Winter Walk in Minneapolis

Testing the Fujinon XF 16mm f/2.8 Lens in the City Streets

By Andy Johnson III

January 19^th, 2024

When I first started shooting with prime lenses I had grown accustomed to shooting with a fixed lens by using my iPhone. Prior to the iPhone 4, I was a committed zoom lens user but the combination of shooting with my phone and getting my hands on the Fujifilm X100 for the first time convinced me that I wanted to start shooting with primes. When I compared the iPhone's focal length with other lenses, I found it to be roughly the equivalent of 28mm on a full frame system. This became my ideal focal length for a prime.

When I purchased the XF 18mm f/2, one of Fujifilm's earliest lenses, I discovered through pixel peeping that it appeared to me that the XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 lens was actually a little bit sharper at 18mm. Along with a number of negative reviews online, this convinced me to part with the XF 18mm f/2 and I've been hoping for an updated version ever since. When Fujifilm launched the XF 16mm f/2.8, it occurred to me that this might be the compact walkabout lens that I was looking for, even though I wished it was 18mm and f/2. I finally picked this lens up to try it out and took it on a winter photo walk the other day for my initial impressions.

Electric Fetus

While looking for a destination for this photo walk, I realized that Electric Fetus was not far from where I was that day. Likely the most iconic record store in town, Electric Fetus is a place that I've been wanting to visit so I used the occasion to stop in, peruse the vast music selection and take a few pictures. I loved the artwork around the building, the old-style logo and the feel of a classic music store. People carefully browsing through the music selection made a great subject for shooting a few pictures as well, since they were too distracted to notice the camera.

On my way back, I crossed over the Franklin Ave. bridge, finding a great view of downtown Minneapolis. The traffic flowing both ways and the protective railing made for fun composition options at this vantage point. Although the 16mm point of view made it possible to gain a wide shot, I found that in situations like this where my subject was a long way off, I ended up cropping significantly to obtain the composition that I actually wanted. This made me wonder if the 18mm field of view would have been closer to the shot that I was actually looking to get.

We had a little bit of snow on the ground but not as much as one might expect in January. I like the look that snow gives to the area but I'm sure that we'll have more for me to photograph before the winter is over. There's still plenty of scenes to capture, even on a dreary day like this around the downtown areas of the Twin Cities. The XF 16mm f/2.8 lens is motivating me to get out there and to do some more street shooting alongside my XF 23mm f/1.4 on the X-T4.

Final Thoughts on the XF 16mm f/2.8 Lens

Here are my thoughts so far on the XF 16mm f/2.8 lens from Fujifilm. I loved having the ability to capture the large building across the street since 16mm was plenty wide for the whole scene. 23mm on an APSC sensor is often not quite wide enough for larger buildings and 18mm can be pretty tight while typically being able to capture all but the largest buildings.

On the other hand, shooting pictures of people made me feel that 16mm was quite far away. You can "zoom with your legs" but that will not get you to the right place in time to capture the scene that you notice as it unfolds quickly with people walking by. This means that for almost all of the photos I shared above, I did significant cropping to get the image that I actually wanted. I don't typically do a lot of cropping since I try to capture the field of view that I intended when I shoot. This is an argument for a zoom lens like the XF 16-55mm f/2.8 but there is still a place in the kit for something more compact that it is easier to store and carry on the go.

The size and weight of the XF 16mm f/2.8, along with the quality metal construction, make this a compelling lens to work with. I love how the "Fujicron" f/2 and 2.8 lenses look with their tapered barrels to make room for the optical viewfinders to see past them. The shorter lenses like this one and the XF 35mm f/2 are the best fit on the cameras, in my opinion. Although I can live without the extra stop at 2.8 in order to get a lighter lens, I still wish that Fujifilm would have just done this for the 18mm focal length instead. If so, this lens would be an absolute no-brainer for me.

Since this one is 16mm, however, it seems that my decision is either (1) to use the wider compact prime at 16mm that is future-proofed for Fujifilm's higher megapixel sensors and just to crop as needed, (2) to bump up to the much larger and more expensive but highly acclaimed 18mm f/1.4, sacrificing compactness for quality, or (3) to pick the wonderfully sized 18mm f/2 despite it's focusing issues, age and lesser image quality. The only other option might be to use the WCL-X100 on the X100 series instead to gain the 18mm field of view but with a fairly compact setup. I'll keep shooting with this XF 16mm f/2.8 for a few weeks and see if it grows on me or if I need to explore one of the other options.