This past Presidents Day weekend we took a lovely trip up to Ventura and parts of Santa Barbara for the day and I thought, what a perfect time to test out my new 18mm f2 R on my Fuji XPro1.  I have read numerous reviews regarding this leans and thought why not pick it up.  I have been looking to expand my Fuji kit for sometime, so that I could rely on it for more and more professional assignments.  Most, if not all the images below were taken straight out of camera and shot as jpegs in the standard color setting. Some images received a few color and curve tweaks and conversion into B+W, but overall nothing monumental. I wanted to see what this lens could produce straight out.

I have to say that I was very impressed with this lens. Most of the time in Santa Barbara I was shooting closed down (somewhere between f8 and f16) and relying on a predetermined hyperfocal window to grab shots. As with most of my street photography, I shoot from the hip and compose my shots based on hope and intuition. However, I am also certain my stealth was severely minimized by having a cat on my shoulder but I like to think it served as a good distraction from wielding a camera.  

At the higher apertures, the XF18mm handled flare very well and had just a little chromatic aberration when shooting into direct sunlight. Nothing that could not be processed away in post. Images got a tad soft in the corners when shooting wide open but for what this lens is its not a deal breaker. I found the center detail quite sharp and beautiful.  This lens tends to shine in sharpness at around 5.6 and 8 edge-to-edge. Auto-focus is quick enough for most situations but struggles a bit when capturing fast motion.  Again, this  is not a deal breaker for me but then again, this lens costs a third of my high end Canon L series lenses.

What most impresses me most about the Fujinon lenses is their ability to minimize or dispel distortion at the wider focal lengths. This lens in particular is oh so delicious when roaming the street or capturing architectural shots.

All in all I am happy with the Fujinon XF18mm f2 R. I look forward to putting it through a professional assignment later this week.

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    The San Buenaventura MissionBrought up the shadow detail just a bit and added a touch of saturation to the image. The Courtyard of the San Buenaventura MissionLight dodging to the shadowed areas. Alter of the Virgin MaryNo editing. Straight out of camera The Courtyard of The San Buenaventura MissionLight dodging to the shadowed areas. Macro Test - Yellow FlowerThe 18mm f2 performs well as a macro lens. It focuses super close. This was taken about 1.5 feet from the subject, no cropping or editing. Old Man at the Santa Barbara MissionLook at how little this lens distorts the image toward the edges. Simply phenomenal. Zombie FriarGreat texture and color reproduction with the 18mm f2 R. Again a good example of how this lens handles distortion. Plants and WindowThe light here was nice. I could have framed it a bit better but this is straight out of camera.

This Lens is Selfie CapableThe XF18mm produces fantastic skin tones straight out of camera. No editing at all done here. We're looking cute. Internment Distortion is a little more noticeable here but still well handled and color reproduction is very accurate. Pulled straight out of camera with no editing and shot from the hip. Mission Side Entrance Again, handles perspective distortion well and notice how the lens is controlling the lens flare from the right side. Colors are slightly saturated in post along with a little bump in texture definition. Tombstone -1/3 ev and metered for the tombstone. Great color reproduction and detail. No editing. Jesus on the CrossLight color correction. Cross in CourtyardSlight distortion toward the edges and taken straight out of camera. Pelican in FlightThis image was super cropped in (notice the speck of sensor dust toward the center of the frame). Even cropped, the 18mm f2 R exhibits some nice sharpness and retains some detail. It's no wildlife photographers lens but for web images like these it did a nice job.   Low Light TestShot handheld at 1/60 @f2 ISO3200. This lens performs admirably. The Perfect Way to End the DayHandheld shot at 1/60 @ f2 ISO 3200