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Lenses

Fujifilm 8mm f3.5 R WR Pre-Review: The Most Fun!

Chris Gampat
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05/24/2023
4 Mins read
Chris Gampat The Phoblographer Fujifilm 8mm f3.5 product images first impressions 21-80s100 6

The Fujifilm 8mm f3.5 R WR will probably be one of the most fun lenses you get your hands on. Generally speaking, that’s how super wide angles are. This is around a 12mm field of view when considering it against full-frame options. What’s more, it’s not a fisheye. Other things that make us want to swipe right on this lens are the metal bod, the smaller size, and the halation that leaves everything it sees with a dreamy glow. Yes, Fujifilm apparently did it. And it’s beautiful!

Editor’s Note: The Phoblographer received a pre-production sample of the Fujifilm 8mm f3.5 R WR lens. All previews you find on the web are probably with similar units. We’re very forthright about letting people know this, and our full review is coming only after we have a production sample. You can read more about our policies here.

Tech Specs of the Fujifilm 8mm f3.5 R WR

  • Weather resistant
  • Full aperture ring with A setting
  • Metal body
  • 220 grams
  • About as large as a chapstick
  • 12 elements in 9 groups
  • 62mm front filter thread
  • Too wide for the Fujifilm X Pro series’ optical viewfinder. With the Pro 3, you’ve got the picture-in-picture mode for focusing at least.
  • 3 aspherical elements and 2 ED elements
  • $799

Ergonomics

Here’s a look at the Fujifilm 8mm f3.5 R WR lens. The front has a 62mm filter thread, which you should remember if you want to remove the lens hood as badly as I do. Replace it with a lens filter, and you’ll probably be delighted. But if you’re looking for those film vibes, you might not need it.

Here’s a look at the top of the Fujifilm 8mm f3.5 R WR. There’s a focusing ring towards the top and an aperture ring at the back. Said aperture ring can be set to the automatic mode too. It’s overall tiny, but still comfortable.

Here’s a look at the lens without the lens hood. Here, it resembles a few more classic lenses than the newer Fujifilm options.

Build Quality

The new Fujifilm 8mm f3.5 R WR is weather resistant. It’s also tiny — which makes us want to use it a whole lot. Fujifilm’s smaller prime lenses are best for this, as you essentially never want to take it off of your camera. It’s made of the same metal on the outside as every other Fujifilm lens on the market. So you’ll know you’re holding a quality and premium product.

During our testing, we didn’t take it out into a rainstorm. But we’re optimistic that it can survive anything we throw at it. Fujifilm’s lenses and cameras have withstood serious environmental torture testing when we’ve used them.

Ease of Use

There isn’t much to consider with the Fujifilm 8mm f3.5 R WR. There’s an aperture ring and a manual focus ring. That’s about it. If you don’t want to use the aperture ring, then set it to the A-mode to give the camera control over that setting. It’s highly debatable, but most Fujifilm camera users would call this blasphemy. Despite this, we’ve had former staff who’ve done it only to be faced with perplexed looks.

Unfortunately, this lens also lacks the depth of field scale, which I think is now gone from Fujifilm.

If you’re an X Pro 3, X Pro 2, or X Pro 1 user then note that in the OVF mode, this lens will be too wide to really render anything proper.

Focusing

Considering this is an 8mm lens, you must expect the autofocus to be speedy, right? Well, it is. We used this lens on the X Pro 3 and the new XS20 — both cameras proved that the lens can be focused very quickly without any significant issues. We didn’t do any in-depth testing with continuous autofocus because, across the board, Fujifilm’s continuous autofocus makes us want to cry. But we’ll do so in our full review.

Image Quality

There isn’t much distortion with the new Fujifilm 8mm f3.5 R WR. Any distortion can be easily corrected in post-production. But one of our favorite things about this lens is the halation. Halfway through our testing, Fujifilm asked us to update the firmware on the lens, which we did. We saw a slight nerf to the halation, but ever so slightly. We saw this on both the Fujifilm XS20 and the X Pro 3. I also shot everything at 5500K as this is the natural white balance of film.

Seriously, I adore the look of the halation it offers. I typically need to use Glimmer glass to get this look, but it’s giving it to me right out of the box.

From day one, The Phoblographer has been huge on transparency with our audience. Nothing from this review is sponsored. Further, lots of folks will post reviews and show lots of editing in the photos. The problem then becomes that anyone and everyone can do the same thing. They’re not showing what the lens can do. So we have a section in our Extra Image Samples area to show edited and unedited photos. From this, you can make a decision for yourself.

Unedited

Edited

First Impressions

If Fujifilm keeps the halation that the Fujifilm 8mm f3.5 R WR has, I’ll be very happy. In fact, I think that there are a ton of Fujifilm photographers that will also be very pleased. Combine this with the weather resistance, fast focusing, small size, and build quality, and you’ve got a winner. This is a very, very fun lens to use. And I could even see myself buying one of these.

Stay tuned for our upcoming full review.

autofocus build quality ergonomics fujifilm 8mm Fujifilm 8mm f3.5 R WR Fujifilm X Pro 3 image quality lens xs20
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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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