Fujifilm GF 20-35mm F4 R WR Gallery: See our first shots with Fuji’s newest and widest GFX lens
posted Wednesday, February 1, 2023 at 9:35 AM EST
Click here to view our Fujifilm GF 20-35mm F4 R WR Gallery
While 2017's GF 23mm F4 lens whetted the appetites of GFX users looking for a wide-angle lens, some users, myself included, still longed for something that wasn't only a bit wider but also offered the versatility of a zoom lens. Well, that precise lens is now available in the form of the Fujifilm GF 20-35mm F4 R WR zoom lens. Offering a 35mm-equivalent focal length range of 16-28mm with a constant F4 aperture, the GF 20-35mm F4 R WR is an excellent wide-angle zoom lens for the GFX and especially well-suited to landscape and travel photography.
I thoroughly enjoy my GF 32-64mm F4 R WR lens -- it's a fantastic standard zoom -- but it can't quite capture a very expansive vista. And on the other hand, the GF 23mm F4 earned its place in my kit but I felt hamstrung by the fixed focal length. The new GF 20-35mm F4 R WR blends what I love about the GF 32-64mm F4 with what I liked about the GF 23mm F4 lens, creating a nearly-perfect ultra-wide zoom lens for the medium-format GFX system. The GF 20-35mm F4 has great build quality, is reasonably compact, all things considered and doesn't compromise concerning image quality. The GF 20-35mm F4 lens is very sharp throughout the zoom range, even when shooting wide open. While my detailed image quality analysis will be in my full review, the short version is that the lens is optically excellent. Based on my extensive experience with Fujinon GF lenses, that's not surprising, but that doesn't make the news any less good.
Concerning build quality and "feel," the news is similarly positive. The lens has a robust, pro-level look and feel, including an excellent dedicated aperture control ring. The focus ring feels pretty good, too, although, like many other GF lenses, it's slightly too "loose," in my opinion. Nonetheless, it's easy to dial in focus manually. As evidenced by the "WR" in the model name, the GF 20-35mm F4 R WR lens is weather resistant. It handled snow, rain, and cold weather with aplomb. It's built to withstand the demands of passionate nature and landscape photographers who don't let a little bad weather stand in their way.
As for autofocus, it's a pretty swift lens. I need to add the caveat that I shoot with the original GFX 50S, which has pretty poor AF performance overall, but the GF 20-35mm F4 lens felt a bit faster than the GF 32-64mm, although perhaps not quite as fast as the GF 23mm F4. The lens can focus closely enough for foreground elements, but with a maximum magnification of 0.14x, it's far from a macro lens.
There'll be much more to say in my full Fujifilm GF 20-35mm F4 R WR Hands-on Review, but for now, I'll sum up by saying that the lens has been worth the wait. It's an excellent addition to the GFX ecosystem and is a versatile, impressive option for wide-angle applications. While I continue work on the review, head over to our new Fuji GF 20-35mm F4 R WR Gallery. There you'll find many real-world shots, sharpness test images, and even a night sky shot (albeit not an especially good one -- F4 is a bit of a limiting factor here).