TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 II Review

Dustin Abbott

January 16th, 2025

It was just a year ago that TTArtisan released the first version of this lens and I covered it in my reviews. It’s rare for a company to do such a quick refresh of a newly released lens, but clearly TTArtisan is in a rush to get things right and felt like there were a few key areas that they could make improvements. My two two negatives from my review were 1) a very odd lens hood design and 2) rather poor minimum focus distance (60cm) and maximum magnification. The new TTArtisan 35mm II deals with both of those issues, with a more conventional hood design, a reduced minimum focus distance (40cm), and a smaller, lighter physical design to boot. Priced at only $125, this new lens is going to be a very hard one to ignore for those looking for a budget “normal” lens for their APS-C camera. Should you get one? Dive into my video review or read on in my text review to find out.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Thanks to TTArtisan for sending me a review copy of this lens. 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. You can find the visit the TTArtisan listing page for the lens to get more information.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

It’s pretty clear the TTArtisan’s ability to improve their lens designs is rapidly growing, as just a year has gone by and already we have a lens that is improved in pretty much every area. One of the key priorities for TTArtisan was to reduce the size of the lens.

TTArtisan managed to shrink the lens by a full 16mm, which may not seem like a lot, but in a lens this size that is nearly a 25% reduction in size. Weight has also dropped by 23g, making for a truly lightweight 176g. The biggest challenge for TTArtisan comes from a fellow Chinese company, Viltrox, whose new AF 35mm F1.7 Air lens will almost certainly be the chief competitor. The Viltrox lens is made of high quality plastics rather than metal (TTArtisan), but is even lighter at 170g despite having a slightly faster maximum aperture of F1.7. The TTArtisan 35II wins for size, however, coming in shorter by about 5mm.

35mm is a slightly oddball focal length on APS-C, landing at a 52.5mm full frame equivalent. It stands to reason why the 33mm (49.5mm) is more conventional, as it is delivering that typical 50mm “normal” angle of view. That extra 3mm is hardly likely to make much of a difference. This is a great focal length that gives a very normal, relatable point of view.

There’s no question that this is a pretty impressively good little lens for just $125…but how improved is it? Read on to find out.

Build and Handling

The little TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 II makes a very positive first impression. When I opened the box, the first thing I noticed is how small it is, and the second thing is that it is a very nicely made little lens. This is actually quite a handsome little lens. It has an anodized black finish and everything is made of metal and glass.

It’s pretty extraordinary how rich this cheap lens feels. It no looks very stubby when mounted on a bigger APS-C camera like my Fujifilm X-H2:

You’ll note that there are no switches on the lens barrel nor an aperture ring. Very possibly this is cost cutting measure. Fortunately you can function just fine without either thing, and AF | MF switches on Fuji lenses are rare, anyway, though that’s not true on other platforms like Sony or Nikon.

At the rear of the lens we have a metal lens mount complete with the appropriate electronic contacts; aperture will be controlled from the camera. Aperture control seems to work well; it is quick and responsive and the aperture iris blades are not noisy, with just a light click as the blades open and close.

There are nine aperture blades, but you can see (above at F2.8) that they don’t do an amazing job of keeping a perfectly circular shape as the lens is stopped down.

Up front we have a fairly stylish looking front façade complete with 52mm filter threads.

The included lens cap has a new font for the TTARTISAN logo imprinted on it, and I think it looks smart and modern.

One of my critiques of the previous generation lens was the odd lens hood. While the lens hood was made of metal, it had an odd design that terminated in something looks like an anamorphic adapter (a rectangular opening) which prohibited either the use of filters or mounting the lens cap…plus it meant that you absolutely couldn’t reverse the lens hood for storage. The new lens hood (pictured above), is much more plain and conventional, but all the better for it.

The manual focus ring is another positive, however. It is ribbed in metal and moves with a nice amount of resistance. The active focus area will automatically magnify when you start to focus, and this helps visually confirm accurate focus. Focus throw feels like it is somewhere near 160° of rotation.

One final interesting design element is that the rear lens cap has a USB-C port along with electronic contacts inside and will actually allow you to do firmware updates to the lens through a computer. It’s an interesting alternative to having a USB-C port built right into the lens, though I do slightly prefer the built-in option in case you lose the rear lens cap at some point. I’ve seen a similar approach to firmware updates through the rear lens cap with the Techart LM-EA9 adapter I reviewed a year ago.

One core weakness for the previous version of the lens was a rather poor minimum focus distance of 60cm. That often felt very restrictive, but TTArtisan has managed to significantly cut that down to 40cm on the new version of the lens. That’s still not great (the Viltrox 35mm can focus as closely as 33cm), but this feels slightly more usable, with magnification at roughly 0.11x (still on the low side).

Contrast isn’t great at this minimum focus distance, so while this aspect of lens design is improved, it remains somewhat of a liability relative to some competitors.

So while this is a rather simple design, it is nicely executed. Other than the lack of features (no aperture ring, switches, or weather sealing), you would easily think of this as being a much more expensive lens. Kudos to TTArtisan for being willing to rapidly improve. One word of caution: don’t do this too often, or consumers will start to say, “Just wait a year and you can get a nicer lens for the same money!“

Autofocus for Stills

As before, TTArtisan has chosen to equip this lens with a lead-screw type STM focus motor.

Fuji remains the least favorite of the four brands of cameras that I own and test, though the recent firmware updates on my X-H2 to V5 and beyond seem to have made some small improvement. Autofocus performance here is about average (though average is getting faster!), with decent speed in most situations though with a occasional rack in the wrong direction if autofocus doesn’t initially detect an obvious contrast point.

There isn’t a lot of noise in focus, with the motor making faint whines and clicks if you put your ear near it. I don’t hear much under normal shooting, however, even with my eye at the viewfinder. What you will hear is a little “clack” from the aperture blades opening and closing if you partially hold down the shutter.

Autofocus accuracy seemed fairly good, able to grab and lock on subjects accurately.

It’s been very cold during my review period, but the lens continued to function fine in sub-zero temperatures, locking on delivering accurate focus.

I did notice one quirk that may be fixed via firmware. Sometimes when shooting at F1.8 either with autofocus or manual focus, focus would reset after the shot. That proved a bit of a pain during my chart tests, as I couldn’t set focus and then just change aperture for subsequent shots. Update: this quirk seems to have been fixed via firmware.

Eye detect worked well (as is pretty expected at this point). I had no problem with people or pets in getting accurately focused results.

No, autofocus isn’t in the upper tier of performance, but the truth of the matter is that this lens focuses better than a number of native Fuji lenses that I’ve tested, so I have no complaints.

Video Autofocus

Video AF is another area that was improved by the firmware update. Fuji’s video AF on their cameras remains somewhat primitive, so take these results with a slight grain of salt and expect them to be better on Sony or Nikon. Focus pulls feature some obvious steps, with the majority of the pull occuring, then a slight pause, and then the final adjustment. In a couple of my pulls I saw a third microadjustment as the focus algorithms debated their final choice.

I saw visible steps in natural focus changes as well as the focus system transitioned from one focus point to another.

My hand test (where I alternately block and then unblock the camera’s view of my face with my hand) showed some similar steps. When my hand was removed, for example, there was a couple of obvious steps as focus returned to my eyes.

Focus seemed to be stable when I had a static subject that wasn’t changing. There wasn’t any obvious focus noise during any of these tests. This isn’t the most sophisticated focus system out there

Image Quality Breakdown

Interestingly, the TTArtisan 35II has a simpler optical design than the lens it replaces, with 10 elements in 7 groups. Though there is one less group, there is an additional ED element (now there are 2) along with two high index elements in the design. The MTF chart shows a completely different optical signature than the older lens, with a much sharper center, a slightly weaker inner mid-frame result, a much stronger outer mid-frame result, and a huge variance between the sagittal and meridional planes (low contrast) in the corners. I’ve charted the two MTF charts so that you can see the different signatures of each lens.

An interest secondary observation is that the stopped down performance on the chart was shown at F8 on the older version of the lens, while the new one is mapped at F5.6, and it generally delivers a much sharper result than the older lens save in the far corners.

There is literally no platform that I test on this is more challenging than Fuji’s 40MP APS-C sensor, as it has (by far) the greatest pixel density. A full frame sensor would have to be more than 90MP to achieve a similar pixel density, which is 50% higher than the current maximum full frame resolution of 61MP. While this little TTArtisan 35II is not anywhere near the top resolving lenses on the platform, it is also far from embarrassing itself and delivers a better than expected resolution result. The single biggest optical challenge is probably lower contrast when viewed at a pixel level. Contrast and detail looks fine when viewed large:

When viewed at a pixel level, however, you can see that the contrast and ability to resolve the fine details isn’t fantastic.

To be fair, the same is true of most lenses on this platform, including many who cost much, much more. When stopped down a bit, the amount of resolution and contrast the TTArtisan 35II can achieve is actually quite good.

So let’s break it down further.

If there is any metric where the new lens takes a step back relative to the first generation version, it is potentially in the vignette department.

The first gen lens wasn’t great in the vignette department, taking a +79 to correct in my tests, but I have to max out the vignette slider for this new lens. What’s more, the vignette is of the nature where there’s also some color attached to it, and you can see that even when maxing out the sliders, I still end up with a somewhat uneven result. Distortion seems to be about equal with the first gen lens – a tiny bit of pincushion distortion that will easily correct with a -2 or -3.

A few other observations. I received a pre-retail copy of this lens for testing (fairly typical), and the keen eyed among you may have noticed that Lightroom isn’t properly detecting the EXIF data for the lens. It is identifying it as the (Tokina) atx-m 33mm F1.4 X. The only thing right there is the “X”! As a result, Lightroom will also automatically assign the wrong correction profile to images. I’ve made TTArtisan aware of this, and they are working on both a new correction profile and a firmware update that should allow for proper recognition of the lens. Update December 17th, 2024: TTArtisan released a firmware update that addressed both this glitch along with a few performance bugs. The lens now properly identifies in Lightroom and a new (correct!) correction profile is applied.

One improvement, however, is in the longitudinal chromatic aberration department (LoCA), which is color fringing that shows up before and after the plane of focus and is typically most pronounced at large aperture values. There is still some fringing here, but it is definitely less pronounced than the first generation lens.

On these reflective Christmas decorations there is a bit of green fringing, but it’s pretty minimal.

There is some minor issue with LaCA (lateral chromatic aberrations) in the corner, though to be fair, I noticed it much more on my chart:

…than I did in real world shots.

So how about sharpness and contrast? Here’s a look at the test chart:

And here are the crops from across the frame at F1.8 at a 200% magnification.

As the MTF suggested, contrast in the center isn’t bad but the lens isn’t radically sharp. The midframe is interesting to me, as there’s quite a bit of variation even across that one crop, with the left side looking quite good and the right side looking much worse. The corner crop is the most interesting, however, as it is quite soft on the left side (closer to the center), but obviously better on the right side (right in the absolute corner). The MTF does suggest an unusual loop up towards the edge of the frame, however.

The bottom line to me is that there is enough resolution here even on the most demanding scenario to produce credible looking images:

Those shooting on lower resolution bodies will find their apparent sharpness quite a bit stronger.

At F2, contrast improves a bit. At F2.8 the contrast looks stronger still.

By F5.6, the corners look fairly good (but never exceptional). This is the upper left corner.

You can see that contrast has improved but detail is not exceptional.

Real world results are a little kinder, however, and I actually found the lens to be fairly sharp in many situations. This example at F5.6 (viewed at 100% in the crop) looks fairly impressive.

There’s a nice amount of detail in the shallow plane of focus in this F2.2 shot:

I actually think the lens is slightly sharper at F8 than it is at F5.6, and that’s true pretty much everywhere in the frame.

After that, however, diffraction will become a factor, and the image quality will be slightly softer at F11 and then moreso at F16.

I do want to add a caveat to my tests here, as there’s no question that Fuji’s 40MP sensor is easily the most demanding place to evaluate a lens. Look at how much better the apparent resolution and contrast look at 100% magnification if I scale the image down from the 40MP on the left to the more common 26MP on the right.

That’s the space that Fuji’s own 26MP sensors along with Sony’s most recent 26MP sensors occupy, and you can see that everything looks sharper, and brighter at that lower resolution level. On many cameras the TTArtisan 35II is going to look sharper than my results here show.

This is a budget lens, but it doesn’t mean that the performance is terrible. While bokeh rendering is high end, the lens is caprable of producing beautiful looking images.

This shot shows fairly good bokeh perforamce and good detail where it matters at F1.8:

The geometry of the specular highlights will definitely turn lemon-shaped towards the edges, but that’s hardly uncommon.

I was basically able to get the images that I wanted, and for an autofocusing lens that costs $125, that’s pretty impressive.

The previous version of the lens flared terribly, and that’s definitely an area that has gotten improved. A shot like this would have been full of flare artifacts, but I’ve let very bright sunlight coming though a window backlight this scene without any negative impact:

With direct, bright sun right in the frame, things aren’t quite as rosy. There’s some loss of contrast but also some light flashes, particularly when the lens is stopped down (image 2 below.).

I do think there is some improvement here, but it is perhaps unrealistic to expect high end coatings on such an inexpensive lens.

All told, however, this is a pretty good little lens optically, even though it seems a little unfair to test a $125 optic on one of the most optically demanding sensors in the world!

If you’d like to see more images, check out the image gallery linked here.

Conclusion

The TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 II is a unique lens. It is incredibly rare to see a second generation lens arrive so swiftly on the heels of the first generation lens. I’m not sure if this swift turnaround is due to less interest in the first generation lens than expected, or simply because TTArtisan wants to showcase their ability to produce ever better lenses.

There’s no question the lens IS improved. It’s smaller, sharper, has a better minimum focus distance (though not really an improved up close performance!), has a better lens hood design, and I think even the autofocus is somewhat refined. Not bad for a lens that still has one of the cheapest price tags I’ve ever seen for an autofocus lens.

The biggest question might be how it will compete with the Viltrox 35mm F1.7 AIR lens, particularly considering that Viltrox has really got a lot of momentum right now. But there’s no question that the TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 II is a valid option if you’re looking for an inexpensive yet fully functional “normal” prime lens for your APS-C camera.

Pros:

Significantly improved over the first gen lens
Smaller and lighter than competitors
Very nicely built
More conventional hood design
Good autofocus for stills
Reduced fringing and flare
Acceptably good sharpness on 40MP
Very good sharpness when stopped down
Amazing price

Cons:

Increased vignette
Still some flare issues
Video AF can shows a lot of steps (on Fuji)

_________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

Purchase the TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 II @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Pergear

_____________________________________________________________

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 |

_________________________________________________________________

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Keywords: TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 II, II, 2, TTArtisan, TTArtisan 35mm, TTArtisan AF, Autofocus, TTArtisan 35mm F1.8, 35mm, F1.8, STM, Review, Fuji X, Sony E, Review, Telephoto, Action, Tracking, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a6700, Sony a6600, Fujifilm X-T5, Fujifilm X-H2, let the light in, #letthelightin, DA

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Sirui Sniper 75mm F1.2 Review

Dustin Abbott

July 12th, 2024

Sirui Sniper 75mm F1.2 X-Mount Review

Sirui launched their “Sniper” series of autofocus lenses in late 2023. I’ve done an overview of the series here. The Sniper Series was initially made up of 3 APS-C specific lenses – a 23mm F1.2, 33mm F1.2, and 56mm F1.2 lens, but they have now expanded the series to include both a wider angle option (Sniper 16mm F1.2) and a longer telephoto option (Sniper 75mm F1.2). It is these latter two that I am currently reviewing, and today’s review focuses on the telephoto option – the Sirui Sniper 75mm F1.2 AF lens. These can be purchased individually for $349 USD each (though various discounts will provide a little fluctuation in pricing). 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. Find out by watching my video review below…or just reading on.

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.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Here’s a quick way to access my reviews of each lens in the series:

I’m doing this review on Fuji X-mount since 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 75mm F1.2 Sniper lens up to the challenge? As with the other lenses, that answer really depends on your priorities and expectations as a photographer, though I will say that I think that the Sniper 75mm is the best of the bunch optically. It does face very stiff competition from the excellent Viltrox Pro AF 75mm F1.2 (my review here), though the Viltrox is bigger, heavier, and more expensive.

For that size, however, you get more features (aperture ring, AF/MF switch), weather sealing, and it is definitely sharper. But this new Sniper 75mm is no slouch optically, and while it isn’t as transcendently sharp as the Viltrox at F1.2, it helps compensate by both a very useful amount of sharpness along with gorgeous bokeh.

This is definitely the “bokeh monster” of the Sniper series, capable of crushing backgrounds and delivering beautiful subject isolation.

75mm is the least traditional of the focal lengths in the Sniper series. Once you apply the 1.5x crop factor of the APS-C cameras that these lenses are designed for (whether Fuji, Sony, or Nikon), the 16, 23, 35, and 56mm become the full frame equivalents of 24, 35, 50, and 85mm – the most common prime focal lengths you could ask for. 75mm is a much less conventional 112.5mm full frame equivalent, and while that isn’t as flexible a focal length as some of these others, it a really great portrait focal length because you can shoot full length and still have the background blurred out. Viltrox’s Pro AF 75mm F1.2 has proven very popular for that reason.

All of these Sniper lenses have sported an F1.2 maximum aperture. 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 fact that the Sirui Nightwalker 75mm T1.2 exists (my video review here) tells me that the light transmission for the lens is excellent, as the T-stop actually matches the F-stop (fairly rare, in my experience). This is a very bright lens, and that’s going to be useful in a lot of situations. It has no problem when the light gets dim.

The Sniper series has come in three different finish option: 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. These photos cover the three older lenses as I’m reviewing the 16mm and 75mm lenses before public release.

It is great to see Sirui forging their own design path, and I’ve been impressed across the three different lineups that I’ve tested (Sniper, Night Walker, and Saturn). So let’s take a closer look at this 75mm F1.2 lens from Sirui.

Sirui Sniper 75mm Build and Handling

The original Sniper lenses all shared a common outer shell and exterior dimensions though with a slight weight variation due to the larger optical elements in some. There’s a little more variation in the new 16mm and 75mm F1.2 designs, however, as would be expected with these slightly more extreme focal lengths. This Sniper 16mm is the lightest of the series (smallest glass elements), weighing in at 375g (13.2 oz) on my scale. The 16mm and 75mm Sniper lenses share a common length (94mm or 3.7″), but you can see that the 75mm is considerably wider than the 16mm.

I measure the 75mm at nearly 75mm (2.95″), with the 16mm being a slimmer 70mm (2.75″). The 75mm is the heaviest of the group at 466g (16.1 oz), which is unsurprising as it has easily the most glass inside. The 16mm, 23mm, 33mm, and 56mm Sniper lenses all share a common 58mm front filter thread, but the filter threads on the 75mm grow to 67mm to accommodate the wider diameter of the lens.

The weight will very slightly vary according to lens and mount. The X-mount that I’m testing is actually the lightest (by a few grams), due to the X-mount being the smallest of the three in diameter. Nikon’s Z-mount is the largest in diameter, with Sony E-mount in between.

So how does the 75 x 94mm and 466g of the Sniper 75mm F1.2 compares to the Viltrox Pro AF 75mm F1.2? The Viltrox is 87 x 101 mm (3.4 x 4″) and weighs 670g (23.6oz). That makes the Sirui a whopping 200+ grams lighter, which is definitely significant. The Sniper 75mm is just 20g heavier than the Fujinon XF 56mm F1.2 WR (my review here) despite the significantly longer focal length of the Sirui. While the early Sniper lenses were heavier than some of their counterparts, this 75mm is sitting in a nice position when it comes to the size and weight of the lens.

The look of the Sniper lenses is unique. There’s not much here in terms of features, but the lenses do have an upscale look with a variety of textures and finishes. I’m reviewing the lenses labeled as being “black”, but black (at least in the typical lens sense) is not the vibe I get off these lenses. There are two metal sections (one near the lens mount and another in the middle of the lens) that has a traditional anodized satin black finish, but in between there is a section of genuine carbon fiber that looks very cool. Carbon fiber is a more upscale material and it definitely sets these lenses apart.

There are two badges in this section. One is a plate with the Sirui banding in raised metal lettering. The second is on the left side, and there is a another smaller badge that says AF and APS-C. Interestingly the word “Sniper” appears nowhere on the lens.

There are no switches on the lens barrel nor an aperture ring. That’s more noticeable here on Fuji, where aperture rings are fairly standard. Both of the F1.2 lenses that I’ve mentioned have both an aperture ring and weather sealing, so the Sirui is at a serious disadvantage in those areas, though, to be fair, it is between $200 and $600 cheaper than its main competitors.

The Sniper 75mm has a great profile to it on camera, with a nice, squat look that is a nice match to my larger X-H2 body.

The manual focus ring has a diamond pattern akin to Canon’s control rings rather than a typical ribbed finish. It’s one more area where the lenses maintain their own unique look.

The manual focus rings move smoothly and the weight is fairly light. Not so light that you can’t accurately focus, but a bit lighter than what I personally prefer. Sirui states that the focus throw is 360°, so plenty of room for precision.

After the focus ring is a blue accent ring that is nearly turquoise in color. Once again it is little different than other lens that I’ve tested, and it works. The final section at the front of the lens has a titanium colored anodized metal finish, so less than half of the lens surface is actually purely black. Each lens color has some unique ingredient: black = carbon fiber, silver = aluminum alloy, white = ceramic baked paint.

The included lens hoods is nothing special. It is made of plastic and doesn’t feel as premium at the rest of the lens. It doesn’t bayonet on quite as precisely as I would prefer, though it does lock into place tightly. I do appreciate the ribbed section in the hood which gives a little more grip.

It’s worth noting that both the front pinch cap along with the rear cap are quite low profile. The front cap is just a few millimeters thick, and the rear cap too feels slimmer than usual. These little details stood out to me as nothing about the lenses felt generic or “by-the-numbers”. Sirui is doing their own thing here, and I like the attention to detail.

At the rear of the lens we have a metal lens mount complete with the appropriate electronic contacts; aperture will be controlled from the camera. There is a USB-C port there that will allow for future firmware updates. That’s a really important move by Sirui, as they are new to autofocus design. The ability to update the focus algorithms in their lenses will help them to focus better in the future and also allows the lenses to be futureproof.

The aperture iris is made up of a higher-than-average 11 rounded blades. That’s a great choice in a lens with an F1.2 aperture, as it helps assure that the aperture iris stays circular as the lens is stopped down. It also looks really gorgeous in a lens like this that has so much glass to look through in the front.

The minimum focus distances for the Sniper 75mm is fairly high at 70cm. Sirui has not listed the maximum magnification, but it is definitely the highest in the group. I would estimate it in the 0.12x range.

It’s not particularly close, but the magnification can still be useful, and the huge maximum aperture allows for a deep blur of the background.

There are some pros and cons for the design and handling. On the positive side, the lenses look and feel great. There are some premium materials being used in the design and the attention to detail is excellent, and, in this case, the Sniper 75mm is smaller and lighter than the directly competing lens. On the negative side, there are no real features on the lenses outside of the USB-C port for firmware updates.

Autofocus Performance

The Sirui Sniper lenses are all equipped with STM (stepping) focus motors. There is a certain amount of autofocus performance that is camera and camera system specific, so I’ll try to distinguish between the lens performance and the system performance as much as possible. My experience is that third party lenses focus better on Sony and Nikon than they do on Fuji, and that’s largely because Fuji’s autofocus systems in their cameras are not quite as sophisticated as equivalent Sony or Nikon cameras.

That being said, autofocus speed is about average for a modern STM motor on Fuji. The thrust in this AF motor seems a little more impressive than some of the lenses in the series, so I found that AF speed was perhaps better than average for the Sniper lenses despite the focus motor having to push the larger glass elements in this lens. When doing my focus speed tests with the Sniper 75mm from close to distance, I found that focus wasn’t quite instantaneous, but neither was it slow. And in real world shooting I found that focus speed was fast enough that I never really thought about it. This isn’t going to be a lens for shooting sports, but none of these F1.2 lenses on Fuji are.

The actual focus motor makes only a light whirring, but there is more noise caused by the the sound of the aperture blades opening and closing. This happens even when the aperture is set at F1.2, as the aperture blades close partway in between focus on Fuji (for some reason). This happens with all lenses, but the aperture blades on the Sniper lenses are noisier than average, and that does draw your attention to them. It unfortunately makes autofocus feel less sophisticated than it actually is.

Focus accuracy was good. I was able to shoot through layers of the foreground and accurately focus on the lock above.

I could shoot from roughly 2 meters (six feet) away and focus easily locked on these growing plants.

Focus was also good with the lens stopped down, and it produced very nice looking landscape shots.

When I moved around with Eye AF engaged, focus tracked accurately and the green box stayed locked on the “eye” of my little test statue.

I was less satisfied when I had a moving target like Nala moving towards me. Even though eye AF grabbed her eye, it seemed like images tended to be backfocused.

So other than being a little noisy in focus, I actually had no issue with the lens for stills. Like other lenses in the series, autofocus isn’t fast enough to track action, but it does seem to be accurate for more still subjects.

The state of autofocus on Fuji for video remains pretty abysmal relative to other platforms. Add a third party lens from company that has been making autofocus lenses for less than a year, and you’ve got a recipe for a bit of frustration. Focus pulls were quite slow with very obvious steps. The focus pull felt it came in 3-4 stages rather than one smooth arc. Focus also did a bit of settling before a final lock.

My hand test (where I alternately block and then unblock the camera’s view of my face with my hand) was particularly frustrating. The lens didn’t really want to focus on either my face or my hand at first (it acted as if I hadn’t come into the frame), and by the time it eventually decided to focus on me, focus transitions were so slow and non-reactive that I rarely got a decent cycle of focus from my hand to my eye or vice versa.

On a positive note, focus breathing is fairly well controlled.

If you rarely shoot video (or don’t really need autofocus during video recording), then the Sniper 75mm will work fine. It’s not a great choice for video work, however. The frustrating thing is that there doesn’t seem to be many alternatives on Fuji that are much better. I suspect this lens will function much better for video work on either Sony or Nikon from my experience on those platforms.

Sirui Sniper 75mm Image Quality

The Sirui Sniper 16mm F1.2 has an optical design of 13 elements in 9 groups. All of the Sniper lenses have had more of what I call a “classic” sharpness profile, in that they behave like some older large aperture lenses. They are somewhat dreamy (low contrast) wide open and then sharpen up to higher contrast and detail at smaller apertures. The 33mm and 56mm Sniper lenses took this to an extreme, and I wasn’t really a fan of them, but the 16mm and, in particular, this 75mm find a much nicer balance. While it is true that the extreme resolution of the 40MP Fuji APS-C sensor tends to make a lot of lenses look softer than they are in any other application, I feel like the Sniper 75mm is able to handle those demands reasonably well. It isn’t as bitingly sharp and high contrast at F1.2 as the Viltrox, but it does produce enough contrast and detail at F1.2 to be useful. Pair that with gorgeous bokeh and you’ve got a lens that I think will make a lot of people happy.

I like the 16mm and 75mm better than the early lenses in the series because they have more sharpness potential when stopped down…even on the very demanding sensor of my X-H2. When stopped down it delivers high detail images that look great.

Our optical deep dive starts with a look at vignette and distortion, an area where the Sniper lenses have held up quite well. The 75mm is no exception with no distortion there to correct.

Vignette is also well controlled for an F1.2 lens, requiring only a +45 (about 1 1/2 stops) to correct. This is an area of advantage over competing lenses.

The first telephoto in the series (56mm F1.2) was terrible for fringing, but the Sniper 75mm is much better. There is very little longitudinal chromatic aberrations (LoCA_ here.

You can see the advantage of this in this shot of white raspberry blossoms in a high contrast setting. There is very little fringing in this F1.4 shot despite this being prime conditions to seem them.

Lateral chromatic aberrations near the edge of the frame are fairly well controlled. I see some very minor fringing in the transitions from black to white here, but nothing significant.

The Sniper 75mm is holding up MUCH better in these tests than the 56mm did.

So how about resolution? The 40MP Fuji X-Trans sensor tends to make all but the very sharpest of lenses look a little soft under the microscope of my tests. I examine results at a 200% magnification, and that’s a lot to ask of any lens. Here’s a look at the test chart:

And here is a look at F1.2 crops from the center, then mid-frame, and then extreme lower right corner:

The crops reveal that contrast is fairly good even at F1.2 in the center of the frame, and the corners stand out to me as being quite good as well. That’s born out in real world results (particularly outside of close focus range), as the detail even in the corners at F1.2 looks good even on such a high resolution body.

Even at landscape distances, however, I think the sharpness results are quite good.

There is a minor uptick in contrast even at F1.4 along with slightly better detail. Here’s a look at the midframe at 200% magnification.

You’ll see even more improvement from F1.4 to F2:

By F4 to F8, you’ll find sharpness that reaches all across the frame, even to the corners.

Landscape shots in this range will show great detail and contrast all across the frame.

By F11 you will see some softening due to the effect of diffraction, with more rapid deterioration by F16.

The standout quality from the Sniper 75mm, however, is its bokeh, which is pretty fantastic. If you combine the minimum focus distance with F1.2, you’ll end up with a near complete dissolving of the background and gorgeous creaminess.

Add more complex backgrounds and the lens still thrives.

Move back a little further and even close down the the lens a bit, and I still like what I see.

Even this shot of a very complex scene and with the lens stopped down to F2 looks great:

Flare resistance is fairly good for a large aperture telephoto lens. It’s not free of flare artifacts, but the ghosting is minimal. There’s a bit more when stopped down, but not bad.

I was able to test for coma, and found that while there is some minor distorting of star points near the edge of the frame, this is actually a decent lens to use for capturing the stars. No fringing on star points, low amounts of vignette, and obviously the ability to suck in massive amounts of light with that very bright aperture.

All told, this is really a very nice lens optically. The Viltrox 75mm F1.2 is sharper, but the bokeh from the Sniper 75mm may be even nicer.

This is the first of the Sniper lenses that I feel completely positive about in terms of its optics. It is sharp enough to not embarrass itself even on the very high resolution of the Fuji’s 40MP APS-C sensor and has some of the nicest bokeh I’ve seen from any lens on Fuji. This is a very nice lens optically for the price tag of just $350 USD, and should make for a gorgeous portrait lens. You can check out the image gallery to see more photos and see if the rendering from the lens suits you.

Conclusion

The Sirui Sniper 75mm F1.2 AF lens is a welcome addition to the Sniper series. While the focal length is less conventional, the Sniper 75mm more than makes up for it through its beautiful rendering.

Autofocus isn’t great for action or big video pulls, but it worked fine for the majority of my photography subjects.

The optical performance, however, makes this lens a great “bang-for-the buck” value, capable of producing gorgeous images with good color, contrast, detail, and lovely bokeh.

So if you’re sweet spot for a telephoto falls somewhere between Fuji’s 56mm F1.2 and 90mm F2, the Sirui Sniper 75mm F1.2 might just be the lens for you.

Pros:

Unique design that uses premium materials
Bright F1.2 aperture
Ability to upgrade firmware through USB-C port
Smaller and lighter than Viltrox 75mm F1.2
Good focus accuracy for stills
No distortion
Low vignette
Good control of aberrations
Good sharpness even at 40MP
Gorgeous bokeh and rendering
Good coma performance
Optically matched to other Sniper lenses
Well priced

Cons:

Aperture iris clacks a lot during focus
No aperture ring or weather sealing
Focus isn’t fast enough for action
Video focus isn’t great

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

Early bird discounted pricing: https://sirui.kckb.me/dabbott

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

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Keywords: Sirui, Sniper, Sirui Sniper, Sirui Sniper 75mm F1.2, 75mm, 23mm, 33mm 56mm, 16mm, F1.2, STM, Carbon Fiber, Review, Fuji X, Sony E, Review, Telephoto, Action, Tracking, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a6700, Sony a6600, Fujifilm X-T5, Fujifilm X-H2, let the light in, #letthelightin, DA

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Sirui Sniper 75mm F1.2 Gallery

Dustin Abbott

July 12th, 2024

Sirui Sniper 75mm F1.2 X-Mount Gallery

Sirui launched their “Sniper” series of autofocus lenses in late 2023. I’ve done an overview of the series here. The Sniper Series was initially made up of 3 APS-C specific lenses – a 23mm F1.2, 33mm F1.2, and 56mm F1.2 lens, but they have now expanded the series to include both a wider angle option (Sniper 16mm F1.2) and a longer telephoto option (Sniper 75mm F1.2). It is these latter two that I am currently reviewing, and today’s review focuses on the telephoto option – the Sirui Sniper 75mm F1.2 AF lens. These can be purchased individually for $349 USD each (though various discounts will provide a little fluctuation in pricing). 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. Find out by watching my video review below, reading my text review here, or just by enjoying the photos below.

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.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Here’s a quick way to access my reviews of each lens in the series:

I’m doing this review on Fuji X-mount since 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 75mm F1.2 Sniper lens up to the challenge? As with the other lenses, that answer really depends on your priorities and expectations as a photographer, though I will say that I think that the Sniper 75mm is the best of the bunch optically. It does face very stiff competition from the excellent Viltrox Pro AF 75mm F1.2 (my review here), though the Viltrox is bigger, heavier, and more expensive.

For that size, however, you get more features (aperture ring, AF/MF switch), weather sealing, and it is definitely sharper. But this new Sniper 75mm is no slouch optically, and while it isn’t as transcendently sharp as the Viltrox at F1.2, it helps compensate by both a very useful amount of sharpness along with gorgeous bokeh.

This is definitely the “bokeh monster” of the Sniper series, capable of crushing backgrounds and delivering beautiful subject isolation.

75mm is the least traditional of the focal lengths in the Sniper series. Once you apply the 1.5x crop factor of the APS-C cameras that these lenses are designed for (whether Fuji, Sony, or Nikon), the 16, 23, 35, and 56mm become the full frame equivalents of 24, 35, 50, and 85mm – the most common prime focal lengths you could ask for. 75mm is a much less conventional 112.5mm full frame equivalent, and while that isn’t as flexible a focal length as some of these others, it a really great portrait focal length because you can shoot full length and still have the background blurred out. Viltrox’s Pro AF 75mm F1.2 has proven very popular for that reason.

All of these Sniper lenses have sported an F1.2 maximum aperture. 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 fact that the Sirui Nightwalker 75mm T1.2 exists (my video review here) tells me that the light transmission for the lens is excellent, as the T-stop actually matches the F-stop (fairly rare, in my experience). This is a very bright lens, and that’s going to be useful in a lot of situations. It has no problem when the light gets dim.

The Sniper series has come in three different finish option: 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. These photos cover the three older lenses as I’m reviewing the 16mm and 75mm lenses before public release.

It is great to see Sirui forging their own design path, and I’ve been impressed across the three different lineups that I’ve tested (Sniper, Night Walker, and Saturn). So let’s take a closer look at this 75mm F1.2 lens from Sirui.

Photos of the Sirui Sniper 75mm F1.2

Images taken with the Sirui Sniper 75mm F1.2

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

Early bird discounted pricing: https://sirui.kckb.me/dabbott

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

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Keywords: Sirui, Sniper, Sirui Sniper, Sirui Sniper 75mm F1.2, 75mm, 23mm, 33mm 56mm, 16mm, F1.2, STM, Carbon Fiber, Review, Fuji X, Sony E, Review, Telephoto, Action, Tracking, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a6700, Sony a6600, Fujifilm X-T5, Fujifilm X-H2, let the light in, #letthelightin, DA

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Sirui Sniper 16mm F1.2 X-mount Review

Dustin Abbott

June 27th, 2024

Sirui Sniper 16mm F1.2 X-Mount Review

It is always interesting to see new lensmakers entering the market. Sirui started with cine (video) lenses (all manual – no autofocus or electronics), but they are now releasing their first autofocus lenses – called the “Sniper” series – and I’ve done an overview of the series here. The Sniper Series was initially made up of 3 APS-C specific lenses – a 23mm F1.2, 33mm F1.2, and 56mm F1.2 lens, but they have now expanded the series to include both a wider angle option (Sniper 16mm F1.2) and a longer telephoto option (Sniper 75mm F1.2). It is these latter two that I am currently reviewing, and today’s review focuses on the wide angle option – the Sirui Sniper 16mm F1.2 AF lens. These can be purchased individually for $349 USD each (though various discounts will provide a little fluctuation in pricing). 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. Find out by watching my video review below…or just reading on.

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.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Here’s a quick way to access my reviews of each lens in the series:

I’m doing this review on Fuji X-mount since 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 16mm F1.2 Sniper lens up to the challenge? As with the other lenses, that answer really depends on your priorities and expectations as a photographer, though I will say that I think these two newest Sniper lenses are optically the best of the bunch. It is very rare to get such a bright aperture on a wide angle lens like this, with competing lenses having (at most) a less bright F1.4 aperture. Though the wide angle of the view dictates that depth of field is still not going to be particularly shallow, this does allow you to play with focal points a bit. In this shot, for example, I first focused on the barn and left the foreground trees out of focus:

In this second shot I focused on the foliage in the foreground, leaving the barn slightly out of focus.

In neither case is the amount of blur strong, but it at least allows for some creativity that you don’t always get with a wide angle lens. Getting closer to your subject and shooting at F1.2 does allow for some pretty nice bokeh for a wide angle lens (bokeh has definitely been a strength for this series!)

16mm is obviously a popular wide angle 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 24mm. The Sniper 16mm has an advantage over many competitors due to having a maximum aperture of F1.2, which is about a half stop faster/brighter than F1.4. For example, my X-H2 metered at 1/90th second at F1.2, but 1/60th of a second at F1.4 with the Sniper 16mm 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 fact that the Sirui Nightwalker 16mm T1.2 exists (my video review here) tells me that the light transmission for the lens is excellent, as the T-stop actually matches the F-stop (fairly rare, in my experience). This is a very bright lens, and that’s going to be useful in a lot of situations.

The Sniper series has come in three different finish option: 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. These photos cover the three older lenses as I’m reviewing the 16mm and 75mm lenses before public release.

It is great to see Sirui forging their own design path, and I’ve been impressed across the three different lineups that I’ve tested (Sniper, Night Walker, and Saturn). So let’s take a closer look at this 16mm F1.2 lens from Sirui.

Sirui Sniper 16mm Build and Handling

The original Sniper lenses all shared a common outer shell and exterior dimensions though with a slight weight variation due to the larger optical elements in some. There’s a little more variation in the new 16mm and 75mm F1.2 designs, however, as would be expected with these slightly more extreme focal lengths. This Sniper 16mm is the lightest of the series (smallest glass elements), weighing in at 375g (13.2 oz) on my scale. The 16mm and 75mm Sniper lenses share a common length (94mm or 3.7″), but you can see that the 75mm is considerably wider than the 16mm.

I measure the 75mm at nearly 75mm (2.95″), with the 16mm being a slimmer 70mm (2.75″). The 75mm is the heaviest of the group at 466g (16.1 oz), which is unsurprising as it has easily the most glass inside. The 16mm, 23mm, 33mm, and 56mm Sniper lenses all share a common 58mm front filter thread, but the filter threads on the 75mm grow to 67mm to accommodate the wider diameter of the lens.

The weight will very slightly vary according to lens and mount. The X-mount that I’m testing is actually the lightest (by a few grams), due to the X-mount being the smallest of the three in diameter. Nikon’s Z-mount is the largest in diameter, with Sony E-mount in between.

So how does the 70 x 94mm and 386g of the Sniper 16mm F1.2 compare to the F1.4 competition from Fuji and Sigma? The Fuji 16mm F1.4 WR is a bit smaller (73.4 x 73 mm – wider but shorter) and has an identical 375g weight. The Sigma 16mm F1.4 is both bigger (72.2 x 92.6 mm) and heavier (405g), so the Sniper 16mm is right where it should be in size and weight, particularly considering it is a bit brighter than either of these lenses.

As noted, the look of the Sniper lenses is unique. There’s not much here in terms of features, but the lenses do have an upscale look with a variety of textures and finishes. I’m reviewing the lenses labeled as being “black”, but black (at least in the typical lens sense) is not the vibe I get off these lenses. There are two metal sections (one near the lens mount and another in the middle of the lens) that has a traditional anodized satin black finish, but in between there is a section of genuine carbon fiber that looks very cool. Carbon fiber is a more upscale material and it definitely sets these lenses apart.

There are two badges in this section. One is a plate with the Sirui banding in raised metal lettering.

The second is on the left side, and there is a another smaller badge that says AF and APS-C. Interestingly the word “Sniper” appears nowhere on the lens.

There are no switches on the lens barrel nor an aperture ring. That’s more noticeable here on Fuji, where aperture rings are fairly standard. The Fuji 16mm options (F1.4 and F2.8) both have aperture rings (and weather sealing), though the Sigma does not. Prices range from $399 (Fuji 16mm F2.8) to a whopping $999 (Fuji 16mm F1.4). The Sigma 16mm F1.4 DN is going to be the closest to a direct competitor, costing a little more ($449 USD) but have a more established reputation for performance (my review of the Sigma on E-mount can be found here).

If the Sniper lenses are not set apart by features, then Sirui has attempted to distinguish them by style instead. That middle anodized metal section includes an interesting projection over the carbon fiber section that has the lens designation there, including the focal length and maximum aperture value. This section is important if you own multiple of the Sniper lenses, since they all look the same.

Next comes a manual focus ring with a diamond pattern akin to Canon’s control rings rather than a typical ribbed finish. It’s one more area where the lenses maintain their own unique look.

The manual focus rings move smoothly and the weight is fairly light. Not so light that you can’t accurately focus, but a bit lighter than what I personally prefer. There is no obvious stepping when manually focusing, though I do find (as per usual on Fuji!) that large manual focus changes require a number of rotations. This is particularly true if you are trying to focus towards minimum focus; I counted 6 full rotations to get from 1 meter to minimum focus.

After the focus ring is a blue accent ring that is nearly turquoise in color. Once again it is little different than other lens that I’ve tested, and it works. The final section at the front of the lens has a titanium colored anodized metal finish, so less than half of the lens surface is actually purely black. Each lens color has some unique ingredient: black = carbon fiber, silver = aluminum alloy, white = ceramic baked paint.

A look at the front of the lens shows the 58mm filter threads (in metal), along with a front façade that has the lens designation and the filter size on the opposite side.

The included lens hoods is nothing special. It is made of plastic and doesn’t feel as premium at the rest of the lens. It is petal shaped and flares out away from the lens to prevent vignetting, though this does make it a bit wider for storage when reversed. I do appreciate the ribbed section in the hood which gives a little more grip.

It’s worth noting that both the front pinch cap along with the rear cap are quite low profile. The front cap is just a few millimeters thick, and the rear cap too feels slimmer than usual. These little details stood out to me as nothing about the lenses felt generic or “by-the-numbers”. Sirui is doing their own thing here, and I like the attention to detail.

At the rear of the lens we have a metal lens mount complete with the appropriate electronic contacts; aperture will be controlled from the camera. There is a USB-C port there that will allow for future firmware updates. That’s a really important move by Sirui, as they are new to autofocus design. The ability to update the focus algorithms in their lenses will help them to focus better in the future and also allows the lenses to be futureproof.

The aperture iris is made up of a higher-than-average 11 rounded blades. That’s a great choice in a lens with an F1.2 aperture, as it helps assure that the aperture iris stays circular as the lens is stopped down.

The minimum focus distances for the Sniper 16mm is fair high at 30cm. Sirui has not listed the maximum magnification, but it looks to be in the sub 0.10x range. Here’s a look at the 16mm’s maximum magnification.

The large maximum aperture will allow you still blur out backgrounds, but that’s not because you are particularly close to your subject!

There is no weather sealing gasket on the Sirui Sniper lenses or internal seals. These are not weather resistant lenses.

There are some pros and cons for the design and handling. On the positive side, the lenses look and feel great. There are some premium materials being used in the design and the attention to detail is excellent. On the negative side, there are no real features on the lenses outside of the USB-C port for firmware updates. But also worth considering is that the lenses have a larger maximum aperture than competing lenses while also tending to be less expensive.

Autofocus Performance

The Sirui Sniper lenses are all equipped with STM (stepping) focus motors. There is a certain amount of autofocus performance that is camera and camera system specific, so I’ll try to distinguish between the lens performance and the system performance as much as possible. My experience is that third party lenses focus better on Sony and Nikon than they do on Fuji, and that’s largely because Fuji’s autofocus systems in their cameras are not quite as sophisticated as equivalent Sony or Nikon cameras.

That being said, autofocus speed is a slightly below average for a modern STM motor on Fuji. When doing my focus speed tests with the Sniper 16mm from close to distance, I found that I could see my subject coming into focus rather than just instantly being in focus. When I went outdoors, focus speed picked up, though it still isn’t the instant focus I see with the better modern lenses. There is light clicking sound that I noticed during my focus tests, and it is caused by the the sound of the aperture blades opening and closing. This happens even when the aperture is wide open, as the aperture blades close partway in between focus on Fuji (for some reason). This happens with all lenses, but the aperture blades on the Sniper lenses are really noisy. If I keep the shutter held halfway down in the AF-C mode and move focus around, I hear only a light whirring with my ear near the lens barrel, but if I take my finger on and off the shutter button, there’s a lot of clacking from the aperture blades. It unfortunately makes autofocus feel less sophisticated than it actually is.

Outside of that annoyance, focus is actually pretty good. Wider angle lenses like this have much larger depth of field, so typical focus changes come fairly fast. I also had good focus accuracy as well, even when shooting at F1.2 where depth of field is more shallow (like above).

Equally important to me with a wide angle lens is that it focus well at smaller apertures, as some lenses will pulse a bit when there are many focus possibilities. The Sniper 16mm focused well in these situations.

When I moved around with Eye AF engaged, focus tracked accurately and the green box stayed locked on the “eye” of my little test statue.

So other than being a little noisy in focus, I actually had no issue with the lens for stills. Like other lenses in the series, autofocus isn’t fast, but it does seem to be accurate for stills/photography.

The state of autofocus on Fuji for video remains pretty abysmal relative to other platforms. Add a third party lens from company that has been doing autofocus for less than a year, and you’ve got a recipe for a bit of frustration. Focus pulls were a little more reactive than some of the previous Sniper lenses, though there were still some visible steps and pulses along the way. Focus did a bit of settling before a final lock. The microphone also picked up some faint clicks and whirs during the focus action.

My hand test (where I alternately block and then unblock the camera’s view of my face with my hand) was also frustrating. The lens is not reactive, so there’s a bit of a pause before focus transitions start after the hand is added or removed, and often focus had just not arrived at the destination before it needed to start moving again…even though I was moving slower and more deliberately than usual.

On a positive note, focus breathing is fairly well controlled.

If you rarely shoot video (or don’t really need autofocus during video recording), then the Sniper 16mm will work fine. Just know it isn’t the most sophisticated out there.

Sirui Sniper 16mm Image Quality

The Sirui Sniper 16mm F1.2 has an interesting optical design of 14 elements in 5 groups. Typically the ratio of elements to groups is much closer. Like most of the other lenses in the series, the Sniper 16mm behaves a lot like classic lenses with very large apertures. It is somewhat dreamy (low contrast) wide open and then sharpens up to higher contrast and detail at smaller apertures. This F1.2 image does what I want in terms of creating a more shallow depth of field that hints at the path beyond, but if you look at it critically there isn’t a lot of contrast in the main leaves.

I like the 16mm better than some lenses in the series because I do feel like it has more sharpness potential when stopped down…even on the very demanding sensor of my X-H2. When stopped down it delivers high detail images that look great.

Our optical deep dive starts with a look at vignette and distortion, an area where the Sniper lenses have held up quite well. The 16mm is no exception and is actually a standout in a wide angle prime for essentially having no distortion to speak of.

Vignette is about average for this type of lens, requiring about a +70 correct for (a little over two stops). There is a correct profile available that deals with these automatically. Images look nice and bright with the profile.

The original trio of Sniper lenses struggled with fringing – longitudinal chromatic aberrations – but the Sniper 16mm does just fine in this regard.

Lateral chromatic aberrations near the edge of the frame are also very well controlled. There is almost no fringing in the transitions from black and white.

This a big part of the reason why this 16mm has more sharpness potential than the first three lenses from the series that I reviewed.

So how about resolution? The 40MP Fuji X-Trans sensor tends to make all but the very sharpest of lenses look a little soft under the microscope of my tests. I examine results at a 200% magnification, and that’s a lot to ask of any lens. Here’s a look at the test chart:

And here is a look at F1.2 crops from the center, then mid-frame, and then extreme lower right corner:

The crops reveal that contrast is not high at F1.2 (there’s almost like a “film” over the results), but also that resolution is fairly consistent across the frame.

It is possible to shoot landscape images at F1.2 if you don’t pixel peep.

The difference with the 16mm vs the 23mm, 33mm, and 56mm, is that the 16mm sharpens up much faster. Look at how much sharper and high contrast the results are at F2 (100% magnification):

The corners will really sharpen up by F5.6, :

Landscape images shine from F5.6 to F8.

By F11 you will see some softening due to the effect of diffraction, with a rapid deterioration by F16.

The bokeh here is somewhat better than most 16mm lenses. There is a bit of outlining in some situations, but overall it looks pretty good for a wide angle lens.

Things are a little busier if you back up a bit.

If you want creamy bokeh, consider other lenses in the series. The bokeh here is good for a wide angle lens, but the other lenses in the series all have softer bokeh.

The aperture iris produces nice looking sunstar/sunbursts. I particularly like it when shooting through things (like branches) and allowing the sunburst to pop through.

If I allow a bigger amount of light through, there’s more flaring.

Expect to see a bit more ghosting if there is nothing blocking the sun, but nothing too bad.

This is a fairly decent lens for shooting the night sky with. There is some coma at high magnification (as you’ll see below), but it is also very bright at F1.2 and allows you to keep the ISO down for cleaner results.

None of these Sniper lenses have been world beaters optically, but the 16mm F1.2 is one of the better lenses in the series. It is sharp enough when stopped down to cover the very high resolution of the Fuji’s 40MP APS-C sensor, and doesn’t really embarrass itself in any area. Getting an autofocus wide angle prime with an F1.2 aperture is rare, period, but getting one for just $350 USD is unprecedented. You can check out the image gallery to see more photos and see if the rendering from the lens suits you.

Conclusion

The Sirui Sniper 16mm F1.2 AF lens is a welcome addition to the Sniper series. It is a great focal length, is extremely bright, and is still moderate enough in size that it is easy to bring along. When you stop it down it is very sharp, and doesn’t have a lot of extra optical flaws.

The Sniper 16mm is a little less sharp than the Sigma 16mm F1.4 DN, but it also controls aberrations better and has lower distortion

The Sirui Sniper 16mm F1.2 might be the perfect lens for you if you often shoot in lower light conditions aren’t really a pixel peeper anyway, though the Sniper 16mm is fairly sharp. It’s also cheaper than any of the main competitors at 16mm, and that’s always going to be an attractive quality.

Pros:

Unique design that uses premium materials
Bright F1.2 aperture
Ability to upgrade firmware through USB-C port
Good focus accuracy for stills
Low distortion
Good control of aberrations
Nice bokeh and rendering
Optically matched to other Sniper lenses
Well priced

Cons:

Aperture iris clacks a lot during focus
No aperture ring
Low maximum magnification
Video focus isn’t great

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

Early bird discounted pricing: https://sirui.kckb.me/dabbott

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

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Keywords: Sirui, Sniper, Sirui Sniper, 16mm, 23mm, 33mm 56mm, 75mm, F1.2, STM, Carbon Fiber, Review, Fuji X, Sony E, Review, Telephoto, Action, Tracking, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a6700, Sony a6600, Fujifilm X-T5, Fujifilm X-H2, let the light in, #letthelightin, DA

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Sirui Sniper 16mm F1.2 Gallery

Dustin Abbott

June 27th, 2024

Sirui Sniper 16mm F1.2 X-Mount Gallery

It is always interesting to see new lensmakers entering the market. Sirui started with cine (video) lenses (all manual – no autofocus or electronics), but they are now releasing their first autofocus lenses – called the “Sniper” series – and I’ve done an overview of the series here. The Sniper Series was initially made up of 3 APS-C specific lenses – a 23mm F1.2, 33mm F1.2, and 56mm F1.2 lens, but they have now expanded the series to include both a wider angle option (Sniper 16mm F1.2) and a longer telephoto option (Sniper 75mm F1.2). It is these latter two that I am currently reviewing, and today’s review focuses on the wide angle option – the Sirui Sniper 16mm F1.2 AF lens. These can be purchased individually for $349 USD each (though various discounts will provide a little fluctuation in pricing). 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. Find out by watching my video review below, reading the text review here, or just enjoy the photos below.

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.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Here’s a quick way to access my reviews of each lens in the series:

I’m doing this review on Fuji X-mount since 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 16mm F1.2 Sniper lens up to the challenge? As with the other lenses, that answer really depends on your priorities and expectations as a photographer, though I will say that I think these two newest Sniper lenses are optically the best of the bunch. It is very rare to get such a bright aperture on a wide angle lens like this, with competing lenses having (at most) a less bright F1.4 aperture. Though the wide angle of the view dictates that depth of field is still not going to be particularly shallow, this does allow you to play with focal points a bit. In this shot, for example, I first focused on the barn and left the foreground trees out of focus:

In this second shot I focused on the foliage in the foreground, leaving the barn slightly out of focus.

In neither case is the amount of blur strong, but it at least allows for some creativity that you don’t always get with a wide angle lens. Getting closer to your subject and shooting at F1.2 does allow for some pretty nice bokeh for a wide angle lens (bokeh has definitely been a strength for this series!)

16mm is obviously a popular wide angle 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 24mm. The Sniper 16mm has an advantage over many competitors due to having a maximum aperture of F1.2, which is about a half stop faster/brighter than F1.4. For example, my X-H2 metered at 1/90th second at F1.2, but 1/60th of a second at F1.4 with the Sniper 16mm 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 fact that the Sirui Nightwalker 16mm T1.2 exists (my video review here) tells me that the light transmission for the lens is excellent, as the T-stop actually matches the F-stop (fairly rare, in my experience). This is a very bright lens, and that’s going to be useful in a lot of situations.

The Sniper series has come in three different finish option: 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. These photos cover the three older lenses as I’m reviewing the 16mm and 75mm lenses before public release.

It is great to see Sirui forging their own design path, and I’ve been impressed across the three different lineups that I’ve tested (Sniper, Night Walker, and Saturn). So let’s take a closer look at this 16mm F1.2 lens from Sirui.

Photos of the Sirui Sniper 16mm F1.2

Photos Taken with the Sirui Sniper 16mm F1.2

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

Early bird discounted pricing: https://sirui.kckb.me/dabbott

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

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Keywords: Sirui, Sniper, Sirui Sniper, 16mm, 23mm, 33mm 56mm, 75mm, F1.2, STM, Carbon Fiber, Review, Fuji X, Sony E, Review, Telephoto, Action, Tracking, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Sony a6700, Sony a6600, Fujifilm X-T5, Fujifilm X-H2, let the light in, #letthelightin, DA

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Fujinon XF 56mm F1.2 R WR Review

Dustin Abbott

May 27th, 2024

It’s been nearly 5 years since I’ve done my review of the Fujinon XF 56mm F1.2 R lens, which was regarded as one of the classic portrait options due to its large maximum aperture (F1.2) and classic 85mm equivalent angle of view (56mm x Fuji’s 1.5x crop factor = 84mm). My conclusion was that while the lens had some nice optics (more in the overall rendering rather than great sharpness at large apertures), the clunky focus motor, lack of weather sealing, and high price ($999 USD) left me somewhat underwhelmed. My conclusion was that this lens was only competitive on Fuji only because (at the time) Fuji was a closed platform, and Fuji XF shooters didn’t really have options. Thankfully, that is no longer true, as since that time Fuji has opened up their platform to alternatives, and at this point you can get half a dozen 56mm autofocusing third party lenses in X-mount, including two from Viltrox (56mm F1.4 reviewed here and newer 56mm F1.7 reviewed here), TTArtisan (AF 56mm F1.8, reviewed here), Sigma (56mm F1.4, reviewed here on Sony), Sirui, (Sniper 56mm F1.2, reviewed here), and one from Tokina (56mm F1.4) that I haven’t reviewed. Add the two Fuji options, and you’ve definitely got options. Fuji now has to compete on merit, and the new Fujinon XF 56mm F1.2 R WR has a lot of merits…but also still have a few flaws.

Thanks to Fujifilm Canada for sending me a review copy of this lens. 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.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

The plethora of new 56mm options show how important this focal length is as a portrait lens and short telephoto general purpose lens. 85-100mm is my favorite portrait range, and having that massive F1.2 aperture really allows for beautiful background separation even when shooting fuller length portraits. As we’ll see in this review, the Fuji 56mm WR remains the premium priced lens in the comparison. It’s full retail is $999 USD (as before), though the lens is currently on sale for $899 (at the time of this review) on a sale price. That’s more than double the price of any of competing lenses on the platform. But in some ways the price tag, while high, feels a little more justified this time around, as this is genuinely the premium option among the many alternatives that I’ve reviewed. It still has some flaws, but its ability to really perform at F1.2 for portrait work makes it special.

There have been some really competitive lenses recently release with smaller maximum apertures (the TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8 and the Viltrox AF 56mm F1.7 are the standouts due to being both strong performers AND costing less than $160 USD!), but neither one of them can provide the kind of subject separation that the Fuji and its F1.2 aperture can.

Here’s an example: with both lenses stopped down to F2, I felt the Viltrox F1.7 lens did a shockingly good job of providing similar sharpness and contrast for portrait work.

But where the 56mm WR showed the clear advantage is if you look at the backgrounds. Look at how much creamier the background is from the Fuji (on the right).

The difference would be even more pronounced if the subject was closer to the background.

There are two ways to view this:

“A lens like the Sigma 56mm F1.4 is close enough at half the price. The Fuji isn’t worth the premium.”
“Like a performance car, you pay for that last little extra bit of performance, but that can be the different between winning and losing.”

I think both perspectives are valid. Where I have an issue is when something has both a premium price and a less than premium performance (which is what I felt about the previous 56mm F1.2 from Fuji), but in this case I do think this is a premium lens in the class on X-mount. Let me put another way: in 2019 I sent the XF 56mm F1.2 R back after my loaner period without a moment’s regret; with the XF 56mm F1.2 WR I’m scheming of a way to add one to my own kit.

Sound interesting? Let’s break things down in detail…

Build and Handling

One of the key areas that needed improvement has been addressed…and it shows up right there in the name. This is Fujinon XF 56mm F1.2 R WR has both R (Aperture Ring) and WR (Weather Resistance) in the name. The weather resistance was definitely needed on a premium lens, and it does provide an area where this lens is set apart from most of of the other available lens. Fuji has chosen to not give their new lenses a MK II designation, which in my mind is a mistake as it makes it less apparent that Fuji has a new and improved 56mm F1.2 on the market. I’ll refer to this one as the 56mm WR throughout the review to distinguish it from the older, non WR lens.

That weather sealing takes the form of a gasket at the lens mount along with internal seals (Fuji cites 9 seal points plus a fluorine coating on the front element to resist oil and moisture). This is very handy as you can continue to use the lens with confidence even when the weather turns a bit sour (providing you are shooting on a weather sealed camera).

As noted, the XF 56mm WR has the largest maximum aperture of the competitors save the Sirui Sniper AF 56mm F1.2. As such, it is larger and heavier than most of the competitors, though the Sirui is actually slightly larger (72mm x 92.2mm, since this comparison chart doesn’t show its dimensions).

The Sirui lens is longer and slimmer, while the Fuji has that squat prime look that frankly looks pretty sweet mounted on a camera.

If you compare it to the recent Viltrox F1.7 and TTArtisan F1.8 lenses, the Fuji looks a bit hulking.

But compare it to the X-mount version of the Viltrox Pro AF 75mm F1.2 (the most worthy competitor even if the focal lengths aren’t identical), and the Fuji looks positively svelte.

Fuji’s design language hasn’t really changed much over the years, so the look of this lens isn’t radically different, though the shape is a little more sculpted. It’s a nice looking lens, however, with just a little more gloss that speaks of it being a newer design. Unfortunately Fuji’s feature list hasn’t really really expanded since the release of the original lens in 2014. We have an aperture ring on the barrel…and not much else.

That’s a little disappointing, as while Fuji’s cameras have developed a lot of additional video specs during that period, there is absolutely no video related progress in their lens design. The aperture ring is clicked (one-third stop detents), but there is no option to declick the aperture to allow for aperture racking. No custom button that could be used for various functions, or even to program an A-B focus pull that some lenses allow.

There are no switches on the lens barrel. Fuji chose long ago to have switching between auto and manual focus through the camera (typically via a dedicated lever or button), so that means no AF/MF switch on the barrel. The lens feels nice, but for the prices that Fuji charges for these premium lenses, some updated features feel warranted.

The included lens hood is pretty huge…about 2/3rds the length of the lens.

This is the first Fuji X-mount lens to have a higher-than-blades aperture, and they have given this aperture iris eleven blades, which does a great job of keeping a circular shape even when the lens is stopped down (here at F5.6, nearly four stops closed).

That’s fantastic, as while there is some geometric deformation of specular highlights near the corners (lemon shape) at F1.2, in this series at F2 and F2.8 you can see that the specular highlights of the raindrops are nicely circular.

The filter threads have slightly grown to 67mm rather than 62mm, which is a bummer if you own the previous lens and are upgrading, but is a positive for everyone else, as 67mm filters are FAR more common than 62mm filters.

The manual focus ring is nice and wide and feels good in terms of damping, though manual focus emulation here isn’t great. Mirrorless lenses utilize a focus-by-wire system where input on the focus ring is routed through the focus motor. Because this lens does not have the smoothest focus motor, you can really feel the pulses of the focus motor with every little adjustment you make. The slightly noise and rough pulses of the focus motor really pull you out of the manual focus experience…which takes away from the otherwise quality feel of the manual focus ring. The active focus area will be automatically magnified when you start to focus.

It’s a bit sad, but the budget TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8 actually provides a much more sophisticated feeling manual focus experience.

Another key area of improvement by Fuji over the original 56mm F1.2 is when it comes to minimum focus distance. The original lens had the kind of minimum focus distance typically reserved for a much longer focal length, only able to focus as closely as 70cm and provided a very low 0.9x magnification. The newer 56mm WR can focus closer (50cm) despite having a longer focal length, which adds up to a much improved magnification of 0.14x, which is vastly more useful for up close work for both photos and video.

Not only that, but the up close performance is very strong even at F1.2, with great sharpness and contrast even on my very high resolution X-H2. Here is a shot at MFD and F1.2, and notice how clean the details are when deeply cropped.

Other than a less than desirable manual focus experience and a lack of evolution on the feature set, this is another nicely built Fuji lens, and at least we got the important upgrades of weather sealing and a much more usable up close experience.

Autofocus and Video

Uggg. This is rarely a very enjoyable section for me when reviewing anything on Fuji. With every new Fuji camera we hear about how improved autofocus is (and it is, to some degree), but it just never seems to actually get to the level of the competition. Even cheap lenses on Sony tend to autofocus better than the best lenses on Fuji, but unfortunately I can’t divorce lens performance from the camera’s autofocus…and I’m testing using one of Fuji’s very best cameras.

Furthermore, Fuji can’t seem to find a way to put their superior linear motors in their larger aperture lenses. That means we are saddled with a DC style motor here as in the 50mm F1.0. And while I have read some reviews that brag that this motor is just fine…these people are either being disingenuous or aren’t aware of what is available on other platforms. Autofocus performance is adequate at best, and rather crude in the process. This is not a refined focus motor, making all kinds of whirs and clunks as it goes about its business. I often have to put my ear right up next to the lens to try to hear any focus noise when doing autofocus tests, but that was definitely not necessary here. I could hear them every time I shot, even when using the lens at waist height and viewing in a field monitor.

Focus precision was generally good, but the focus process is slowed because there will often be a double clutch where the focus motor will first move to the approximate focus point and then do a secondary adjustment to refine focus. That slows focus speed down, and the fact that the focus motor makes noise during both steps draws your attention to it.

At the same, I found that focus was very reliable for work during portrait sessions. Focus is nailed even at F1.2:

I loved this lens as a portrait lens, as while I may not love the smoothness of the autofocus system, it did deliver well focused results in a variety of settings…and the optics are lovely!

I even took a few portraits of this gator, which did not impress my wife, as it was just sunning itself along a pond and I got rather close to take my series of photos.

I eventually scared him, and fortunately he chose to jump into the water rather than jumping the photographer!

While I wouldn’t recommend this lens as a sports lens, I did find that once I grabbed hold of a group of gulls nearby me on the beach, I was able to stay pretty sticky on them even shooting at F1.4:

Here’s another example of pinpoint focus of a static object at F1.2:

Point being that while the focus is not very sophisticated in feel, this is an improved AF system over the previous generation in speed, and, more obviously, accuracy.

Video AF is even sorer spot with me on Fuji. There tends to be more obvious steps in video pulls, the touchscreen is often unresponsive in trying to force autofocus changes, and tracking isn’t as sophisticated. Fuji has clearly tried to detune focus speed a bit here to quiet the focus motor and smooth the process when the microphone will be recording, but the results are pretty mixed. There’s less focus noise due to the slowed focus speed, though the on board microphone did still pick up a bit of focus sound. Focus transitions are on the slow side, and there is a very obvious step where focus travels 3/4ths of the way, pauses for a split second, and then makes a secondary focus pull to the final destination. There will often be some final microadjustments as focus attempts to settle on accurate focus lock.

This impacted the results of my hand test (where I alternately block and then unblock the camera’s view of my face with my hand) as well. I tried to give the camera extra time to make the transitions from my hand to my eye, but because of that double clutch of focus, the camera/lens would often complete the first of the two major focus pulls, but would pause…and by the time my hand was added or removed, it wouldn’t have quite made the transition. It would eventually get to my hand or my eye, but I had to be very patient.

On the plus side, focus breathing isn’t terrible, and, unlike the older lenses, at least focus would stay stable when I used the lens for static shots. There wasn’t the pulsing I saw on the 16-55mm and 18-55mm lenses I used side by side with it.

I’m not sure that I could recommend this lens for video work if you need autofocus…but I don’t really know a lens that I would strongly recommend over it. This is just an area where Fuji needs to improve, period. It’s frustrating because this lens is so good in so many other ways!

To offset the negativity, let me end with another positive. I found that autofocus continued to be precise even in very low light conditions. This shot of my son is at ISO 1600, F1.2, and with just a 1/90th second shutter speed. If I had been shooting with an F2.8 lens, that would have been a 1/10th second shutter speed. In other words, very dim lighting, and focus didn’t slow down much and remained accurate on his eye.

I would have loved to see a more refined focus motor here, but at least focus precision was good in my tests even if the focus process left somewhat to be desired…much like my feelings on the XF 50mm F1.0.

Image Quality Breakdown

Expect this section to go much more smoothly! There will be as many raves in this section as there were rants in the last. I traveled with the XF 56mm F1.2 WR alongside two of the venerable zooms (16-55mm F2.8 and 18-55mm F2.8-4 OIS), and the images from the newer lens just sparkled in comparison to those older lenses. This is one of those rare lenses that just sings on the new ultra high resolution 40MP X-Trans sensor (similar pixel density to over 90MP on a full frame sensor).

The optical formula is 13 elements in 8 groups, with two of those being aspherical elements and one being an extra low dispersion element. You can see just how impressively sharp the lens is across the rule of thirds portion of the frame in the MTF chart, with some drop-off to the corners. For perspective, I’ve added the MTF for the recent TTArtisans AF 56mm F1.8…and that MTF is 30lpmm rather than the much higher 45lpmm results shown in the Fuji chart.

When the original 56mm F1.2 R was released, the Fuji standard resolution was 16MP, so I already saw the cracks when I tested it on 26MP. It just wasn’t very sharp before F2. The new lens is clearly designed with 40MP in mind; it is beautifully sharp even at F1.2 and has flawless contrast.

We’ll break down the details together. First of all, let’s look at vignette and distortion. There’s not much to see on either front.

I used a -1 to correct the tiniest amount of distortion and a +40 (just a little over a stop) to correct the vignette. That’s impressive for an F1.2 lens, and it shows how the slightly growth of the diameter of the lens had paid optical dividends.

Longitudinal chromatic aberrations were definitely an issue at times with the first generation lens, but Fuji has utterly slain LoCA here. I found lens markings to be an extreme torture test for LoCA, but I just don’t see fringing here.

I’ve got a fallen pine in the forest behind my house that lichen is growing on, and I find this lichen to be just miserable for many lenses for fringing. The 56mm WR just nails it, though, delivering instead gorgeous microcontrast on all of the various textures there.

Lateral chromatic aberrations show up near the edge of the frame in transitions from dark to light areas. You can see from the edge of my test chart Fuji has also nailed this metric, and there is next to no fringing in the transitions from black to white.

All of this is a huge improvement over the previous generation lens…and this is while reviewing the new lens on the much higher resolution sensor.

So how about resolution? The 40MP Fuji X-Trans sensor tends to make all but the very sharpest of lenses look a little soft when viewed at high magnification levels, and it just so happens that my review standard is to examine results at a 200% magnification. That is a lot to ask of any lens, but this is one that’s definitely up to the task. Here’s a look at the test chart that crops throughout the review come from:

And here is a look at F1.2 crops from the center, then mid-frame, and then extreme lower right corner:

Lovely. That’s great sharpness for an F1.2 lens. If you need to know what this sensor does to a lessor lens, check out how that performance compares to the Sirui Sniper 56mm F1.2 that I reviewed five months ago!

Ouch.

I typically don’t compare lenses to the Viltrox Pro AF 75mm F1.2 as it feels almost punitive; the Viltrox is just so much sharper than just about any lens I compare to it on Fuji. The 56mm WR is up to the challenge, though providing near identical levels of sharpness and contrast in the center of the frame.

If we move off to the corners, I actually prefer the Fuji save the last tiny bit on the edge where the Viltrox stages a comeback.

Yup. This is a very, very good lens optically.

And it is no paper tiger, either. I found sharpness held up even at greater distances and in harsher lighting conditions. Here’s an F1.2 shot at distance, and you can see from the crop that though the mid-day sun is bright on my wife, the lens has still delivered lovely contrast.

And look at how gorgeous the defocused region is. I shot this at Middleton Place in Charleston, South Carolina (a truly gorgeous place). Impressive.

It was great at night, too, delivering high detail even at F1.2 (ISO 1600 here) and with a lot of bright contrast transitions in this shot.

It was a lens that I didn’t hesitate to use even at F1.2 for portrait work. There’s plenty of detail and contrast, and it allows me to get great separation of my subject from the background.

Stopping down to F1.4 provides a slight boost to contrast, and by F2 the improvement is more pronounced. You can see that even the corners look pretty great by F2:

And remember, that’s on a 40MP body and showing the results at 200%. That’s impressively good.

The lens that I tested also showed good centering with a consistent performance in all four corners.

F2.8 is largely the same as F2, with just a slight bit more contrast at F4 and F5.6.

As you might expect, landscape results are just stunning, with great detail all across the frame along with Fuji’s excellent color in their optical glass.

Diffraction comes early on a high resolution body like this, so expect some softening by F11 and much more obvious softening by F16, which is minimum aperture here.

This is one of Fuji’s strongest performers optically. It really is a treat, as lenses like this make the 40MP sensor make sense. It just punishes the weaker glass.

I love walking around with a lens like this, as the large maximum aperture makes it easy to create storytelling images by isolating subjects.

The lovely bokeh augmented by great contrast makes it easy to shoot images like this where the eye is drawn through the layers of defocus towards the subject.

Shooting ordinary objects with a lens like this allows them to really stand out from otherwise distracting backgrounds, even when those backgrounds are close.

Get close to a subject and you can really blur out a background into a nice creamy mass of colors.

None of the competing 56mm lenses are going to be able to do this in quite the same way.

I was also able to get results even when shooting into the sun or other bright lights. Some of the cheaper lenses at this focal length I’ve tested really fall apart with bright lights in the frame, but that’s not the case here.

In short, there is basically nothing that I have to complain about here optically. This is a wonderful example of how to do lens design, with optics that deliver both high contrast and resolution while also giving lovely bokeh. Kudos to Fuji! You can check out the image gallery if you’d like to see more.

Conclusion

Lenses like the Fujinon XF 56mm F1.2 R WR give me hope that Fuji can make this 40MP sensor work. It is pretty tough on even good lenses, so it takes exceptional lenses like this to really sparkle on this sensor. But this lens does, and I could SEE the difference in the images from the new lens even when I was looking at a group of images without the lens designation showing. They just sparkled in a way that images from some of the older Fuji lenses I was shooting with did not.

I’m underwhelmed by the autofocus performance here (particularly for video), as it feels like Fuji has saddled these amazing optics with a decade old focus system. But even the somewhat clunky autofocus motor is incapable of souring me on this lens. The optics are too nice, and the size is still reasonable enough that I could happily haul it around all day. The improved minimum focus distance is also greatly appreciated, as it opens up new subject opportunites.

This is a lens that definitely goes onto my short list of lenses fully capable of handling the 40MP sensor of cameras like the X-T5 or X-H2. So if you own the older 56mm F1.2 R lens and are considering upgrading your camera, I do think this is a worthy upgrade for a lot of reasons. If you’ve recently upgraded to one of the 40MP Fuji bodies, this lens should definitely be on your short list of lenses worth buying. At $900 USD (at the moment), this lens isn’t cheap, but it is also pretty special. And sometimes special is worth paying for.

Pros:

Nicely built lens
Nice looking lens
Full weather sealing and fluorine coating
Focus accuracy good
No distortion
Well controlled vignette
Low chromatic aberrations
Awesome sharpness across the frame even at F1.2
One of the sharpest lenses on Fuji when stopped down
Much improved minimum focus distance and up close performance
Handles high contrast scenes great
Lovely bokeh
Better flare resistance

Cons:

Focus experience feels dated already
Manual focus experience flawed by the focus motor sounds and vibrations
No progress of lens features in the past decade

_________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

Purchase the Fuji 56mm F1.2 WR @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Nuzira | Amazon | Camera Canada | 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 |

_________________________________________________________________

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Keywords: Fuji, Fujinon, XF, AF, Autofocus, 56mm, F1.2, R, WR, Weathersealing, Fuji 56mm F1.2 WR Review, f/1.2, Fuji X, Fujifilm, X-mount, APS-C, Review, Telephoto, Action, Tracking, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Fujifilm X-T5, Fujifilm X-H2, let the light in, #letthelightin, DA

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

Fujinon XF 56mm F1.2 R WR Gallery

Dustin Abbott

May 27th, 2024

It’s been nearly 5 years since I’ve done my review of the Fujinon XF 56mm F1.2 R lens, which was regarded as one of the classic portrait options due to its large maximum aperture (F1.2) and classic 85mm equivalent angle of view (56mm x Fuji’s 1.5x crop factor = 84mm). My conclusion was that while the lens had some nice optics (more in the overall rendering rather than great sharpness at large apertures), the clunky focus motor, lack of weather sealing, and high price ($999 USD) left me somewhat underwhelmed. My conclusion was that this lens was only competitive on Fuji only because (at the time) Fuji was a closed platform, and Fuji XF shooters didn’t really have options. Thankfully, that is no longer true, as since that time Fuji has opened up their platform to alternatives, and at this point you can get half a dozen 56mm autofocusing third party lenses in X-mount, including two from Viltrox (56mm F1.4 reviewed here and newer 56mm F1.7 reviewed here), TTArtisan (AF 56mm F1.8, reviewed here), Sigma (56mm F1.4, reviewed here on Sony), Sirui, (Sniper 56mm F1.2, reviewed here), and one from Tokina (56mm F1.4) that I haven’t reviewed. Add the two Fuji options, and you’ve definitely got options. Fuji now has to compete on merit, and the new Fujinon XF 56mm F1.2 R WR has a lot of merits…but also still have a few flaws. Find out my full thoughts in my video review or by reading my text review here.

Thanks to Fujifilm Canada for sending me a review copy of this lens. 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.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

The plethora of new 56mm options show how important this focal length is as a portrait lens and short telephoto general purpose lens. 85-100mm is my favorite portrait range, and having that massive F1.2 aperture really allows for beautiful background separation even when shooting fuller length portraits. As we’ll see in this review, the Fuji 56mm WR remains the premium priced lens in the comparison. It’s full retail is $999 USD (as before), though the lens is currently on sale for $899 (at the time of this review) on a sale price. That’s more than double the price of any of competing lenses on the platform. But in some ways the price tag, while high, feels a little more justified this time around, as this is genuinely the premium option among the many alternatives that I’ve reviewed. It still has some flaws, but its ability to really perform at F1.2 for portrait work makes it special.

There have been some really competitive lenses recently release with smaller maximum apertures (the TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8 and the Viltrox AF 56mm F1.7 are the standouts due to being both strong performers AND costing less than $160 USD!), but neither one of them can provide the kind of subject separation that the Fuji and its F1.2 aperture can.

Here’s an example: with both lenses stopped down to F2, I felt the Viltrox F1.7 lens did a shockingly good job of providing similar sharpness and contrast for portrait work.

But where the 56mm WR showed the clear advantage is if you look at the backgrounds. Look at how much creamier the background is from the Fuji (on the right).

The difference would be even more pronounced if the subject was closer to the background.

There are two ways to view this:

“A lens like the Sigma 56mm F1.4 is close enough at half the price. The Fuji isn’t worth the premium.”
“Like a performance car, you pay for that last little extra bit of performance, but that can be the different between winning and losing.”

I think both perspectives are valid. Where I have an issue is when something has both a premium price and a less than premium performance (which is what I felt about the previous 56mm F1.2 from Fuji), but in this case I do think this is a premium lens in the class on X-mount. Let me put another way: in 2019 I sent the XF 56mm F1.2 R back after my loaner period without a moment’s regret; with the XF 56mm F1.2 WR I’m scheming of a way to add one to my own kit.

Sound interesting? Let’s break things down in detail…

Images of the Fujinon XF 56mm F1.2 WR

Images taken with the Fujinon XF 56mm F1.2 WR

_________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

Purchase the Fuji 56mm F1.2 WR @ B&H Photo | Adorama | Nuzira | Amazon | Camera Canada | 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 |

_________________________________________________________________

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Keywords: Fuji, Fujinon, XF, AF, Autofocus, 56mm, F1.2, R, WR, Weathersealing, Fuji 56mm F1.2 WR Review, f/1.2, Fuji X, Fujifilm, X-mount, APS-C, Review, Telephoto, Action, Tracking, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Fujifilm X-T5, Fujifilm X-H2, let the light in, #letthelightin, DA

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8 X-mount Review

Dustin Abbott

April 18th, 2024

Several months ago I reviewed one of the first autofocus lenses from newer lensmaker TTArtisan. That lens (AF 35mm F1.8) impressed me in a number of ways, though there were still a few areas that reminded me that TTArtisan was new to the business of making autofocus lenses. I was very impressed when they reached out to me about their newest lens, and, in that email, made it clear that they had been paying attention to the criticisms of their last effort. They particularly focused their efforts in three areas: to reduce flaring, to reduce vignette, and to improve the minimum focus distance and maximum magnification. The TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 was an impressive lens despite its flaws, primarily because they kept the price at $150 USD or less. They are following it up with their new and improved lens, the TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8, which is priced just slightly higher at $158 USD. The new lens will give a roughly 85mm angle of view on various APS-C cameras like Fuji X (tested here), Sony E, or Nikon Z. Has TTArtisan given us another bargain gem? Find out by watching my video review below…or just reading on.

Thanks to TTArtisan for sending me a review copy of this lens. 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.

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

I’m doing this review on Fuji X-mount today, as that is what is TTArtisan had available to send me. As with the 35mm, 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. Can such an inexpensive lens keep up? The answer is, surprisingly, yes. The TTArtisan AF 56mm becomes the least expensive lens I’ve used that actually looks pretty good on this demanding sensor.

This is a nicely built little lens with a fairly decent (but not exceptional) autofocus performance. There are a few flaws here, but by and large I think this is actually quite a capable little lens, capable of producing detailed images even af F1.8:

Sound interesting? Let’s break things down in detail…

Build and Handling

56mm is a fairly popular focal length on APS-C platforms due to being very close to an 85mm angle of view once you apply the 1.5x crop factor of these various cameras. 56 x 1.5 = 84mm. Even on Fuji, the platform I’m testing, there are four different autofocusing 56mm lenses with various aperture values from F1.2 to F1.8.

As you can see, there is also a variety of price points, from $325 on the low end to $900 on the high end. There’s no question that the TTArtisan AF 56mm will be the value option here as it is running about half the price of the cheapest option. It’s also worth noting that it is the smallest in terms of aperture, however.

But perhaps that will be an acceptable tradeoff to when you consider that the price is so much cheaper…and you are getting a compact, lightweight lens. The lens is 65mm in diameter (2.55″) and 62mm (2.44″) in length. It weighs in at 236g on my scale (8.3oz). The front filter threads are 52mm. As with the 35mm, the construction is actually very high here, with everything feeling like it is metal and glass. It feels like a quality lens despite the light weight (which is significantly lighter than any of the alternatives on Fuji.

In my opinion, this is actually quite a handsome little lens. It has an anodized black finish that is very clean and timeless along with a subtle sculpting on the barrel before the focus ring.

This has practical as well as well as aesthetic value as it gives the fingertips a very natural place to rest. I find it has a nice tactile quality to it.

The TTArtisan AF 56mm is slightly bigger than the AF 35mm I reviewed a few months ago, but nothing significant.

There are no switches on the lens barrel nor an aperture ring, which does set it behind some of the alternatives (both the Viltrox and the Fuji lenses have aperture rings). This makes for a very clean looking design, but I would obviously prefer having an aperture ring and an AF/MF switch. This might be the place where they saved some money in development costs, which makes for a less expensive price tag. That at least will be appreciated by some.

At the rear of the lens we have a metal lens mount complete with the appropriate electronic contacts; aperture will be controlled from the camera. Aperture control seems to work well; it is quick and responsive and the aperture iris blades are not noisy

There are nine aperture blades that do a reasonable job of maintaining a circular aperture. Here’s look stopped down over 3 stops at F5.6:

The included lens cap has a new font for the TTARTISAN logo imprinted on it, and I think it looks smart and modern.

Decidedly less modern (and much more odd) is the design for the lens hood. It has a very strange design that closes down into a rectangular opening up front…just like the 35mm. That’s obviously an area where they didn’t listen to my feedback!

On a positive note, the hood is made of a matching metal and is a nice aesthetic match at least as far as the finish and materials go. But there’s a huge downside to this design. When mounted you can use neither filters nor the lens cap, so it’s either the hood or filters/lens cap. If the flare resistance was better, I’d say skip the lens hood…but that’s still an area of weakness.

The manual focus ring is another positive, however. It is ribbed in metal and moves with a nice amount of resistance. The active focus area will automatically magnify when you start to focus, and this helps visually confirm accurate focus. Focus throw feels like it is somewhere near 160° of rotation.

One final interesting design element is that the rear lens cap has a USB-C port along with electronic contacts inside and will actually allow you to do firmware updates to the lens through a computer. It’s an interesting alternative to having a USB-C port built right into the lens, though I do slightly prefer the built-in option in case you lose the rear lens cap at some point.

TTArtisan definitely made an improvement to the minimum focus distance. The AF 35mm could only focus as closely as 60cm, which is very long for that kind of focal length. The AF 56mm can focus closer (50cm) despite having a longer focal length, which adds up to a much improved magnification of 0.14x, which equals both the Fuji and Sigma 56mm lenses.

That’s not exactly macro, but it is close enough to allow you to get fairly close to a subject and strongly blur out the background.

In some ways this will help it compete a little better with the larger aperture of, say, the Viltrox AF 56mm F1.4, as being able to focus closer will allow you to blur out the background better than that F1.4 lens.

This is a big step forward for TTArtisan in their lens design, and I’m glad to see them solve the minimum focus issue sooner rather than later.

The TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8 feels great in the hand (it feels quality, despite the budget price!) and handles nicely. I don’t love the hood design, but the fact that a lens this inexpensive comes with the hood is impressive anyway. Other than that, there is little to complain about on the build front.

Autofocus and Video

TTArtisan has equipped the AF 56mm F1.8 with an STM (stepping motor). Fuji is not my favorite platform for autofocus, but I will assess this lens relative to the Fuji competition. Autofocus noise is relatively low. There is a faint whirring sound during autofocus changes, but I could mostly only hear it in a very quiet environment.

Autofocus accuracy was fairly good, even when Nala’s little head was popping up out of the box she was playing in.

I was able to nab focus on narrow objects out in the field, and you can see that crisp delineation that we all love from quality lenses.

Here’s another example of pinpoint focus.

I tested focus speed both indoors and outdoors, and my impressions are that focus speed is averagely fast. It’s not instantaneous like the lenses equipped with the best linear motors, but neither is it slow. There is a split second pause while inertia builds and focus takes place, but the focus transition is then pretty snappy. There is no visible stepping apparent. Focus speed was a little faster outdoors in excellent light than what it was in my indoors test.

I found focus speed and accuracy fine for an event setting (in this case, a church), and it grabbed the eye quickly and delivered accurately focus results.

The lens worked fine for portrait work even in the very inexperienced hands of my youngest son. I had him take some photos of me, and it might have been the first time ever having a Fuji camera in his hands. The results were still focused fine, however, and the results from a quick setup looked fine in terms of color and overall “look”.

(Bonus points for spotting Nala’s tail!)

I used the lens for a portrait session and had zero issues with focus and got very nice looking results.

Video AF is interesting with the TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8. Focus pulls are reasonably smooth, though with a few obvious steps towards the end of the focus pull. There is some focus breathing, but it isn’t terribly obvious.

My biggest challenge is that touching the screen on my X-H2 wasn’t always reactive, requiring multiple touches sometimes to trigger focus change. Now, to be fair, Fuji’s touchscreens are not particularly reactive, but this was more than just that more typical issue.

My hand test (where I alternately block and then unblock the camera’s view of my face with my hand) was better. Fuji’s AF is more reactive when a recognizable, trackable subject is on screen, and in this case I wasn’t having to use the touchscreen. It handled the focus transitions from my hand to my face and vice versa fairly well, and was more reactive overall than what the 35mm was in that same test.

The bottom line on autofocus is that it really is pretty good for A) such an inexpensive lens and B) being from a company that is just learning how to build autofocus motors. My experience with many of these companies is that they are fast learners; between firmware updates and new designs in the future, expect TTArtisan to get a lot better at autofocus very quickly. There is already some improvement from from what I saw on the 35mm. Video AF wasn’t great, but, to be fair, I rarely find video AF results great from any third party lens on Fuji (and rarely from first party lenses, either).

Image Quality Breakdown

TTArtisan has given us an optical design of ten elements in nine groups, which includes 2 HRI (High Refractive Index) elements and 1 ED (Extra Low Dispersion) elements. The MTF chart looks fairly unimpressive, though the real world performance strikes me as being much better than this.

The MTF suggest the mid-frame will be sharper than the center and then dips off towards the edges. The stopped down performance (gold lines) suggests a significant improvement across the frame.

As noted in the intro, testing this on a Fuji 40MP APS-C sensor is an extreme torture test, so we’ll see how it handles resolution higher than the 30 lp/mm projected here. Ironically, this lens seems to do just fine on the higher resolution sensor in real world shots, surprising me on how good photos looked at a pixel level.

For a budget lens the TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8 can produce some very strong looking images.

We’ll dig into the details by taking a look at vignette and distortion. There is no observable distortion (bravo!) and a moderate amount of vignette (+68).

This is a really nice performance for a budget lens. Interestingly, there seems to be a correction profile available in Lightroom already that does seem to work pretty well, though the lens is identified in Lightroom as MJ 56mm F1.8X DA DSM. That’s almost certainly not correct, but at least it identifies it as a 56mm F1.8 lens…and the profile seems to do a perfect job of correcting the vignette.

Longitudinal chromatic aberrations were an issue with the 35mm F1.8, but this was an area where TTArtisan set out to improve things, and they definitely have. You can see a nice control of fringing before and after the plan of focus here.

I also see next to no fringing in the bokeh highlights in this shot.

Lateral chromatic aberrations show up near the edge of the frame in transitions from dark to light areas. You can see from the edge of my test chart that there are minute amounts of fringing, but not enough to be a factor at all.

So how about resolution? The 40MP Fuji X-Trans sensor tends to make all but the very sharpest of lenses look a little soft when viewed at high magnification levels, and it just so happens that my review standard is to examine results at a 200% magnification. That is a lot to ask of any lens, much less one this inexpensive…but maybe the TTArtisan AF 56mm will surprise us. Here’s a look at the test chart that crops throughout the review come from:

And here is a look at F1.8 crops from the center, then mid-frame, and then extreme lower right corner:

As I’ve said, this lens has surprised me in its ability to keep up in this challenging environment. Nothing looks too bad here. The center and mid-frame look quite good (mid-frame is the strength for this lens according to the MTF charts), but while the corner has less contrast and detail, it doesn’t look bad.

In fact, if I shoot a real world shot focused near the corner and crop at a high magnification level, we can see that while contrast isn’t off the charts, there is plenty of detail there and no “bleeding” of the textures on the barrel of the lens.

Real world results were mostly impressive to me. I “shot from the hip” to get a quick photo of a unique looking dog passing by me while out hiking (and didn’t want to make a big deal with the owner), and you can see that not only is the result (at F1.8) well focused, but there is also a really nice amount of detail in the various textures of the fur.

Unfortunately, while I have reviewed all of the other autofocusing 56mm options, I haven’t tested any of them at the 40MP level. My experience with this sensor has been that there really isn’t any comparison with the lower resolution results; I’ve reviewed the same lens at 26MP and then at 40MP on Fuji and the results are radically different. But by looking at my results at lower resolutions and extrapolating, I think that at similar apertures only the Sigma 56mm F1.4 would match or exceed this result. That’s pretty impressive considering how low the price tag is on the TTArtisan lens.

Stopping down the minor jump to F2 (one-third stop) doesn’t make a radical difference in resolution or contrast. Not that I would expect that, but I’ve been surprised at times by the improvement in that very mild closing of the aperture. There’s a very minor improvement in contrast, but nothing significant. I also didn’t see much of a difference at F2.8.

By F4 the center and mid-frame are looking pretty great, with a slight but noticeable improvement from F2.8:

By F5.6 everything looks good save the extreme corners, which don’t ever get pin sharp. They seem to peak around F8, where the corners look good but not fantastic. They do look noticeably better than at F5.6, however.

You can see this in real world images as well. In this shot looking down on rushing waters around ice you can see the softening to the corners. If you look at the crop (second image), the upper left shows nice delineation of the ice edge over the water, but that gets progressively softer as you get towards the corners.

My results are typically pretty consistent with what the MTF charts suggest, but in this case I felt like the lens performed better wide open than the MTF chart suggested, but didn’t show as drastic an improvement when stopped down. Since this focal length is typically prized for portraiture, it could argued that the corner performance is far less important than having sharp results at wide apertures in the rule of thirds zone.

That aside, I did feel like landscape results didn’t look bad at all.

Diffraction comes early on a high resolution body like this, so expect some softening by F11 and much more obvious softening by F16, which is minimum aperture here.

The bokeh quality from this lens is good but not exceptionally so. Geometry isn’t bad, as while you will see some deformation of specular highlights near the edges of the frame, it isn’t severe. The bokeh remains fairly circular looking through F4:

Non-specular backgrounds look fairly soft, but not incredibly creamy like the most “magical” lenses are able to create:

I would chalk that up to a bit more outlining in the defocused area than is optimal. You can see that while the background is fairly soft in this shot, you can still see some of the edges of defocused objects.

But, to be fair, this is a $150 lens, so I don’t expect it to be absolutely incredible in this area.

TTArtisan focused on improving the coatings on this lens, and while it is better than the 35mm, this is still an area where there is room for growth. It’s true there is less of the ugly ghosting artifacts here, but you will certainly see different veiling and blooming effects if bright lights are in (or just out of) the frame.

On a positive note, I did feel like a lot of these effects were fairly artistic (seems like I’ve created most of these “looks” in software to add visual interest to edited images in the past!), so I think they can be used to creative effect if used well. But if flare resistance is the goal, there’s still a lot of room for improvement here.

I feel pretty positive overall here. Aberrations are well controlled, sharpness is better than expected, and there’s no critical flaws. I feel like this lens is offering very good “bang for the buck” optically. Even colors seemed fairly accurate (this hasn’t been the case with all TTArtisan lenses in the past).

You can check out the image gallery to see more photos and see if the rendering from the lens suits you.

Conclusion

TTArtisan is learning quickly. There’s already some obvious signs of maturation in the TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8 from the AF 35mm F1.8 that I reviewed just two months ago. Better minimum focus, fewer aberrations, and better flare resistance (though still a bit of room for growth there). On paper (MTF), the 35mm should be a bit sharper than the 56mm, but the better control of aberrations on the 56mm resulted in better real world results for me. Some of the spherical aberrations of the 35mm reduced contrast, but there’s less of that here and thus better real world results.

This has been the least expensive lens that I’ve tested that I feel does a reasonable job of handling the extremely demanding sensor on my X-H2. If you’ve recently purchased an expensive X-H2 or X-T5 and your wallet is broken, this is a very affordable lens that does a very credible job on this platform.

Sharpness should look even better on lower resolution cameras from Fuji, Sony, or Nikon. That makes the TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8 an interesting proposition, as while there are alternatives with faster maximum apertures, they are considerably more expensive but not necessarily much better optically. The top competitor will be the also new Viltrox AF 56mm F1.7, which is also very good. There’s some give and take between these two lenses, and you can see my review of the Viltrox here. Autofocus isn’t top tier, but for everything outside of extreme action photography it works fine. This is a lot of lens for under $160 USD, and so if you are looking for a budget telephoto, this definitely checks plenty of the boxes.

Pros:

Nicely built lens
Nice looking lens
Compact size and light weight
Good manual focus ring
Ability to upgrade firmware through rear cap
Focus accuracy good
Focus motor reasonably quiet
No distortion
Low chromatic aberrations
Competitive minimum focus distance
Nice bokeh
Better flare resistance

Cons:

Lens hood design is odd
Video focus can sometimes be balky
Corners aren’t particularly sharp
Still a few flare issues.

_________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

Purchase the TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8 @ 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 |

_________________________________________________________________

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Buy DA Merchandise https://bit.ly/TWIMerch

Keywords: TTArtisan, AF, Autofocus, 56mm, F1.8, TTArtisan AF 56mm F1.8, Fuji X, Fujifilm, X-mount, APS-C, Review, Telephoto, Action, Tracking, Hands On, Dustin Abbott, Real World, Comparison, Sharpness, Bokeh, Flare Resistance, Autofocus, Image Quality, Sample Images, Video, Photography, Fujifilm X-T5, Fujifilm X-H2, let the light in, #letthelightin, DA

DISCLAIMER: This article and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.

TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 II Review

Dustin Abbott

January 16th, 2025

Build and Handling

Autofocus for Stills

Video Autofocus

Image Quality Breakdown

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

_________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

Purchase the TTArtisan AF 35mm F1.8 II @ B&H Photo | Amazon | Amazon Canada | Pergear

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 |

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Related Articles at DustinAbbott.net

Sirui Sniper 75mm F1.2 Review

Dustin Abbott

July 12th, 2024

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sirui Sniper 75mm Build and Handling

Autofocus Performance

Sirui Sniper 75mm Image Quality

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

Early bird discounted pricing: https://sirui.kckb.me/dabbott

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

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Related Articles at DustinAbbott.net

Sirui Sniper 75mm F1.2 Gallery

Dustin Abbott

July 12th, 2024

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Photos of the Sirui Sniper 75mm F1.2

Images taken with the Sirui Sniper 75mm F1.2

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

Early bird discounted pricing: https://sirui.kckb.me/dabbott

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

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Related Articles at DustinAbbott.net

Sirui Sniper 16mm F1.2 X-mount Review

Dustin Abbott

June 27th, 2024

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Sirui Sniper 16mm Build and Handling

Autofocus Performance

Sirui Sniper 16mm Image Quality

Conclusion

Pros:

Cons:

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

Early bird discounted pricing: https://sirui.kckb.me/dabbott

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

Want to support this channel? Use these affiliate links to shop at: B&H Photo | Amazon | Adorama | Camera Canada | Amazon Canada | Amazon UK | Ebay | Make a donation via Paypal

Related Articles at DustinAbbott.net

Sirui Sniper 16mm F1.2 Gallery

Dustin Abbott

June 27th, 2024

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

Photos of the Sirui Sniper 16mm F1.2

Photos Taken with the Sirui Sniper 16mm F1.2

__________________________________________________________________________________________________

GEAR USED:

Early bird discounted pricing: https://sirui.kckb.me/dabbott