Fujifilm GFX50R and Third-Party Lenses (35mm)

 Photography  No Responses »
Mar 202019
 

(This is definitely a work in progress; I’ve still got more lens adaptors to buy and more lenses to test)

So I have a new Fujifilm GFX50R with one native lens (63mm) and my fortunes don’t extend to buying more lenses any time soon. Yet I hear that some 35mm lenses will work even though they’re designed to cover the smaller sensor of 35mm (or in many of the cases below 35mm film).

As someone who has been sticking third-party lenses (and I don’t mean Sigma lenses with an EF mount) on my Canon cameras for years the obvious thing to do is buy some adaptors to test the lenses I have.

And on the grounds that I would find this information useful if someone else had posted it (and I’d found it), I decided to put this out there. No guarantees on the accuracy though!

Caveats :-

  1. No, the images aren’t meant to look good; most of this testing was done inside after a long day staring at a computer screen. The subject is boring, the focus may be off, and if you think these images represent what I’m capable of I’ll just roll about the floor laughing (and I’m not that good). When of course I add the images to this posting.
  2. If you have to have a “smart” lens adaptor for Canon EF lenses, choose a good one. The first one I bought was rubbish; I’ve since gone with a Kipon branded one.
  3. The column for “soft vignetting’ is particularly dubious; I’m not great at spotting it in the first place and until I move the images onto a computer screen and take a closer look I wouldn’t guarantee anything.
Lens Photo? Soft Vignetting Hard Vignetting Sample (links)
Zeiss Makro-Planar 2/100mm ZE ✓ No No 1
Zeiss Distagon 21/2.8 ZE ✓ No Yes 1
MC Zenitar 16/2.8 ✗ – Yes
Sigma 12-24 @ 12mm ✓ No No
Sigma 12-24 @ 24mm ✓ Yes Yes
Canon 24-105mm f/4.0 L ✗ Yes Yes
Canon 200-400mm mk1 @ 200 ✗ No No
Canon 200-400mm mk1 @ 400 ✗ – Yes
Leica Elmarit-R 2.8/19mm (1977) ✗ – Yes
Leica Summilux-R 1.4/50mm (1971) ✗ Below f/11 No
Leica Elmarit-R 2.8/35mm (1984) ✗ Yes No
Leica Elmarit-R 2.8/180mm (1975) ✓ No No
Leica Elmarit-R 2.8/90mm (1966) ✓ No No 1
Leica Macro-Elmerit-R 2.8/60mm (1977) ✓ Below f/4.0 No
Leica Summicron-R 2/50mm (1965) TODO TODO TODO
Olympus OM 18mm f/3.5 ✓ – Yes
Olympus OM 85mm f/2.0 ✓ Yes No
Olympus OM 35mm f/2.8 ✓ Yes No
Carl Zeiss Jena 3.5/135mm ✓ No No 1

A Quick Look At The Olympus EP-1

 Photography  No Responses »
Jul 282009
 

There are many other places you can find technical information on the Olympus EP-1 – this is merely the first impressions from someone who has only just unboxed one, and taken it out for a quick spin.

It’s small. It is not a point and shoot, and so it is quite a bit bigger, but it sure beats my Canon 1DS for size, and even my Epson RD-1. Providing you are not wearing tight jeans, you can certainly slip it into a roomy pocket with the 17mm pancake lens. The 14-42mm zoom lens increases the size enough that you would need a jacket pocket to be comfortable.

The included camera strap is far too short. Admittedly I’m tall and I like my cameras to hang low, but this really is titchy. The camera itself feels good and solid – whilst it is no tank, it should survive a few knocks and bumps.

After charging the battery (why do the suppliers not charge these up themselves?), the first thing most of us will do is to dive into the menus to see what things can be fiddled with. Well the answer is a lot. In fact at first it is a little scary how many options there are to fiddle with even before you turn on the “customize” menu item. But after you get used to the idea that the menus are complex because there is a great deal to customise before you go out, then it becomes a little less scary. After all any camera that allows you to move the focus button from a half-press of the shutter (which I really hate) to an alternate is going to have lots of options. And I’ll put up with a lot of complexity if I am allowed to move the focus button!

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Out and about, the camera is reasonably comfortable in the hand. The lack of a “proper” viewfinder is a little distracting at first, but the key thing to remember is that this is a view camera which do not have small viewfinders. Sure holding the camera out to look at the LCD preview screen is somewhat problematic in terms of steadiness, but in practice it is perfectly possible to get used to it.

In fact I do happen to have the optical viewfinder for the EP-1 (for the 17mm pancake lens), but I have not used it in anger.

This is not a camera to replace a “proper” DSLR, but is a good choice for someone who finds the current crop of P&S cameras to be a little too small and limiting. I will probably find myself lugging a big DSLR just as much as I have done in the past, but I will also have a decent camera with me for those times when I would not normally carry a “proper” camera.