X-T1 with legacy lenses?

A comment on a post on another forum suggests that the X-T1 shines as a body to use with manual legacy lenses. Is anybody here using it in that role? My old glass is all Pentax-- I have access to 11 different K and M lenses in 10 focal lengths, a library that I am dying to use. But getting them to work on a modern DSLR body designed for AF lenses with no aperture rings and with no focusing aids in the VF, can be problematic, as you know.

Will the X-T1 allow me to use my aperture rings normally? Can I use shutter priority automation with a manual lens? Does the split image screen/ focusing aid work well? Would the converter affect the image quality or metering?

Sorry if these are are dumb questions, but I have been considering dedicating a body to my old lenses for a while, and the idea of using something other than a Pentax for the purpose had never occurred to me. The size and shape of the X-T1 might make for a very attractive companion to my old glass.

I predominantly use MF lenses on the X-T1. Aperture rings work as expected, and the EVF means you get to see exactly what effect stopping down has on DOF etc.

The split screen works well though I found it takes a bit of getting used to. I tend to use the magnified view on its own when I have a bit more time for framing/composition.

Not tried it in shutter priority - but you can set the Auto ISO to keep a user set minimum shutter speed which I find works just as well for when I want to maintain a faster shutter speed. This facility only goes up to 1/500 - in case that is a factor.

I've used several cheap adapters and never had a problem with any of them - they are just tubes to put the lens at the correct distance from the sensor after all

Nick

OK, the converters are just tubes without optical elements--good to know.

They are effectively wide angle converters that mean the lens behaves as its effective focal length would on a full fat sensor. I've seen mixed reviews about these causing vignetting so I've not bothered myself.

Good luck with whatever path you choose to go down,

Nick

You would be better served by Sony A7. I've tried manual lenses (Pentax and Nikon) on both Fuji and Sony and there is no contest, Sony is easier to focus and image quality is better.

forpetessake said:

You would be better served by Sony A7. I've tried manual lenses (Pentax and Nikon) on both Fuji and Sony and there is no contest, Sony is easier to focus and image quality is better.

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I'm interested that you claim that the A7 is easier to focus a legacy lens on than the XT1. Why would this be so?

Pat

yardcoyote said:

A comment on a post on another forum suggests that the X-T1 shines as a body to use with manual legacy lenses. Is anybody here using it in that role? My old glass is all Pentax-- I have access to 11 different K and M lenses in 10 focal lengths, a library that I am dying to use. But getting them to work on a modern DSLR body designed for AF lenses with no aperture rings and with no focusing aids in the VF, can be problematic, as you know.

Will the X-T1 allow me to use my aperture rings normally? Can I use shutter priority automation with a manual lens? Does the split image screen/ focusing aid work well? Would the converter affect the image quality or metering?

Sorry if these are are dumb questions, but I have been considering dedicating a body to my old lenses for a while, and the idea of using something other than a Pentax for the purpose had never occurred to me. The size and shape of the X-T1 might make for a very attractive companion to my old glass.

Click to expand...

You cannot shoot in shutter priority because the camera cannot control the aperture. However, you can shoot in aperture priority mode. You set the aperture, and the camera will meter the scene and set the shutter speed.

I shoot with some Zeiss lenses that work very well. I much prefer to focus using the focus peak highlight function. I find it much easier and faster than the split image. It's whatever you are comfortable with.

forpetessake said:

You would be better served by Sony A7. I've tried manual lenses (Pentax and Nikon) on both Fuji and Sony and there is no contest, Sony is easier to focus and image quality is better.

Click to expand...

Yes, why is this? Viewfinder is smaller on the A7. There will be a equivalent focus-length difference which would be in favor of the sony when using the same lens on both cameras. Since it is easier to focus lens that is more wideangel. But otherwise...?

Kjell

Sorry- I made my original post very quickly right before I walked out of the house. Of course I meant aperture priority, with the aperture adjustment being made with the ring on the lens rather than the control wheel on the body as with my modern lenses on my DSLR.

I would really like to be able to work that way.

yardcoyote said:

Sorry- I made my original post very quickly right before I walked out of the house. Of course I meant aperture priority, with the aperture adjustment being made with the ring on the lens rather than the control wheel on the body as with my modern lenses on my DSLR.

I would really like to be able to work that way.

Click to expand...

Yes, the X-T1 should work the same way my X-A1 works with legacy lenses, where Aperture Priority and Manual Priority work very well. If there's enough light, the brightness of the image in the LCD is automatically adjusted so that what you see is neither too dark or too bright. In very dim light, there's not enough gain so the image can get pretty dark if you use a small aperture.

While the image quality using my 12mm VC lens is generally excellent, the X-A1's sensor wasn't really optimized for such a wide angle lens, so when I compare the results using the lens on the X-A1 with Ricoh's GXR, the results are pretty much indistinguishable except for some noticeable CA in the X-A1's images. This is probably due to the same problem people have seen when wide angle lenses are used with Sony's NEX7 which is probably due to the way the sensor's microlenses were designed.

If you're using lenses that don't have such extremely short focal lengths, the X-T1 will probably be pretty immune from CA when it's used with good lenses. The X-T1 should have the same menu option that the X-A1 has, which lets you select from a table of predefined focal lengths to match the lens that you're using. Then it will be able to optimize some of the lens corrections it uses. There was no predefined 12mm focal length, but the last two entries in the table allow the user to define the lens's focal lengths, so Fuji's cameras should be able to optimize the images for a fairly large number of legacy lenses.

Nothing shorter than a 28mm in my collection, so wide angle is not a potential problem.

yardcoyote said:

OK, the converters are just tubes without optical elements--good to know.

Click to expand...

You probably are aware that the XT-1 (or any camera with a APS-C sensor) has a equivalent to a 1.5x factor on the legecy lens. In other words, your 50mm legecy lens becomes the equivalent to a 75mm focal length. 28mm = 42mm and 85mm = 128mm and so forth.

The Metabones Speedbooster has a optical lens element that has a 0.71x effect while at the same time increase your effective aperture by 1 f/stop, i.e., 50mm f/1.4 legecy becomes a 53mm f/1.0. (50 x 1.5 x 0.71). Tthe adapter is expensive at $399 but is solidly built. And it will give your legecy lens more or less the original focal length plus giving you the equivalent of a one f/stop faster. There's a Chinese knockoff called Lens Turbo at a much lower price.

Here's a comparison of the two: http://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/51792972

Very familiar with the crop factor multiplier, since I currently use a crop sensor DSLR. I had heard of the Metabones Speedbooster, but had never had it explained to me before. Does this device have any negative effect on image quality?

(Fooey. Just looked it up and there are no Metabones adapters for the K mount!)

Good post. It never occurred to me to use aperture priority mode with manual lenses. I have always simply used manual.

That would speed up getting a nice exposure.

As for A7 versus XT1 for manual focusing with legacy lenses. A7 and A7r focus peaking is still considerably better implemented than XT1's. Some say focus peaking on the Sony is needing refining as it can show a bit too much in focus or is hard to see in magnified view or on some lenses but that has not been my experience. Its pretty fast and easy. But I do find XT1 magnified view picture in a picture to be very very good and gives certainty you are in focus. So perhaps its a wash there and maybe a tad towards XT1. A7/r will do magnified view easily as well as focus peaking but its 2 more clicks to get there as opposed to XT1 already there in the side picture.

Both are good is my conclusion and not really a point of distinction between them. Perhaps a bit of a plus of the XT1 as its fairly fast plus super accurate with the magnified view.

Lens Turbo is rubbish so I would not consider them unless you like massive coma from your lenses!

Metabones speed booster seems better but coma in the corners is there just not as bad a Lens Turbo which is shockingly bad. Then again for a lot of shots Metabones slight coma in the corners may not affect the image too much.

Some lenses I find exceptional are:

Contax G 45 and 90. The 28 is good on the XT1 but not on A7/r.

Contax Yashica 28-85 zoom - a bit big and heavy but very sharp, bit soft in corners at 28mm but sharp as you go up the zoom range.

Samyang 24mmF F1.4 is sharp.

Canon 70-200mm F4 L is lovely and sharp and lively.

Nikon 105 F2.5 AIS - very nice.

Nikon 14-24 lovely, big and heavy though.


Greg.

yardcoyote said:

Very familiar with the crop factor multiplier, since I currently use a crop sensor DSLR. I had heard of the Metabones Speedbooster, but had never had it explained to me before. Does this device have any negative effect on image quality?

(Fooey. Just looked it up and there are no Metabones adapters for the K mount!)

Click to expand...

I've used both Metabones and Chinese knock-offs. The former is very good optically, though I had problems with the infinity focus with some Nikon lenses. The later are mostly a waste of money. But even with Metabones, the corners often look softer than when using the same lens on an FF body. I must mention that I used the Sony versions of the focal reducers, I didn't try the Fuji versions, which should be optically the same.

I have a lot of MF lenses with XT1 you just need a small adapter which is basically a tube that compensat for the mirror box

The exposure will be as you like manual or automatic and the MF devices on XT1 are numerous FP, split image and magnifier 3x 10x

My MF lenses Samyang 8mm FE Tamron 90mmmacro Nikkor 300mm Tokina 17mm Nikon mount

Pentax 135 andv200mm CV 15mm

Hmm... Samyangs. I had been focused (ha ha) on the idea of using my own old Pentax lenses, paid for long ago and ready to go, but a camera body that handles them well would also be good with new MF lenses.

one of my fav lens to use on my 6D, Carl Zeiss 35/1.4 Rollei mount with the 3 aperture blades ... works great on the XT1 (albeit big, specially compared to the Fuji 35/1.4).


if you take away the adapter size, the lens itself isn't too much bigger compared to the 23/1.4 here


Another view


quick sample @ 1.4. SCOC from Camera to Phone and uploaded to Flickr. bit underexposed in this one



quick example of the triangular bokeh .. not everyones cup of tea but I love it =)

I kinda dig the little triangles! They are definitely stylish.

And while the lens is certainly big, it seems to be in harmony with the body-- a nice looking package.