Fujifilm Fujinon XF 16mm F2.8 R WR review

The lens was coupled to various X-series cameras during our testing, including the X-T3 and X-T10. With the XF 16mm F1.4 R WR in our possession we also took the opportunity to perform some comparisons. As you’d expect, the larger and more expensive XF 16mm F1.4 R WR is optically superior, but the XF 16mm F2.8 R WR delivers respectable image quality.

Inspecting sharpness of both lenses at high magnification told us that the XF 16mm F1.4 R WR is indeed the sharper of the two, which justifies the £480 difference in price. Back to the lens in question, centre sharpness out-resolves corner sharpness at f/2.8 and the same is said right through the aperture range to f/11 where the effect of diffraction starts to soften overall sharpness.

Sharpness in the centre improves by stopping the lens down from f/2.8 to f/4, with centre sharpness at f/8 measuring similar to that wide open. There’s a very gradual improvement in corner sharpness from f/2.8 to where it peaks at f/8. Vignetting and curvilinear distortion are both corrected using lens-specific metadata that is accessed automatically by the raw converter you use. It’s the reason you won’t find Fujifilm lenses listed under lens profiles in Adobe Camera Raw or Lightroom.

Inspecting several of my shots taken in bright lighting conditions revealed minor fringes of purple and green colour along high-contrast edges. What was more obvious was the trace of flare artefacts when shooting towards the sun. Users should bear in mind that even with the lens hood attached, some post processing work might be required to remove lens flare when shooting directly towards the light, as illustrated in the test shots opposite.