Which One Better for Portraits: Fujifilm 90mm F2 or 50mm F1.0 WR?

In this blog post, I am going to go through some of my experience on using the Fujifilm 90mm F2 WR and XF 50mm F1.0 WR for portraits.

Key Points

• XF 90mm F2 WR vs. XF 50mm F1.0 WR Side by Side.
• XF 90mm F2 Pros and Cons.
• XF 50mm F1.0 Pros and Cons.

ISO 160, 1/480s, F1.0 Fujifilm X-T4 | Model: @rosinashakirova

ISO 160, 1/3800s, F1.0 Fujifilm X-S10 | Model: @bulababy

ISO 400, 1/125s, 90mm F2 Fujifilm X-T4 | Model: @arinicolle

XF 90mm F2 WR vs. XF 50mm F1.0 WR Side by Side

I am going to list out some of the side by side comparison below. Keep in mind that these photos are taken in the same distance. That's why you will see a different cropping.

Left: XF 50mm F1.0 WR vs XF 90mm F2

Left: XF 50mm F1.0 WR vs XF 90mm F2

Left: XF 50mm F1.0 WR vs XF 90mm F2

Left: XF 50mm F1.0 WR vs XF 90mm F2

As you can see in the photos comparisons above, the 90mm F2 cropped much closer than 50mm F1.0. It's because Fujifilm sensor has a crop factor of 1.5x. 90mm is similar to 135mm angle of view in full frame. If I want to get the same crop as the 50mm F1.0 of the left, I have to step back about 6-7 feet to get the similar framing.

In terms of sharpness, both were shot at wide open, 90mm wide open because it's at F2 wide open, it looks sharper. 50mm F1.0 is sharp enough, but not the sharpest at wide open in the Fujifilm prime lenses line-up.

If you want to see more details, please check out the second part of my video below as I zoomed in more to compare these set of images:

XF 90mm F2 Pros and Cons

In this section, I am going to list some pros and cons on portraits for the 90mm F2 so that you can make your decision on which lenses you want to buy:

Pros

• Incredible sharpness - It is one of the sharpest lenses in Fujifilm prime lens lineup. The other sharp lens I can think of is the 80mm macro lens.
• Nice contrast rendering and bokeh - produce one of the smoothest bokeh for the background.
• Nice sunlight flare - It has Fujifilm unique backlight flare rendering. You will recognized it's Fujifilm backlight immediately.

Cons

• The weight will cost the front heavy on a smaller body like X-S10.
• It needs at least 6-8 feet of space for half body shots, 10 - 15 feet for full body shots. Sometimes if the photographer is too far away from the model, it is harder to communicate your posing direction to your model. Therefore, if you plan to shoot lots of full body shots, make sure to have lots of space available such as in a park or beaches.

XF 50mm F1.0 Pros and Cons

In this section, I am going to list some pros and cons on portraits for the 50mm F1.0 so that you can make your decision on which lenses you want to buy:

Pros

• Smooth bokeh - It has Fujifilm's unique style bokeh.
• About 75mm F1.4 equivalent - Nice angle and suitable distance for portraits. Both half body and full body have a nice balance of bokeh blurred out background.
• Backlight flare control is pretty good. I used a lot for backlight portraits and flare are pretty nice.

Cons

• It's heavier than the 90mm F2. Therefore, it will be very front heavy for the smaller body such as X-S10.
• For auto focus, I need to set to AF-S for this lens. Since it's 1.0 thin depth of field, if I set it to AF-C and eye AF on X-T4, sometimes I got more missed focus. Fujifilm AF-C eye AF system still has lots of room for improvement to catch up Sony and Canon auto focusing system. Until it catches up, I will continue to use AF-S single point focus to be more consistent.

In summary, each lens has its pros and cons for different situations. If I know that my upcoming shoot has lots of room to work with, I will choose 90mm F2 for that shoot since it has better contrast and sharpness. Both can produce nice bokeh and backlight. If not enough room, I will use the 50mm F1.0 for my shoot since it gives more environment context without stepping too far away from the model.

90mm F2 WR: https://amzn.to/2OsVcVn

XF50mm F1.0: https://amzn.to/3gNzvL9

Fujifilm X-S10: https://amzn.to/37fDHjF

Fujifilm X-T4: https://amzn.to/3pV6kKa

Thanks for reading :) More photos will be uploaded in my Instagram account: @caliallstaring.