The Fujinon XF 35mm F2 R WR ($399.95) is the second 35mm prime for Fujifilm's mirrorless camera system. It's smaller and less expensive than the 35mm f/1.4 that launched with the system, and adds weather sealing to boot. It doesn't capture as much light as an f/1.4 prime, but the XF 35mm F2 is an optical gem, even when shot wide open. If you've got a Fuji X camera and are in the market for a standard-angle prime lens, it doesn't get much better than this one. It's an easy pick for Editors' Choice honors.

Design
The XF 35mm F2 is a small lens, even by mirrorless standards. It measures 1.8 by 2.4 inches (HD), weighs just 6 ounces, and supports 43mm front filters. A lens hood is included. It screws into the filter thread, so you will have to unscrew it to add or remove a filter. That's not a huge deal, and there is a bayonet mount around the outside of the lens. It's not out yet, but Fujifilm is releasing a metal hood that will mount on the bayonet, which will give you ready access to the filter thread. A rubber seal around the lens mount complements bodies like the X-T1 ($318.00 at Amazon) that incorporate seals against dust and moisture.

There's a manual focus ring behind the front element. Like other lenses in the X system (and most autofocus lenses for mirrorless camera systems in general), the XF 35mm's manual focus mechanism is electronic. When you turn the focus ring the internal focus motor moves the element, which can take some getting used to for SLR owners who are used to mechanical manual focus. In terms of autofocus, the XF 35mm is fast and accurate when paired with the X-T10 ($269.99 at Amazon) . A physical aperture ring sits at the base of the lens. It can be set from f/2 through f/16 at third-stop increments, and has an A (automatic) setting available as well.

The X system uses APS-C image sensors, the same size you'll find in consumer SLRs. Old school film shooters may think of a 35mm prime as a moderate wide angle, but when paired with an APS sensor it's a standard-angle lens, roughly equivalent to a 50mm lens on a full-frame system in terms of field of view. It can focus as close as 13 inches. That's not macro—the magnification is 1:7.4 at the minimum focus distance—but it's in line with typical standard-angle lens designs. If you want a short macro, consider instead the Fujinon XF 60mm F2.4 R Macro ($649.00 at Amazon) or the Zeiss Touit 2.8/50M ($700.00 at Amazon) .

Image Quality
I used Imatest to check the performance of the lens when paired with the 16-megapixel X-T10. At f/2 the lens is already a stellar performer, notching 2,757 lines on a center-weighted sharpness test. That's an excellent score for a 16-megapixel sensor, much higher than the 1,800 lines we look for in an image. Performance is strong even at the edges of the frame, which record 2,247 lines. The lens shows about 0.5 percent barrel distortion, which is really a nonissue in real-world use.

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Corner performance at f/2 is a bit weak. The corners of the frame are outside the view of our test chart, but show muddiness at f/2 and f/2.8 upon visual inspection. They're crisp at f/4 and beyond, however. Other than that difference, an image shot at f/2 is just as strong as one shot at a narrower aperture with this lens.

Distortion and fall-off are well controlled. I used an ExpoDisc and Imatest's Uniformity tool to check the evenness of the illumination across the frame with the 35mm. When shot at f/2 there's a 0.7EV drop in illlumination at the corners of the frame when compared with the center. That's an excellent result, and just barely noticeable in certain shots. Stopping down to f/2.8 cuts the corner fall-off to 0.4EV.

Conclusions
There's almost nothing bad to say about the Fujifilm Fujinon XF 35mm F2 R WR. Even if it was priced higher, I'd strongly recommend it to photographers invested in the Fujifilm mirrorless system. At $400 it's an incredible value—it's compact, sealed against dust and moisture, and incredibly sharp. There are a couple of minor knocks against the lens—it doesn't include stabilization (but that's not a common feature for a standard-angle prime), and the corners are a little muddy at wide apertures. But the pluses far outweigh the minuses, and it's no surprise that it earns our Editors' Choice. 

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