Pentax 67 SMC 135/4 Macro

Out of curiosity i tested the Pentax 67 SMC 135mm ƒ4 Macro lens at infinity... but the micro sharpness was rather bad. Kind of mushy. Well, this lens isn't really made for infinity photos (albeit you can of course use Sharpen AI and get a lot better micro details). When you focus into the closer range (below 4 meter - this lens renders sharp and with less (red/green) chromatic aberrations compared the other Pentax 67 lenses.

Pentax 67 SMC 200/4 lens

Then i tested the Pentax 67 SMC 200mm ƒ4 lens at infinity - at aperture ƒ13 - the micro details were so much better ! Not equivalent like digital modern lenses, but much sharper in the finer details compared to the pokey SMC 135mm ƒ4 Macro lens.

Which you then of course can enhance through either sharpen slightly, or through gentle Sharpness AI (but not to much - you rather blend the results with the original, so that it looks more natural)

When you make those 150 MP images smaller - the aforementioned, doesn't really matter. Simply because everything looks sharp as you make images smaller. Like here my Diary for example.

Panorama Software

I had to switch stitching software - and my choice right now is the PanoramaStudio 4. Here you can align images that do not align in Photoshop or Lightroom - albeit i do have to add connection points manually for that to work. The issue with Photoshop not aligning the two photos above is that one of the four images, contains only sky.

And here the Adobe software quits. Same happens if you have a lot of bokeh in one of the four Vertex images - they often don't stitch into a quadratic image, due too much blur in the frame.

Yeah it sucks.

But luckily i start to get the hang of the Stitching software enough so that I can stitch all four images made with the rotating Vertex adapter - get them aligned into an 150 MP equivalent images, covering the image circle of the Pentax 6x7 lenses, as if using them with 120 medium format film - like in the old days.

Pretty cool, isn't it ?

92 mm image circle

Oh, speaking of Pentax 67 lenses. Apparently their real image circle is even larger; 92 mm - which means they cover the 6x7 negative format more than enough. That's probably also the reason they do not vignette that much, because of the rich margins in image circle these lenses have.

Pentax-M* 67 SMC 300mm F4 ED [IF]

And then there is this gem - a lens that is truly superb. I had replaced the uncorrected Pentax 67 SMC 300/4 with a this highly corrected version - which made major difference - especially when used at wide open aperture.

Very sharp, very clean, and no or almost no colors fringing of any kind. (The old one, fringed big times). These things mainly matter, when you use lenses on digital cameras (or slide film in some degree).

For black & white film, go for the cheap version - because it is extremely affordable.

Other impressions

Yesterday i bumped into a photographer's blog, who used the Mamiya Sekor Z lenses (Mamiya RZ67 system), on a tilt-shift type of device with bellows and the Fujifilm GFX camera on the other end. He used them for landscape and gave some impressions of certain Mamiya RZ67 lenses.

He was mighty impressed by the Mamiya Sekor Z Macro 140mm ƒ4.5 lens, which was impressive sharp. Another very sharp one was the Mamiya Sekor 50mm f4.5 ULD lens (wideangle lens). This one is a refined "digital" version of the older 50mm lens.

He also used with delight the superb Mamiya APO Sekor 210mm f 4.5 lens.

And stitches images together for a wider view. "as simple as that" (which isn't always that simple - but can be done) No extra adapter for that, but instead he either used shift and/or moving the camera in parallel ways. That is of course another alternative to widen a landscape view. I should test this too. I have so far not done that yet.

Especially when you use telephoto lenses, this should in theory work well.

On my mind, back and forth

I still haven't made up my mind, which HARTBLEI adapter i will chose in order to be able to use Mamiya RZ67 lenses on the Fujifilm GFX 50s II camera.

The adapter with bellows seems attractive due to the lower price (4700 SEK) and the vastly longer extension - allowing to get close to subjects and objects. But in order to go from horizontal to vertical position - you need to use a screwdriver (by taking off the camera) in order to rotate it. Alternative, there is an additional "portrait adapter" that the guy via eBay can order and takes a couple of weeks. Even there, you have to take off the camera, taking off the horizontal adapter, and then screw in the vertical one. Doesn't seem very convenient out in the field, with wind and everything else.

The other Hartblei adapter which costs me 7800 SEK is neat and sturdy - making it easy to rotate the camera on the fly with help of a knob. But - it only provides 20 mm helicoid extension, which means a 210 mm lens can only focus down to 3 meter. One must use the Mamiya RZ extension ring (48mm) in order to focus closer.

Luckily I already have that extension ring at home.

So, ultimately I am still leaning towards the latter, more expensive adapter. But boy - so much money for just an adapter... Not even knowing if the use of Mamiya RZ67 lenses with the GFX really is something "serious" for future experimentation and photography ? Since the thing has no shift - i would have to use the normal stitching method, in order to simulate larger / wider views.

I'll guess I'll have to find out. For 7800 SEK

Luckily... i worked 2 extra days this December - so I'll get some extra cash in a month. I don't even remember when I did that the last time. A couple years ago ?

One thing does entice though

the COOLNESS of actually be able to use the legendary Mamiya RZ67 lenses on a digital medium format camera. I mean, there was a time that it felt unthinkable at first - and then totally unreachable (given the absurdly high prices for a (limited) CCD digital back adapted on the Mamiya RZ67 Pro-IID around 14 years ago

The price for the high MP back was around 18.000 $ (+ tax !) called RZ33 back, ISO 50-400, 33 MP with a 36x48 mm sensor).

Add on top the price for the enhanced RZ67 Pro-IID camera, 0which was prepared to accept digital backs. The [Kodak] CCD sensor in the digital RZ22 and RZ33 backs were in essence only excellent at ISO 50 and ISO 100. at ISO 200 it would start to fall apart, and was nearly unusable at ISO 400.

It's now all history, the company doesn't exist anymore.