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.

Fujifilm Fujinon XF56mmF1.2 R WR review | Digital Camera World

Bokeh is exceptional both in front and behind. Some rings around highlights is possible, but nothing extreme, and I find they are reduced even by stopping down to just F/1.4.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 The perfect portraiture lens, the Fujifilm 56mm f1.2 R XF Fujinon Lens offers a 85mm-equivalent focal length and a super-fast maximum aperture of f1.2. This lens is capable of great things; it's stunningly sharp, bright, has incredible AF acquisition and is at home in light or dark conditions. Its control of depth of field and subject isolation would be note-worthy by any photographer's standards. I had no real issues with the first version of this lens regarding focus speed, but I know that that, along with sharpness wide open, is what most people are interested in with the new version. 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.

Fujifilm XF 56mm F1.2 R WR Review | Photography Blog Fujifilm XF 56mm F1.2 R WR Review | Photography Blog

Perhaps this was the beginning of my gear acquisition syndrome (but failure to commit due to budget reasons), I never ended up purchasing the lens and traveled the world with my X-T4, the 10-24, and the 55-200. The Fujifilm XF 56mm F1.2 R WR lens has an internal focusing (IF) system that uses a DC linear motor, which results in pleasingly fast and accurate auto-focusing on the X-H2/S camera that we tested it with.With their apertures wide open both the 56mm and Nocticron rendered blurred specular highlights as oval / cats-eye shapes towards the edges, but this effect was much more pronounced on the Nocticron. However the Nocticron’s blurred highlights suffered from less outlining than the 56mm and to my eyes were creamier too. Both lenses thankfully avoided the concentric circles inside blurred highlights though. In terms of accessories, the Fujifilm XF 56mm F1.2 R WR ships with standard lens and mount caps plus quite a large plastic circular-shaped lens hood which snaps into place. There is no bag or case included with this lens. Focal Range With the lens set to its maximum aperture of f/1.2, there is just a little light fall-off in the corners, requiring you to stop down by at 2 f-stops to completely prevent it. Distortion

Fujifilm 56mm F1.2 R WR (Mark II) Review

There is no button on the lens to switch between auto and manual focus. Focus mode selection is made on the camera body. Like all Fujifilm X-Series lenses, focusing is by wire, so when you manually turn the focus ring, you are not physically moving lens elements. Instead, a signal is sent electronically to the camera telling it where to focus. The focusing motor makes a soft whirring noise, but it is not loud. Weather-resistance has been newly built-in to the 56mm F1.2 lens at 9 different places to help protect it against water and dust and allow it to fully operate in temperatures down to -10°C (14°F). I’ll come out and say it now that I’d probably go as far to say that this is the perfect portrait lens for the Fujifilm X Series. 56mm (85mm on full frame) is a brilliant focal length for full length portraits as well as headshots. Combine that with a super fast aperture of f/1.2 and you have an incredibly dreamy lens. The wedding photographer’s lenses of choice seem to be the 23mm and 56mm on two separate bodies and, from the few weddings I’ve shot, that has worked brilliantly for me.

Fujifilm 56mm f1.2 optical construction

The Fujifilm XF 56mm F1.2 R WR is one of the larger prime lenses in the X-system line-up, weighing 445g and measuring 7.6cms in length, which is perhaps understandable given the amount of glass used in its construction. My favourite lenses at the moment are the Fujifilm 16mm f/1.4 on one X-T2 and the Fujifilm 35mm f/1.4 on another. For me, that is the perfect travel photography setup and, with the 35mm, you can still get absolutely beautiful portraits. I’ve seriously been considering whether the Fujifilm 56mm f/1.2 has a place in my bag at all and, certainly for travel photography, that Fujifilm 50mm f/2 is calling my name. I did review the Fujifilm 90mm f/2 but ultimately decided that it’s not a lens that I need to buy, hello cost of living crisis 2022, but I can definitely see a place for the Fujifilm 50mm f/2 lens perhaps alongside the powerhouse Fujifilm 56mm f/1.2. The weddings I shot recently have reminded me that once you have the Fujifilm 56mm f/1.2, it is not a lens that you could ever sell. It is beautiful. As you can see, this lens does a phenomenal job at controlling CA – there is only about half a pixel of lateral CA at apertures from f/1.2 to f/2, and once the lens is stopped down to f/2.8, it practically all disappears. X-T1 + XF56mmF1.2 R @ 56mm, ISO 200, 1/1600, f/1.4 Comparables