Fujinon XF 56mm f/1.2 R APD

£1,099/$1,499 Comes with a trick up its sleeve

Lens mount Fuji film X

With an effective focal length of 84mm, this lens enables a natural working distance for portraiture on Fujifilm’s APS-C format X-series cameras. Even so, gaining a tight depth of field is more of a challenge. The basic edition of the lens (£849/$999) aims to solve the problem with an extra-wide f/1.2 aperture rating. This up-market APD edition adds an ‘apodisation filter’ – essentially a radial neutral-density filter that gets darker towards the circumference of the image circle. This helps to smooth ‘bokeh discs’ generated by defocused bright objects.

Performance

Sharpness is pretty good wide-open, where the apodisation filter is at its most effective. Bokeh is smooth for a 56mm lens, but the quality of in-focus and defocused areas isn’t any better than from most 85mm f/1.8 lenses on a full-frame camera.