It is always interesting to see new lensmakers entering the market. My only previous Sirui review was actually of a tripod, not a lens, but Sirui has started to develop lenses as well. They started with cine (video) lenses (all manual – no autofocus or electronics), but today we will be examining one of their first autofocus lenses. Their first autofocus lenses are called the “Sniper” series, and I’ve done an overview of the series here. The Sniper Series is made up of 3 APS-C specific lenses – a 23mm F1.2, 33mm F1.2, and 56mm F1.2 lens. These can be purchased individually for $349 USD each (though in the first month a 15% discount will drop the price to $299 USD per lens) or as a set for $999 USD that comes in a custom designed case. These lenses will be available in Fuji X-mount (reviewed here), Sony E-mount, and Nikon Z mount configurations, though in all mounts they are designed to cover the APS-C and not the full frame image circle. Today’s review focuses on the Sirui Sniper 23mm F1.2 AF lens, and will be followed by individual reviews of the 33mm and 56mm F1.2 lenses. Find out by watching my video review below or reading my text review.

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Thanks to Sirui for sending me a set of review samples of the lenses.   As always, this is a completely independent review.  All opinions and conclusions are my own. I’m doing this review on a 40MP Fujifilm X-H2 camera.

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I’m doing this review on Fuji X-mount today, as that is what Sirui had available to send me. In many ways this is jumping right into the fire, as there is no platform more optically demanding than the 40MP sensor on my Fujifilm X-H2. This is the equivalent of over 90MP on full frame, a resolution point that is currently 30+MP higher than what is even available on full frame. That creates an extremely demanding optical test that will push this new series to the limits. Is this 23mm F1.2 Sniper lens up to the challenge? The answer, as we’ll see, is somewhat complicated. One thing is certain, however, and that is that you can create beautiful images with this lens.

23mm is actually a fairly popular focal length on APS-C, as once you apply the 1.5x crop factor of the camera you mount it on (whether Fuji, Sony, or Nikon), you have a full frame equivalent focal length of 35mm. That’s one of the staples for photographers, as it gives a moderately wide angle of view without any extreme stretching of the subject. What’s different here is that rather than having a maximum aperture of F1.4 like competing lenses, the Sniper 23mm pushes the envelop to F1.2, which is about a half stop faster/brighter than F1.4. In my quick illustrative test, my X-H2 metered at 1/90th second at F1.2, but 1/60th of a second at F1.4 with the Sniper 23mm F1.2 mounted. That’s an obvious advantage for the F1.2 in two ways: 1) when shooting in low light conditions – that large aperture can suck in more light 2) the depth of field will shallower at F1.2 than F1.4, allowing for larger, softer bokeh highlights and a more blurred out background.

The Sniper series ambitiously will come in three different finish styles: a black/grey finish with carbon fiber accents (the lenses I’m testing come in this finish), a white finish, and a silver finish. Each is available for the three different mounts that lens is sold for.

We’ll explore the design more thoroughly in the next section, but I want to congratulate Sirui on forging their own design philosophy. These lenses don’t really look like anything else I’ve tested, but the design works and the lenses in person look quite premium. So, does bright F1.2 autofocusing lenses for a reasonable price sound interesting? We’ll explore that in this series of reviews. Here’s a quick link to the individual reviews of each lens:

• Sirui Sniper 23mm F1.2 Review
• Sirui Sniper 33mm F1.2 Review
• Sirui Sniper 56mm F1.2 Review

If you want my thoughts on the series in general, you can either read my text review here or watch this video. The galleries of images of and from the lens will follow below.

Photos of the Sirui Sniper 23mm F1.2

Image Taken with the Sirui Sniper 23mm F1.2

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GEAR USED:

Purchase the Sirui Sniper Lenses @ Sirui (use code DustinA for 5% off) | B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany

Purchase the Fujifilm X-H2 @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany 

Purchase the Fujifilm X-T5 @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Find it Used at KEH 

Purchase the Fujifilm X-S20 @ B&H Photo | Adorama  | Amazon | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Amazon Germany | Ebay 

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