Go wide
Wide-angle lenses have always been my favorites. I love the immersive look and feel. Up until recently, the Samyang 12mm f/2.0 was my go-to lens. Unfortunately, it took an ice bath at the shore of Diamond Beach in Iceland last year. It’s still usable but the photos are fuzzy. Three weeks ago, I decided to replace it with an ultra-wide angle by Fuji: the 8mm f/3.5

Tiny thing
Let’s get the obvious things out of the way. The lens itself is tiny and light. It feels sturdy and has a nice aperture ring with reassuring clicks between aperture values. The autofocus is quick and silent. No complaints here. I have been using it on the Fuji X-T5 and the image quality is amazing. But I do have one single complaint – it’s not cheap.

Is 8mm too wide?
8mm is wide. Let me repeat: it is wide. It’s a considerable step up from a 12mm. It almost feels like a virtual Go Pro lens for the Fuji. The field of view is very immersive. You can capture some crazy stuff. However, this comes with a few challenges. You need to watch very carefully what is included in the frame. And you need to be meticulous when it comes to focusing. Ideally, you can focus-stack landscape images. Also, you might want to consider using graded ND filters for certain landscape photos. The field of view is so immersive that you frequently have massive differences between sky and foreground.

Initial impressions
Two thumbs up. I love the Fuji 8mm lens. It’s fun to use and the unique field of view offers a lot of room to explore and get creative. Some of my favorite photos from a trip to Kos were made with this lens. More to come.