If Fujifilm goes Full Frame - will any of their lenses be compatible?

[petergabriel]

I was just wondering whether any of Fujifilms lenses are ready for a full frame sensor, or are they all considered APS-C lenses, so Fujifilm would have to make a new full frame line of lenses.

[darknj]

Fuji have claimed several times that they will not make any FF camera.

 

Now there are rumors for a medium format camera and I wouldn't expect it to be using any of the current X line lenses.

[Larry Bolch]

It has been stated with some frequency that the X-mount precludes full frame. It would require a whole new line of lenses.

[kim]

Fuji have put so much into saying their cameras are so close to FF that you don't need a FF camera. MF would make sense in some small way.

Wonder if a speed booster adaptor would ever be in the cards, XF to X-MF or something... Probably not.

[Warwick]

Full frame would mean bigger cameras and bigger lenses. And if you want full frame there's always Nikon and Canon

 

 

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[cug]

Fuji has even said that the X-Mount prevents a good implementation of IBIS which only needs a little bit more space around the sensor. Don't even think about FF with the same lenses. It just doesn't work, so no value in daydreaming.

[superpanda]

A nice medium format system would make more sense. let nikon and canon fight over 35mm !

[Tom H.]

If they did, it would mean the lens designs could have been smaller, thus negating the point of using APS-C in the first place.

 

"Full frame ready" is Canon/Nikon rhetoric, where the whole point of the system is to push/force users into the high end scale where they will pay substantially more for lenses, thus insuring more income as the profit margins on the high end are better.

[kim]

Leica make some very tiny lenses for their bodies, some very good tiny lenses. They don't always have to be giant & I think Fuji is getting with at least a little bit of that with their 2/35. My wonder would be using Fuji's existing lens line up with a medium format body/sensor through a speed booster of sorts, could the quality be good enough?

Edited March 17, 2016 by kim

[Tom H.]

Leica make some very tiny lenses for their bodies, some very good tiny lenses. They don't always have to be giant & I think Fuji is getting with at least a little bit of that with their 2/35. My wonder would be using Fuji's existing lens line up with a medium format body/sensor through a speed booster of sorts, could the quality be good enough?

 

Upscaling an APS-C lens to medium format? That's not how speedboosters work. They work downwards as far as I know: medium format -> ff -> APS-C -> 4/3.

 

Leica lenses tend to be without autofocus, hence the smaller size.

[kim]

Yes the 'SpeedBooster' is designed to make the lens wider. Nothing to say one could be designed the other way, probably not, though it might be nice if a good quality one made it's way into the world along with a new camera.

 

I know in the past when I've stuck on APS-C lenses on a FF camera you get a huge amount of vignette, although a zoom, zoomed tight, filled the sensor well. As I have no way of mounting a Fuji lens on a  FF body I can't say.

[kim]

Here it the XF 16-55 F/2.8 free lensed into a 5D3 at 55mm. 16mm wouldn't focus as no mechanical focus available. 

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[Larry Bolch]

Leica make some very tiny lenses for their bodies, some very good tiny lenses. They don't always have to be giant & I think Fuji is getting with at least a little bit of that with their 2/35. My wonder would be using Fuji's existing lens line up with a medium format body/sensor through a speed booster of sorts, could the quality be good enough?

 

A speed booster in reverse is called a teleconverter or tele-extender, which Fuji already manufactures. With long focal length lenses, a 2× converter might work on a medium format sensor. Short and normal lenses would probably have a drastic fall-off in sharpness toward the edges. A 2× converter costs two stops loss in aperture, so an f/2.8 would functionally become an f/5.6. Not a good idea, since Fuji currently is making some of the best medium format lenses in existence.

[kim]

A 2× converter costs two stops loss in aperture, so an f/2.8 would functionally become an f/5.6. Not a good idea, since Fuji currently is making some of the best medium format lenses in existence.

 

 

I seem remember when Hasselblad launched it's H1 it was said that Fuji made a lot of it including, as you pointed out, lenses so I guess they have the experience for MF if they wanted to. Two stops from f1.4 is only f2.8 sounds like MF territory to me. I agree they would probably utilise their MF lens tech if a new camera appears.

[Stealthy Ninja]

Fuji lenses wouldn't cover a full frame sensor, let alone a Medium format.

[milandro]

This I am afraid would be pure fantasy gone wild.

 

One would spend a lot of money to buy a camera with a much larger sensor, then you get lenses made for a completely different camera, format and purpose, you add several complex glass elements at the back ( and incredible amount of electrical contacts) at some cost to get a image quality which, if at all possible, would be very much lower that the one reached by the camera for which the lenses were made in the first place.

 

No, FX lenses could not ( and even if possible should not) be used for any larger format.

Edited March 20, 2016 by milandro

[Guest thiswayup]

Leica make some very tiny lenses for their bodies, some very good tiny lenses. They don't always have to be giant & I think Fuji is getting with at least a little bit of that with their 2/35. My wonder would be using Fuji's existing lens line up with a medium format body/sensor through a speed booster of sorts, could the quality be good enough?

 

For any sensible person, no. The point of a big sensor is better low light performance but the amount of light coming through the lens wouldn't increase - the necessary adapter wouldn't be a speed booster but a light spreader that would diminish the amount of light each pixel gets. Why produce an expensive sensor for an especially demanding market and the cripple it to joke levels? If you want a camera that has higher sensor resolution at the cost of getting less light per pixel, then the sensible thing to do is just change pixel pitch in the same size sensor - that's why you see Sony A7's with 10 to 30 MP in the same format.

Edited March 20, 2016 by thiswayup

[Guest thiswayup]

This I am afraid would be pure fantasy gone wild.

 

One would spend a lot of money to buy a camera with a much larger sensor, then you get lenses made for a completely different camera, format and purpose, you add several complex glass elements at the back ( and incredible amount of electrical contacts) at some cost to get a image quality which, if at all possible, would be very much lower that the one reached by the camera for which the lenses were made in the first place.

 

No, FX lenses could not ( and even if possible should not) be used for any larger format.

 

You certainly could produce such an adapter. And I don't think that the optical quality issues would be no worse than for the converter lens for the X100 or a Speedbooster. (I've never designed lenses but I have a physics degree and I have read up on lens design.) But you're right about the contacts and right to say that it would be pointless - the reasons are in my last post.

[milandro]

I am sure that even if it could be technically done but as I think that we are both saying, it would be pointless.

[Guest thiswayup]

I am sure that even if it could be technically done but as I think that we are both saying, it would be pointless.

Worse than pointless. But it's an interesting question and I think it helps if people understand the correct reasons why it won't work well. Optics aren't magic and the problem of spreading light over a larger sensor with an adapter is relatively easy to solve; the big problem is that sensors aren't magic either. The same amount of light over a larger sensor isn't a win - it's probably a loss, because larger sensors tend to be less efficient. 

 

Of course sensors get better all the time, so in 5 years you might well see a sensor compatible with the current mount that has 40MP, decent low light performance, and improved dynamic range. And in 10 years, who can say? Time is on the side of sensor size reduction - high quality lenses are cheaper for smaller sensor sizes and system weight is less.

Edited March 20, 2016 by thiswayup