diff --git a/rust/arrow/src/array.rs b/rust/arrow/src/array.rs
index dc0a5090ee8a7..4f010fba3a8df 100644
--- a/rust/arrow/src/array.rs
+++ b/rust/arrow/src/array.rs
@@ -627,6 +627,26 @@ impl<'a> From<Vec<&'a str>> for BinaryArray {
     }
 }
 
+impl<'a> From<Vec<&[u8]>> for BinaryArray {
+    fn from(v: Vec<&[u8]>) -> Self {
+        let mut offsets = vec![];
+        let mut values = vec![];
+        let mut length_so_far = 0;
+        offsets.push(length_so_far);
+        for s in &v {
+            length_so_far += s.len() as i32;
+            offsets.push(length_so_far as i32);
+            values.extend_from_slice(s);
+        }
+        let array_data = ArrayData::builder(DataType::Utf8)
+            .len(v.len())
+            .add_buffer(Buffer::from(offsets.to_byte_slice()))
+            .add_buffer(Buffer::from(&values[..]))
+            .build();
+        BinaryArray::from(array_data)
+    }
+}
+
 /// Creates a `BinaryArray` from `List<u8>` array
 impl From<ListArray> for BinaryArray {
     fn from(v: ListArray) -> Self {
@@ -1155,6 +1175,36 @@ mod tests {
         }
     }
 
+    #[test]
+    fn test_binary_array_from_u8_slice() {
+        let values: Vec<&[u8]> = vec![
+            &[b'h', b'e', b'l', b'l', b'o'],
+            &[],
+            &[ b'p', b'a', b'r', b'q', b'u', b'e', b't']
+        ];
+
+        // Array data: ["hello", "", "parquet"]
+        let binary_array = BinaryArray::from(values);
+
+        assert_eq!(3, binary_array.len());
+        assert_eq!(0, binary_array.null_count());
+        assert_eq!([b'h', b'e', b'l', b'l', b'o'], binary_array.value(0));
+        assert_eq!("hello", binary_array.get_string(0));
+        assert_eq!([] as [u8; 0], binary_array.value(1));
+        assert_eq!("", binary_array.get_string(1));
+        assert_eq!(
+            [b'p', b'a', b'r', b'q', b'u', b'e', b't'],
+            binary_array.value(2)
+        );
+        assert_eq!("parquet", binary_array.get_string(2));
+        assert_eq!(5, binary_array.value_offset(2));
+        assert_eq!(7, binary_array.value_length(2));
+        for i in 0..3 {
+            assert!(binary_array.is_valid(i));
+            assert!(!binary_array.is_null(i));
+        }
+    }
+
     #[test]
     #[should_panic(
         expected = "BinaryArray can only be created from List<u8> arrays, mismatched \
diff --git a/rust/arrow/src/compute/array_ops.rs b/rust/arrow/src/compute/array_ops.rs
index 9725e32bd986c..144783401f616 100644
--- a/rust/arrow/src/compute/array_ops.rs
+++ b/rust/arrow/src/compute/array_ops.rs
@@ -236,17 +236,14 @@ pub fn filter(array: &Array, filter: &BooleanArray) -> Result<ArrayRef> {
         DataType::Float64 => filter_array!(array, filter, Float64Array),
         DataType::Boolean => filter_array!(array, filter, BooleanArray),
         DataType::Utf8 => {
-            //TODO: this is inefficient and we should improve the Arrow impl to help make
-            // this more concise
             let b = array.as_any().downcast_ref::<BinaryArray>().unwrap();
-            let mut values: Vec<String> = Vec::with_capacity(b.len());
+            let mut values: Vec<&[u8]> = Vec::with_capacity(b.len());
             for i in 0..b.len() {
                 if filter.value(i) {
-                    values.push(b.get_string(i));
+                    values.push(b.value(i));
                 }
             }
-            let tmp: Vec<&str> = values.iter().map(|s| s.as_str()).collect();
-            Ok(Arc::new(BinaryArray::from(tmp)))
+            Ok(Arc::new(BinaryArray::from(values)))
         }
         other => Err(ArrowError::ComputeError(format!(
             "filter not supported for {:?}",
@@ -288,14 +285,12 @@ pub fn limit(array: &Array, num_rows_to_read: usize) -> Result<ArrayRef> {
         DataType::Float64 => limit_array!(array, num_rows_to_read, Float64Array),
         DataType::Boolean => limit_array!(array, num_rows_to_read, BooleanArray),
         DataType::Utf8 => {
-            //TODO: this is inefficient and we should improve the Arrow impl to help make this more concise
             let b = array.as_any().downcast_ref::<BinaryArray>().unwrap();
-            let mut values: Vec<String> = Vec::with_capacity(num_rows_to_read as usize);
+            let mut values: Vec<&[u8]> = Vec::with_capacity(num_rows_to_read as usize);
             for i in 0..num_rows_to_read {
-                values.push(b.get_string(i));
+                values.push(b.value(i));
             }
-            let tmp: Vec<&str> = values.iter().map(|s| s.as_str()).collect();
-            Ok(Arc::new(BinaryArray::from(tmp)))
+            Ok(Arc::new(BinaryArray::from(values)))
         }
         other => Err(ArrowError::ComputeError(format!(
             "limit not supported for {:?}",