Top Bokeh: A Review of the Fujifilm XF 56mm f/1.2 R WR Lens

The Fujifilm XF 56mm f/1.2 R WR promises users some of the best and most extreme optical design and performance on the platform, including an especially wide aperture, pleasing bokeh, and sharp images. This excellent video review takes a look at the lens and the sort of performance and image quality you can expect from it in practice. 

Coming to you from The Hybrid Shooter, this great video review takes a look at the XF 56mm f/1.2 R WR lens. With an 85mm-equivalent focal length and an f/1.2 aperture, the XF 56mm is one of the company's top lenses and brings with it numerous features meant to distinguish it as a professional tool. Such features include:

  • Aspherical and extra-low dispersion elements for reduced aberrations and distortion and improved sharpness
  • Super EBC coating for reduced flare and ghosting and deeper contrast
  • Seven-blade rounded diaphragm for smoother bokeh

Like most portrait lenses with particularly wide maximum apertures, the one drawback to the lens is somewhat slower autofocus performance, so it is worth keeping that in mind if you plan on photographing fast lens. However, for a portrait option, XF 56mm f/1.2 looks quite impressive. Check out the video above for the full rundown. 

Alex Cooke's picture

Alex Cooke is a Cleveland-based portrait, events, and landscape photographer. He holds an M.S. in Applied Mathematics and a doctorate in Music Composition. He is also an avid equestrian.

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6 Comments

'Aspherical and extra-low dispersion elements for reduced aberrations and distortion and improved sharpness'

So a modern clinical lens. I just hope Fujifilm still allow some of their cameras and lenses (maybe the X-Pro series) to retain some character like they started out with. More MP and corrected lenses is OK if there are still going to be other options.

I'm an old film photographer from the 1960s until about 5 years ago. I did switch the digital but I did it only when I found that it could reproduce what I liked. We used to simply call this shallow depth of field. I'm not sure why I find the term Bokeh so annoying.

Probably because of terms like "bokehlicious", "bokeh monster", and "boke-tacular".
...
actually, I think "boke-tacular" might be a new one. Time to use it for my next clickbait video!

Bokeh is simply a Japanese word that means "out of focus", it isn't some weird term. I imagine it rose to be commonly used because most cameras are made by Japanese companies. I agree its kind of a weird word but at the heart of it, it is just a universal, language-agnostic way of saying "shallow depth of field" so harmless enough imo.

I retired in 2018. I guess I was too busy working as a paid photographer to realize yet another word used to describe this was in use. It is harmless. I also don't see it as necessary. I started shooting stills in 1968. My professional *paid" photography work started in 1976.

These pesky Japanese and their pesky cameras, using pesky Japanese words. Don't they know how to speak American?!