So Fuji now has three 23mm lenses (or four if you count the orginal R version) with apertures from f2.8 to f1.4. They have at least two of most other primes if you accept that 50mm and 56mm are much the same focal length as well as 85mm and 90mm primes.
So why no 27mm f2?
40mm equivalent is my favourite focal length and is incredibly versatile. While the 27mm f2.8 is great, f2.8 doesn't always cut it. The Voigtlander is manual focus, and the Viltrox 25mm f1.7 is plastic, missing an aperture ring and bigger than the Fujicrons. Surely a 27mm f2 pancake about the size of the 18mm f2 would be a hit seller?
Yes, the Voigtlander is manual focus, but I love it. It is small, lightweight, nicely build and incredible easy to use. And I really like the rendering of the images. It's become one with my X-E4 - together they're the perfect travel kit for me.
f/2.8 doesn't cut it sometimes, and you need f/2.
23mm doesn't cut it sometimes, and you need 27mm.
Sooner or later, any prime isn't going to cut it for some situation.
I think Fuji would do better to put their 50-140mm f/2.8 and 16-80mm f/4 on a diet plan...
The Viltrox air 25/1.7 is my solution. Cheap, lightweight and excellent optically. So sharp I leave a cineswirl diffusion filter on it. No aperture ring, but I use the command wheel for all my lenses, so no loss to me there either. So good, I bought the 56 air and equally happy with it. I may add the 35 soon as well, IDK.
One issue with using the command dial to control aperture is (or at least was with my old XPro2) that the lens doesn’t remember the aperture set this way.
I used that approach with my old (no aperture ring) 27mm f/2.8 on the XPro2, and that issue bit me more than once.
gdanmitchell wrote:
One issue with using the command dial to control aperture is (or at least was with my old XPro2) that the lens doesn’t remember the aperture set this way.
I used that approach with my old (no aperture ring) 27mm f/2.8 on the XPro2, and that issue bit me more than once.
Hmmm. It definitely remembers on my XH2, and my XT4, XT5 and XH1’s did when I used the command wheel as well, so must have been an older platform issue…
Jack Flesher wrote:
The Viltrox air 25/1.7 is my solution. Cheap, lightweight and excellent optically. So sharp I leave a cineswirl diffusion filter on it. No aperture ring, but I use the command wheel for all my lenses, so no loss to me there either. So good, I bought the 56 air and equally happy with it. I may add the 35 soon as well, IDK.
My thoughts exactly, love these primes. I recently added the 35mm 1.7 (resistance is futile.) My X-T50 has no problem remembering the aperture setting.
Sal
Mar 01, 2026 at 02:17 PM
Steve Spencer Offline • • • • • • • Upload & Sell: On
I have both the Voigtlander 27 f/2 and the Viltrox 27 f/1.2 Pro. Obviously very different lenses, but I like both of them a lot. The Viltrox is great with really good AF if I don't mind the size, which I usually don't, but when I want small the Voigtlander is a great option. I wouldn't replace either with a 27 f/2 from Fuji, but I might be interested in a 27 f/1.4, but it would have to be significantly smaller or better than the Viltrox 27 f/1.2, but that is just me.
RWNPhoto wrote:
f/2.8 doesn't cut it sometimes, and you need f/2.
23mm doesn't cut it sometimes, and you need 27mm.
Sooner or later, any prime isn't going to cut it for some situation.
I think Fuji would do better to put their 50-140mm f/2.8 and 16-80mm f/4 on a diet plan...
I agree Fuji could put some of their lenses on a diet but it doesn't need to be either, or.
Jack Flesher wrote:
Hmmm. It definitely remembers on my XH2, and my XT4, XT5 and XH1’s did when I used the command wheel as well, so must have been an older platform issue…
Now that I think of it — it has been a few years since I used that lens w/o the aperture ring — it may have “remembered” until I cycled the camera power. Which I do frequently when shooting if I’m not immediately making another shot.
Jack Flesher wrote:
The Viltrox air 25/1.7 is my solution. Cheap, lightweight and excellent optically. So sharp I leave a cineswirl diffusion filter on it. No aperture ring, but I use the command wheel for all my lenses, so no loss to me there either. So good, I bought the 56 air and equally happy with it. I may add the 35 soon as well, IDK.
That's been my solution too, but sometimes I need to feel cold hard metal between my fingers.
gdanmitchell wrote:
Now that I think of it — it has been a few years since I used that lens w/o the aperture ring — it may have “remembered” until I cycled the camera power. Which I do frequently when shooting if I’m not immediately making another shot.
I wonder if that is how it is on your system.
No. I can cycle power on and off, which I do regularly while shooting to conserve battery, and aperture holds. HOWEVER! This is shooting in my normal A or M mode. If you are in a CF setting, whatever you set as the base exposure setting in that CF is memorized unless you have auto-update settings in CF activated. As such, if you had set f5.6 when you saved that CF, it will revert to f5.6 every power cycle unless you also activate auto update. I suspect this was your issue.
Jack Flesher wrote:
No. I can cycle power on and off, which I do regularly while shooting to conserve battery, and aperture holds. HOWEVER! This is shooting in my normal A or M mode. If you are in a CF setting, whatever you set as the base exposure setting in that CF is memorized unless you have auto-update settings in CF activated. As such, if you had set f5.6 when you saved that CF, it will revert to f5.6 every power cycle unless you also activate auto update. I suspect this was your issue.
Jack, I generally use a basic aperture priority mode without any presets.
But it sounds like Fujifilm must have changed something so that the aperture is remembered when using a dial to change it. That’s good news, and it makes the use of lenses without aperture rings more attractive than it was for me.
With the popularity of 28 and 40mm across the board, I'm kind of surprised they didn't also make a 27 1.4 when the 18 1.4 was released. Maybe they're just leap frogging since they updated the 27 2.8 but not the 18 f/2? Haha
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