The Unfair Fight - Fujifilm 56mm f1.2 R WR vs Viltrox 56mm f1.4 AF STM

It has became my tradition to make a side by side comparison test when I am replacing one of my existing lens with a new one of same focal length. I named this comparison The Unfair Fight, because the current price for the new 56mm f1.2 is roughly 3.5 times more than a Viltrox f1.4, and yet I am still doing it because the comparison can show me if my money is well spent.

I had the 1st generation Fuji XF56mm f1.2 - one of the 1st Fuji prime lenses I acquired when I stepped into Fujifilm X world. Unfortunately it never meet my expectation as a premium Fujifilm prime lens, the sharpness is only okayish across the whole frame, the focusing speed is slow and noisy, and the twitching behaviour of DC motor really bothered me at the time. it was simply not reliable enough for jobs, often went home with many blurry photos and missed many important moment.

I sold it when the Viltrox 56mm f1.4 launched in 2020, although the Viltrox worked better for me, it is not a perfect lens. I like the quieter, faster auto focus, the greater centre sharpness and the tighter aperture ring, at the same time I had to deal with its weaknesses like flare, CA, side/corner softness and no weather sealing.

As a 35mm and 85mm shooter, ever since I bought the XF23mm f1.4 LM WR, I hope Fujifilm will give 56mm the same level of update. Finally in 2022, we have the XF56mm f1.2 gen II, it's now weather sealed, has better optic that can resolve high resolution sensor, improved AF speed and not that much larger or heavier than its preceder.

I pre-ordered it right after the launch event, picked up last Friday and did the test during weekend. The sharpness blew Viltrox out of water, in every aperture and across the whole frame. No more CA, flare is also well controlled. I like the closer min. focusing distant but it is only a bonus, this lens is still a specialised portrait lens, not a macro.

I am pretty happy with all the upgrades but one, Fujifilm choosed to bring back our old friend DC motor. I still have doubt with its AF speed, the hit rate is yet to be tested in real world applications. I can feel the improvement, although not by much, so I can only tell myself it will get better when I purchased the upcoming X-T5 with new X-processor 5 and its new algorithm.

Other than the sharpness, I also included the flare and min. focus distance comparison. I could do the bokeh one if I had time, but I think they are well tested in many other reviews.

I hope you enjoyed reading my feedback about this lens, again it is not a lab test review, I did it more for my own reference and think at the same time it might help others with their purchasing decision.

http://www.instagram.com/pennyfan.photography

Excellent comparison chart. I do believe the new Fuji lens are in their own league when it comes to image quality but as a hobbyist I absolutely love that Viltrox exists.

Thank you for the review.

Feedback about AF is all over the place right now. Some claim it is much better, some say it is roughly the same.

It also have to debiased from improvements due to the the new detection algorithms.

Looking forward to get more inputs...

Thanks for your assessment, it does answers many of the questions I had. I have the 56 mk.1 as well, so I am quite interested to see if an upgrade is worth pursuing.

What bothers me the most with the 56 is the quirky focus which often just misses enough to give you blurry shots, plus that after acquiring focus, it often suddenly decides to start hunting just as you fully press the shutter.

The xf 35/1.4 in that respect I find much more predictable in its behavior. Yes it focuses slowly, but I can work better with it, because it causes fewer surprises at critical moments.

I wonder how you experience the 56 mk.2 in that respect? A speed improvement would certainly be welcome, but I understand this lens will not be the scaled down xf90. But how does it behave in low light conditions? Does it get quirky like mk.1 or does it remain stable?

1. sir_c wrote:

Thanks for your assessment, it does answers many of the questions I had. I have the 56 mk.1 as well, so I am quite interested to see if an upgrade is worth pursuing.

What bothers me the most with the 56 is the quirky focus which often just misses enough to give you blurry shots, plus that after acquiring focus, it often suddenly decides to start hunting just as you fully press the shutter.

The xf 35/1.4 in that respect I find much more predictable in its behavior. Yes it focuses slowly, but I can work better with it, because it causes fewer surprises at critical moments.

I wonder how you experience the 56 mk.2 in that respect? A speed improvement would certainly be welcome, but I understand this lens will not be the scaled down xf90. But how does it behave in low light conditions? Does it get quirky like mk.1 or does it remain stable?

I don't own either lens but i have used both in photography meetings. In my brief experience the first version was kinda annoying to use to be honest. I liked the output but... That was on the X-T3. On the other hand I had the chance to use the new version on an X-H2s last week and it was great. Indoors with moderate lighting at 1.2 every image i shot was in focus and no hassle regarding autofocus. That was in AF-S only though. I didn't try continuous.

sir_c wrote:

Thanks for your assessment, it does answers many of the questions I had. I have the 56 mk.1 as well, so I am quite interested to see if an upgrade is worth pursuing.

What bothers me the most with the 56 is the quirky focus which often just misses enough to give you blurry shots, plus that after acquiring focus, it often suddenly decides to start hunting just as you fully press the shutter.

The xf 35/1.4 in that respect I find much more predictable in its behavior. Yes it focuses slowly, but I can work better with it, because it causes fewer surprises at critical moments.

I wonder how you experience the 56 mk.2 in that respect? A speed improvement would certainly be welcome, but I understand this lens will not be the scaled down xf90. But how does it behave in low light conditions? Does it get quirky like mk.1 or does it remain stable?

I brought it to a camera shop and tested on an X-H2s, the AF did feel more responsive compared to paring with my X-T3, however the back and forth twitching behavior is still there. Will it affect real world shooting? prob not. But it does make me feel it is slower, and video shooter will certainly complain about it.

I'm just curious.. Why You didn't give a try for Sigma 56/1.4, but You go straight for new XF 56/1.2 r WR?

Isn't Sigma 56/1.4 outperforms Viltrox 56/1.4 in every regard?

BeatX wrote:

I'm just curious.. Why You didn't give a try for Sigma 56/1.4, but You go straight for new XF 56/1.2 r WR?

Isn't Sigma 56/1.4 outperforms Viltrox 56/1.4 in every regard?

I like lenses with aperture ring

hehe, I see aperture ring over optical performance.
Oh well - Your choice

Pennyfan wrote:

It has became my tradition to make a side by side comparison test when I am replacing one of my existing lens with a new one of same focal length. I named this comparison The Unfair Fight, because the current price for the new 56mm f1.2 is roughly 3.5 times more than a Viltrox f1.4, and yet I am still doing it because the comparison can show me if my money is well spent.

I had the 1st generation Fuji XF56mm f1.2 - one of the 1st Fuji prime lenses I acquired when I stepped into Fujifilm X world. Unfortunately it never meet my expectation as a premium Fujifilm prime lens, the sharpness is only okayish across the whole frame, the focusing speed is slow and noisy, and the twitching behaviour of DC motor really bothered me at the time. it was simply not reliable enough for jobs, often went home with many blurry photos and missed many important moment.

I sold it when the Viltrox 56mm f1.4 launched in 2020, although the Viltrox worked better for me, it is not a perfect lens. I like the quieter, faster auto focus, the greater centre sharpness and the tighter aperture ring, at the same time I had to deal with its weaknesses like flare, CA, side/corner softness and no weather sealing.

As a 35mm and 85mm shooter, ever since I bought the XF23mm f1.4 LM WR, I hope Fujifilm will give 56mm the same level of update. Finally in 2022, we have the XF56mm f1.2 gen II, it's now weather sealed, has better optic that can resolve high resolution sensor, improved AF speed and not that much larger or heavier than its preceder.

I pre-ordered it right after the launch event, picked up last Friday and did the test during weekend. The sharpness blew Viltrox out of water, in every aperture and across the whole frame. No more CA, flare is also well controlled. I like the closer min. focusing distant but it is only a bonus, this lens is still a specialised portrait lens, not a macro.

I am pretty happy with all the upgrades but one, Fujifilm choosed to bring back our old friend DC motor. I still have doubt with its AF speed, the hit rate is yet to be tested in real world applications. I can feel the improvement, although not by much, so I can only tell myself it will get better when I purchased the upcoming X-T5 with new X-processor 5 and its new algorithm.

Other than the sharpness, I also included the flare and min. focus distance comparison. I could do the bokeh one if I had time, but I think they are well tested in many other reviews.

I hope you enjoyed reading my feedback about this lens, again it is not a lab test review, I did it more for my own reference and think at the same time it might help others with their purchasing decision.

http://www.instagram.com/pennyfan.photography

As a budget photographer i think i would rather have the viltrox over the Fuji counterpart. I can’t pay over 4x the price for sharpness that i would probably only see during pixel peeking. You can also pickup the viltrox for cheap price as well.

BeatX wrote:

hehe, I see aperture ring over optical performance.
Oh well - Your choice

Isn't that's why we shoot with Fujifilm instead of mainstream FF system?

Just kidding. At the time I bought my Viltrox, Sigma 56 wasn't available yet.

Yister10 wrote:

As a budget photographer i think i would rather have the viltrox over the Fuji counterpart. I can’t pay over 4x the price for sharpness that i would probably only see during pixel peeking. You can also pickup the viltrox for cheap price as well.

Make sense, but for paid work it's not a bad investment.

What happened to me was when I shoot group photos, or in scenarios I had to put subjects toward the sides. Those on the sides looked soft and blurry.

For creative projects or day to day shooting, Viltrox served alright.

Do you find it to focus faster...that is...acquire low-light focus, faster than the first version?

I just added the older version to my system - specifically for low-natural-light shooting. It's sharp. Very sharp. But is so slow on acquiring focus. I got a real bargain on this but would sell it to buy the new version if it's a significant improvement.

Thanks,

Matt Lit

I don't think you read my post correctly. If you'll notice I praised its sharpness and only criticize its focus speed - an issue of most early Fuji lenses.

For the record, the 18-55 is the sharpest and most well-built "kit" lens I've ever worked with. I drowned mine in a river...incident...and replaced with the 18-135 for that extra reach. That lens is significantly sharper than the "curmudgeons" push on this forum. I'm a college photography educator for a well-known photography program in Colorado. I've critiqued thousands of images from "kit" lenses (Nikon and Canon) and not a single one of those images was close to the sharpness the Fuji 18-55 could muster. Add to that it is faster than any of those (f4 vs. 5.6) and it's an over-looked gem.

As for "herd mentality" you've branded the wrong Buck here and since I'm spending a Sunday morning with a good strong French Press coffee I'll let that go. For the record, my first digital was a Fuji S2 in 2003 because it far surpassed any image quality Nikon was capable of at the time.

In 2012-13 Fujifilm Corp. sent me the first issues of the X-Pro 1, 18-55 and 18 f2 for testing so I'm pretty sure I'm qualified to discuss Fujifilm X cameras and lenses from an objective position.

And now...back to my original question for others not so ready to attack...

Do you feel the new WR version of the 1.2 lens is a significant leap in low-light focus speed?

Snarkily and happily caffeinated...

A Colorado photographer...

matt lit wrote:

Do you find it to focus faster...that is...acquire low-light focus, faster than the first version?

I just added the older version to my system - specifically for low-natural-light shooting. It's sharp. Very sharp. But is so slow on acquiring focus. I got a real bargain on this but would sell it to buy the new version if it's a significant improvement.

Thanks,

Matt Lit

Unfortunately there is no significant improvement....I wouldn't upgrade to the new version for its AF performance.

WeirdSheep wrote:

You must have had a poor copy of the original 56mm because mine is optically fantastic right from F1.2, l can't fault it, it's superb. I read a lot of criticism of lenses on this forum based on one copy which quickly seem to become the perceived wisdom. I've only had one Fuji X lens l was disappointed with, the 18-55mm, but l know l must have had a sub par copy as many love it, so l've never generalised about its quality. Every other Fuji X lens l've had has been excellent, the 10-24mm, 16-80mm, 18-135mm etc.

As a general comment, l just wish people wouldn't write off lenses based on a single experience of one lens, this has previously put me off buying lenses l've now bought now l know better not to take forum 'wisdom' as gospel.

Case in point is the 18-135mm l've just received, it's far better than forum curmudgeon's would have us believe. I took a punt on it because l did extensive checking elsewhere, which led me to believe it would be, and it definitely is. I find this to be a regular theme on here, l have no idea why, maybe l'm that lucky guy that almost always gets good copies, but l very much doubt it.

I wonder how many other people have been put off buying lenses they would really enjoy if people didn't adopt this herd mentality of panning a lens based on one copy, or camera, that didn't meet their expectations?

I'll be hanging on to my copy of the 56mm mk1, it's truly outstanding in my experience, l couldn't reasonably expect its image quality to be improved by anything else, it doesn't even sound like the same lens you had based on your description.

There's no way I can test 10 copies and come out with a scientific conclusion, so I could only speak on my personal experience. My old 56mm could be a lemon, but everyone have different demands on sharpness, some pixel peep some don't. I simply found most older Fujinon XF lenses ain't as sharp as how they were praised, and by looking at some Youtuber's test results confirmed that.

However, the new age Fujinon primes are clinically sharp, including the 18mm f1.4, 23mm f1.4, 33mmf1.4 and 56mm f1.2. If you ever have chance to shoot them side by side maybe you will agree with me, and I believe once you noticed the different, you cannot unseen them.

(Check out Christopher Frost's YouTube channel, he tested both old and new 56mm, he rated the 56mm f1.2 WR the sharpest lens he tested in 2022).