Sirui Sniper AF 56mm F1.2 Review | The Dual Personality Portrait Lens

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Hi, I'm Dustin Abbott and I'm here for the final of my series of reviews of the new Siri
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Sniper series. This is a series of autofocusing f1.2 maximum aperture lenses designed for APS-C platforms
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like Fuji X-Mount, which I'm reviewing here, Sony E-Mount, and then also Nikon Z-Mount
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I've also released a video where I looked at the series as a whole, and if you want
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to look at how they complement each other with identical physical designs, the ability
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to kind of hot swap them, and also a consistent color tone throughout the series, you can
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check out that review there. These lenses retail for between $300 and $350, depending on your price point and whether
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you use a coupon, or you can get them as a total series for around $900
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In a nutshell, this is a really nicely built lens that uses premium materials
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It has average autofocus for stills, it has rather poor video focus, it has extremely
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nice bokeh, definitely a highlight, and it stops up very, or sharpens up very nicely
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when it's stopped down, but wide open, it has a lot of chromatic aberrations resulting
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in lower contrast. It's a modern lens in its build and its design, but it has a retro aesthetic, which
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is both good and bad, as we're going to see in this review
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In a moment, we will dive into the overall details and overview of the build and handling
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the autofocus, and the image quality, and if you want a deep dive into the optical results
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you can see that at the end of the video, or you can jump ahead to that using the description below
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Now 56 millimeters, when you apply the 1.5 times crop factor of the various amounts that
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it is for, it results in roughly an 85 millimeter equivalent lens
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So this is essentially the portrait lens, or the primarily portrait lens of the group
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that being probably the most popular portrait focal length of all. So getting a big f1.2 aperture there is going to be extremely useful for that
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Now like the other lenses in the series, the overall dimensions are identical
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And like all of these lenses, you have the option of three different finishes
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I've tested what they call the black, and its accents are actual genuine carbon fiber
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as on the barrel itself. There's also a silver that uses aluminum alloy accents, and then there is a white look
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that has a ceramic and a ceramic paint baked into it as a part of the look
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All of them are really, really stylish and definitely not carbon copies of other lenses
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that are out there on the market. All of the lenses have an identical exterior dimension of 72 by right over 92 millimeters
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in length, 2.8 inches by 3.6 inches, a common 58 millimeter front filter thread
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This is the heaviest of the bunch because the optical elements inside are going to be the largest
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It weighs in at 419 grams or 14.7 ounces. Now as I mentioned, these lenses are really beautifully built
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The focus rings are consistent in that they're to have a 360 degree rotation
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So if you're having to do manual focus and focus pulls so that they perform consistently
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for example, on a gimbal. But at the same time, I will note that here on Fuji that if you get close to minimum focus
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you have to make some additional rotations to get that extra little bit down to minimum focus
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And that's more of a Fuji quirk as I've noticed with many lenses over time and not specific
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to this particular series. So while things are very nicely made, there aren't any additional features
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There's no switches on the side. There's no aperture ring. The one thing that it does have is there is a USB-C port in the lens mount
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And that is very welcome because it allows you to do firmware updates to keep the lens
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future proof and also will allow them to tweak autofocus to maybe get a little bit better
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performance in the future. In this case, we do have an included lens hood
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It's a little deeper and not pedal shaped. And that just reflects the fact that this is a telephoto lens and thus has a longer
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focal length as we're going to see even with the lens hood. Lots of flare anyway
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So a big hood is probably welcome. The one thing that does set it apart here is there is a grip section a la Sigma that
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makes it a little more convenient for breaking loose or putting back on
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So I appreciate that. I also appreciate the fact that inside we have 11 aperture blades
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And so with a massive maximum aperture, that ability to maintain a circular shape as the
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aperture is closed down is something that's very welcome. Not so welcome as a minimum focus distance of just 50 centimeters
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And as a byproduct, you get a quite low around 0.1 times level of magnification
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Far from a macro lens, though, fortunately, you can tremendously blur out a background
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due to that big F 1.2 aperture. Now focus here comes via an STM or a stepping focus motor
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Focus speed is not bad, but as you can see here, it is what I would call slightly below average
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It's slow, but you can actually see focus taking place as something comes into focus
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Whereas so many of the modern lenses, focus is basically instantaneous. It just jumps from one subject to another
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In this case, it's a little bit more deliberate than that. The overall noise of focus is not bad
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You will hear a light clicking and whirring sometimes during video capture if focus is
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moving around. But what you will hear above all is the snap of the aperture blades opening and closing
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because as you go to focus, aperture blades will pop open to the preset aperture
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But when you're done, they close back down to a smaller aperture setting
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And so as a byproduct, you will hear some clicking as those opening close
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Now the actual autofocus accuracy on this Fuji X-H2 body that I use for review was actually
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quite good. I found that overall I was able to get good focus accuracy
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I found that it tracked the eye quite well, as you can see here. As I move around, it's able to stay locked on that eye and continues to maintain good
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focus in that regard. For stills, while it's not fast enough, I wouldn't say for sports or action, not a lot
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of F1.2 lenses are, but I think that outside of that, for most people in most applications
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for stills photography, you'll have no problems. Autofocus will serve you just fine
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The video side of things is not nearly as good, however. I found that the video for focus pulls
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It was very slow to react. There's definitely some hunting, some visible steps
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It's just not great. In my hand test, it just shows a really, really low reaction time
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And so when I cover with the hand, it takes a while to transition to that hand
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So even though I was deliberately slow, by the time I moved my hand away, sometimes focus
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was not all the way there. And then it just kind of lingers there for a bit and then starts to move back towards
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the eye and vice versa. So overall, the only plus I would say on the video side of things is that focus breathing
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is fairly low for a 56mm lens. But other than that, this is obviously not a top choice for video work
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Focus is just not reactive enough for action or really for video purposes
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So a quick sketch of the image quality, and if you want more details, dive into the image
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quality section. There are 12 elements in 11 groups, including one ED element, 4HR
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This lens has what I would call quite a retro personality in that it is low contrast, wide open
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There's actually a reasonable amount of detail, but the contrast is so low you don't necessarily
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see it. And if you have shiny surfaces, there will be a lot of chromatic aberrations, longitudinal
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style chromatic aberrations. And so that tends to give it kind of a dreamy look, wide open without a lot of contrast
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If you stop the lens down after about f2.8, it starts to really start to sharpen up
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And by the time you get to landscape apertures, it's fully modern, high contrast, good detail
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even on a 40 megapixel sensor. And so it really has that dual personality that you have to actually want and not everyone does
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This lens reminds me of the old Zeiss classic planar 50 millimeter f1.4, and that lens was
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quite soft, dreamy, wide open, and then quite sharp when stopped down
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Something that it does well is that it has really, really low vignette, just about a
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stop of vignette in the corners. There's a little bit of pincushion distortion
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As mentioned, there are definitely chromatic aberrations and there is severe amounts of flare
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And that flare makes a lot of different looks. And so some of them could be artistic, but in other cases, you may be annoyed by them
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And if you don't like flare artifacts in general, this is definitely not the lens for you
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Overall, the lens does have some redeeming qualities and does produce some nice images
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but it's really for a particular type of photographer. And so in conclusion, I would say that I like this lens better than the 33 millimeter, but
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this is not a lens for those who value sharpness and contrast at wide apertures
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You're probably better served by choosing a lens like the Sigma 56 millimeter f1.4
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if you value high sharpness and contrast wide open. By contrast, I think the bokeh is a lot nicer from the Sirui lens than what it is from the
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Sigma, but it's a trade-off to what you prefer. If you're not stuck on 56 millimeters and you want a little bit of both, and you don't
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mind a little bit larger lens, try the Viltrox Pro AF 75 millimeter f1.2
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It's a lens that is both very sharp and also has really nice soft bokeh
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It kind of gives you all of the things, but obviously different focal length and a little
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bit larger than what some people like. The lens is competitively priced, I believe
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That's not a bad price for an auto-focusing f1.2 lens, but you need to be sure that you
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are the kind of photographer that this lens will benefit from. If you like a little more of a retro look where skin tones are going to be softer and
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you don't see all the definition of all the pores and all of that, this is a lens that
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might work well for you. If you just like the look of more artful looking images, I do think it has that quality to
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it, plus it gives you auto-focus. I think that there is a market for this lens, I just don't think it's a large and general market
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If you've always wanted an auto-focusing lens with a retro vibe, this is it
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Stick around now if you want a deep dive into the image quality performance, or you
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can check out the description down below and check out my text review in the image gallery
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and they're buying links there as well. Let's dive into the image quality. So we'll start by taking a look at vignette and distortion
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This has been an area where this series has actually done quite well, and that's no exception here
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You can see that there is a bit of noticeable pin cushion distortion, but in my manual correction
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on the right, you can see it was very linear and corrected perfectly, very easily
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You can also see that for an f1.2 lens, there is remarkably low amount of vignette there
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in the corners. So my corrections took the form of a minus 4 to correct the pin cushion distortion and
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then a plus 37, just a little over one stop to correct for the vignette in the corners
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which is definitely better than competing lenses that I've seen. Of course, just as good as this series has been when it comes to vignette and distortion
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it has been this bad when it comes to chromatic aberrations, particularly the longitudinal
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style that we see here. And so you can see some pronounced fringing both before and then after the plane of focus
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Unfortunately, that is going to show up as fringing around specular highlights, bokeh
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circles here. You can definitely see that fringing around those. Then also, as you can see on the various shiny surfaces here, there's lots of fringing there
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as well. There is also a little bit more of lateral chromatic aberrations in this lens than what
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I've seen from other lenses in the series. You can see that on either side of these black and white transitions
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Fortunately, this is the kind that corrects very easily with the one click correction
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but as an aberration, this is actually a little bit worse than other lenses
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All the various aberrations that make up the lens designs does rob contrast from these lenses
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And you can see here, unlike the 33mm that really didn't have a lot of detail on the
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textures, I actually see reasonable detail here, but what you see is just extremely low
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contrast, kind of like that Vaseline smear over the textures, kind of a blooming effect
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that robs away the contrast. In the mid-frame, again, mid-frame result at f1.2 is not bad other than the really low contrast
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There is sufficient detail there, but it's obscured by the low contrast
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And even into the corners, there's a reasonable amount of corner performance, but that low
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contrast does take away from it. Now for some perspective, here's another f1.2 lens and this is the Viltrox Pro AF 75mm f1.2
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Now you might want to sit down for this. Here's the comparison. Ouch
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That is a lot more contrast and detail for the Viltrox compared to the Siri 56mm
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Now no, these aren't identical in terms of focal length, but just look how incredibly
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sharp that Viltrox lens is by comparison. That mid-frame is just startling different
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And even to the corners where the Viltrox is the weakest, you can just see it is such
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higher contrast. So that's an area where the Viltrox is really exceptionally good and frankly, the Siri is not
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I haven't really noticed a significant improvement with any of this series by stopping down a
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little bit to f1.4. That continues to be the case here. You can mostly just see that we've got a little bit more contrast, shadows in particular just
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are a little bit deeper, but that overall kind of haze is still there to the textures
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Stopping down from f1.4 to f2 does make a difference. We're definitely not all the way there yet, but you can see that now the textures are
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starting to show up. Mid-frame is looking okay, not exceptional. The corners, they're not vastly improved, but because expectations tend to be a little
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bit lower in the corners, things don't look all that bad there
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From f2 to f2.8, we see a little bit more market improvement to where things are starting
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to look good there, though frankly, not as sharp as what we saw even at f1.2 from the Viltrox
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From f2.8 to f4, there is another improvement. Now if we take a quick look here, we can see mid-frame is looking pretty good
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Let's look how we're doing for centering on the other side. We can see looking pretty good there, down here on the left side, some improvement
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If we move over to this left corner, starting to look pretty good there, up in the upper
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left, you know, about the similar level improvement. Upper right, we can see that it's certainly not uber sharp, but it is improved
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So by f5.6, things are starting to come together to where the lens is, in real world use, is
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quite crisp. And so we're seeing now that mid-frame looking good, and even down into the corners, the
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corners are starting to look good, though contrast is still not super sharp there
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Now while I never felt that the 33mm got exceptionally sharp, even at smaller apertures, in this
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case, I think the 56mm does genuinely get pretty much sharp across the frame
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This is at f5.6, and at 40 megapixels, I'm actually quite happy with this result right
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down into the corner. I have no complaints about that. Here's another result from f5.6, and again, if I punch into a pixel level there, you know
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there's a good amount of detail, and that detail runs right off to the edge of the frame
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So no complaints at small apertures. If you stop it down, the lens does become nice and crisp
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Between f5.6 and f8 is pretty much as sharp as what we get
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After that, diffraction does start to soften the image, but what's been interesting with this series is because they're not particularly high contrast at larger apertures, they comparatively
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don't look all that bad at minimum aperture. So you can see here at f16, yes, contrast has been reduced somewhat again, but it looks
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better than what it did at wide apertures, and so it's still usable
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And so I would say that you could use this all throughout its range, and again, this
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corner performance doesn't look too bad for f16. Now minimum focus distance, if you're shooting at f1.2, does remain, you know, quite low contrast
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Again, if you look there at the actual detail that there, the detail is not bad, but the contrast is terrible, and there's some fringing that shows up even in a shot like this
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Where the lens compensates for all of that low contrast is in the defocused area
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If anything, it's like the anti-sigma 56mm f1.4, a lens that I thought was just beautifully
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sharp even at f1.4, but the quality of the bokeh was not that great because it was so
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high contrast. In this case, the opposite is true. The contrast on the subject is not great at all
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However, the actual image looks quite nice because the bokeh is so soft and nicely blurred out
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In this series, actually, I shot first at f1.2, and so you see your kind of available
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options for tackling a scene, and here's where I think the value might be
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On the subject, contrast is, as you can see, a little bit soft, but you can see that the
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blur is really nice. Stopping down to f1.8 helps to improve contrast somewhat
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Now the detail, I think, is sufficient for most purposes. The bokeh is not quite as soft, but still looks pretty good
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And then at f2.8, obviously the background is not as blurred, but more is in focus and
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the contrast and detail is better in that plane of focus. So you have different options with this lens on how you want the image to actually look
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This image here is actually a combination of an f1.2 aperture shot that gives you that
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beautifully creamy background, and then I shot at f2 on the subject and then combined
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those together. The f1.2 gives me enough contrast that in a real world use, I think that looks really
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quite nice. I'm happy with that as a shot. And then of course, I'm getting the beautiful blur that comes from the f1.2 aperture
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So there's another way you could handle it. This shot here, which was part of my kind of sample testing for the Eye AF, you can
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just see how beautifully blurred out the background is. That's definitely a strength for the lens
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Now finally, a look at flare resistance, because as you can see in this particular, just the
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position of the sun coming through the window here is just kind of flooded this image with light
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It's actually an artistic effect that I like fine. In this shot here, I just composed a little bit differently
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And so we have a little bit of a prismatic veil there. But overall, you can see that there's a little bit more contrast in the scene
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This shot is actually interesting because one of the things you'll get is kind of a flashing effect
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And so you can see that on display here, it comes across I think as being artistic, but
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it all depends on how you're going to compose. And so here, if we take a look, kind of panning across in video mode, you can see there's
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just a huge variety of different flare artifacts and different effects that are there
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And so maybe you love, maybe you hate those. Stop down. I don't like any of them quite as much because it's just a little bit more in your face and pronounced
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You can see that flashing effect though there at the end. Well, if you've stuck around to the end, thank you so much
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Have a great day and let the light in

Sirui Sniper AF 56mm F1.2 Review | The Dual Personality Portrait Lens

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Sirui Sniper AF 56mm F1.2 Review | The Dual Personality Portrait Lens

Dustin Abbott