Other than just being the smallest lens in my line up, the Fujifilm 27mm f2.8 WR is actually my least favorite lens.

Why?

  • By virtue of being a f/2.8, it lacks bokeh and isn’t great in lowlight.
  • Neither a portrait nor landscape focal length.

The only pros about it is it’s pancake size.

But I decided to just use it for a trip to Ipoh. Paired with an Fujifilm XT-4 to compensate with IBIS and low light performance, I found it to be useful for most situations. Mainly street photography.

I learned that this focal length of 27mm (40.5mm FF equivalent), is meant to be what you see via your eyes. This means almost every shot I shoot with the camera to my face is what I get.

With such a narrow field of view, it fails to take group photos, that’s where the phone camera comes in.

Pretty much useless to isolate subjects, but natural if you want subject with background context.

And for lowlight, I brought my lightweight godox flash as fill light too.

Brave of me.

Typically I would have packed a whole bag of f/1.4 lenses. But now I’ve space for water bottle and purchased items.

My backbone thank me too for going lightweight this trip.

Additionally I played with Kevin Mullin’s Film Recipe Kodak Style – 70s Kodak Simulation (colour).

Putting it here for future reference.

This JPEG Recipe is design to emulate the golden age of the Kodachrome Kodak Film.

  • Film Simulation - Classic Neg
  • Grain Effect - Strong
  • Grain Size - Large
  • White Balance - 5000K
  • WB Shift - R:-1 B:2
  • Highlight Tone - +2
  • Shadow Tone - +3
  • Colour - -1
  • Sharpness - +2
  • Noise Reduction - -4
  • Clarity - +1

In the end, I did fall in love with the lens as a family travel companion. To be able to compensate the wide view using the phone and lowlight with a flash and body’s IBIS, I think I’ve found my lightest travel kit yet.