Possibly one of my own most personally anticipated releases from Fujifilm is the new Fujifilm 56mm F1.2 R WR (Mark II) lens.

Fujifilm XF 56mm F1.2 R Overview - Digital Photography Review Fujifilm XF 56mm F1.2 R Overview - Digital Photography Review

In the past, an apodization filter has only been used on a manual focus lens, this is the first to use high-precision contrast AF. In terms of build quality the 56mm f1.2 feels very solid with its metal body and well-engineered construction. There’s a wide and heavily damped manual focusing ring which feels very smooth, if perhaps a little stiff, and closest to the mount a manual aperture ring with a fixed range of f1.2 to f16, followed by A for automatic aperture adjustment by the body. Despite its build quality the 56mm, like all Fuji X-series primes to date, is not weather-sealed. It’s around F4 that the bokeh balls on the 56mm start to gain sharper edges, rendering the bokeh balls less usable.I spotted this couple walking in Oxford, having just got married i assumed they were going to a photography location because the wedding photographer was tagging behind. I can honestly say that I believe this lens is noticeably snappier when it comes to focusing acquisition. I used it on my X-Pro3 and my newly acquired X-H2S, which performed amazingly well. No Linear Motor The Fujifilm XF56mmF1.2 R WR is now weatherproofed – and the resolution has been improved to take advantage of the newest X-Trans sensors on Fujifilm cameras. It is one of 20 lenses approved by Fujifilm for use with the new 40-megapixel X-H2 - which was announced alongside this lens at the New York X-Summit. It is the fourth pro-grade f/1.4 prime lens that has been updated with the X-H2 in mind - the others being the XF18mm f/1.4, the XF23mm f/1.4, and XF33mm f/1.4. It’s plastic and light, and just about doubles the length of the lens. It’s nowhere near as elegant or premium-feeling as the metal hood that ships with the XF 60mm F2.4 Macro, but it actually cuts flare, which is more important. I only deploy the hood in studio settings, personally, and work with the flare otherwise. Lens Cap The filter thread measures 62mm, making it smaller than the 67mm thread on the Nocticron, but wider than the 58mm thread on the Canon EF 85mm f1.8, which lest we forget is a full-frame lens. Fujifilm 56mm f1.2 focusing

Fuji 56mm photos on Flickr | Flickr Fuji 56mm photos on Flickr | Flickr

It's still relatively compact and light enough to feel well-balanced on the X-H2 and X-H2S cameras that we tested it with, although they are admittedly one of the largest X-series bodies currently available.Fujifilm has undoubtedly made some serious improvements to its predecessor that any photographer would welcome. Weatherproofing, for starters, is hard not to give a big seal of approval to. Optically the 56mm f1.2 employs 14 elements in 10 groups, including one extra low dispersion and two aspherical elements. This makes it a more complex design than, say, the nine elements / seven groups of the Canon EF 85mm f1.8, although roughly similar to the 14 elements / 11 groups of the Leica Nocticron. Note the 56mm f1.2, like all Fuji X primes to date is not optically stabilized, and stabilisation is not built into any of the bodies either, so you’ll want to be using shutter speeds of around 1/85 or faster to avoid camera shake. This is par for the course for most short telephoto primes on other systems, although it’s worth mentioning the Leica Nocticron features optical stabilisation and of course there’s also the option of body-based stabilisation if you’re using an Olympus body; I found I could handhold the Nocticron on the EM1 as low as 1/5, whereas I really needed over 1/80 for the 56mm on the XT1, or 1/40 if I was leaning against something steady. Here’s a handheld example taken at 1/40 while leaning against a wall.

2 R WR - FUJIFILM X Specification s | FUJINON XF56mmF1.2 R WR - FUJIFILM X

Both lenses had very audible motor noises, which was annoying. I could not use any of the B-Roll for video, unless I was using an external microphone. Bokeh is a word used for the out-of-focus areas of a photograph, and is usually described in qualitative terms, such as smooth / creamy / harsh etc. I’m not sure this lens was ever designed to be a must-have lens for a travel photographer. I wanted to see whether I could bring the high quality portrait images and combine that with a walk around mid-telephoto lens. I tried my hardest but unfortunately, for me, it hasn’t worked out.

Why compare the Fujiifilm 50mm F1 and 56mm F1.2 WR? 

Compared to lenses before it, the XF 56mm F1.2 is a serious hunk of glass. As primes go, it still has the most impressive front element. It’s a bit chunky, and feels substantial. While not exceptionally heavy, I’d still at least consider my choice of camera body with the XF 56mm F1.2. Aperture and Focus Rings Some longitudinal aberrations are present a wide apertures. This is to be expected with larger aperture lenses. I’ve seen much worse however. If this lens has chromatic aberrations, I have yet to find them. Conclusion and Rating Below are the full-resolution images that I show in the film. Remember that they have been resized for the web and the nature of compression that comes with that. The 56mm f1.2 fills an important gap in the current line-up of X-series lenses. There may have been the 60mm f2.4 macro for some time, but the system really needed a much brighter lens of a similar focal length to truly satisfy portrait and wedding photographers. By going for an f1.2 focal ratio, the 56mm also gains an exotic status shared by models like Leica’s Nocticron 42.5mm for Micro Four Thirds and Canon’s EF 85mm f1.2L USM. Of course in full-frame terms, the depth of field of the 56mm at f1.2 is more like f1.8 – and for the Nocticron on MFT it’s more like f2.4 – but in terms of exposures they’re all f1.2 and again offer the some of the shallowest depth of field options for their respective systems with autofocus capabilities. Just to share the experience in street shooting. I usually get closer to the subject step by step until I get the shot (see the final take in comment).