The lower price makes it an excellent travel lens for beginners since you’re not investing large amounts of money while deciding if photography is your hobby or career. It also makes for a splendid gift for avid travellersand travel bloggers.

Be honest, did I convince you, or had you already made up your mind but needed the last little bit of justification ;-)The 23mm f/2 was my first fujifilm lens, coupled with an X-T2… bought as an experiment to see if I could go lighter than my full frame Nikon DSLRs. That experiment was a success and now I grab one of my fuji cameras ( also got an Xpro2) over my Nikons most everytime. The natural question is if it’s worth ‘upgrading’ from the older XF 23mm f/1.4 lens. For a travel photographer who values compact size and weight (and WR) over ultimate optical quality and faster glass (I do believe the XF 23mm f/1.4 is optically superior), the XF 23mm f/2 WR is the clear winner. In fact, if you like the XF 35mm f/2 WR lens as well, the filter thread, lens cap and hood are exactly the same. Like many, I swapped hoods and both work equally well on each other. Another bonus is the lens cap actually fits on top of the funnel-like lens hood of the XF 23mm. It looks a bit weird but works perfect. I hope this compatibility of lens hood and cap size makes its way throughout this f/2 WR lens line-up. Although not generally a problem for most shots, flare can happen from time to time. If you use the supplied the lens hood, it’s kept to a minimum, but in some situations it’s unavoidable - whether this is a problem is likely to be down to the individual, some like the effects lens flare creates. Either way, it’s a pretty rare occurrence which generally only happens when pointing the lens directly towards a very bright light source.

Of course, I am a documentary and travel photographer, which means I spend almost all my time on the road (hence the attraction of small, lightweight lenses) and most of my photographs are taken in remote, often wet or dusty environments. So for me the WR is a massive plus. If not, keep reading, and you’ll get a much more in-depth explanation of the lens. Fuji XF 23mm f2 Features Fuji cameras use APS-C size sensors with a 1.53X crop factor. To get a 35mm field of view (essentially the width and height of the frame) you need to use a 23mm lens. Up until now the only option was the excellent Fuji 23mm f1.4 lens but this thing is gargantuan. Seriously, it’s about the size of a coffee cup sitting on the front of the camera and not at all something I’d want to lug around for a day of shooting.He photographs weddings across the UK, Europe and Destination Weddings overseas. He was the first officialFujifilm Ambassador for Wedding Photography. You can also visit his Corporate Media Agency, Portrait & Headshot Photography& Personal Photography. The good thing of course, is that for the rest of the day (which is about 90%), I'll be using the smaller and lighter F2 lens exclusively. Now, to be totally honest, the image above is a little disingenuous as the lens hood on the F1.4 is ridiculously big. The lens hood on the F2 model is much much better.