Steve Spencer
Online
• • • • • • •
Upload & Sell: On
|
 p.65 #15 · Pre-order: Fujifilm GFX 50S Medium Format body ($6,499) | |
Audii-Dudii wrote:
FYI, it's already known that the 28 mm and 55 mm Otus lenses have smallish image circles that allow for very limited movements when focused at infinity and used with 35 mm format sensors ... typically on the order of 3-4 mm for the 28 mm and a bit more for the 55 mm. The 85 mm, however, has a noticeably larger image circle and should come very close to covering the GFX sensor, so there is that, but the 28 mm and 55 mm versions will almost certainly fall well short...
Last summer, I converted a friend's ZF 135/f2 from a Nikon mount to a Pentax mount, so he could use it on his K-1, by installing a Leitax replacement mount. Now that I am able to attach Nikon-mount lenses to my modified Toyo VX23d "FrankenKamera" digital view camera, which uses an A7R body as a digital back, I am planning to borrow it back from him, reconvert it back to its original Nikon mount (it shouldn't take more than 15 minutes!), and see just how large its image circle actually is ... we shall see. (Although I'm a wide-angle guy, I must say the handful of quick test photos I took of my dog, Abby -- sorry, I don't have a cat! -- with it mounted on my A7R were spectacular and I very much enjoyed my weekend with it.)
Based upon the information presently available, IMO, it's still too early to tell how happily the GFX will work with view camera lenses of both traditional film and modern digital design.
The fact that Fuji will be offering a view camera adapter for it is a very positive sign, to be sure, but as the owner of a 33x44 digital back (Phase One P30+) who adapted it to work on my Toyo 23G view camera and was mostly disappointed with the results, I am not especially optimistic.
(For the record, I did ultimately achieve some limited success using it with a Mamiya 50 mm/f4 PC lens that I adapted to work on my Contax 645 body, along with a few other adapted, retrofocus MF lenses, but working with the P30+ back for the type of long-exposure photography I do, especially here in the heat of the Arizona summer, proved problematic and after a while, I abandoned it to return to smaller-format sensors.)
Ditto for using the GFX with long exposures. Its small body at least raises the potential for it to have heat dissipation issues and the noise that goes along with them (which was my major issue with the P30+, because the ambient temps where I live can still be over 100 degrees at midnight during the summer months, and the resulting noise wreaked all sorts of havoc with my photos.) Mind you, this is also a problem with my A7R and RX1s, too. In fact, I now resort to chilling them in the refrigerator to just above the Dew Point before I head out for the evening and store them in doubled-up cooler bags with ice packs while I am out, to keep them as cool as possible for as long as possible. I also have a pair of RX1s and use one for setting up photos, then swap to the other one for taking them, so as to keep it out of the heat as much as possible. Don't laugh ... although all of this really is a major PITA, it really does work!
So as tempted as I am to order a GFX myself, I have decided to take a wait-and-see attitude for now and will let others test the water for me. If the early indications are positive, then I'll likely rent one before I buy one, because even then, my experience has been that my particular needs are very much different than those of most photographers and the only way I can confirm that a given camera or lens will work well for me is to ... well, actually work with it.  ...Show more →
I would love to know what you find with the ZF 135 f/2. I do have hopes for that lens. I agree totally that how cameras respond to long exposure and especially in really hot environments is hard to predict. Your example is a good one. One would have thought that the A7rII would have been an advance over the A7r, but you no doubt use the older generation camera because it has less issues with those types of shots. Fortunately for me, long exposures (over 3 or 4 minutes) are not a part of what I do, and I live pretty far north where I don't see those types of ambient temperatures, so I don't have to worry about those issues, but concerns about heat are definitely a potential issue with digital and especially with small bodies.
I'm not too worried about the view camera lens (Rodentstock 100 f/4 HR Digaron S) that I got, but I do think choice of the lens that one uses may matter. I think most of the SK APO digitars and the Rodenstock digarons will work well, but some of the large format film lens may not have enough resolution to work well on a high megapixel sensor.
|
