Best Overall
Fujinon XF16mmF2.8 R WR
Key details
- Weight
- 5.47 oz (155 g)
- Focal Length
- 16mm (24mm equiv)
- Max Aperture
- f/2.8
- Weather Sealing
- Yes (nine-point seals)
Twenty-four millimeters in full-frame terms is where wide angle stops being an effect and starts being useful: room enough for the near bank and the far ridge in one frame, not so much that the corners of a building lean away from you. The XF16mmF2.8 gets there at 155 grams and 45 mm long, and that is the reason it's our default. On a small X-body it barely changes how the camera hangs at your side, so the lens is still mounted at the end of a long walk instead of back in the bag.
The sealing is what separates it from the rest of this group. Nine seals around the barrel and a rated working temperature down to 14°F mean a wet ridge or a cold morning isn't the moment you stop shooting, which always seems to be the moment worth shooting. Four of the lenses here carry no sealing at all. If you shoot coastlines or snow, this is the one that matches a sealed body.
Optically it does the job a wide prime has to do. Ten elements in eight groups hold sharpness out to the corners, and distortion is controlled tightly enough that building verticals stay put without a correction pass. Nine diaphragm blades are worth knowing about if you like shooting into the sun, where stopped-down point lights turn into defined sunstars rather than a smear.
The 49mm filter thread is the unglamorous advantage: polarizers and ND filters in that size are the least expensive to buy and the easiest to stack flat in a bag. The real measure of a wide lens this small is how often it's already the one mounted, and in our bag that's most days.
Pros
- 24mm-equivalent view without edge stretching
- 155 g and 45 mm long on the camera
- Sealed at nine points down to 14°F
- Takes inexpensive 49mm screw-in filters
Cons
- f/2.8 gives up two stops to the Viltrox 13mm
Our pick for most Fujifilm owners: a 24mm-equivalent prime light enough to live on the camera, sealed for bad weather, and sharp to the corners.