Fuji GFX 50R - Ultimate Camera for Vintage Lenses?

[matejphoto]

Hello All,

Since the price of used Fuji GFX 50R dropped below $2000, I finally picked one up to see if it could be the ultimate camera for use with vintage 35mm lenses.

I am not planning to use it with the native GF lenses and I am not after ultimate image quality, I am aiming for a film like experience (slower, more deliberate picture taking with manual/tactile control) without shooting film.

I decided to make a 25 part series of Youtube videos on the GFX 50R to answer the question in the title for me:
#1 - Why did I buy the Fuji 50R (intro): https://youtu.be/UXcjn2qfep8
#2 - Adapters (including Viltrox AF adapter) - I will publish this in next few days
The list of videos will be edited in this first post as they become available.

Other upcoming topics:
Fuji GFX 50R + Canon 40mm pancake
Fuji GFX 50R + Carl Zeiss Biotar 58mm
Fuji GFX 50R + 85mm Lomo Petzval
Fuji GFX 50R + Canon 90mm TS-E

I would like this thread to be a long term information resource for people interested in using the GFX 50R with vintage glass.
Please feel free to ask if you have any questions or any ideas for a video.

Thank you,
Matej

 

[GnarlydogOZ]

for me the sheer size of the GFX would be a non starter if the intended use is with adapted 35mm format lenses. I value compact systems and this is not one :-( https://camerasize.com/compare/#805,854

 

[John Crowe]

Not all 35mm lenses will cover 33mm x44mm, so it will be interesting to see what does. Obviously the TS-E will.

You are also open to many vintage medium format lenses too.

Have fun with it.

 

[Goethe]

Hello All,

Since the price of used Fuji GFX 50R dropped below $2000, I finally picked one up to see if it could be the ultimate camera for use with vintage 35mm lenses.

I am not planning to use it with the native GF lenses and I am not after ultimate image quality, I am aiming for a film like experience (slower, more deliberate picture taking with manual/tactile control) without shooting film.

I decided to make a 25 part series of Youtube videos on the GFX 50R to answer the question in the title for me:
#1 - Why did I buy the Fuji 50R (intro): https://youtu.be/UXcjn2qfep8
#2 - Adapters (including Viltrox AF adapter) - I will publish this in next few days
The list of videos will be edited in this first post as they become available.

Other upcoming topics:
Fuji GFX 50R + Canon 40mm pancake
Fuji GFX 50R + Carl Zeiss Biotar 58mm
Fuji GFX 50R + 85mm Lomo Petzval
Fuji GFX 50R + Canon 90mm TS-E

I would like this thread to be a long term information resource for people interested in using the GFX 50R with vintage glass.
Please feel free to ask if you have any questions or any ideas for a video.

Thank you,
Matej

I almost did this exact same thing. I think the GFX50R is quite possible the ultimate digital back for vintage lenses.

I especially like that is has a 1:1 square ratio option that just about every 35mm vintage lens will cover. As well having the option for a true 35mm format ratio as well.

As for the size of the camera, it is almost the same as my Lumix S1. Fuji did a great job with that body. Also, all of those sweet film simulations....

 

[matejphoto]

for me the sheer size of the GFX would be a non starter if the intended use is with adapted 35mm format lenses. I value compact systems and this is not one :-( https://camerasize.com/compare/#805,854

Absolutely, this solution is definitely not for everyone. I have the EOS M system for times when I want portability.

 

[matejphoto]

Not all 35mm lenses will cover 33mm x44mm, so it will be interesting to see what does. Obviously the TS-E will.

You are also open to many vintage medium format lenses too.

Have fun with it.

I looked at medium format lenses as well but my impressions were:

- Lenses are much more expensive and less abundant than 35mm lenses

- Adapters are hard to find (e.g. adapters for Pentacon six lenses (common in EU) are all $100+)

- The size of the system does become quite big

 

[Michael Floyd]

Hello All,

Since the price of used Fuji GFX 50R dropped below $2000, I finally picked one up to see if it could be the ultimate camera for use with vintage 35mm lenses.

I am not planning to use it with the native GF lenses and I am not after ultimate image quality, I am aiming for a film like experience (slower, more deliberate picture taking with manual/tactile control) without shooting film.

I decided to make a 25 part series of Youtube videos on the GFX 50R to answer the question in the title for me:
#1 - Why did I buy the Fuji 50R (intro): https://youtu.be/UXcjn2qfep8
#2 - Adapters (including Viltrox AF adapter) - I will publish this in next few days
The list of videos will be edited in this first post as they become available.

Other upcoming topics:
Fuji GFX 50R + Canon 40mm pancake
Fuji GFX 50R + Carl Zeiss Biotar 58mm
Fuji GFX 50R + 85mm Lomo Petzval
Fuji GFX 50R + Canon 90mm TS-E

I would like this thread to be a long term information resource for people interested in using the GFX 50R with vintage glass.
Please feel free to ask if you have any questions or any ideas for a video.

Thank you,
Matej

I agree that the 50R is the ultimate adaptor's workhorse. It provides a platform for pulling the most out of the greatest variety of lenses. The other GFX cameras as well equally of course, however there is something about the 50R that seems to align with the ethos of many people who like to shoot old manual lenses.

I commenced my 50R journey just 6 months ago, when used bodies came within my reach. My initial intention was to primarily use FF film lenses almost exclusively, although I now have many 645 lenses as well.

I had been stitching with my little Fuji X camera so as to capture an equivalent 30mm x 30mm sensor size, the results were delightful. When I realised that I could be capturing the same thing with a single shutter press, I knew that the day would come when a 50R would come my way.

I shoot mostly Pentax, both P645 and K-mount, and have tried a fairly good number of them out with a variety of results. One thing that strikes very quickly is that the lenses that work the best on the larger sensor are very often not the ones that you would guess. An open minded approach is worthy.

Of course pretty much all of the K mount lenses do the square crop and the 36x24 crop just fine. There are more than a few that are good to excellent on the whole sensor as well.

The P645 lenses are also definitely worth thinking about, there are some fabulous lenses in the range.

One thing I was concerned about at first was the obvious fact that the camera is large. As the months have past I grew to not mind it at all - then surprise of all surprises: I now really like the larger size of the gear! I pick up my little X-pro3 now and it feels cramped and awkward.



Your first video link, for me, links to an address with a 'Fred MIranda......' tag on the front of it. I had to remove that bit to go to the youtube link. I look forward to seeing how your video's come out.

Good luck with the journey, I'm happy to see that the 50R is being used in this way by an increasing number of people. There are a couple of folk in the medium format forum here too, so dip in there and have a look at some stage as well.



Here's a photo taken on my 50R with the SMC Pentax 55/1.8

 

[ProfHankD]

The 44x33mm format is generally marketed as "medium format," but is really quite undersized for that title. It is, however, just about perfect as a multi-aspect ratio FF format. The diagonal on standard FF is 43.3mm, and a square image with diagonal 43.3mm has 30.6mm on each side. In other words, it's just a hair larger than needed to capture every aspect ratio using the full coverage circle nominally required for FF. This sort of multi-aspect sensor concept was actually quite popular some years ago with the four thirds crowd, and that's roughly when Sony started pushing the format (although Kodak had dabbled with this format earlier), but nobody seemed to want to pay extra just for multi-aspect... so the "medium format" marketing line won out.

I think you'll find most FF lenses can actually cover even a bit more than 44x33mm, as I found using my Budgie shift-and-stitch adapter , which gives 48x36mm in 2 or 3 shots using a Sony FF body. Most FF lenses don't quite cover that well wide open at infinity focus. As all large-format folks know, the catch is that coverage in the sense of "light hits the corners" does not imply you get a well-corrected image into the corners. You really want two coverage diameters: one for vignetting and one for loss of IQ in general.

In any case, it would be nice to have the coverages of various old FF lenses out there in an accessible form -- there are such tables for large-format lenses and even for some C-mount lenses (which people hope will cover MFT or maybe even APS-C).

 

[Michael Floyd]

I had some time to watch your first video this evening.

I liked it, a promising start. I subscribed.

You said in your opening post : feel free to ask if you have any questions or any ideas -
My idea would be to have links in your videos to a companion site where you upload the relevant images at full resolution, so that we can have a proper look at them.

 

[matejphoto]

Second video now posted:

Fujifilm GFX 50R Adapters - Viltrox EF-GFX AF Test

Summary:
Dummy adapters (no electronics) work just fine, but no aperture control on Canon EF lenses.
Viltrox EF-GFX adapter seems to work fine, the focus does hunt a little, critical sharp images in about ~75% of cases.

Timestamps for the video:
0:00 Intro
0:21 Channel Info
0:49 K&F EOS-GFX Adapter
2:47 K&F M42-GFX Adapter
4:23 K&F OM-GFX Adapter
6:18 Viltrox EF-GFX Adapter
6:54 Viltrox AF test Canon Lenses
10:30 Canon 40mm Pancake
11:12 Tilt Shift Lenses
12:06 Aperture Control in Canon Lenses
14:16 Canon 24mm TS-E f/3.5 L II

 

[matejphoto]

I had some time to watch your first video this evening.

I liked it, a promising start. I subscribed.

You said in your opening post : feel free to ask if you have any questions or any ideas -
My idea would be to have links in your videos to a companion site where you upload the relevant images at full resolution, so that we can have a proper look at them.

Thanks for the sub!

I have the images uploaded on my flickr site:

Fujifilm 50R

Images from the Fujifilm 50R

flickr.com

I uploaded them in full resolution, please let me know if you can't see full res.

 

[matejphoto]

Working link for video:

#1:

#2: