Manual Focus and X-Pro

bs1946 wrote:

Zinch wrote:

bs1946 wrote:

Using manual lenses on the X-Pro with the OVF is pathetic. If you have used a Leica M or any other real rangefinder camera, you will be in for a major disappointment. I have an X-Pro2 and an X-T2 and when I use the X-Pro2 with a manual lens, I always use the EVF, usually with peaking. Almost never use the OVF and only with AF lenses. The dual OVF/EVF on the X100 series and the X-Pro series was one of those great ideas that Fuji's designers completely screwed up. Besides owning an X-Pro1 and two X-Pro2s, I have owned every X100 model from the original through the X100F and almost never used the OVF on any of them.

I think this is an unfair assessment. Until the release of the Voigtlander lenses there wasn't any manual focus lens designed to be used with the X-Pro or X100 line.

Why, the OVF on the X-Pro line offers nothing to assist manual focus beyond using your eyeball. The new Voigtlander 33mm f1.2 is no different, the electronics on the lens do nothing to make the OVF magically work any better. The best Fuji came up with was that stupid little ERF down in the corner of the OVF that is basically a miniature EVF.

Is like saying that the Leica rangefinders are unusable because you have only used lenses without mechanical conection with the camera (the M lenses have to comunicate the focus distance mechanicaly with the camera for it to work).

Just like with Fuji, you can get adapters that allow the use of vintage non-m-mount lenses on a Leica M.

AFAIK, people that have used the Voigtlander lens with the X-Pro3 (sadly it doesn't work in older cameras) is happy with it.

The lens works just like any other manual lens on older bodies, you just loose the electronics.

Bill I’m sorry but the rangefinder patch in any rangefinder is “stupid and little” and no better for manual focusing of very fine or distant objects, so I don’t really see your disdain for the ERF as inferior. At least you can punch in zoom on it, can’t do that with ANY analog rangefinder.

Pocket Lint wrote:

bs1946 wrote:

Zinch wrote:

bs1946 wrote:

Using manual lenses on the X-Pro with the OVF is pathetic. If you have used a Leica M or any other real rangefinder camera, you will be in for a major disappointment. I have an X-Pro2 and an X-T2 and when I use the X-Pro2 with a manual lens, I always use the EVF, usually with peaking. Almost never use the OVF and only with AF lenses. The dual OVF/EVF on the X100 series and the X-Pro series was one of those great ideas that Fuji's designers completely screwed up. Besides owning an X-Pro1 and two X-Pro2s, I have owned every X100 model from the original through the X100F and almost never used the OVF on any of them.

I think this is an unfair assessment. Until the release of the Voigtlander lenses there wasn't any manual focus lens designed to be used with the X-Pro or X100 line.

Why, the OVF on the X-Pro line offers nothing to assist manual focus beyond using your eyeball. The new Voigtlander 33mm f1.2 is no different, the electronics on the lens do nothing to make the OVF magically work any better. The best Fuji came up with was that stupid little ERF down in the corner of the OVF that is basically a miniature EVF.

Is like saying that the Leica rangefinders are unusable because you have only used lenses without mechanical conection with the camera (the M lenses have to comunicate the focus distance mechanicaly with the camera for it to work).

Just like with Fuji, you can get adapters that allow the use of vintage non-m-mount lenses on a Leica M.

AFAIK, people that have used the Voigtlander lens with the X-Pro3 (sadly it doesn't work in older cameras) is happy with it.

The lens works just like any other manual lens on older bodies, you just loose the electronics.

Bill I’m sorry but the rangefinder patch in any rangefinder is “stupid and little” and no better for manual focusing of very fine or distant objects, so I don’t really see your disdain for the ERF as inferior. At least you can punch in zoom on it, can’t do that with ANY analog rangefinder.

I've owned three different Leica Ms plus three or four different fixed lens rangefinders, all of the viewfinders are magnified and as soon as you see one rangefinder patch without a double image, the lens is in focus. Can't get easier than that.

bs1946 wrote:

Pocket Lint wrote:

bs1946 wrote:

Zinch wrote:

bs1946 wrote:

Using manual lenses on the X-Pro with the OVF is pathetic. If you have used a Leica M or any other real rangefinder camera, you will be in for a major disappointment. I have an X-Pro2 and an X-T2 and when I use the X-Pro2 with a manual lens, I always use the EVF, usually with peaking. Almost never use the OVF and only with AF lenses. The dual OVF/EVF on the X100 series and the X-Pro series was one of those great ideas that Fuji's designers completely screwed up. Besides owning an X-Pro1 and two X-Pro2s, I have owned every X100 model from the original through the X100F and almost never used the OVF on any of them.

I think this is an unfair assessment. Until the release of the Voigtlander lenses there wasn't any manual focus lens designed to be used with the X-Pro or X100 line.

Why, the OVF on the X-Pro line offers nothing to assist manual focus beyond using your eyeball. The new Voigtlander 33mm f1.2 is no different, the electronics on the lens do nothing to make the OVF magically work any better. The best Fuji came up with was that stupid little ERF down in the corner of the OVF that is basically a miniature EVF.

Is like saying that the Leica rangefinders are unusable because you have only used lenses without mechanical conection with the camera (the M lenses have to comunicate the focus distance mechanicaly with the camera for it to work).

Just like with Fuji, you can get adapters that allow the use of vintage non-m-mount lenses on a Leica M.

AFAIK, people that have used the Voigtlander lens with the X-Pro3 (sadly it doesn't work in older cameras) is happy with it.

The lens works just like any other manual lens on older bodies, you just loose the electronics.

Bill I’m sorry but the rangefinder patch in any rangefinder is “stupid and little” and no better for manual focusing of very fine or distant objects, so I don’t really see your disdain for the ERF as inferior. At least you can punch in zoom on it, can’t do that with ANY analog rangefinder.

I've owned three different Leica Ms plus three or four different fixed lens rangefinders, all of the viewfinders are magnified and as soon as you see one rangefinder patch without a double image, the lens is in focus. Can't get easier than that.

I agree with you that in normal viewing distances, in good lighting conditions, with medium sized targets it’s very easy and quick to focus with rangefinder patch, or any split prism manual focus screens, but as soon as you get into very fine details, or distant objects, or very shallow DoF, or any combination of them, it’s really inferior. I like Leica rangefinders too, but there are just some things it excels at and some it doesn’t.

bastibe wrote:

Joachim Gerstl wrote:

Hi,

The OVF is for street photography. The advantage is that you see things outside of your frame like subjects that are about to enter the frame. It makes absolutely no sense for portraits or close up photography.

A shame. Because it is actually fun to use.

If you insist to use it for portraits or closeup of course you can but you have to deal with parallax errors and the fact that eye AF doesn't work.

bs1946 wrote:

Zinch wrote:

bs1946 wrote:

Using manual lenses on the X-Pro with the OVF is pathetic. If you have used a Leica M or any other real rangefinder camera, you will be in for a major disappointment. I have an X-Pro2 and an X-T2 and when I use the X-Pro2 with a manual lens, I always use the EVF, usually with peaking. Almost never use the OVF and only with AF lenses. The dual OVF/EVF on the X100 series and the X-Pro series was one of those great ideas that Fuji's designers completely screwed up. Besides owning an X-Pro1 and two X-Pro2s, I have owned every X100 model from the original through the X100F and almost never used the OVF on any of them.

I think this is an unfair assessment. Until the release of the Voigtlander lenses there wasn't any manual focus lens designed to be used with the X-Pro or X100 line.

Why, the OVF on the X-Pro line offers nothing to assist manual focus beyond using your eyeball. The new Voigtlander 33mm f1.2 is no different, the electronics on the lens do nothing to make the OVF magically work any better. The best Fuji came up with was that stupid little ERF down in the corner of the OVF that is basically a miniature EVF.

Is like saying that the Leica rangefinders are unusable because you have only used lenses without mechanical conection with the camera (the M lenses have to comunicate the focus distance mechanicaly with the camera for it to work).

Just like with Fuji, you can get adapters that allow the use of vintage non-m-mount lenses on a Leica M.

And if I'm nos mistaken, if they are not rangefinder lenses you can't focus properly with the Leica

AFAIK, people that have used the Voigtlander lens with the X-Pro3 (sadly it doesn't work in older cameras) is happy with it.

The lens works just like any other manual lens on older bodies, you just loose the electronics.

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Bill S.
www.flickr.com/photos/wrs1946
“Sharpness is a bourgeois concept”
- Henri Cartier-Bresson -

Zinch wrote:

bs1946 wrote:

Just like with Fuji, you can get adapters that allow the use of vintage non-m-mount lenses on a Leica M.

And if I'm nos mistaken, if they are not rangefinder lenses you can't focus properly with the Leica

Do you have any idea how many rangefinder lenses there are? When I had my M9, I  started collecting vintage 50mm lenses. I had 10, maybe more from before the M or even SLRs existed and I wasn't even close to scratching the surface. just about all were screw mount style lenses of one type or another.  The adapters provide what they need to work with the focus cam and they all worked perfectly fine on my M9.

Today I experimented a bit with the various display modes of my X-T3. One of its modes is where the viewfinder is shrunk a bit, and a small, magnified mini-viewfinder is displayed next to the main view.

I actually found this mode very pleasant to use for manual focusing, and would assume that the ERF on the X-pro would work similarly. It actually feels reasonably rangefinder-like.

Except, that the frame rate of the X-T3 absolutely tanks as soon as one of the split-prism simulations is activated, which makes the mode too annoying to use for me. But that shouldn't be a problem with the ERF, as the OVF obviously is lag-free.

I also checked used prices of X-Pros, and alas, prices are unreasonably high at the moment where I live. A used X-Pro2 currently goes for significantly more than an X-T3. But whatever, I can be patient.