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There is a good review of vintage macro's in the 90 - 105 range here http://makingnottaking.blogspot.co.uk/2010/03/8-lens-macro-shoot-out.html Personally I've got the Vivitar Series 1 105/2.5 in Nikon Ai (hangover from D700 days). However, in the past I've compared it on a X-T1 with the Fuji 60 macro both at max aperture and I can only see a very slight difference in quality at 100% - The 60 is only very slightly sharper but its only 1:2 whereas the Viv is 1:1. Also the colour temp on the Viv renders a bit cooler. I've kept it as the reviewer says it is a fantastic 'thing' the build quality and industrial design is superb.

As others have noted you usually end up with a few tripods - like bags their isn't a perfect all rounder. I use a classic manfrotto (hangover from dslr days) with my XT1 and a few different heads when I want rock solid e.g macro work. But for every day I use Giottos memoire 50 which is light, compact and has the arca mounting so quick to mount camera as I don't have to take Fuji extra grip off. Feature wise is got 90% of the three legged thing's and build quality is great and it's about 1/4 of the price.

I've been using my old vivitar series 1 105mm in Nikon f mount with a cheap flea bay sourced adapter. When I've pixel peeped comparisons with my Fuji 60mm macro there is no real dicernable difference in sharpness - but the vivitar has a different colour shift (colder) than the Fuji lens. On the XT1 the balance of the old lens is ok and the extra reach is nice as well as being a true 1:1 macro. These series 1's come up occasionally on flea bay - usually go for about £200 in good condition and have a nice focus action and built in retractable lens hood. Build quality is fantastic (built by kiron in Japan) and there other brands of the same lens e.g lester dine and kiron. See http://makingnottaking.blogspot.co.uk/2009/10/vivitar-series-1-105mm-f25-11-macro.html?m=

All I did was take my Xpro1 to a general store that sells off the shelf reading glasses and try on a set and look through camera view finder. You can tell when correct adjustment is reached when the details like f stop or shutter speed numbers etc. are sharp. Note the adjustment on the reading glasses +1 in my case and then buy direct from Fuji web site (as was cheaper than eBay ! ) arrived in 48hrs. Job done.

One last thought - if the f1.4 is fitted to the XPro2 now what will happen? It should in theory have its corrected af frame even further away then the f2 lens has. As now the XPro2 doesn't have a macro mode so the min distance for the f1.4 should be corrected for 28cm. (The f2 being 35cm min).

To check if my thoughts & testing came to the correct answer I emailed Fuji uk tech support and asked them. It's taken a few days to get an answer back but they confirm its not a fault but due to the f2 having a closer (single) min focusing distance. The answer if not truly correct as the f1.4 actually has a closer distance but only useable macro mode on the XPro1 which when activated only lets the evf be used. Thank you for contacting Fujifilm UK. We apologise for the delay in replying. Although the focal length on the two lenses is the same, the F2 lens is capable of focusing closer to the subject than the F1.4 can. This is why the corrected af focus frame positions are different. We hope this information helps. Kind Regards The Fujifilm X World Team

Hi Wing, I too read the same post and checked out what was happening as I had just got the new 35 f2 and noticed the difference. In short after some testing the xpro1 and 35 f2 are working correctly as the corrected af frame shown for the f2 is where it should be for a lens with only one min focus distance and this is 35mm for the f2. It is confusing when you also have the f1.4 because that lens like the other older lenses have two min focus distances but the ovf is showing a corrected frame for only one of that lens min focus distances. The one for when the xpro is not set in macro mode. As the non-macro distance is 80cm for the f1.4 the corrected frame displayed is also correct (macro min distance is 28cm). And why it is closer that the f2 frame is because the min focus distance is further away so less parallax effect to correct for. It is not to do with enabling easier detection of where the focus point is. In summary the f2 can be used at min focus with the ovf parallax correcting correctly. As can the f1.4 at its non-macro min distance. To get to the f1.4's min (macro) distance you need to set the xpro to macro mode which automatically switches to evf. If you also own the XT1 then it is also confusing because the f1.4 behaves on that body (post firmware update removal of macro mode ) as if it only has one min distance of 28 cm, hence why it seems slow on that body compared to using it on the xpro1 as it has to run its full focus length at all times now. Both lenses are worth having if you can because one is one stop faster and closer focusing and one is quicker in operation and weather resistant. So really two very separate tools. For all the testing details I did see Rediscover Films YouTube post on the issue.