Which Fujifilm zoom is a better first lens for architecture and landscape: XF 18-55mm or XF 10-24mm?

Question

I use a Fujifilm X-T20 and currently only have the XF 27mm f/2.8 pancake lens. I mainly want to shoot architecture and landscapes, and I’m deciding between two zooms:

- Fujifilm XF 18-55mm f/2.8-4 R LM OIS
- Fujifilm XF 10-24mm f/4 R OIS

The 18-55 is much cheaper and is often called a kit lens. For a beginner focused mostly on architecture and landscape, which is the better choice? How different would the 18-55 be from my 27mm in practical use and image quality?

user775 · Answer

"Kit" lenses are often very good value for money, for two reasons - the manufacturer makes them cheap so they can be included with a camera without raising the price too much, and they don't want the first lens you use to give horrible results. They cover the focal range that most people will find acceptable. If you don't know what you need, it's a very good first choice.

In your case however, you do know what you need, and extra wide angle would be helpful to you. The kit lens might just be a waste if you never use the long end and need to replace it eventually.

To determine how important the range from 10 to 18 will be to you, you can look at photo galleries taken by other people to get examples of their usage.

Alternatively you could just try to pick up a used kit lens for cheap to experiment with. As good a deal as they are new, they're often much cheaper used because the market is full of them.

Which Fujifilm zoom is a better first lens for architecture and landscape: XF 18-55mm or XF 10-24mm?

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