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So it came - one day delayed (likely because they had not yet written the tax declaration yet the day before), e.g. the bill that will soon arrive for me to pay the import fee, 25% Swedish Tax and "administration" fee... right though my door *rolling my eyes*
Demanding !
Using a Pentax 67 SMC M* 300mm ƒ 4 ED IF lens on a Fujifilm GFX 50s II on a tripod is very demanding - i realized that very quickly. The focus throw of this lens is rather short, so you have to very very careful to hit the exact focus point. Despite being mounted on a stable tripod... you have to be utmost careful with any type of shaking. Which practically shows off as soon you even touch the camera... I used both 2s and 10s delay just to make sure that no shaking was occurring.
Thanks God - I came to my senses
Actually I am glad, that i didn't succumb the flirt of buying the white Pentax 67 SMC M* 400mm ƒ 4 ED IF instead. That would been such an overkill (plus that the setup is both bigger and heaver !) I think, the Vertex method stops at the 300 mm when using common sense. above 300 mm - it becomes too cumbersome to handle. Not impossible - but how many times do i go around with larger than 6x7 medium format 300 mm lenses ?!?
Other lenses when going above 300 mm
It's better to use the Fujifilm GFX 50s II in single-shot mode (e.g. not the Vertex Method) with longer lenses; either Fujifilm GF or other brand lenses that work - if one wishes to go longer than 300mm.
I have not yet tested the Sigma SPORT 60-600mm lens on the Fujifilm GFX. I'll do on occasion.
Canon EF 300/4 L IS
It seems to me however, that my next longest lens - the Canon EF 300/4 L IS lens does appear to be working fine - despite the claim it wouldn't. It is said only older EF 300/4 L [non-IS] is working very well on the Fuji GFX cameras. Or did they mean that the performance of the IS version, dropps too much ? I do not know yet - and have only seen little drop in performance at the borders.
Also this i have to determine more carefully in detail, as well how it performs at wide open aperture ƒ 4 for example - I don't know yet.
I found one image when i briefly tested the Canon EF 300/4 L IS, mounted on a Andoer GFX adapter. To my eyes, the image looks very sharp. Taken at aperture ƒ7.1 though. So, why did the Fuji forum say that the Canon EF 300/4 L IS doesn't work on Fuji GFX ?!
The question is still open.
Stitching problems with the sky !!!
The above photo was very tricky and almost didn't make it. I had to use Photoshop AI and a lot of "cheating" in order to get away with how it looks like (above). The problems are large areas without details or definition, such as SKY without any details (or large surfaces without details)
Lightroom and Photoshop stitching software can't handle that. They refuse. Even my pokey (MacOS X) "AutoStitch" software, couldn't handle the above image (for the first time). So, I was left with three out of 4 images aligned - but parts of the sky were missing.
It just didn't align...
I still haven't dug in deeper into other panorama / stitching software which perhaps could handle, or at least give manual abilities correct that matter. I do encounter the problem from time to time, and give you an example, where Photoshop / Lightroom failed.
Here is another example
where Photoshop and Lightroom couldn't stitch the 4 rotated vertex images together. (AutoStich however had no problems in this case), but i only get JPG files from it. Which is OK for me, given that the file size is humongous with 12000x12000 pixels - I save them at 100% e.g. least amount of JPG compression.
Pentax 67 SMC M* 300mm f 4 ED IF
has very good optics
And yes, clearly - the optics of this super achromatic lens - are indeed a large step up compared to the older, ordinary Pentax SMC 300/4 lens.
Sharpness is already very good at wide open aperture ƒ4 !
There isn't much chromatic aberrations to speak of. While the older lens is pretty bad in that regard. Especially in the blurry areas behind sharp details, you get this weird green/red fringing. In higher contrast scenarios, you still have the typical red-green fringing going on in sharp details, even if you stop down to ƒ11. (it depends on the motive and the light). To obtain good sharpness with the older Pentax 67 SMC 300mm lens, you have to stop down to at least aperture ƒ8 or ƒ11 - and then you get it ! So, it is useful, that old cheap one (which goes for less than €100).
With the super achromatic M* 300mm f 4 ED IF lens - you can get away even at ƒ4 - which is useful for a lot of motives of course. For example you wish to get maximum background blur !
Not bad, really not bad.
Much closer minimum focus distance
The older Pentax 67 SMX 300/4 lens, has a whopping min focus distance of 5 meter. The newer, super achromatic M* 300/4 lens has only 2 meter - which makes is highly useful for many more subjects. It is truly a delight to be able focus much closer, I can tell you that.
Topaz Sharpen AI / Photo AI
Now add a slight amount of Topaz sharpness and you get out even the finest details in your images with the Pentax 67 SMC M* 300/4 ED IF lens.
Albeit you have to really be careful with Topaz software - and set it the "right" way - otherwise you introduce more harm than not (ugly artifacts). Which happens too easily, because when you deal with 12000x12000 pixel images... you too easily miss where artifacts have been introduced by the Topaz software !
I used this time just the "Enhance 1x" setting, without the sharpening setting enabled. That way, i got rid of the noise, and a touch of sharpness added which somehow looks different, more natural compared to the direct "sharpness" setting in Topaz Photo AI. The latter is sometimes very crude, and needs very careful management, in order to get it right.
Now, when you get it right... - you chisel out even the finest details from the Pentax 67 SMC M* 300/4 ED IF lens.
Equivalent to a moderate 165 mm telephoto lens
Now since the Vertex method results into me actually using these 6x7 Medium format lenses to their fullest - without any crop factor - it means, that a precious 300mm lens turns into a rather moderate 165mm lens.
Sounds a bit mundane, doesn't it ?
But that is the nature of actually using medium format lenses. Remember... the normal lens on a 8x10" large format camera is a whopping 300mm. It gives the perspective of a 50mm lens mounted on a full frame.
The larger the film or the sensor area - the longer a lens' focal length needs to be, in order to achieve the same perspective compared to a fullframe / 24x36mm / 35mm camera lens.
Flexibility
We are in the digital age, which means, this Pentax 67 SMC M* 300/4 ED IF lens can be used directly on the Fujifilm GFX 50s II camera - without Vertex adapter. Then you get something like 240 mm lens instead.
But because the optics are so good in the newer 300mm lens - that I can very well think of using it directly mounted on the Fujifilm GFX 50s II camera. I wouldn't consider that with the older Pentax 300mm lens, because it isn't sharp enough wide open, and has too much fringing.
Examples
Here are a few examples made with the M* 300/4 ED IF lens together with the Vertex method and the Fujifilm GFX 50s II camera: resulting in a perspective of what looks like a 165 mm lens on a fullframe camera, when used at wide open aperture.
I do get a little bit of a Canon EF 200/2 L IS vibe... The views are pretty similar between both lenses, albeit the background blur is slightly blurrier with the Canon 200/2 L IS lens at ƒ2 of course.
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