I picked up the 50/2 APO Lanthar for use with my XT5 and woozier - what a lens. I understand that if adapted to the 50R the vignetting would be manageable (even if slight cropping in post would be needed.). That would be a 40mm equivalent walk about lens with the 50R. I imagine that the image quality would be pretty sweet when combining that lens with a GFX sensor.
If I also used the 28/2 Lanthar, the vignetting would likely be quite a bit more severe - would it even be usable or correctable in post?
I am confident that my 75/1.9 Ultron and eventually the 90/4 Lanthar would be fine.
Still a relatively small kit for this type of IQ (which is important to me).
Looks like the 50R could be had for a similar price (give or take a bit) as an SL2. Obviously, the SL2 would not have the vignetting issues, but I would give up the smooth tonal gradations of the gfx sensor. I also like the 65:24 format option for panos.
Thoughts? Is this a silly idea? - I wish I had a buddy in the area that had one I could test.
If you need to crop though you wont get 40mm equiv.
Also I would like to point out that Leica M lenses in the wide angle expect Leica M sensors. That means they want the adoptions that Leica has to make digital sensors work with their lenses. Regular sensors lik in the Fujifilm GFX cameras do not have these adaptions. So for wide angle this wont work.
It would work with SLR lenses though, because wide angles for SLR have to accomodate the mirror box anyway and thus the angles of the light are much less steep.
Thats why my first "lens" for a GFX system, if I ever start one, will probably be a Nikon F to Fujifilm GF adapter.
You don't have to crop many files with vignetting to get sick of doing it. It would be a shame to have a Gfx and the only lens be one that always vignettes. Its fine with specialty, less used lenses but I would want an everyday that uses the entire frame. Adapting a 645 lens is an alternative w/o that issue.
You can simply make a preset or action that automatically crops the correct amount for that particular lens, and even automate it on import 😉
SGinNorcal wrote:
You don't have to crop many files with vignetting to get sick of doing it. It would be a shame to have a Gfx and the only lens be one that always vignettes. Its fine with specialty, less used lenses but I would want an everyday that uses the entire frame. Adapting a 645 lens is an alternative w/o that issue.
RoamingScott wrote:
You can simply make a preset or action that automatically crops the correct amount for that particular lens, and even automate it on import 😉
That could be a great solution as long as you didn't mind a generous crop. Most lenses that vignette do it at a variable amount, more at larger aperture and less stopped down.
maybe the solution is, if I get the 50R, use the 50 APO Lanthar as my small light everyday carry lens and other VM lenses for longer focal length. But use something like the Pentax 35 or Mamiya 35 for wide angle use.
Seems totally pointless. M lenses will perform like crap because the cover glass of the GFX sensor is extremely thick (~double that of Sony cameras that already make M lenses perform like crap). Vignetting is sometimes correctable, but severe curvature of field is not.
I really don't think the lens will be anywhere near as sharp in the GFX corners as you may think it will be, so if you are thinking that the lens will be a sharpness king throughout the image, it probably won't be that.
However, if there are different reasons you like the Apo Lanthar (specifically rendering), using the area beyond the normal image circle may not be much (if at all) of a compromise, other than the likely need to be cropping to handle missing corners.
It's not my way of shooting with the GFX, but seems perfectly reasonable as long as you understand the tradeoffs. I'd be more inclined to find older manual 645 lenses to use from Pentax or Mamiya, but the rendering character is likely to be very different from the Apo Lanthar.
I have a bunch of M lenses, mostly voigtlander. I still pick up my native lenses for the GFX, the 45mm if I need something 'small'. My GFX has lpf2 removed so I can have an effectively thinner sensor stack than stock if I put a uvir filter on the lens.
The native lenses are much better than any M lens adapted.
If you want a small lens for your GFX I can suggest the 40/1.8 Konica Hexanon AR. It covers well but won't come close to the 45mm native lens in performance.
thrice wrote:
If you want a small lens for your GFX I can suggest the 40/1.8 Konica Hexanon AR. It covers well but won't come close to the 45mm native lens in performance.
Hmmm, I tried that lens on my old a7 II and it gave really bad backwards curvature of field. I imagine it's much worse on the stock GFX sensor. It's a very sharp lens with nice colors though, at least well stopped down.
Edit: Personally I adore the GF 50/3.5 and there aren't many adapted lenses that are smaller including the adapter.
pechance wrote:
Perhaps it isn't worth it. Just keep loving the XT5.
If someone made an APS equivalent to the 35mm Summilux lens from the Mandler era, it would be my absolute most favorite lens on the XT5. Not sure anyone comes close, though, but damn, that ought to be a relatively easy lens to manufacture these days.
The aberrations come for free with the simple optics of those older lenses. It wasn't sharp in the corners, however, but once stopped down, was certainly sharp enough. But the rendering... absolutely my favorite of non- large format lenses.
Mar 18, 2026 at 11:07 AM
Steve Spencer Online Upload & Sell: On
mjm6 wrote:
If someone made an APS equivalent to the 35mm Summilux lens from the Mandler era, it would be my absolute most favorite lens on the XT5. Not sure anyone comes close, though, but damn, that ought to be a relatively easy lens to manufacture these days.
The aberrations come for free with the simple optics of those older lenses. It wasn't sharp in the corners, however, but once stopped down, was certainly sharp enough. But the rendering... absolutely my favorite of non- large format lenses.
I think the Voigtlander 35 f/1.2 for Fuji X mount might be pretty close. To my eye it has a pretty similar rendering.
Tried it on my GFX100S, and it failed there too, pretty miserably, just like on every body other than the M. It is extremely sharp in the centre, but it goes out of shape almost immediately beyond that, even at f/8. It really looks like a lens designed specifically around the M system, judging by how badly it behaves on everything else, from the SL3 to the Z9 to Sony. By comparison, my 40mm f/1.2 on GFX feels almost native.