Fujifilm Fujinon XF 56 mm f/1.2 R WR review - Autofocus and focus breathing

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Fujifilm Fujinon XF 56 mm f/1.2 R WR

27 March 2023

Maciej Latałło

10. Autofocus and focus breathing

Autofocus

Autofocus of the Fujinon XF 56 mm f/1.2 R WR is based on the linear DC motor; unfortunately, when joined with the Fujifilm X-T2, it is hardly noiseless. During its work you hear annoying buzzing so loud that it can be easily recorded while you shoot a video with this lens. The situation didn't change with the Fujinon attached to the Fujifilm X-T30 body.

The operational quality also leaves a bit to be desired. In case of both bodies the autofocus is not especially smooth, momentarily wavering and moving in increments. That effect is more pronounced whith the Fujifilm attached to the X-T30 but we noticed it to some extend also with the X-T2. The speed of the autofocus could have been better as well – running through its whole distance range and confirming the focus took typically about 1 second or even more with focus play, mentioned before. I have to admit I haven't seen such a weak autofocus performance for a very long time.

Unfortunately, we didn't have an opportunity to check how the mechanism cooperates with newer, and/or more advanced Fujifilm bodies.

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The autofocus is perhaps not that quick but, luckily, it remains quite accurate. We didn't notice any more serious problems in this category either working in our studio or outside. We also didn't observe any front or back focus tendencies and a photo, posted below, is the proof.

Fujifilm X-T2, f/1.2

Focus breathing

Focus breathing tests show refraiming images as you oversharp them. We conduct the test by manually passing from the minimum focusing ditance to infinity with the aperture stopped down; then we check how the field of view of the lens changed as a result. The test video of the Fujinon lens is presented below:

Comparing freeze-frames from this video we can estimate that focus breathing of the tested lens amounts to about 17%, a significant value which is impossible to eliminate by breathing compensation algorithms, present in bodies of different producers. This flaw will bother you in practice and the tested lens can't be praised in this category.

Additionally you should say that sharpness changes in increments even if you work in the manual mode and it looks especially ugly during video shooting. In our opinion such a performance disqualifies the tested lens from any serious video uses. We can only hope that the problem will be dealt with by software upgrades in the future.