No of course - the whole "adapting lenses business" of vintage glass on digital cameras... isn't necessary nor anything I would do - unless I have those lenses. Which I do. And in this case, I am loosely testing the large Pentax 67 lenses on the mini medium format camera; Fujifilm GFX 50s II camera.
I would not buy Pentax 67 lenses, if i wouldn't have a Pentax 67 camera or just in order to adapt vintage glass on modern digital cameras. It's that simple.
But here I am - and since I also have the Pentax 67 to GFX (straight) adapter - I started to play with that combo - which I never had tested before.
Surprisingly good quality !
Now that I had some light left in the sky and landscape at my balcony in Southern Stockholm, just after sunset - I was able to at least take a few shots. I chose the Pentax 67 SMC 90mm ƒ 2.8 lens, put in the name of the lens so that the info would be registered in the files (via exif). Fujifilm gives you several options, to register several lenses. So, i simply switched setting, i had earlier typed into the camera. Now i can see, which lens I used.
Now what really strikes me, is the good quality of the Pentax 67 lenses. They are SHARP ! Already wide open sharpness is there, but with a fine glare (lesser contrast) in the finest details - which easily can be fixed in post. Now once i stopped the lens down to ƒ5.6 (stop stops) - it was like WOW !
That thing is really sharp across the entire fame.
So, with real medium format lenses, you really get very even quality across the entire frame. I am quite startled of how good this Pentax 67 SMC 90mm ƒ2.8 is (it is one of the more modern incarnations among Pentax 6x7 lenses).
It does help with Image Stabilization
Also surprising was that I could handheld it, without getting blurry at 1/40 sec. Fujifilm's internal image stabilized sensor does help nicely. Which is also the reason i bought the Fujifilm GFX 50s II model, instead of the first version from 2017 without image stabilization. The in-body Image stabilization now pays off. Fur non-electronic third party lenses, you have to dial in (register) the focal length manually.
Rumor: A 100 MP Fujifilm GFX compact camera - without IS
Funny about Image stabilization is, that Fujifilm is rumored in Spring 2025 to bring out a 100 MP, rather small GFX medium format compact camera together with a fixed 35mm ƒ4 lens [equivalent to a 28 mm wideangle] - but without image stabilization.
Perhaps leaving IS out makes the camera extra compact ?
Yet - having a 101 MP sensor without stabilization - Man, that is really daring. Makes it primarily good for good light situations. And tripod work in any light, I would say... Which doesn't need to be a bad thing, though. I mean if the camera really is that compact, it can open new doors (while others seemingly are closing).
Can be used as a digital XPan camera !
But... what about thinking of that compact camera a high res camera PLUS Hasselblad XPan on top. That is like having two in one cameras. In Panorama mode, you still have 50+ MP images. (I love the digital XPan mode in the Fujifilm GFX cameras)
Also; the old Hasselblad XPan certainly didn't have any image stabilization ! And ISO was limited to the film speed, where you on a digital medium format camera á lá Fujifilm GFX can indeed get away with ISO 3200 - giving you more leeway.
The old Hasselblad XPan and XPan II / Fujifilm TX-1/TX-2 cameras
were way too slow for any indoor photography - except if you had a high ISO film perhaps. Or, as soon the light got dull, camera shake was evident more often than not.
Especially during Scandinavian winter time... was often a no-go.
Or when you take portraits or a scene in the shadows of a building during the darker months, or even in spring and autumn when it was densely overcast.... uhm... i often got blurry shots with the Hasselblad XPan camera. Too long shutter shake, you know. On top of that, with the center filter on the lens - which the 45mm ƒ4 lens demanded in order to make really nice looking, evenly lit panorama photos ... well, that resulted into a very slow starting aperture of ƒ5.6
Therefore; In real life, handheld - the Hasselblad XPan was a summer / daytime camera. (Unless you used a tripod). Or you accepted the camera shake it often would result into. Another iffy subject was, that the light meter quit very early on the Hasselblad XPan. The manual said EV 4, but it sometimes felt like EV 6 or so. Already a typical indoor café lighting - and the camera couldn't measure the light anymore. I either had to either guess the shutter speed, or use an external light meter.
So, there was that.
Year 2000: Indoor at ISO 1000
I did of course use the Hasselblad XPan camera indoors in café lighting anyways ... i mean, it wouldn't make me refrain from taking images !
Here are two photos I made of my friend Claus in year 2000: in a backdoor café near Odenplan Plaza in Stockholm. The film was a Fujifilm Neopan 1600 film (E.I: ISO 1000) together with the Hasselblad 45mm ƒ4 lens. Without filter i believe - because that special center filter thing was far too expensive for me with 2500 SEK. Which 25 years ago, is equivalent like buying a 450 € filter in 2024. I mean a frikking filter for that much money. I bought the Hasselblad center filter many years later instead.
It is not a problem to use the XPan 45mm ƒ4 lens without center filter - as long you are going with BW film. But in color, i thought the dark corners really didn't work well with color film as a panorama photo ! It just looked tacky. (Despite me being a friend of darker corners, it just doesn't look good in long panorama images).
A Lesson Learned. |
