X-E1 + Nikon MF 50mm f/1.8 E = $70 Brilliance: MINI REVIEW

So as everyone has shown and tested, the X-E1+35mm and 18-55mm are obviously great combos. If  you're not interested in spending the cash on the Fuji 60mm or want something to hold you over until the Fuji 56mm f/1.4 comes out... or simply just want a great deal on a sharp short telephoto portrait lens... look no further.

This by no means is a scientific test, just a fellow photo enthusiast(now fuji x enthusiast) wanting to share what I've found.

First of all, the lens is small. It's no pancake, but combined with the Nikon-Fuji adapter it retains the same over all size-form factor as the X-E1+35mm f/1.4; which is nice compared to many larger adapted lens options. This was the main reason I went for the E-Seires version.



I'm impressed with the quality of my $20 ebay adapter, not sure why I would need to spend $100 on one.

Needed the adapter for the photo but with the adapter it stands almost the exact same height as the 35mm.

...don't mind the cellphone shots.

-The aperture ring is smooth though sometimes hard to find as your shooting as it's very compact lens.

-The manual focus ring is smooth as butter and a joy to use compared any of my Nikon AF lenses or fuji's focus by wire.

-Image quality and sharpness is hard to believe for the price, I guess a similar story to it's later AF brothers. It's very sharp wide open, stop it down to f/2-f/2.8+ and it's sharp as tack. All of my examples are shot wide open for testing, again no need to stop it down cause it's sharp at f/1.8( obviously I'll stop it down for DOF control when I need to). It is perhaps slightly less contrasty than the 35mm and maybe a tad cooler but nothing really noticeable.

Left it on aperture priority most of the shots. Though indoors I usually make sure I keep my shutter speed on 1/125sec. Mild PP, all from JPG's.



Trusting auto shutter speed doesn't really work out in lowlight situations, I set it on 125 to be sure. I find the camera does well to even out the exposure with auto iso and manual aperture/shutter. But as always hurry up on that fuji.

-I only used the focus assist zoom about 25% of the time. At a 75mm 35mm-equivalent, it's not too hard to focus, even wide open. Of course when I needed to be precise the MF zoom assist was brilliant.

Managed to stop the active pups with MF



Razor thin DOF

Some more with 100% crop screen grabs.

Handled the harsh reflections well enough for me. Probably would have been a better shot at f/2 or f/2.8

Longer distance focus point, still performing great.

A few more samples from my cold walk...

All in all a great addition to my X-E1 kit and at $70 for the lens and $20 for the adapter, I'm more than happy with my sub $100 purchase.

Again I know this wasn't a scientific review so if anyone has any requests I'll more than likely be happy to oblige. Thanks for reading.