Looking for something a little different as a lens? Have you thought of something really wide?
The Fujifilm XF 8mm f3.5 R WR is an ultra wide-angle prime lens with a focal length equivalent to 12mm on the 35mm film (full frame) format, making it equally the widest among the line-up of Fujifilm’s XF lenses. It boasts a viewing angle of 121 degrees diagonally and 112 degrees horizontally. While human vision is said to have a wide-angle field-of-view, its effective visual field (the observable area a person can see clearly) is limited to around 60 degrees. The 8mm almost doubles the effective visual field beyond what human vision can recognise (without turning your head, of course).
The lens's optical design makes it possible to deliver edge-to-edge sharpness, Fujifilm claims. Technically, the XF 8mm f3.5 R WR uses 12 lens elements in nine groups, including three aspherical elements and two ED elements.
The 8mm lens measures 52.8 mm long, weighs 215 g and has a relatively small filter thread size of 62mm, despite being an ultra wide-angle lens. Placing the distortion-controlling aspherical elements at the front has effectively reduced the lens's overall size and kept the filter thread size to the versatile 62 mm, so your future filter purchases will not outweigh the lens itself!
The lens barrel is weather-sealed at 10 locations to achieve dust and weather resistance, and it is capable of operating in temperatures as low as -10℃. The front lens element has a fluorine coating to repel water and offer protection against stains. This means you can enjoy using the lens in all types of shooting conditions, including landscape photography in light rain, desert work in dusty places and travel photography generally.
And one of the tricks to using ultra wide-angle lenses effectively is to move in close to your subject and fill the frame. You can produce some very dramatic compositions with this simple approach. The XF 8mm is expected to have a price of around AUS $1429. For more information, visit Fujifilm's website.