Fujifilm XF 56mm F1.2 R real-world samples gallery [feedly]

  

----
Fujifilm XF 56mm F1.2 R real-world samples gallery
// fujifilm related news

We've been shooting with the Fujinon XF 56mm F1.2 R - the fast 85mm equivalent prime lens for Fujifilm's X mount mirrorless cameras. Its F1.2 aperture means it gives similarly shallow depth-of-field to an 85mm F1.8 lens on a full frame body, making it an ideal portrait lens, as well as opening up opportunities for working in low light. 

We also spent a lot of time using the X-E2 running an advance version of firmware v2.0 provided to us by Fujifilm while putting this gallery together. See what we thought of the update below.  

Fujifilm XF 56mm F1.2 R

We have been hugely impressed with the 56mm: it's extremely sharp, even when shot at its widest aperture and although the bokeh can occasionally appear slightly bright edged, it's rarely anything but pleasant. Our impression of the autofocus doesn't quite live up to the level of the optics: it's not as immediate or decisive at focusing as the fastest lenses in the system. It will occasionally hunt across its focus range, particularly when used wide-open or with low-contrast situations. Most of the time, though, it finds focus lock pretty quickly and with a high degree of precision: meaning you get the full benefit of its sharpness.

View our Fujifilm XF 56mm F1.2 samples gallery

Experience with Fujifilm X-E2 firmware v2.0

By Richard Butler 

Firmware v2.0 brings a faster viewfinder refresh rate, a choice over focus peaking color, more options that can be assigned to custom buttons and a suppressed flash mode.

On the whole I found its impact to be subtle yet valuable. It's been a little while since I reviewed the X-E2, so didn't find the increased viewfinder refresh rate to be particularly noticeable, since I didn't conduct a particularly thorough before-and-after test.

What was interesting was that, having prepared the beginnings of the gallery with an X-T1, the experience of switching to an X-E2 wasn't at all jarring, with no sense that I'd moved back to a cheaper or older camera. I also found I used the viewfinder more than I had during my review of the camera. This could be the result of Seattle's brightening weather, but could equally stem from the increased sense of connectedness to the scene that the smoother viewfinder brings.

Given Face Detection mode's impact on the X-E2's autofocus control, I was pleased to gain the ability to turn it on and off using one of the camera's custom buttons. That said, I didn't find myself using it while putting this gallery together because I got better results by manually specify the focus point. With the very shallow depth of field the 56mm offers, you need to be able to tell the camera to focus on a specific eye, rather than something as general as the face.

---

There are 40 images in our samples gallery. Please do not reproduce any of these images on a website or any newsletter / magazine without prior permission (see our copyright page). We make the originals available for private users to download to their own machines for personal examination or printing (in conjunction with this review), we do so in good faith, please don't abuse it.

Unless otherwise noted images taken with no particular settings at full resolution.

----

Shared via my feedly reader

Sent from my iPhone