56mm APD & regular for night

[jbrown90]

Hey there !

So I've got an XT2 and recently I've started to do a lot more portraits shots that I enjoy doing a lot.

I was considering the 90mm for a while but since my portraits are not only headshots but usually also bust + I like to have the background and bokeh for creative portraits, I started considering the 56mm.

I was settled on a used 56mm but then found a used 56mm APD for about 850€ so now I'm torn. I like the fact that the APD would have smoother bokeh but since it loses one stop, I was wondering how does the APD perform in night shootings for portraits ? Is it really not as good for night shootings as the regular 56mm?

What do you guys think ?

[Aswald]

You lose some light with the APD. At widest aperture, you are getting closer to F1.7 light. Try not to confuse this with F1.7 bokeh because you'd still get F1.2 bokeh but F1.7 amount of light.

 

The APD will have smooth bokeh advantage from F1.2 - F5.6. I suspect at night when you probably will shoot closer to wide open, the APD will have better background rendition. It's subtle but it's there.

 

Whether you need the APD will depend on how much you want the night background to be in your picture. I'm assuming you are talking about portraits.

 

All else being equal, the standard lens will perform just as good with actual F1.2 light.

 

I shoot with both and on your X-T2, AF and Focusing on both versions will be almost identical. APD loses a wee bit but negligible.

[mdm]

You may find Adam's review of 56mm APD quite useful - http://www.fuji-x-forum.com/topic/4377-my-xf56-apd-review-part1/

And this one by Rico - http://www.fujirumors.com/xf-56mm-apd-vs-xf-56mm/

Edited February 9, 2017 by mdm

[albireo_double]

One potentially relevant aspect is that the regular 56 1.2 should focus more quickly, especially in low light, as it can take advantage of both the contrast and phase detect AF systems built into cameras like the XT2. Whereas the APD can only use contrast detect. However....if you shoot portraits you may wish to use the Face Detect / Eye Focus function, which, however, only works with contrast detect. I don't know where this leaves you for your particular purpose, but I suspect you may be better off with the regular version, if you shoot at night.

[Tom H.]

I've owned the 56 1.2 APD now for a long time, and find it's probably not worth it in any situation over the 56 1.2. And at night not at all.