With film photography, there are more-or-less two groups: those who used rangefinders, SLRs, TLRs, etc., and those who used cheap point-and-shoots and disposable cameras. Generally speaking, pros and hobbyists used SLRs, while novices who didn’t have much interest in photography primary used point-and-shoots (my parents’ and grandparents’ photo albums are full of these pictures). Of course, there are always exceptions, such as the novice who insisted on using their SLR despite not understanding how it worked, or the artist who used cheap gear for artistic effect.

As you probably know, I like to create approximations of classic analog looks on Fujifilm cameras with Film Simulation Recipes. Much of the time, the facsimile aesthetic is based on film shot on SLRs, etc., but occasionally I like to replicate the look of cheaper gear, such as disposable cameras, Holga, pinhole, 126, light leaks, etc.. I do crazy things occasionally—like when I distressed a camera or when I used tiny lenses—so I’m not afraid to try something that’s a bit unconventional. In the case of this article, it’s the Xuan Focus Free 30mm f/10 Body Cap Lens.

What is the Xuan Focus Free 30mm f/10 Body Cap Lens, you ask? Well, someone took a cheap third-party Fujifilm body cap, drilled a hole in it, and attached (via glue) a recycled 30mm f/10 lens from a Kodak Funsaver disposable camera. They’re selling them for $26 each. You can actually do this yourself without too much trouble, but for such a cheap price (and with free next-day delivery), it made sense to go the easy route.

The reason why it’s called a “focus free” lens is because it’s pre-focused, and you cannot adjust it (nor can the aperture be changed). I don’t think the distance from the lens to the sensor on my Fujifilm X-E4 is exactly the same as the lens to the film on a disposable camera, so the focus point is slightly different. Xuan claims that from roughly 5′ to infinity is in focus, but that’s not my experience. I believe the focus point is set to about 11′, and the depth-of-field is more like 6.5′ to 37′, and 8′ to 15′ seems to be the sharpest zone.

If you want to shoot with a pancake lens on your Fujifilm X camera, your options are limited. You have options—some excellent options, in fact—but only a handful in total. The Xuan Focus Free 30mm F/10 Body Cap Lens is another pancake choice, but is it good? Is it even worth $26? I used this lens recently on my X-E4, attempting to capture beautiful LoFi pictures—more resembling those found in picture albums, and less like those printing in magazines and hanging on gallery walls. How was my experience? What do I think of the Xuan 30mm lens? Read on to find out!

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Xuan 30mm Amazon

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The Xuan Focus Free 30mm F/10 Body Cap Lens is surprisingly good and unsurprisingly terrible at the same time. The center is sharper than I anticipated—a little soft, yes, but not any less than many kit zooms or even the Nikkor 28mm pancake. The lens is noticeably softer as you move towards the corners, and is especially soft in the corners and along the edges, none of which is surprising. I think if the subject is in the middle of the frame and anywhere from 8′ to 15′ from the camera is where you’ll achieve the sharpest results. There’s vignetting in the corners, which is sometimes obvious and sometimes not. The 35mm-equivalent focal-length is 45mm, making it a “standard” lens on Fujifilm X cameras.

Bokeh is the quality of the out-of-focus area of an image. The depth-of-field of the Xuan 30mm is pretty large, and where you’ll find it out-of-focus are close foreground objects and distant background objects. Bokeh is not especially great, but it’s not typically a distraction, either, so I don’t think it even matters. I had a hard time achieving lens flare, but when I did I thought it was interesting. I did notice some chromatic aberrations, but nothing terrible.

Because of the fixed f/10 aperture, the lens isn’t a good option for low-light or indoor situations, unless you use a flash with it—something that I didn’t do, but that’s how the disposable camera that the optics came from worked. Or use a tripod (I didn’t do that, either).

I used the Nostalgia Color Film Simulation Recipe with this lens because it resembles to some extent the analog aesthetic of pictures captured with point-and-shoot or disposable cameras. I think Fujicolor Superia 800, Fujicolor Superia 1600, Fujicolor Natura 1600, Scanned Superia, Nostalgic Print, Kodak Gold 200, or Kodacolor could all be good options—and I’m sure there are many others, too.

What I enjoy about the Xuan 30mm is that it is literally point-and-shoot. No focusing. No adjusting the aperture. I set both Shutter and ISO to Auto, and walk around snapping pictures whenever I think there might be an interesting image. In a way, it’s similar to using Snap Focus on Ricoh GR cameras. As Rob Morgan put it, “See a moment, grab the camera, snap the shutter, put it down, and get back to rocking out.” Well, maybe “rocking out” won’t apply to you, but you get the idea. The only real consideration is where the subject is, because there’s a somewhat narrow window where the subject is sharp, and is otherwise soft, and can sometimes be almost painterly or impressionist, which could be good or bad.

I’ve had a lot of fun with the Xuan 30mm lens, and very quickly got my $26 worth out of it! It’s not something I’d want to use all of the time—only when I’m in the “right” nostalgic mood. I think it would be interesting for a project, such as using one camera, this one lens, and one Film Simulation Recipe to photograph a singular subject over a period of time. Maybe I’ll do that, but I’m not sure what the subject should be.

Example pictures:

The Xuan Focus Free 30mm F/10 Body Cap Lens is a super-cheap LoFi pancake option that produces soft Lomo-like pictures reminiscent of images captured with disposable cameras. It’s not something to use all of the time, but for only $26 it doesn’t need to be. I’ve had a lot of fun with it, and I plan to use it even more, perhaps for a personal project of some sort.