses seemed pretty pointless. I therefore sold the Fujifilm 23mm f/2 and purchased the Fujifilm X100F which I went as far as saying was the greatest thing I have ever held in my hands.

Fast forward to 2024 and I have to admit I have also sold the Fujifilm X100F for the simple reason that I took advantage of the increased used prices (when the X100V essentially went viral) and I now had access to newer film simulations in the Fujifilm X-T5 which I preferred to my standard Classic Chrome recipe. At the point of writing this post, I therefore only own the old Fujifilm 23mm f/1.4 R which I also love (especially for weddings) though the much newer WR version would be the winner if budget wasn’t an issue.

If you’re considering the Fujifilm 23mm f/2 and are weighing up the alternative options, it all really depends on what you are looking for and what matters most to you. You could drop a significant amount of money on the brand new Fujifilm X100VI for an insane point and shoot camera with no softness at f/2, the old f/1.4 for beautiful rendering but slow autofocus, the new f/1.4 for speedy autofocus and weather resistance or this f/2 version for reliable quality and a tiny footprint.

OVERALL THOUGHTS

If you’re looking for a versatile prime lens that delivers on the autofocus front, the portability and size front, is weather resistant and won’t let you down, honestly look no further than the Fujifilm 23mm f/2. It’s a great prime lens, perhaps the perfect prime lens, for travel photography, street photography and documenting your day to day life, whether on the streets of exotic cities or on a weekend away with the family.

My biggest regret in the never-ending cycle of lens purchases is letting this one go. I love my Fujifilm X-T5 and I just know that re-buying this lens would bring me a lot of joy and happiness. However, to be truthful, it could never bring down the mighty Fujifilm 35mm f/1.4 which remains my prime lens of choice. I’d welcome the challenge though.

SAMPLE PHOTOS FROM THE FUJIFILM 23MM F/2

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