The 6 Best Fujifilm Lenses for Street Photography Tested on The Streets

There are a lot of great Fujifilm options that can be used for street photography, so there’s no cut-and-dry answer as to what the best Fujifilm lens for street photography is. But I’ve photographed with the lenses listed here, and I can say that you really can’t go wrong with any of them.

The things I prioritize most for a good street photography lens are size and weight while also having good image quality. Fujifilm’s f/2 primes fit that bill nicely, what many refer to as Fujicrons. As a result, I’ve included several of those.

I hope this list gives you some insight as to the best Fujifilm lens for street photography for your needs.

1) Fujifilm XF 23mm f/2 R WR

The Fujifilm XF 23mm f/2 R WR lens is my favorite Fujifilm lens for street photography. I’m a big fan of the 35mm focal length, and this lens has a focal length equivalent to 35mm on a full-frame camera. In my opinion, it’s a very natural perspective because it’s close to what the human eye sees, making it a great option for capturing street scenes and urban landscapes.

The lens is comprised of ten elements in six groups, including two aspherical elements. The result is a very sharp lens with very little chromatic aberration.

Most important for me is that the 23mm f/2 has a compact and lightweight design, weighing in at just 180 grams. For street photography, I look for small and light lenses because I want to be unobtrusive and be able to carry it around all day without neck or other pain.

The metal exterior gives the 23mm f/2 a sense of premium quality and robustness. The aperture ring and focus ring provide a nice manual feel and clickiness.

The 23mm f/2 R WR has snappy autofocus. It has a stepping motor that results in silent and fast autofocus.

Lastly, it’s weather and dust resistant. I like capturing all possible weather conditions in street photography, so weather sealing is a must for me.

I did a full review of the Fujifilm 23mm f/2 R WR here.

2) Fujifilm XF 18mm f/2

The Fujifilm XF 18mm F/2 lens is another good option for street photographers wanting something lightweight and compact. The great thing about it is that it’s small enough to be considered a pancake lens, and I always appreciate compactness for street photography. This lens has an equivalent focal length of 27mm with Fujifilm’s APS-C crop sensor. If you’re a fan of the more typical 28mm focal length, you won’t notice the difference.

The 18mm f/2 was one of the original three lenses released when Fujifilm’s X-mount camera system debuted. While the image quality is decent, there is room for improvement in terms of sharpness and autofocus speed.

Despite these minor drawbacks, it’s a great wide-angle lens for street photography—you can’t go wrong with this focal length.

I did a full review of the Fujifilm 18mm f/2 here.

3) Fujifilm XF 27mm f/2.8 R WR

The Fujifilm XF 27mm f/2.8 R WR lens is an interesting choice for street photography. It’s a little unconventional these days, as 40mm (40.5mm to be exact) isn’t a very common focal length.

This focal length provides a slightly longer reach than your standard 35mm focal length. I’ve found that this focal length is useful in smaller cities or towns where the streets are less crowded and you want to take photos without drawing attention to yourself.

This lens is the smallest on this list — so small and light that you barely notice it on your camera. It’s particularly well-suited to pair with Fujifilm’s smaller rangefinder bodies like the X-Pro or XE series that can get pretty unbalanced when used with Fuji’s larger, heavier wide-aperture lenses.

The lens’s maximum aperture of f/2.8, while not as fast as some other options, still gives you plenty of light-gathering capability for most street photography scenarios. If I was photographing at night, I might want to go with a different lens, but when shooting during the day it’s never an issue, and I prefer to stop down around f/8 whenever possible anyway. There’s an older version of this lens without weather sealing — I would pass on that and go with this one, as having that can save your gear.

I did a full review of the Fujifilm 27mm f/2.8 R WR here.

4) Fujifilm XF 35mm f/2 R WR

The Fujinon XF 35mm f/2 R WR lens is similar to the other f/2 primes mentioned here in that it has great image quality while being compact and lightweight. This lens also has very fast autofocus and is weather-sealed.

With the crop factor, this is essentially a 50mm equivalent focal length lens (52.5mm technically). I find this focal length a bit tight for me personally, but if you’re a fan of 50mm lenses, this lens is what I would go with for street photography.

As the WR in its Fujinon XF 35mm f/2 R WR name suggests, it’s weather resistant, which I consider a necessity for a good street photography lens.

The lens also has a really fast autofocus speed (probably the fastest of this list), coupled with a silent operation, making it ideal for capturing candid moments without disturbing the scene. It’s also probably the sharpest lens out of Fuji’s f/2 primes.

If you’re looking for a lens that can do more than just street photography, this lens can also double nicely as a portrait lens.

5) Fujifilm XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 R LM OIS

I’m typically not the biggest fan of zoom lenses for street photography. It’s too much thinking for me. Me neanderthal. Me zoom with feet. But I own the Fujifilm XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 R LM OIS lens and it’s a ton of fun to use and the focal length is super useful and versatile. It’s a kit lens, but it’s the best/sharpest kit lens I’ve used.

The compact and lightweight design of the lens are what makes it great for street photography. Typically, zoom lenses are a lot larger and heavier than primes, but this lens is manageable enough that you can carry it around all day and it doesn’t draw too much attention.

The downsides to this lens are its variable aperture and that its not weather-sealed.

I did a full review of the Fujifilm XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 R LM OIS here.

6) Best GFX/Medium Format Lens for Street Photography: Fujifilm GF 45mm f/2.8 R WR

The GFX medium format system is bigger and slower than Fujifilm’s X-series APS-C cameras. The GFX bodies and lenses will always be bigger, but their autofocus and processing are finally starting to catch up with the smaller sensors.

There are a couple of lenses for the GFX system that are reasonably sized and can be used for street photography. There aren’t many lenses in the system to begin with, and a lot of them are pretty big and heavy, so aren’t ideal options for street photography. I would probably go with the GF 45mm f/2.8 R WR if I had to choose. The 45mm focal length comes out to an equivalent of 35mm in full-frame terms. In my opinion, it’s the ideal focal length for street photography, but that’s subjective, so you should test that out for yourself if you haven’t already.

The weather-sealing on this lens is a big plus. The lens delivers sharp, vivid images with excellent color reproduction.

The other lens I would consider would be the 23mm F/4 R LM WR, which is an 18mm equivalent.

Which Should You Choose?

The best Fujifilm lens for street photography really depends on your needs and preferences as a photographer.

If you don’t have much experience photographing with wide-angle lenses for street photography, I highly recommend trying out the 23mm and 18mm focal lengths. Many of the great street photographers of all time used these focal lengths (their full frame equivalents), and their photos have a very real and intimate feel to them because you have to get close to your subjects to use them.

If you prefer to have a bit more distance between you and people you photograph, a 50mm equivalent lens may suit you better. Longer focal-length lenses are also nice for creating more abstract street photography compositions.

Either way, you can’t go wrong with any of these Fujifilm lenses. I hope you find the ideal one for you and it inspires you to get out there and take photos.

If you’re looking to pair a Fujifilm lens with a new body, I also wrote an article on the best Fujifilm cameras for street photography here.