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Features

The Best Affordable Fujifilm Lenses

Chris Gampat
No Comments
04/28/2023
5 Mins read
Created with RNI Films app. Preset 'Kodak Ektar 100'

Of any camera system out there, we think that it’s easiest to get into Fujifilm when it comes to value for the price. I mean, just think about it: you’re getting film-like image quality, beautiful RAW files, weather resistance, So if you want to pick up your first camera or are looking to expand your collection of beautiful lenses, we’ve got something great for you right here. Here’s our roundup of the best affordable Fujifilm lenses.

The Phoblographer’s various product round-up features are done in-house. Our philosophy is simple: you wouldn’t get a Wagyu beef steak review from a lifelong vegetarian. And you wouldn’t get photography advice from someone who doesn’t touch the product. We only recommend gear that we’ve fully reviewed. If you’re wondering why your favorite product didn’t make the cut, there’s a chance it’s on another list. If we haven’t reviewed it, we won’t recommend it. This method keeps our lists packed with industry-leading knowledge. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission.

One of the best things about this roundup is that we’re focusing on lenses that are weather resistant, small, and cheap without being “cheap.” That’s why we’re calling them affordable. Truly, these are some of the most sought-after and highly prized lenses for many Fujifilm photographers.

How to Use This Guide to the Best Affordable Fujifilm Lenses

fujifilm lenses

Here’s some more info on how to use this guide to the best affordable Fujifilm lenses.

  • Our Editorial Policies don’t let us talk about lenses that we haven’t tested in the depth that we do other products. With that said, you’re getting a lot of transparency here. We’ve tested all of these lenses in our full reviews, which are hyperlinked throughout this article. You can see those linked in each section. What’s more, we’ve also shot all these product photos and samples ourselves.
  • Believe it or not, Fujifilm has a lot of great lenses under $500. You don’t need to decide whether or not to buy a lens or make a student loan payment with these. Seriously, these really are the best affordable Fujifilm lenses.
  • Weather resistance is insanely important. It keeps your sensor clean and your gear always operational. With that said, all of the best affordable Fujifilm lenses are weather resistant. Please note that this doesn’t mean weather proof or water proof. They’re very different terms. For what it’s worth, we’ve tested a lot of these lenses in snow, on the beach, and in monsoon like rains. The products all survived.
  • For the fastest autofocus performance, try to keep your camera in the boost-mode. There’s also Fujifilm’s Instant AF setting. It will just prove a bit more annoying depending on the focusing mode that you’re in.
  • These lenses are incredibly small. You can shove a few in your camera bag and be happy to shoot all day. In fact, our team regularly takes a camera and two or three lenses with them out on photo walks.
  • The best affordable Fujifilm lenses can be used for landscapes, portraits, street photography, candids, and so much more here on this list.

Fujifilm 16mm f2.8 R WR

Pros

  • Small
  • Lightweight
  • Weather sealed
  • Fun to use
  • Affordable
  • Good for documentary work and travel
  • Incredibly fast autofocus

Cons

  • Not sure why there isn’t an effective manual focus distance scale for hyperfocal length shooting
  • It’s a wide angle lens with a relatively slow aperture for an APS-C camera system

What We Think

In our full review we state:

The Fujifilm 16mm f2.8 R WR lens has pretty decent image quality overall. It is a sharp lens, but to me there is nothing that really sparks magic from its images. If anything, the great image quality comes from the sensor output. When used with Velvia, Classic Chrome, or Provia, the image quality will be gorgeous. However, in every way, I feel the Fujifilm 16mm f1.4 lens outdoes the Fujifilm 16mm f2.8 R WR lens except when it comes to controlling purple fringing. In fact, that’s the only place where this lens beats the 16mm.

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Fujifilm 23mm f2 R WR

Pros

  • Good image quality
  • Seriously and surprisingly fast focus. This lens is officially Fujifilm’s fastest.
  • Fast focus on the X Pro 2, X-T2, and even the X Pro 1. The latter completely shocked me.
  • Nice colors
  • Compact size
  • Weather sealing
  • Turning the aperture ring feels nice and smooth until the clicks come in. It’s a tactile experience that’s just lovely.
  • Sharp images
  • Fairly nice bokeh
  • Affordable price point

Cons

  • Something about this lens just simply doesn’t have the magic the 23mm f1.4 R does

What We Think

Here’s what we said in our full review:

As with any lens, the best sharpness that you’re going to get from a lens comes when you use a flash. For those working with ambient light though, you’ll get the best sharpness when stopped down to around f5.6. Beyond f8, I honestly wouldn’t even bother due to how APS-C sensor cameras work.

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Fujifilm 27mm f2.8 R WR

Pros

  • Compact
  • Weather-sealed
  • Great bokeh, when you get in close
  • Good center sharpness
  • Great price

Cons

  • Some colored fringing
  • Softer corners

What We Think

Here a quote from our full review:

The Fujifilm 27mm f2.8 R WR is an excellent kit lens — but it still has merit as a great, compact walk-around lens. For $400, you get a tiny, weather-sealed lens with some soft bokeh and a sharp center. That’s an excellent deal.

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Fujifilm 35mm f2 R WR

Pros

  • Great sharpness
  • Nine aperture blades make the bokeh as good as it can be
  • Small size
  • Weather resistance
  • The fastest focusing lens that Fujifilm has offered as of the publication of this review.

Cons

  • Just f2â€Ĥa refresh to the 35mm f1.4 actually would have been more appreciated and pushed the system ahead overall

What We Think

Here is a quote from our full review:

Let’s start these conclusions with the absolute truths about this lens. It is the fastest to focus Fujifilm lens to date and finally makes candid street photography with a Fujifilm camera really viable when it comes to using autofocus. For this reason alone, many photographers will greatly, greatly appreciate this lens and just how quickly it can perform.

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Fujifilm 50mm f2 R WR

Pros

  • Weather sealing
  • Fast autofocus performance on the newer cameras (sorry X Pro 1 users)
  • Sharp optics and image quality
  • Nice bokeh
  • Only gets sharper when you use a flash
  • Pretty compact
  • Nice build quality

Cons

  • Not much, honestly

What We Think

Here’s an essential quote from our full review:

The Fujifilm 50mm f2 R WR has fantastic image quality that really, truly speaks for itself. There isn’t a single reason for photographers to complain. It’s sharp, has nice bokeh, doesn’t suffer from any sort of issues the 23mm f2 suffers from when it comes to image quality, and most importantly it’s got great colors. When using the Fujifilm system, it’s honestly tough to complain about the colors anyway.

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affordable fujifilm lenses autofocus best affordable fujifilm lenses fujifilm fujifilm 16mm f2.8 Fujifilm 23mm f2 fujifilm 35mm f2 fujifilm 50mm f2 fujifilm lenses
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Chris Gampat is the Editor in Chief, Founder, and Publisher of the Phoblographer. He provides oversight to all of the daily tasks, including editorial, administrative, and advertising work. Chris's editorial work includes not only editing and scheduling articles but also writing them himself. He's the author of various product guides, educational pieces, product reviews, and interviews with photographers. He's fascinated by how photographers create, considering the fact that he's legally blind./ HIGHLIGHTS: Chris used to work in Men's lifestyle and tech. He's a veteran technology writer, editor, and reviewer with more than 15 years experience. He's also a Photographer that has had his share of bylines and viral projects like "Secret Order of the Slice." PAST BYLINES: Gear Patrol, PC Mag, Geek.com, Digital Photo Pro, Resource Magazine, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Finance, IGN, PDN, and others. EXPERIENCE: Chris Gampat began working in tech and art journalism both in 2008. He started at PCMag, Magnum Photos, and Geek.com. He founded the Phoblographer in 2009 after working at places like PDN and Photography Bay. He left his day job as the Social Media Content Developer at B&H Photo in the early 2010s. Since then, he's evolved as a publisher using AI ethically, coming up with ethical ways to bring in affiliate income, and preaching the word of diversity in the photo industry. His background and work has spread to non-profits like American Photographic Arts where he's done work to get photographers various benefits. His skills are in SEO, app development, content planning, ethics management, photography, Wordpress, and other things. EDUCATION: Chris graduated Magna Cum Laude from Adelphi University with a degree in Communications in Journalism in 2009. Since then, he's learned and adapted to various things in the fields of social media, SEO, app development, e-commerce development, HTML, etc. FAVORITE SUBJECT TO PHOTOGRAPH: Chris enjoys creating conceptual work that makes people stare at his photos. But he doesn't get to do much of this because of the high demand of photography content. / BEST PHOTOGRAPHY TIP: Don't do it in post-production when you can do it in-camera.
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