Question for owners of Fuji 56mm f1.2

I just bought a Fujifilm 56mm f1.2 from one of the big online stores.

It arrived today, and I put it on my X-T2 and went for a walk around the neighborhood.

The results were fine, but I'm a little concerned about the behavior of the lens. Its focus seems to hunt, just the slightest bit, even in bright sunlight, and it makes a little clunking noise as it focuses. If that's normal I'm OK with it, I guess, but it seems a bit clunkier than my other Fuji lenses, the 35 and 50 f2s, and 27mm f2.8, all of which focus instantly and silently. And it's maybe a little surprising for a modern, thousand dollar lens.

So, is this normal, or should I exchange the lens?

Yes, this is normal...because this lens is relatively old compared to new F2 "Fujicrons" . You pay top $ for F1,2&bookeh . Being a portrait lens is designed to shoot mainly static subjects instead fast action scenes. Mine come with lot of dust/specs behind rear lens and decided to return . By the time lens arrived/received at store it was already out of stock and they refund my money.Trying the new 50/F2 seems to me a good idea at the time. And it was ! Edited October 27, 2017 by paul_b.|1

My 27mm hunts a great deal on the XE1, much better on the XT10 but still goes through the whole focus range on each shot. My old P&S cameras and Nikon DSLRs are all much faster at focusing. One trick, just push the shutter button while its still hunting and it usually gets it right.

Yeah, I should be clear: it's not hunting through the whole range (the way the 60mm f2.4 does) It goes quickly to the right general area, and then goes "dut-dut-dut" to decide exactly where it wants to be. The whole thing takes less than a second, but it's a lot looser and less precise feeling than the newer lenses.

I bought the 50mm first, and it's a fantastic lens. It's just an odd focal length, too long to be normal and too short to be a real portrait lens (although it does work for that, kind of)

Fuji has a lot of primes in the longish range: 50, 56, 60, 80, and 90. What they don't have is a lens to fill the slot of my old film favorite, the Nikkor 105mm f2.5. Long-ish, but not big and heavy. In the Fuji world that would be about a 70mm f2. The 60 and 80 are macro lenses, 50 is too short, 90 is too long.

Whine, whine, whine. ;-)

Just curious, what focus mode (S/C) and what focus pattern area are you using.

Just curious, what focus mode (S/C) and what focus pattern area are you using.

Sorry for the delay; I was on airplanes all weekend.

The "Instant AF setting" was AF-S

I used all three AF Modes, Single point, Zone, and Wide/Tracking, to see if that made any difference. It didn't.

The Focus Area is a three by three square in the center.

My XT10 has a "Phase Detection" only focus area seting of 15 squares in the middle of the screen that seems to focus much faster than any other settings.

My XT10 has a "Phase Detection" only focus area seting of 15 squares in the middle of the screen that seems to focus much faster than any other settings.

How do you set that? I'm not finding it in the menu (although I'm sure it's there somewhere.)

I have a function button dedicated to it but in the menu it's the first thing listed: "Autofocus Settings" and then "AF Mode". I don't know where this would be on later models or how much screen is covered "Phase Detection" in your camera.