Trevor R

Thank you for this very helpful information on the advantages and limitations of the 100S and how to get the better of it!

I am getting excellent results with Mamiya 67 lenses and Pentacon Six lenses on a GFX 50S and a GFX 100, via Hartblei adapters, including tilt and shift adapters. See here: https://pentaconsix.com/digital2022.htm and here: https://pentaconsix.com/hartbleigfx.htm Other links from those pages give more information and examples of results.

I have just done a quick test for you, hand-held, with the 20mm Laowa lens on a GFX 100 and the results are excellent, although I have not yet seen them on a computer monitor, although substantially zoomed on the camera back. I set the aperture at f/8, which would with most lenses been a good aperture to use for most photography, and fully shifted left along the long axis, with the camera horizontal for one shot and then fully shifted right for the next shot. I have observed very minor light loss (image darkening) at the edge opposite the direction of shift, apparently less than with the 15mm lens, and easily correctable in imaging software. One must double-check the orientation of the lens shade, which is rotatable, to avoid vignetting from it, and where possible I think that I would remove the lens shade when shooting fully shifted, just in case it slightly shaded the edge of the image area. Hope this is helpful. For landscape photography I sometimes like to shift fully left and then fully right and to stitch the resulting images on the computer, and I have done this with the 15mm Laowa lens on the Sony "full frame" camera, but not yet with the 20mm lens on the GFX. Again, where possible this is best done using a tripod, but I have also obtained some excellent results with the camera hand-held, doing my best to avoid changing the height of the image in the frame.

Bear in mind that both of these lenses are shift only, not shift and tilt, although for architectural and landscape panoramic photography, a tilt facility is not normally needed. Tilt can be very helpful with close-up and macro work. Trevor

Hello Acinca My experience is limited. I have the Laowa 15mm and 20mm shift lenses. On the "full frame" Sony A7Rii, the 15mm produces excellent results right into the corners, even fully shifted. On the GFX 50S there is clear fall-off of image brightness at the edges when the lens is fully shifted sideways. I have so far only used the 20mm lens unshifted, where the results of the GFX format are totally satisfactory. I would expect good results shifted, but would expect to need to do some brightness correction at the edge opposite the direction of shift when shifting horizontally (along the long axis of the image) on a GFX camera. Both lenses are beautifully made and the 20mm lens has the advantage of accepting standard filters without any sort of special mount, although these should be slimline filters, and even then I suspect that they may introduce some vignetting in the corners when fully shifted. I hope that this helps as far as it goes. Trevor

Shift lenses on the Fuji GFX 50S I recently purchased the Laowa 15mm f/4.5 SHIFT lens. I chose to buy it in the Canon EF mount, with two adapters, Canon EF to Sony FE A7Rii etc and Canon EF to Fuji GFX 50S, and initial results on both cameras are excellent. At the same time, I bought the lens support, which mounts the front of the lens onto a tripod, and this works very well, enabling the photographer to move the back of the lens and the camera left, right, up, down and diagonally, in order to get a yet wider angle of view with a series of images that will stitch together well.. I also bought the 100mm Magnetic Filter Holder with one Magnetic frame and have subsequently bought various filters and further magnetic frames. Assembling the frames requires the use of a small file, as the tabs in the top and bottom of the frame are too big for the slots in the sides of the frame. Once the tabs are filed down, the frame assembles well (but would probably never come back apart without breaking). I have bought Lee 2mm thick graduated filters and these fitted into the magnetic frames well. This is not cheap, but less than half the price of the Nikon and Canon shift/tilt lenses, I believe. It does not tilt, but I only use tilt lenses for close-up and macro photography. For architecture, which is where shift lenses are at the best, tilt is not normally needed.

I have obtained some superb architectural pictures with the Schneider Kreuznach PC-Super-Angulon 28mm lens fully shifted up in horizontal format on a Sony A7Rii "full-frame" camera. On the Fuji GFX50S there is substantial fall-off in light intensity in the corners and even to some extent at the sides at full aperture and on down to f/5.6. At f/8, fall-off is less obvious at the sides, though still present, with still considerable fall-off in the corners. At f/11 both of these improve slightly, but vignetting correction will be necessary in software, with excellent results possible. I have not tried shifting this lens on the GFX50S; selected Pentacon Six lenses do a better job (but there is nothing wider than 40mm, and even that is extremely hard to find).

Glad to have been of assistance. The GFX 50S is a fantastic camera and some of these Pentacon Six lenses give phenomenal versatility and fantastic results. Trevor

Kristian Sorry, I have just seen this. If you look at the results of my tests of "Full frame" lenses for 35mm cameras, when used on the GFX50S, you may find some possible answers. My report is in the following thread (if this link works) Trevor

Since the above posting, I have taken a series of pictures of rooms in my home (we have been in lockdown!), using both the 23mm Fuji lens and the 17mm Laowa lens. Both delivered excellent results, but I really got the best shots with the Laowa lens, as the angle of view is so much wider. I will now definitely use the Laowa lens without any reservations or concerns, both for interiors and for outdoor shots (when they become possible, again!) Trevor (back in lockdown after a short relaxation by the government)

As you can see from my test results, 12mm shift is possible with a wide range of Pentacon Six mount lenses on the Fuji GFX 50S via the Hartblei shift adapter. I believe that Hartblei are shortly going to offer mount adapters in which the rear component can be swapped out. With this, I hope to be able to use the same Hartblei adapter for Pentacon Six lenses, with a choice of camera mounts on the back of the adapter, so that I can use the lenses either on the Fuji GFX 50S or on a Sony A7Rii "full-frame" (35mm format) camera, thus having shift and tilt options on both of these cameras. Trevor

Unfortunately, in June 2020 these videos appear to be no longer available. Can they be found somewhere else?

Is there any update on this? The Fuji software for mobile phones seems very clunky, so that route does not appear to me to be viable.

Thank you for the information and the links. Trevor

In May 2020, I have the latest firmware update and I have noticed that this problem is still there, but as I mainly shoot landscapes it has so far not been a problem. However, for spontaneous people shots it could be disastrous! For wedding photography (just to give an example) the problem needs fixing, if one is to catch fleeting expressions. Professional models can no doubt hold an expression and still look natural, but normal people can't!

I use the Op/Tech Dual Harness, which is modestly priced and easily enables me to carry two camera, one of them a large Medium Format analogue camera, for hours without discomfort. I review the harness as used with the Pentacon Six here: http://pentaconsix.com/p6straps.htm I have now added the Op/Tech straps to my GFX 50S, threading the straps through the clips that are supplied with the camera, and this works very well. The Op/Tech Super Pro B connectors look very similar to the strap holders that come with the camera, but perhaps a few millimetres narrower, but I have not yet tested their fit on the GFX 50S. The connectors are reviewed here: http://pentaconsix.com/probcon.htm You may wish to try the connectors in a shop (once we are allowed to go back into shops!) before buying them, but the original Fuji connectors work fine with the Op/Tech webbed straps, even though the slot is a little wider than needed for the Op/Tech straps.

I have three of the Hartblei Pentacon Six to Fuji GFX adapters: simple adapter, shift adapter and tilt adapter. With them a series of longer lenses can be used. For instance the old Enna 400mm lens is excellent on the Pentacon Six and so will easily cover the GFX format. See a review of it here: http://pentaconsix.com/enna.htm There are two 500mm lenses for the Pentacon Six, the Pentacon lens, which is very heavy (3.5 kg) but excellent. See here: http://pentaconsix.com/500_560mm.htm and the much harder-to-find 500mm Arsenal APO lens, see here: http://pentaconsix.com/500_600new1.htm At 1650 grams, this is less than half the weight of the Pentacon lens. The above pages also give information on other long lenses, including some mirror lenses, that would mount on the GFX via any of the same adapters. I have tested the 500mm lens on a GFX 50S, even testing its coverage with the shift adapter. This is what I found: 500mm Arsenal/Arsat APO lens Zero shift: Excellent resolution and coverage. Tiny amount of chromatic aberrations. 12mm shift in any direction causes corner cut-off. 12mm shift to L or R causes side cut-off and loss of resolution near the edge. This is probably OK with shifts up to 6 or 8mm.

Review of Laowa 17mm & Fuji 23mm GF lenses First, the Fuji 23mm f/4 GF lens for the GFX cameras is excellent in all respects. There is very slight vignetting at maximum aperture, but that is to be expected with such a wide-angle lens. The 17mm Laowa lens is not in the same league. No EXIF data on aperture transmitted to the camera, and there is significant vignetting at f/4 and f/5.6, with some vignetting even at f/11 – visible in test pictures of a brick wall, but not obvious in normal photography. The resolution is good throughout and there is no linear distortion (e.g., barrel or pin-cushion), which is extremely important. Contrast and saturation are lower with the Laowa 17mm lens than with the Fuji 23mm lens, but these can easily be corrected in Photoshop. With my test pictures of the brick wall, I found that the following Photoshop settings produced an image from the 17mm Laowa lens with characteristics that were very similar to those of the Fuji 23mm GF lens. Brightness & Contrast: Brightness: (unchanged) Contrast + 13 Colour balance: Midtones: +10 (more red, less cyan), 0 (Magenta/Green unchanged), -12 (more yellow, less blue) Hue/Saturation: Master: Hue 0 (unchanged), Saturation +38 Vignetting (at f/11): Filter > Lens Correction > Custom > Vignette: +30 (lighten) Midpoint + 19 This may sound like a lot of correction, but it could be set up as an action in Photoshop, and it was only really necessary with my test pictures of the brick wall. With normal pictures, a minor colour correction would produce an image that was a good colour match to images from the 23mm Fuji lens. There is a total absence of chromatic aberrations with both lenses, and both of them produce images that have a similar degree of sharpness, with further sharpening not normally necessary. The key fact is that the 17mm Laowa lens has an angle of view that is much, much wider than the 23mm Fujinon lens, and it corresponds more closely to the way I see scenes in landscapes and cityscapes. Comparisons with so-called 35mm “full format” (36mm × 24mm) is complicated by the fact that the ratios of “35mm” and Fuji GFX images are different (3:2 vs 4:3). In fact, if we reduce the height of the GFX image to achieve a 3:2 ratio, (approximately 44mm × 29mm), a large amount of the vignetting with the Laowa 17mm image disappears. However, the angle of view for the 17mm Laowa is given as 113º, while the angle of view for the 23mm Fujinon is given as 99.9º. This places the Laowa just slightly wider than the Voigtländer 15mm Super Wide Heliar (110º) on 36×24 format, and slightly narrower than the Voigtländer 12mm Ultra Wide Heliar (121º) on the same format. The 99.9º of the 23mm Fujinon is significantly narrower than the 15mm Super Wide Heliar. Both Laowa and Fuji give “full frame equivalent” focal lengths, though these are slightly complicated by the difference in format ratios. Laowa states that its 17mm GF lens is equivalent to 13.5mm in full frame format, while Fuji states that its 23mm GF lens is equivalent to 18mm in full frame format. This is of course extremely wide, compared with the wide angle lenses that were available in the film era, when 20mm was generally the widest, and it was not available in all mounts. Which lens is “better”? Technically, the Fujinon, but only the Laowa can give those ultra-wide vistas for landscapes/seascapes/cityscapes, and its technical deficiencies are easily corrected in post-production. No amount of post-production can give a wider image than that which is given by the 23mm Fujinon (and stitching images taken with wide-angle lenses is extremely difficult without specialist software), so for me, for certain shots, the 17mm Laowa will be the lens of choice.

I have now tested three further lenses with the Hartblei shift adapter, using the same settings as with the above lenses. 55mm Arsat shift lens No filter Zero shift: Resolution good over most of frame. Some loss of resolution near the edges. Some chromatic aberrations. Lens only fully shifted up and fully shifted down. Resolution OK. Lens only fully shifted left. Very good resolution (although any defects may have been masked by out-of-focus tree branches nearer to the camera. Lens fully shifted right. Edge resolution not very good. I then tested the same lens fully shifted (12mm) and the shift adapter fully shifted (also 12mm), a total of 24mm shift. Coverage continued to be excellent, but resolution was not adequate. The 50mm Flektogon is much sharper, even fully shifted, and there is no chromatic aberration. I have seen better results with someone else’s 55mm Arsat shift lens. There here appears to be a case of sample variation. 150mm Hartblei (improved version of the Arsenal/Arsat Kaleinar) Zero shift: resolution is excellent, but depth of field is very shallow, even at f/11. Fully shifted up: as with zero shift. Fully shifted down: very slight loss of sharpness at very top. Fully shifted L and R: Excellent resolution. Coverage is excellent at all settings. There are insignificant chromatic aberrations. Even stopped down to f/16, depth of field continues to be very shallow. Perhaps best as a portrait lens. The 180mm Sonnar is definitely sharper. 500mm Arsenal/Arsat APO lens Zero shift: Excellent resolution and coverage. Tiny amount of chromatic aberrations. 12mm shift in any direction causes corner cut-off. 12mm shift to L or R causes side cut-off and loss of resolution near the edge. This is probably OK with shifts up to 6 or 8mm.

On 29th May I tested on the GFX 50S various Medium Format lenses with the Pentacon Six mount, using the Hartblei P6 to GFX shift adapter, which allows shifts of up to 12mm in any direction. All of these lenses were tested at f/11 with five shift positions: Zero shift Fully shifted up Fully shifted down Fully shifted left Fully shifted right. 30mm Arsat MC fish-eye lens (MC version of the Arsenal “Zodiak”) Excellent resolution and coverage at zero shift. Vignetting at full shift and some chromatic aberrations visible near the edges. Full shift up: top left-hand corner cut off. With the inevitable rectilinear distortion of a fish-eye lens, a far better option is to use the 28mm Schneider-Kreuznach 35mm “full frame” (24×36mm) PC-Super-Angulon lens (at zero shift), via the Hartblei M42 to GFX adapter. 40mm Schneider-Kreuznach f/4 Curtagon in Exakta 66 mount Format coverage excellent, however slight resolution fall-off at left and right edges, even with zero shift. Significant resolution loss at edges and 1 stop light loss at edges at full shift. 40mm f/4 Bronica Zenzanon-S in Pentacon Six mount Coverage and resolution excellent at zero shift. At full shift, slight resolution fall-off very close to left and right edges. 45mm Mir 69Б (Russian B) (with Kood UV filter in place) Fantastic resolution. TINY amount of chromatic aberration at edges. Very minor light fall of at edges on max shift (less than 1 stop) 50mm f/4 Carl Zeiss Flektogon (no filter) SUPERB lens Immaculate resolution and cover including with maximum shift 180mm f/2.8 Carl Zeiss Sonnar (no filter, no lens hood Fantastic cover and resolution, including at maximum shift TINY amount of chromatic aberration at edges 45mm f/3.5 Hartblei PCS shift lens (optical elements from the Arsenal Mir 26Б) Zero shift: excellent resolution and coverage Not surprisingly, with full shift on the lens AND on the shift adapter (!!), the fall-off in resolution and exposure is unacceptable. However, this is not a realistic combination. Better would be to use the Pentacon Six mount shift-only lenses on the Hartblei Pentacon Six to Fuji GFX Tilt adapter and the Pentacon Six mount tilt-only lenses on the Hartblei Pentacon Six to Fuji GFX Shift adapter, thus providing both shift and tilt capabilities for all of these lenses. With these combinations, the shift can be in one direction and the tilt in another, so any combinations of tilt and shift direction are possible. This creates the equivalent of the Hartblei 45mm Tilt-Shift Super Rotator lens, which is no longer available new.

I have bought a Hartblei Pentacon Six lens to GFX 50S shift adapter and a Hartblei Pentacon Six to GFX 50S tilt adapter (two separate adapters). They are both very well made and each of them comes with a tripod mount. However, I have not yet had time to test them. I have been told from a very reliable source that the 50mm f/4 Zeiss Flektogon in Pentacon Six mount is very good with these adapters. There are a few wider lenses, such as the Ukrainian 45mm Mir-26B (Russian B ) and of course plenty of longer lenses in this mount.

Using M42 and Pentacon Six lens adapters from Hartblei, I have done a series of tests on the GFX 50S of lenses for 35mm analogue cameras (24×36mm) and a couple of medium format (6×6) lenses. The Carl Zeiss 20mm f/2.8 Flektogon might just about cover 65mm × 24mm at f/11 (the Hasselblad XPAN format) - disappointing, but to be expected. It is not usable for the full sensor. The old 25mm Zeiss Flektogon does not cover the format - not surprising. This lens ceased production in 1967. The 28mm Schneider-Kreuznach Super Angulon shift lens does cover the format (unshifted - shifts not tested) - so an excellent wide-angle lens for the GFX50S! The 35mm Schneider-Kreuznach Curtagon possibly covers 65mm × 24mm at f/11 - a surprising disappointment - far too much vignetting The 35mm f/2.4 Carl Zeiss Flektogon does cover the format, with minor correction for vignetting - quite good! The 35mm Arax Tilt/Shift lens does cover the format as indeed it should, being a shift lens, but really only from f/8 with considerable fall-off in light intensity at wider apertures - disappointing The 50mm Zeiss Pancolar possibly covers the format at f/8 and f/11 but there is barrel distortion. (I took pictures of a large rick wall!) The Pentacon Six 50mm Medium Format Carl Zeiss Flektogon should be much better - but not yet tested. The 80mm f/1.8 Carl Zeiss Pancolar (for 24×36) possibly covers the format with vignetting correction in the corners, but a Medium Format 80mm lens will be better. I have an 80mm Planar (Medium Format) from West German Zeiss in a Pentacon Six mount. It is very good from f/8 and would probably be very good at wider apertures by taking more time when focussing The 120mm Vega 28B (Russian B ) in Pentacon Six/Kiev 60 mount is very good and might become my default lens for the time being. I have also tested some more 35mm-format ("full frame") lenses, all of which had good coverage: a Carl Zeiss 200mm f/2.8 Sonnar lens, a Pentacon 200mm f/4 lens and a 135mm Zeiss f/3.5 Sonnar lens - the best of the lot! Could be a great portrait lens on this camera, and it is small and light-weight. I hope to be able to test more lenses next week, but most of them are for analogue 6×6 cameras, so coverage should not be a problem.