Fuji 56mm f1.2 Review
The Fuji (Fujinon) 56mm F1.2 Review - This is a new lens, my old one broke, read more on that below.
INTRO
The Fujinon 56mm F1.2 lens is a stunning prime portrait lens, with great low light capability and background subject separation.
I’ve had this lens pretty much since it came out after waiting what seems like an age, in fact back when I still had my 60mm lens the yet to be released 56mm was rumoured to only be an F1.4 lens and the release date kept getting pushed back. Eventually I upgraded from the 60mm and I wrote about that a long time ago in an older blog<
These days my 56mm is my go to portrait and tele lens, for weddings it’s my lens of choice when shooting in a church or when I need to get some of that awesome subject separation from using an F1.2 lens. It’s also a low light beast but I’m sure you already know that!
Features:
F1.2 - Very fast lens and great background separation
Metal construction
Focuses reasonably fast, but don’t forget this is a lot of glass to move
Give a view similar to an 85mm lens on full frame
Using the fuji 56mm 1.2 lens for wedding photography
Every wedding I shoot I’ll use the 56mm, I tend to favour the 35/85 combo so this lens is paired with my 23mm on a second body.
I always have it on one of my Fuji XH-1’s with a spider holster on my belt, for those of you unfamiliar with spider holster they are a belt mounted locking system for your camera that holds it in place when you’re not using it and can be quickly unlocked and in your hand when you need it, super useful.
I find this lens shines give you some incredible out of focus backgrounds for weddings, as well as having enough reach to frame subjects nicely that are too far away for the 23mm to do. It really shines at portraits and more staged moments of a wedding, walking down the aisle etc, as well as being a great lens for group portraits, if you can get far back enough.
I’ll put a few photos with EXIF info below, I tend to use it fairly wide open most of the time, relying on the electronic shutter to make up for brightly lit situations.
PROS: Great in low light, really nice out of focus backgrounds, nice and contrasty.
CONS: Wide open, it’s easy to miss focus, can be slow to focus in low light.
Wedding Photography - Fuji 56mm + XH-1 / ISO 200 - F1.2 - 1/350th
Wedding Photography - Fuji 56mm + XH-1 / ISO 400 - F1.6 - 1/100th
Wedding Photography - Fuji 56mm + XH-1 / ISO 200 - F2.2 - 1/1250th
Wedding Photography - Fuji 56mm + XH-1 / ISO 500 - F2.0 - 1/125th
Wedding Photography - Fuji 56mm + XH-1 / ISO 200 - F1.6 - 1/1250th
My broken 56mm, the aperture ring was stuck like this.
BREAKING MY 56mm
I did however have to get a replacement 56mm last year (2019) as mine locked up, it wouldn’t work on any camera and only gave the ‘turn camera off and back on again’ warning. I could see inside that the aperture ring was locked up. I had a wedding to shoot the following day so after a momentary panic I promptly went into town and got another, problem solved.
I turns out this problem is somewhat common, I had the lens for long while and worked it hard and battered it about. After being sent back to Fuji it was repaired for £130 (this would of been free if it was in warrantee), I chose to keep the newer lens I had bought, so traded the old one in against the cost of two fresh XH-1’s.
If you ever need to send anything off to Fuji this is the place to do it<
A note on backup gear: If my 56mm did lock up on me on a wedding day, or by some other eventuality it stopped working I’d switch to my 50-140mm lens to cover that focal range. Backups are something you need, without question, at least a level of backup to allow you keep shooting. While I wouldn’t have duplicate lenses of everything, I do have a few lens that can cover other focal ranges, meaning I’ve always got something to shoot with, should the worst happen.
12mm + 16mm cover my wide range
23mm + Fuji X100F cover my mid range
56mm + 50-140mm cover my long range
Using the fuji 56mm 1.2 lens for editorial photography
PROS: Sharp and contrasty, great for subject separation
CONS: Wide open gives a very shallow depth of field, it’s not the lightest lens in the world
Using the fuji 56mm 1.2 lens for portraits + group shots
Portraits are so super contrasty with this lens, the other day I was out photographing a large family reunion, and after getting everyone line up I took a shot with my 23mm, it was ok, nothing special but ok. Then I decided to get back (I mean really far back) to get everyone in on the 56mm and I am so glad I did, the resulting photo is so much more contrasty and the compressed background just sets it miles apart from the 23mm image.
For weddings it’s my go to portrait and group shot lens, all in all this is a great lens for taking photos of people.
PROS: GREAT compression
CONS: You need to be really far back to get that great compression
Shot on the Fuji 23mm (click to enlarge)
Shot on the Fuji 56mm (click to enlarge)
Summary
I hope you’ve enjoyed this blog post, it’s really just a fresh version of one I wrote about a long time ago (old 56mm blog post) but I’m keen to put more photos taken with the Fuji 56mm out there so that’s what the focus is really on here.
*If you use this link to buy yourself one I’ll get a small commission and do a happy dance: > Fuji 56mm 1.2 on Amazon
Let me know what you think below, or even better follow me on Instagram and send me a DM - @colinnichollsphotography
Cheers,
Col-