XF60mm 2.4 as a Portrait Lens

El Chubasco wrote:

The 60mm lens was designed to be a macro lens. Thus, the lens is not very fast focusing because fast focusing is not crucial when doing macro photography. Another characteristic of a macro lens is that it has to be sharp, and the 60mm delivers sharp photographs as it is supposed to. Now, keeping that in mind, the 60mm lens does an OK job when used for portraits. There are several reviews online, including comparisons with portrait-specific lenses such as the 56mm due to the proximity in focal length. These comparisons show that the 60mm lens can be used for portraits but is not ideal, it was NOT designed for portraits, period. So “the cobbler should stick to his last,” the 60mm is good for macro, the 56mm and now the 90mm will be aways a better option for portraits.

So why does the Fuji website description of the lens say (and note that the macro - close-up - capability comes second). The lens also has nine bladed aperture blades which are also rounded - built for bokeh.

• This is a mid telephoto lens with the bright aperture of f/2.4 despite its compact size.
  It uses a glass molded aspheric lens at the 7th element to prevent field curvature,
  and places an ED (extra-low dispersion) glass lens at the 6th element to contain chromatic aberration.
  The lens is ideal for portraiture because of its beautiful blur and high-definition description.
• At the minimum working distance of 26.7cm, the lens delivers the maximum magnification of 0.5x for macro photography.

It is also an astoundingly good (and compact) general purpose lens and great for picking out detail especially architectural and small details at close distance. Its max 2.4 aperture is perfect for portraiture unless you only want one eye sharp. I have the 90mm f2 but I still keep and use a lot, the 60mm f2.4.