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Does Anyone Use Any Of The Following Lenses..........


Palmnell

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......on Fuji cameras?

 

I have owned an X100 and an XE1 for a while, then recently went nuts and bought two more XE1's (they were too cheap to pass up), an XE2, an X30 and today an XPro1. Also went berserk on some non-Fuji glass, again because the price was right or because Fuji doesn't make lenses in these focal lengths/maximum apertures. I have the Fuji 14mm, 27mm and 60mm. But here's what I just picked up:

 

 

40-80mm F3.5 Zeiss Contax Vario Sonnar

50mm F1.8 Rollei HFT Planar

90mm Zeiss F2.8 Contax G Mount Sonnar

135mm F4 Rollei HFT Tele-Tessar

200mm F4 Zeiss Contax Sonnar

300mm F4 Zeiss Contax Tele Tessar

 

Does anyone have any experience with these lenses on the above cameras? Any suggestions, caveats,

observations?

 

Thank you.

 

 

 

 

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I've recently purchased an X-Pro1.

 

I have the following lenses which I'm going to try out (more out of curiosity for the big lenses) as soon as the 2 Fotodiox adaptors (Contax G-FX & Sony A-FX) which I've ordered, arrive this week. 

28mm Zeiss F2.8 Contax G Mount Sonnar

90mm Zeiss F2.8 Contax G Mount Sonnar

300mm Zeiss f2.8 Tele Apo Tessar -previously Contax /Yashica mount which I've modified to Sony Alpha mount for use on A7r.

280mm Leica APO Telyt f4  -modified to Sony Alpha mount.

105-280mm APO f4.2 Leica Vario Elmar -modified to Sony Alpha mount.

 

I'm also regularly using the following Leica M lenses on the Xpro1 with Fotodiox LM-FX adaptor:

24mm f2.8 Elmarit

28mm f2 Summicron

35mm f2.5 Summarit - this lens really shines on the X Pro!

50mm f1.4 Summilux

75mm f2 Summicron

 

Will report back in the next couple of days....

 

Best,

Mike

 

Please excuse the really crap quality of the pics from my old iPhone!

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Thaks Mike,

 

Look forward to hearing about and seeing the results. I think the Contax G mount 90mm may be a winner on the Fujis. And the size is right. Ditto the two Rollei lenses. I used them a long time ago on a Rollei SL 3003 and the results were excellent. The 200mm and 300mm Zeiss Contax lenses should be interesting.

 

All the best,

 

Mark

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Just looked at your website. Wonderful shots, particularly of cats. I'm a huge feline fan and used to photograph professionally at cat shows in the 1990's. I used a Leicaflex Standard and mainly a 90mm Summicron. Wish I still had that lens to try on the XE1/XE2/X Pro1.

 

Can't seem to send any picture over 1MB on this site. Is that true? Was going to send a couple of shots taken with the Fuji 60mm Macro. Pretty impressive - especially at high ISO's. Is there any way to post 5MB files?

 

Talk to you soon,

 

Mark

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Thanks Mark.

I love cats, both wild and domestic, they're just so intelligent and resourceful. 

 

The Contax G adaptor arrived yesterday afternoon, I immediately dropped what I was doing and shot a few pics.

Attaching the lens to the Fotodiox adaptor seems a little fiddly at times- you need to make sure that the lens clicks into place fully, requires a little extra twisting force to achieve this.

Focus is then easy using the adaptor's ring.

 

Here are some images, these are Jpegs straight off the camera with no post processing at all.

All shot at f2.8

 

I think you're correct about the Contax 90mm G. From the little I've seen it's absolutely stunning on the X-Pro 1.

 

Max size you can post is 1MB.

 

These are with the Contax 90mm G:

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These are with the 28mm Contax G shot a f2.8

Straight out of camera Jpegs, with no post processing at all.

 

 

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You beat me to it Mark!

I also received my other adaptor (Sony α-FX) this PM. Not wanting to hijack your thread I started another thread with the Leica R lenses.

 

Looking forward to seeing your pics with the 90mm G.

 

Which adaptor are you using?

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Wow. Just took a ton of pictures with the Contax G 90. Amazing. This a clear winner. I will post some soon. There's a definite synergy between the XE1 and hopefully the X Pro1 and this lens. As I saw in your shots amazing resolution and get color and I'm using a cheap $12 adapter. Just wonderful results. Pictures will follow.

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Just tried the 40-80 and 200 Zeiss lenses with a not so great cheap adapter. The mount is loose. I will buy something more substantial. But the images were still very good. I think the contrast is slightly lower than the Fujinon lenses, but for what I am going to be using them for - fashion/portraits - that's not a bad thing. Still very sharp. I will post some pics. Now very excited to try the Rollei lenses. Pics will follow.

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OMG. Just took some more pics with the 200mm Tele Tessar on my XE2. Braced myself against a wall and even at 1600 ASA these pictures are amazing. 

Just remarkable. They look like old school Fuji Sensia 400 on a good day. Remember that film? I loved it in medium format with my Mamiya 6. Can't believe it looks so great.

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Sorry for the delay. These were all taken with the Contax 90mm G Zeiss on a Fuji XE1. Not bad at all.

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Mark,

I agree with you their rendering is similar. 

Here are 2 random shots-

 

#1: Contax G 45mm f2  @ f5.6  (no UV filter)

#2: Fuji 35mm f2  @ f5.6  (with B+W UV filter)

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50mm F1.8 Rollei HFT Planar.  Equivalent to a 75mm lens on a full frame camera. I disagree with your opinion. Very, very sharp. Perhaps you had a poor example of this lens.

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Sorry. 75mm on a APS C camera, not a full frame obviously. And easier to focus than the 135mm Rollei Tele Tessar which is also amazingly sharp. The Rollei lenses are inexpensive sleepers for the Fuji X system. Highly recommended. I got the 50mm for $40 and the 135mm for $70. Silly cheap for just great lenses. I would suggest that you have a mediocre adapter and it's not focusing the lens properly.

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 Perhaps you had a poor example of this lens.

No no, I've tried a few examples. This one was/is the better. It's as good as the photo examples you just posted, I just can't see the sharpness in those either. 

 

Sorry. 75mm on a APS C camera, not a full frame obviously. And easier to focus than the 135mm Rollei Tele Tessar which is also amazingly sharp. The Rollei lenses are inexpensive sleepers for the Fuji X system. Highly recommended. I got the 50mm for $40 and the 135mm for $70. Silly cheap for just great lenses. I would suggest that you have a mediocre adapter and it's not focusing the lens properly.

The prices in Europe are far higher than this.  :(

My adapter is a good one, it focuses like your's does.

 

On a general note, I have an embarrassing collection of lenses from SLRs and rangefinders which I've adapted to digital µ43, APS-C and full frame. They each have different characteristics and "look", it's great to have choices, but for pure sharpness I've never found anything that compares to purpose designed modern, digital lenses.

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Hi Begi,

 

Do you think those pictures look unsharp? I don't see that. Perhaps your expectations are unrealistic. I think the resolution of the Rollei 50mm is excellent. I certainly don't see that 'modern' lenses have the edge. How are todays lenses optimized for digital rather than film cameras? The criteria must be the same. A lens is either sharp or unsharp regardless of the format it's applied to. You don't agree? Rollei, Contax and Leica lenses were made to be used with film. The designers had no idea that digital would even exist in coming decades, but these lenses hold their own against lenses that were 'made for digital'cameras. 

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I don't mean to say they are unsharp, just no better than the equivalent offerings from Pentax (both K mount and m42), Nikon, Canon, Konica, Yashica etc. (from the same period).

The differences in these film designs is that different coc values are used for different size sensors. The smaller the sensor, the sharper (smaller coc) the lens needs to be.

Also, light travels "through" film in a straight line whereas the light is bent as it travels through the filter arrays and the surface of the sensor before reaching the bottom of the sensor pits, particularly towards the edge and corners. This last point is particularly evident when using mirrorless cameras with their short flange distances and becomes a serious problem with certain wide angle lenses with rear element very close to the sensor.

Even (digital) Leicas suffer from this with enormous vignetting on certain wide lenses.

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Hi Begi,

 

I suppose it depends on whether you are just displaying the pictures on the internet or making large prints. The circle of confusion of an XE1 or X Pro 1 is .020mm. The screen dpi on most Macs is about 130. So assuming that you are focusing accurately the coc is not a factor. I think that if you are making prints larger than 8x10" you can tell the difference between the Fuji, Zeiss and Leica lenses and 'most' Pentax, Nikon, Canon and Minolta lenses. That may have a lot to do with contrast rather than resolution. but I am finding more and more that there's a synergy between certain brands of older lenses and modern digital cameras. I think that the Zeiss Contax lenses and Leica R lenses work extremely well on Fuji cameras. Not sure if that's just because they are very high quality or there's something else happening there.

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