Fujifilm XF56mmF1.2 R

The announcement of the FUJINON 56mm f/1.2 really strengthened my desire for the X-T1 camera (and to step out from my DSLRs to a compact system), so I preordered the body, the vertical grip, and this lens--my first and so far only Fuji glass for the x-series Fuji compact camera system. I shoot a lot of PORTRAITURE. Headshots, environmentals, bridals, fashion, journalism. The 85-90mm focal length is one of my favorites. Tight if you move in close, yet loose enough to get just enough background and sense of place when you back up some. And the size of the glass is not too big or heavy for easy carry and quick use. I also like a small prime as it forces you to move around and find the best angles (rather than zoom in and out)—I find that I generally shoot better when using primes because I work harder for the better composition. This lens has extraordinary BUILD QUALITY, just leaps above the plasticky (yet pricey) offerings of other major brands. I'm not knocking the quality of the glass of competitors, but the general sense of build and aesthetics doesn't usually come close to this. The Fuji just feels like it was built in another time period, when mechanical engineering and quality components was important. The MANUAL FOCUS RING is honestly one of the best i have ever felt. Damped with just the right amount of resistance with silky smooth turning...and a good amount of range for intricate focus feel. You almost wonder if its at the expense of a faster AF though. The autofocus does work well, it is smooth and generally locks on target quickly and accurately. It does have a bit of noise however, more than i would like, especially for video use, but the MF is so nice that it would be more useful in focus pulling for video anyway. The glass is SHARP as a tack, detailed, highly-resolving--even on the razor-thin edge of wide-open. Like all lenses it's even sharper stopped down a bit, especially to the corners, but the crispness is there, even across the entire focus plane at f/ 1.2. The BOKEH is sublime, dreamy, creamy, soft and snugly for the backgrounds. I'm a bokeh hunter. I look at my backgrounds as much as my subject. I create lighting effects just for bokeh. So i had to have this lens, and it does not disappoint. COLOR and CONTRAST are excellent, and DISTORTION is very well controlled. My only wish would be the MFD be a bit closer (it’s 70cm = 27.5” or 2.3 feet), but its not a macro lens and as such the ratio is only 0.09x (a bit less even than the 35mm f/1.4). Just think it could be a little more useful overall if it could focus just a bit tighter to fill the frame with the smaller objects (such as hands/rings portrait for wedding). It is SOLID, mostly metal, with a superb FEEL in the hand, and in use on the camera it balances very well with the X-T1/vertical grip combo. Might be a bit bulky and heavy matched to the smaller bodies though. The filter thread is 62mm, and it comes with a plastic hood. The included hood seems quite long and large for the lens, and although i am sure it will do its intended job, I've adapted a step-up ring with a quality UV filter and a much shorter metal hood to mine (62-67mm) just because i want the lens to stay on my camera and fit in a bag easily with no cumbersome hoods, caps, etc. in the way of quick shooting. The larger plastic hood would probably be more effective for flare (I just use my hand when I need to) and possibly for protection in case of drops. The front element/filter does not turn, which is useful for polarizers and other sFX filters. The focusing mechanics are completely internal which keeps the lens at a consistent length. The f/stops (on the lens) have softly-indented mechanical clicks--23 clicks between f/1.2 and f/16--with the "A" click setting to the far left. I love using a lens-equipped aperture ring, as I did in film days. Makes a quick transition between apertures easy and more intuitive while using your left hand and being able to keep your right finger on the shutter release. I absolutely love very FAST PRIME lenses. I shoot in all types of environments, and lighting is not always so good-- a fast lens can be very useful for low light and to separate the subject from the background well. I also frequently use a short telephoto range for action/sports such as basketball. A poorly lit gym can make things hard, but a very speedy lens can help you to get the needed shutter speeds to stop fast motion (without having to use ultra-high ISOs). This lens will be useful for many subjects, and is actually worth the high cost for a lens with a maximum f-stop of 1.2. Of course it is not the same as having a full-frame sensor with a comparable full frame glass, but you certainly have the useful light-gathering ability of the fast f-stop regardless of DOF comparisons. There is really not much to fault with this lens. It's a beauty, and it creates beautiful images. It makes it easy to work with and inspires my fingers to want to caress it into compositions. It is a glass jewel that works perfectly with the the X-T1 camera (and I am sure with all x-series Fuji’s), a marriage made in FujiFilm-land.

I've been waiting for this one since Fuji put it on their lens "road map" last year. Amazon delivered my Fuji X 56mm f/1.2 lens yesterday afternoon, and I immediately put it on one of my cameras, only to get the "please update camera firmware" display. Thirty minutes later, I could finally shoot some photos :) Some random thoughts: 1. Wow is this thing sharp. Center, corners, everywhere, even wide open at f/1.2. Too sharp in some ways for a portrait lens. I'll be doing some retouching on portraits to smooth out the skin, as this lens shows every single tiny flaw. 2. It's well corrected, so the usual faults of very fast primes are minimized (haloing, longitudinal chromatic abberation, etc.) and there's almost no distortion. Very well done. 3. It's slower to focus on my X Pro1 and XE1 bodies than either of the zooms -- more like the Fuji 35mm f/1.4 lens. But the focus is exceptionally accurate (which I find normal with the Fujis compared to the phase-detect systems in DSLRs.) 4. It's big -- larger than the 23/1.4 -- and on an X Pro 1 with a grip, this is starting to get kind of big for a "compact" camera system. But it does balance well. 5. Compared to my Canon 85mm f/1.2, it's of course smaller and lighter, and much less expensive. It allows the same amount of light through the lens (f/1.2) but there is some small difference in the depth of fielf characteristics, with the Canon offering more out-of-focus blur at the same subject distance. But in real life prints, the difference is small. (If you want to see all the arguments about this, there are plenty of places online to find them.) 6. Comparing autofocus with the Canon, I am getting a much higher percentage of perfect in-focus shots with the Fuji. 7. The lens hood is huge. But it reverses for storage. 8. At moderate subject distances, for example an environmental portrait shot from the waist up, the 56 shot wide open gives a pleasing out of focus quality to even fairly close backgrounds. This lens just renders very nicely. 9. You can buy one 62mm neutral density filter and use it on both this lens and the 23/1.4. This will let you shoot outdoors in bright daylight with a wide open aperture. 10. The Fuji 56mm is a specialty lens. If you know why you need it, this one won't disappoint. If you shoot portraits for a living with the X system, it's a terrific addition to the camera bag.

I love fast short telephoto lens. It suits my style of shooting where I find myself more often than not trying to highlight and isolate a single subject against beautiful and soft settings. the 85mm and its APS-C equivalent is therefore something I have lot of experience with (this lens basically would take pictures with the same reach and depth of field as an 85mm f1.8 lens). This lens is the best I've used in this category as yet - It is a truly phenominal portrait lens - extremely sharp at every aperture and with an extremely pleasing bokeh at most times. The color and contrast rendition is soft and dreamy - not too contrast-y which suits the most common uses of this lens (portraits, still life) perfectly. It does wonders with skin tones and renders them very naturally .... It's IQ and resolution is more than a match with any Fuji X camera released so far and coupled with the X-trans II sensor on my X-T1 - and I am sure will be so for many bodies to come. It has practically no distortion and CA was absent even in high contrast shots. I find I like the pictures taken with this lens more than any other. There is a subjective quality to the rendering that is hard to categorize. While the objective qualities of the lens are spectacular as well, it is this subjective 'look' to the pictures that really make it my favorite lens. Very simple - if you shoot Fuji X, like shooting with primes, and feel that you need a fast portrait lens - you really don't have an alternative at this moment. But the good news is - the only show in town in bloody great!! However, you can also get great portraits with the 55-200 lens, which while much slower, has the advantage of being capable of use at even higher focal length.

As many people have already testified, this is simply one of the best lenses available for any camera. It takes remarkably sharp pictures with a nice bokeh when it is opened wide. It is an 85 mm equivalent and very well suited for taking portraits. It is limited to focusing on objects no closer than about 3 feet from the lens. This came as a surprise when I took out the camera and tried to take a picture of my food and the camera refused to focus even when stopped down to f/16. The autofocussing is also a bit slow. I am using it on a Fuji XT-1 with the autofocus set on single rather than continuous. This way, you have to partly depress the shutter button to focus. It takes about a second or 2. Almost all the time, the focus is good, because the camera recognizes faces and will lock onto them. If you set the camera on continuous autofocus, it is constantly adjusting the focus and this can be distracting. In fact, if I am taking a series of pictures of a subject at a particular distance, I turn the autofocus to manual and simply turn the lens ring to adjust the focus. Note that you have to turn the ring a fair amount to change the focus. Once you get use to it, however, it works fine.

Five stars is definitely a high rating. I had pre-ordered this beast of a lens when I had purchased the x-pro1, 35mm & 23mm 1.4. When this lens first came in I thought it was large, although it's like the same size as the 23mm lens and I would say it feels like QUALITY. This glass is gorgeous. When you mount this thing you know that you have a premium lens on your camera. Having a full set of speed glass on my hands this lens I think has gotten my attention over the others. I love the 35mm for everyday use, the 23mm is a great lens in tight spots and on the streets as well, but the 56 has a character that oozes beauty. For portraits I wouldn't want to use any other lens (that includes a full canon L series range of glass that I also have at my disposal). It is SHARP. Even wide open it's sharp. And the bokeh is gorgeous. I've taken several portraits now with this lens and I love it the more and more I get used to it. This is a must own lens in the fujifilm xf lineup if your even a tiny bit interested in owning a telephoto lens.

First things first, let me just say that I use this professionally for portraits and events and have no problem recommending it for such use -- at least with the X-T3 or equivalent Fuji camera sensor/autofocus generation. That said, it's a lens that I really wish Fuji would update, as it's underwhelming compared to other high-end options for portraits in the range and overpriced compared to something like the Viltrox 56mm F1.4. In particular, I switched to this from the Fujinon 90mm F2 as my main portrait option last year (the 56mm is better in terms of working-distance for portraits and general use, and the 50-140mm F2.8 picks up the slack from the 90mm prime well enough for my needs), but in comparison the 56mm falls short in the following ways: 1) For a $1000 APS-C format prime, the lack of weather sealing is just plain annoying. The 90mm costs less and performs better and does have WR, so I'm not sure what the excuse is. 2) The autofocus motors/system are underwhelming and need an update. Simply put, the 56mm focuses slower, louder, and less confidently than any other lens I use, and for the price that's pretty disappointing. The 90mm by contrast has a quad linear stepping motor that's fast, accurate, and near silent -- again for less money. This 56mm whirs, hunts sometimes, and often takes its time doing it low light, which also means tracking/continuous AF is frequently subpar in those scenarios as well. Performance for this lens is better on the firmware-updated X-T3 and X-T4 than my older X-H1, but compared to the Fuji 50-140mm, 16-55mm, and even my Viltrox 23mm, this feels lacking. 3) Sharpness... kind of. Wide open, this is entirely adequate for professional use (weddings, parties, events, portraits, etc.), and anyone who says different maybe needs to ask themselves why they're shooting on a camera system that caps out at 26MP. Nonetheless, other Fuji lenses are sharper and cost less (again, that 90mm really puts this to shame), and I'd be lying if I said I never worried *a little* about resolution those times I felt the need to crop in a bit more than usual. Still, stop down even just to F2 and it's pretty much excellent. 4) Build -- while it's certainly no slouch in terms of feel/operation, it's also obvious that Fuji has improved manufacturing practices since this lens was originally released. By comparison, the tolerances on my other "pro" oriented Fuji lenses are better, whether it's the more solid clicks/detents in the aperture ring, fitment to the camera mount, or play/slop in the control/focus rings. Again, nothing to outright avoid the lens over, but an update would be nice to bring it up to the same level as the 16-55mm or 90mm, which would also help justify the price. 5) Bokeh (sometimes) -- this is a niggle I have with my Fuji F2.8 zooms as well, but the quality of the bokeh on certain things at certain distances (namely thinner tree branches, plants, and the like) isn't especially smooth. Being able to open up to F1.2 certainly helps, but sometimes you just need a bit more distance from the background to really smooth things out. Not a big deal 95% of the time, but on those occasions where moving back isn't possible, it's a bummer. As for what's good about this lens, it's basically everything else: 1) Overall image quality is very good, and things like flaring and CA are reasonably well controlled. I mentioned a lack of biting sharpness when shooting wide open in the cons above, but honestly for portrait work I find that preferable (less work in post skin softening and the like). Even so, sharpness is still very good at F1.2, and by F2 I'd say it's excellent if you need the extra resolution. 2) Size -- gosh, I love how compact this thing is. The 90mm wasn't large by any means, but this thing is both very light and positively diminutive in terms of footprint, and even with the hood on makes for a pretty inconspicuous high-end portrait lens. Considering that I use the Fuji X system partly for the smaller sized body/lens combo as well as the ability to carry less weight, the 56mm really fits the bill. Honestly, it's a real treat to have this and my 23mm F1.4 serve the purpose for couples shoots and portraits, as I'm able to walk in and out of permit-happy Chicago locations without turning a head most of the time -- something that could be a problem with a big full frame DSLR kit. So overall, there aren't any deal breakers with this lens and the results typically speak for themselves. It's not a perfect optic, and Fuji should definitely give it a makeover with updated build (with weather sealing!) and new focus motors at the least, and perhaps some minor tweaks to optics/coatings to coax out a little more sharpness and improve bokeh rendering on complex backgrounds, as that would help justify the asking price a bit more. Sadly, I think the answer to my complaints was the new 50mm F1, which does have some appeal, but it's 1.5x the price, both larger and heavier, and hard to find in stock (or at least it was -- believe me I considered it!). The upside is that I'd imagine the 56mm will come down in price if Fuji leaves it as-is, especially if Sigma comes through and brings their 56mm F1.4 and other APS-C primes to X mount along with the existing Viltrox offerings.

What can I say that hasn't been said? An excellent lens. I hesitated buying this for so long because I own an excellent 85 mm F1 .4 Nikon lens for my full frame Nikon camera, but now that I own seven Fuji lenses and three bodies, I really hated having to lug that camera and lens around just for the one focal length. Yes, this has the shallow depth of field of a full frame 85 mm F1 .8 lens, which Nikon sells $500, BUT it has the low light capability of Canon's $2000 F1.2 lens. More importantly, is it is super sharp corner to corner, even at F1 .2, something the other lenses aren't t. Your clients will never see the difference. I did look at the APD version, but even on sale it's $400 more, and most of the limited reviewers here, while they liked the lens, returned it and bought the standard one. This lens also allows phase detection autofocus in addition to contrast detection, which the APD doesn't permit, and you don't lose almost one stop of light wide open.

This is an extraordinary lens with a somewhat limited audience. The clarity and bokeh live up to its reputation of being almost Leica-like in performance. However, the extreme shallowness of the DoF on the wide end means you have to be very careful in what you focus on... it's easy to get slightly blurred compoents of the picture due to the shallow DoF. Highly recommended for portrait or wedding photography

Obiettivi top per ritratti, lo sfocato a tutta apertura a mio parere è stupendo. La qualità non si discute, forse un po’ lento di af ma per i ritratti non è un problema. Imballaggio molto buono. Ve lo consiglio. (Ho avuto bisogno di contattare l’assistenza Amazon per un chiarimento i quali hanno risposto nell’immediato, è giusto anche parlare in positivo di chi lavora dietro a tutto questo). Prodotto consigliato!

Un objetivo excelente, con una luminosidad increible, nitido, muy robusto, una muy buena adquisición, mas que lo obtube con un excelente descuento

Top of the line build quality, and some of the best bokeh for the money. If you're looking at this lens you already know how good it is, and the price its at now is a no brainer.

Superbe optique, parfaite pour isoler un sujet avec un beau bokeh. Micro-contrastes et saturation sont au rendez-vous. La version APO beaucoup plus onéreuse que j'ai eu la possibilité d'essayer avant de faire mon choix final, n'apporte pas grand chose en plus et relève plus de la segmentation marketing que du réel gain du point de vu de l'arrière plan. Les plus : - qualité optique remarquable même à pleine ouverture (et exeptionnelle à partir de f/1.4) - micro-contrastes et saturation dignes des meilleures optiques Fujifilm - bokeh très agréable à moins de 5-6 m du sujet (capacité à isoler le sujet photographié sur un arrière plan flou et "crémeux") - qualité de construction "Made In Japan" qui commence à se faire rare même à ce niveau de prix - livré avec un pare-soleil Les Moins : - Autofocus un peu bruyant dans une environnement silencieux par rapport aux dernières versions des objectifs Fuji (notamment le XF35mm f/2 WR) mais il n'est pas le seul à avoir ce petit défaut - Mise au point moins rapide qu'une focale courte moins lumineuse ou un zoom. De mon expérience, rares sont les optiques à très grandes ouvertures (Nikon, Fuji...) en APS-C ou Full Frame qui soient extrêmement rapides dans la mise au point... Seul Panasonic/Olympus avec les 75mm f/1.8 ou le 42,5mm f/1.2 arrivent à concilier les deux mais c'est du Micro 4/3 - Nécessite l'emploi d'un filtre de protection vu le prix de l'objectif et celui de Fuji est particulièrement cher en 62mm

While the 90mm f2 and this 56mm f1.2 are both excellent lens for portrait, I like this one because of its low light capability and shorter focal length. This lens has amazing sharpness. The only downside is the focussing motor which makes a decent amount of noise. But that really should not matter if you are just into photography.