As an only child I never experience this term call Sibling Rivalry.

Until now with the new Fujinon XF23mm F2 WR. This is not

the first sibling rivalry in the X-Series Fujinon family. Last year we

had XF 35mm F2 WR vs the classic XF 35mm F1.4. You could

read more here :https://ivanjoshualoh.com/2016/01/04/35mm-vs-35mm/

This year, I feel the 23mm siblings is definitely a more heated rivalry

in the Fujifilm family. Specially for street photographers; this is the

must have focal length. Now, lets get into the details of this new lens.

Design.

The XF23mm F2’s design follow its cue from its elder brother XF

35mm F2 WR. If you are looking at small lenses in your X-series

set-up, look no further. Its has 9 rounded blades in its core. This WR

lens consists of ten elements in six groups, including two aspherical

elements. The lens barrel is sealed to make it weather and dust

resistant, and capable of operating at temperatures as low as -10°C

Weight

XF23mm F1.4 is not really a big lens. Neither is it small lens in the

mirrorless world. Weighting naked at 301grams. As for the new

XF23mm F2, its pretty feather weight at only 180 grams. That is

about 40% lighter then XF23mm F1.4. And maybe 20% – 25%

smaller in size.

X-T2 + XF23mm F2 WR @ 1/250 + 23mm F2 WR + Profoto Lights.

Auto Focus

Its silent and definitely faster! The inner-focus system uses a stepping

motor to drive the lightweight focusing elements for a silent and fast

auto focus. When paired with either X-Pro2 or X-T2’s phase detection

AF, the XF23mm F2 can focus in a blazing speed of 0.05 seconds.

This is possible with High Performance turned on.

Here are a series of pictures taken with both lenses at different aperture

to see how they stack up against one another.

Here are 2 shots of both the lenses at wide open. This is how much 1 stop makes.

ConclusionThey maybe the same focal length; comes from the samemanufacturer but they are very different. First, I think the pricebetween the F1.4 and F2 lenses will be about 35% to 40% difference.That is quite a gap. Size and even auto focus are also different.Therefore don’t bother to compare; rather we should look at ourselves.

What type of photographer are you? If you love the great outdoor, street,

portraits, documentary and travel. The XF 23mm F2 WR is for you. What

about XF23mm F1.4? Its for that photographer that will willing to cough

out more to get that extra. That photographer essentially needs that

extra F-stop and a creamer bokeh. A tad better IQ. All this comes with

downside like weight and a tad slower AF.

Finally if you can’t see yourself falling into those category. Then, you

need to pat yourself on your own shoulder like myself. We are Fujifilm’s

most ideal photographers; we will probably need to have these 2 lenses

in our set-up. Good luck to us.

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