Photographers typically have dozens of options when it comes to portrait lenses, with something available to fit just about every budget. Near the top of the mountain is the Fujifilm GF 110mm f/2 R LM WR, a premium portrait lens for Fuji's respected line of medium format mirrorless cameras, and this excellent video review takes a look at the sort of performance and image quality you can expect from it in practice.
Coming to you from Dustin Abbott, this great video review takes at the Fujifilm GF 110mm f/2 R LM WR medium format lens. This particular lens is rather notable, as medium format portrait lenses with wide apertures from yesteryear tended to sacrifice a fair amount of sharpness to achieve that narrow depth of field, but with this option, you get impressive image quality even wide open. Fujifilm also added features like four extra-low dispersion elements for reduced chromatic aberrations, dust- and weather-sealing, and a rounded nine-blade diaphragm for particularly smooth bokeh. You'll also get a Linear AF motor for quick and quiet autofocus and a physical aperture ring. Altogether, it looks like a mightily impressive lens. Check out the video above for Abbott's full thoughts on it.
Dustin Abbot is surely the best photography reviewer on YouTube. I don’t think you have to be a great photographer to review gear, but with a lens like this where (for instance) the subtle qualities of the falloff can be the difference in paying £2k for a lens or sticking with a less expensive but more than adequate model, these examples are really valuable. I’ve decided to buy one. The AF might be rubbish compared with what I have now (Sigma 135/D850) but the image quality lures me in.
I agree. Dustin is very good at dissecting details. For people who like that sort of thing, he's a great reviewer. Others often like just a pure artistic perspective on things from naturally great photographers who don't care about charts etc (I'm somewhere in the middle).
And like you when it comes to image quality, I LOVED my 5DIV! I actually much prefered the image quality of the 5DIV over the EOS-R (cleaner images with the 5D, and no banding when pushing/pulling the image like with the R). The AF though (and video) can be lacking.
Usually I would argue that all lenses are good in their own respective way. Each providing a different character. But this time, I'm positive that this is the best portrait lens money can buy. If one can afford to buy into the GF system, they have an unbeatable combination for portraits with this lens. As always, Dustin Abbot kicks ass and keeps his opinion honest.