Which Fuji lens is best for portraits? In-depth comparison of 7 lenses 

56mmf1.2 is my favourite lens of all time from any camera system :) Great vid Andrew.

Thanks for covering the 50-230! Although it's not the finest Fuji have to offer it is so underrated, especially for the price.

Terrific review! Very balanced with lots of context. Thank you for putting in the time to do this.

I made an error. 🤦‍♂️ The 50mm is weather resistant. I incorrectly labeled it as being non-WR.

Love this video, awesome effort to put this together. Funnily enough, I own the 56 and 90 and love them... but for portraits I also frequently use the 35mm f1.4. That lens has character!

First of all, thank you for putting the time together for this very informative vid. I also have the 56mm and 90mm for portrait. Not going to lie, the former is more versatile due to being able to work in smaller spaces and in lower light situations, but my all time favourite is also the 90mm due to the way it renders and how sharp it is with buttery bokeh. Both are superb lenses! 😁

Very nice video, and though these lenses aren’t even on my radar, I enjoy watching your videos, and appreciate the effort you put into the quality, delivery, and articulation of your content. Always a pleasure watching.

Great overview. Bought the 90 based on your previous video. It’s on my XT3 80% of ten time. Killer lens that a joy to use. If only it had IS because even at 250 I can get motion blur on it when on the go. The 50 f2 is also a great little travel portrait lens.

Excellent review. Frankly I didn't think I needed this and watched when on holiday out of boredom, however I have to say I was pleasantly surprised both by the content and the the delivery. Thumbs up for sure. :) Thanks. Gonna subscribe too.

What an excellent video! Nice and in-depth. I appreciate the hard work you have put into this. The 50-140 has been my favorite portrait lens with the lens compression that it offers, however the 90mm has my eye after watching this video... might have to get my hands on that one. I already have the rest of the f2 lineup. Love the fujicrons!

This is absolutely brilliant stuff, so informative and great examples as well!

I wish everyone put this much effort and time into reviewing products. Thank you so much for this! I have the 23 1.4 and the 56 1.2, love them both and will be adding the 90mm to my collection one of these days based in this video. Will try to remember to purchase through your affiliate link haha. Keep up the good work.

Not an easy video to make. Great job Andrew. Thanks for your thorough research and comparison!

Great video. I really appreciate your approach on testing and deciding which lens to keep.

i love the "love" you put into your videos, especially that one. I enjoyed it like a good red wine! great work

Thank your for this excellent comparison. So much information in such a compact form. Like it !

Appreciate all the time and effort you have put into this comparison. It's really helpful. Thank you.

Picking up the 56mm f/1.2 while it’s on sale today. I almost always rent this lens for weddings, time to finally just pick it up to keep. 👍🏻 Good video, man!

Great video! I do a lot of low light church work where I am limited in where I can stand and the 50-140 is my workhorse lens. For portraits I shoot it around 90 and it gets the job done.

I've loved pairing the mitakon 35mm + the fuji 90mm recently. When things are too tight for the 90mm the 56 gets subbed in pronto. Killer content as always!

Great comparison! Thank you so much for the time and work you spent on this project. Personally I own the 56mm 1.2 and the 50-140. Both great lenses. The 56mm is my favorite portrait lens. I like this focal length the most for portraits, I don't like to be further away from the model. The 50-140 is not used for common portraits very often, but as you said it's a workhorse and for concerts it is the one lens to have.

Hugely informative and a real life comparison... thank you!

Really useful video, Andrew. A ton of thanks for all the time and effort you put into it. On a personal note, I'd never be without my 56mm or 90mm lenses for all my work, mostly street and portrait. x

Thank you so much for this video, it helped a lot! I just switched from the A7(r)iii to the XT-2 and XT-3 and I am in love with these cameras :)

That 90 thooo!! I found a used one on Adorama and decided to go for it. It seems like exactly what I want. Thanks for this! Always love your work. And that little lens beat at the beginning...nice touch. Bet it took a lot of work.

Great work! Stunning review!

holy moly talk about in depth - have a nice weekend man

Just re-watched this video for the first time in months. I love your videos. I find them so informative and you state your personal opinions without being preachy. Of course, trolls gonna troll - what can you do? For me, the 90mm is my go-to studio portrait lens. Love the compression, the tack-sharpness, that it gets all/most of the face in focus, the speed, and bokeh isn't as much of a worry, neither is low light. The 56mm 1.2 is my favourite outdoor/natural light portrait lens, hands down, no debate. When I have the outdoors as a background, I love what the wide aperture does to it. 50-140 & 16-55 (yes, grouping them together) are my two workhorse lenses, and I can't see ever parting with them. Not my first grab for a portrait session, but definitely what's on my camera when I don't quite know what to expect on the shoot. Pretty much always my go-to for shooting dance and theatre (the versatility is a lifesaver, and f2.8 almost always captures enough light with a faster shutter speed). Would have loved to have seen the 55-200 in here, but maybe in a future version. :) The 80mm - I got a great deal on so I picked it up. I do like it as a portrait lens, and once you get past f3.5 there's really no difference in quality. Was going to decide between the two and sell the other, but then my partner discovered macro and not it sits on her camera a lot! (Also, how I get to justify owning both!) My only comment in this video is that since it was a portrait lens review, I feel the focus settings on the 80mm should have been .5m-∞ instead of the full range, as you'd never hunt in the macro range for portrait work, and then it's a crapload faster. But just my $0.02 Keep up the awesome work!

I got the 50-140 F2.8 and the 50 f2. I only use the 50f2 in lower light situations and for travel photography and I love it for its fast autofocus and it's pretty light. But other than that the 50-140 is probably my most use lens since it is the most versatile for what I shoot. Gotta save money and buy that 90mm F2 next.

Andrew, nice job, very thorough. Thank you. I've settled on the 55-200, a wonderful (maybe under-appreciated) lens with OIS, and the 50 f2 (75mm field of view) for its discrete compact size, light weight, and weather resistance. Both these lenses are also very quiet and quick focusing. Happy shooting!

I used a 100mm on Canon and it would never come off my camera. Having switched to Fuji I was a little scared to use anything lower (like the 56) but found myself enjoying the 50mm and not wanting to pay extra for something of a similar focal length, I found myself gravitating towards the 90mm f/2 and it... is.... amazing. Reminds me of the 135mm f/2 from my wedding days using Canon :) I try to keep this on as much as possible and shooting outside is so fun. Totally agree with the two choices! I'm just too poor to push up to the 56 1.2 and I do enjoy the AF speed and WR of the 50 :) Thanks so much for this video!

Thanks for the really great video, especially the part with the pros and cons for every lens! Good point also on how much the bokeh characteristics depend on personal taste. I especially love the 56 f/1.2 for the thin and well defined edges on the bokeh balls. I know it can make the background nervous in some situations, but those soap bubble like balls make more than up for it in my opinion. Then again, when i bought the 56, the 90mm wasn't out yet (and neither were the 50, 80 and 50-140), so no idea how i'd decide today.

Wow, thanks for such a comprehensive review! I recently just sold my 50f2 as well, as I have the 56 and 50-140. I found that I hardly ever used it. However, it would be irresponsible to sell of my Fuji gear without replacing it with something else, so I picked up a x100f :)

This was such a helpful video! Thank you!

Thanks for a great video! By far the best lens review I’ve seen! And after seeing it I have to try the 90!

The mighty 90mm! It is really great. I'm always tempted to buy the 56mm 1.2 but I took the 90mm for a walk and maaaaaan it delivers. Suprisingly versatile as well with its long reach and minimum focus distance.

Awesome comparison, with a free portraiture class included. Greetings from Brazil.

Wow! What a great review ! Very impressive! Very helpful. I have a little bit different take. I think about light weight easy kit versus quality all costs. Or hand held vs tripod, etc. so the 50 is part of my XE-3 kit. And the 40-150 part of the T-3 kit. Diff tools for diff jobs. Thanks again. Thoughtful interesting review. !!

Thanks for the review, I’m back with Fuji with the arrival of the X-T30, and I’ve owned the 56 and loved the IQ but the AF was really slow and inconsistent. Good to hear about other options.

Vow, I appreciate the colossal amount of work you had to do for this review! I do hope that the RU-vid rewards can compensate you for this! Thank you.

You have some of the best vids. Much appreciated.

Man that was deep! Nice work

Thank you very much for this video. That was very helpful!

you earned my like with the bokeh pre-ramble, I completely agree!

Great and informative video 👍🏻✌🏻

Thanks for the thorough video! I've been thinking about getting the 90F2 to supplement my 23 and 50 F2 lenses for outdoorsy portraits. Your review sealed the decision for me!

Wonderful comparison thank you Sir!

You did the focus speed test with X-T2 and X-T3, I would really really like to see the non-averaged numbers to see how the X-T3 improves the speed with different lenses. Many older reviews for Fuji lenses talk about slow focus speed and it's hard to get data on how they behave on the X-T3 (while thinking about switching to Fuji). Overall thanks for the great video! EDIT: Should have watched it all first, found the link now, thanks!

Brilliant, thanks a lot. Very much information, honestly reviewed, not too scientific. Great, best wishes from Germany

Very helpful. You made some great portraits.

Andrew I enjoyed every second of this video 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾

Whoa!!! What a comprehensive review! I am so impressed! I couldn't agree with your conclusions more. Except I am keeping my 80mm macro no matter what! (LOL!) It's just too good at being a great macro lens. But I love my 90, 56, and 50-140 for people photography! I am still on the fence about the 16-55... It may have to go but I got it in a bundle with an X-Pro2 body at a great price... Great work, Andrew!

2 years ago when I started with Fuji I struggled with which to buy the 56 or the 90...I decided on the 90mm and it was the best decision I have made for portraits. Andrew great job, on doing this video...the fact you said those focal lengths and apertures for 30 minutes just makes my head hurt.

Awesome comparison!

Great work!

Dude, I’m in the same boat with the 80mm f/2.8, I actually bought it after watching your previous videos with it, but I just don’t shoot enough macro and I have the 56mm and 50-140mm! To be fair, it did capture one of my favorite portraits of my 2 year old daughter last summer, but I’ll be selling my 80mm f/2.8 too.

Great review! Thanks.

I have the 56 and 50-140. I use the 50-140 more than the 56 because of its flexibility and crazy compression. Thought about getting a 90 but the 50-140 suits my needs.

This is fantastic and very helpful

Nice Video. The 18-55 @ 55/4 is also a great contender! Really love its portraits at this focal length/aperture.

Great review! Thank you.

Actually amazed that you don't mentioned the 55-200. I once owned it, sold it when I bought the 50-140 and then rebought it a couple of weeks ago as travel lens.

For me, the 56mm fits the bill perfectly. Although, if i need a bit more Background in a image, i didn't hesitate to use my 32mm Touit, that lens is stunning and i love it as well.

One of the best lens analysis I've seen. Congratulations. One a sidenote, for how much are you selling the 50 f2? I may be interested.

Your‘re getting better 🧐🧐🧐

Thank you, this is an awesome video and the right thing I needed now that I'm thinking between 56 and 90 mm.

Completely agree with u on the 50-230... output quality surprisingly good if u have plenty of light. I recently sold it together with my old X-M1 and kit lens... most likely going for 90mm f2 :)

Top review. I enjoy the compression of the 90mm over the 56

Nice reviews, thanks

"...because I don't know how to have fun..." LOL. This was a really interesting and well-done comparison. The whole time I kept imagining how much work it must have been.

The 55-200 starts at f3.5 and image quality is close to the the 50-140.. Enjoy your videos!

Outstanding reviews. Thank you. I agree that the 90 is a great lens, but I just can’t get used to the focal length. I use the 56 but I think I’ll go back to Canon FF 85mm for portraits.

Just sending you a little heart ❤️ Keep it up mate

Fabulousness! The 90 is my go to lens, believe it or not. I use it for portraits, family sessions, landscape, ICM and events. I just wish it had a little brother for the times when I need the 90 feel but the 90 is just too long. I’m torn between the 56 and the 50 for this and I’ll be watching out for your next video comparing AF with XT2 vs XT3. I currently have 2 XT2s for work and tbh it’s plenty enough camera for me but I’ve heard the speed of the 56 is a limiting factor on the T2 that is much much better on the T3. The 50 makes sense for most things but I just don’t know. Here in Austria it’s not possible to rent one, so try before you buy isn’t an option 🤔

Excellent review. You just made my decision between the 90mm to 50-140 more difficult ;)

yeah, the 50-230 rocks as a travel lens, and pairs so nice with the 18-55.

GREAT review. I own the top 3 (56mm f1.2, 90mm f2, and the 50-140mm f2.8) I just got the 90mm two weeks ago and it was hard to justify since I usually shoot two bodies with the 56mm and 50-140mm, so why do I need the 90mm? But I picked up the 90mm in perfect condition with warranty for only $600, so I couldn't resist. SO GLAD I did. WOW! But I do have to say you have another error in your video (besides the 50mm WR). The shot with the WEIGHTS has the correct grams, but the ounces are switched on the 50-230mm and 56mm, and the 80mm and the 90mm cannot both weigh 26oz! But I really enjoyed your analysis, and I feel even more better (can I say "more better"?) about the 90mm purchase. Just subscribed and looking forward to more great videos!

What light and softbox did you use? Lighting looks so good! 🙏 great video

Speaking of the league of F2, you missed the 200mmF2 dude. How do you like that one? Just joking ;) This is indeed the most honest and rational review on portrait lenses I've seen. Thank you!

I've never even touched a fuji camera, yet here I am watching a 30 min video because I want to hear a soothing voice

Andrew, such a great overview/ review of the lenses! I love the part where Denae picks her favourites :) She´s so nicely womanly straightforward...I don´t know why we men make such a fuss about it :) Anyway, your review more or less confirmed what I already knew but it surely didn´t help me decide. I have the 56 f1,2 and will have to buy the 50-140 f2,8 for flexibility and then the 90 f2 for the quality...Fuji is not making it easy for us! Thanks for your time putting this together.

Brilliant video

the 80mm macro is RIDICULOUSLY sharp so hearing that it is in a 2nd tier for sharpness is very surprising. jonas raskl has also stated that he believes it to be the sharpest XF lens. appreciate the review though.

Daaamn that 50-230 coming in clutch! Seriously though I love mine. I did a review on it a while back and it's such a great lens for the money. It really doesn't disappoint. For the dollas.

Dope. I wanna buy the 90 f2 and the 50f2

I absolutely love you for bringing levity to this. So many lens reviews are just spec sheet reads followed by test images and zooming in on corners. “35 elements in 264 groups” No one cares, Sebastian; moreover, no one even knows what that means.

I don't even own a Fuji (yet)...but as a photographer, I found this video quite good - well done.

Just what I have been searching! Torn between Fuji XT3 system vs Sony a7iii for photo. First comment 😊👍🏻 Love you guys.

Very awesome review. I happened to pick up the 90mm due to the sale ending this weekend and I just love it. ...but not for portraiture but rather tele for landscape as it is a good and light option for long hikes and also for the type of macro-ish shooting I do with flowers and other stuff in nature. Extension tubes get me enough magnefication and it focuses close enough. I think my 80 will be going for sale soon. Also I picked up 56mm again, sale price temptations, as I missed the one I sold last year. And to my surprise this one I just got has a much nicer aperture ring. Seems tighter with better detents.

Very nice, thanks, this is timely and helps. I dunno why everybody craps on the 80mm's bokeh. I like it. And bokeh isn't really the primary thing for me, it's just nice when it's nice. Oh how I wish the XF55-200 was included though.

Thanks so much for such an in depth review. Can you do something similar for 16 to 56mm range of lenses ?

Great video as usual! I'm just wondering though: the 55-200 was a no-show.. how come?

Amazing video thank you, but I'm still stuck on weather I should splurge and get the 90 f2, I already own the 56 and Rokinon 35 .95m but I'm curious about that final length.

Went with the 50mm; opting for the 16mm f2.8 further down the road

I think you're spot on in your take on depth of field and bokeh obsession. To me anything below 1.6 should be reserved for low light conditions. Anything below that and you run the risk of one side of someones face being out of focus. Sharpness, contrast, and composition are what average people notice more and they almost never pixel peep to notice those subtle differences in background blur. 1.8-2.2 is more of the sweet spot imo

Nice review

Thank you Andrew, you just help me choose a lens that is not included in this video: the 55-200 f3,5-4,8. It’s not too big or too heavy for such a wide range, it’s relatively affordable, the aperture is better than many Canon or Nikon, the results are very good and the stabilization is great. Sadly it’s not WR, it’s protruding quite a lot and not the fastest one. But a great compromise anyway.

Hi Andrew, thanks for the video - I am looking to buy a portrait lens and am tossing up between the 56 and the 90. I currently have a 23 f2 for my XT3. Considering I have this lens already and am looking for a portrait for family stuff, what lens out of the 56 or 90 would you recommend. Thanks

And thank u for the great great video!

For me, I use the 23 and 16mm lens heavily for my portraits, equal to the 56 1.2 and more than the 35mm 1.4. But I guess I do a lot of environmental portraiture. Great vid Andrew! The 16mm 1.4 is my fave lens myself, and I too have kiddos, so that’s probably why :)