Yeah well, I never intended to write so much about Mamiya RZ67 lenses

*LOL*

Yet, it is a fascinating camera system for sure. Now being able to use those very lenses with the digital mediumformat Fujifilm GFX camera. If... it works well, i keep the adapter.

If not - i send it back.

The nice perk when buying it online from a Swedish store is, that I can cancel the purchase within 14 days. (But that law/rule does not apply, when you buy a product directly in a store face to face). You are bound to the purchase. That they allow you to cancel it, is up to the seller in the store. (They can refuse, and have the right to do so). But on the internet, it is by law regulated in Sweden with a "14 day regretting period" - where you get your money back.

 

What do I expect ?

I think first out, i love the idea to use the legendary Mamiya RZ67 lenses digitally, just for the sake of being able to do so. Something that was practically unheard of with these lenses.

And since my portraits with Pentax 67 lenses + a straight adapter (using only 33x44mm sensor area) from the GFX camera - worked so well, gave me more than plenty of resolution and quality.... especially when i stopped the lenses down to ƒ5.6 or ƒ8.

Why not test that this with the elusive Mamiya Sekor Z lenses ?

Especially the APO 210mm lens gives me a lot of curiosity about how it might perform. Being so prominent in optical quality on film - i think it will do similarly on a digital sensor. Likely setting itself apart from all the other Mamiya RZ67 lenses i have. It could perhaps become my primary portrait lens.

But... time will tell.

Of course... if the lens renders too sharp in portraits - then the "ordinary" other lenses, might be a better choice after all.

 

Sensor stack thickness / glass over the sensor

Which by the way, have 3 layers of glass on top of the sensor, together measuring a whopping 3.4 mm in thickness - so that is a lot. The Leica M8 has only 0.5 mm, the Leica M9 has 0,9 mm. Fujifilm GFX uses among the thickest sensor stacks around in three layers.

I believe Nikon uses rather things sensor glass... was it just 1.2 mm ? (i don't know exactly)

That's why Leica M lenses work better with Nikon compared to Sony. The latter too is among the thicker sensor glass, which got evident with several wideangle Leica M lenses, degrading so vastly at the borders and corners, that it wasn't a pretty sight seeing stellar lenses so degraded into "cheap ones". Really not a pretty sight !!

I think Olympus / OM too, also uses very thick glass - and i never bothered to use other lenses on it, because the few test i made with vintage glass on Olympus digital cameras - looked just awful (and unusual boring).

Fujifilm however, uses the thickest sensor glass of them all.

Older vintage lenses were never were designed for having any glass in between of course. In the extreme corners you can often see a strange bending behavior of straight lines (when you adapt a lens that wasn't designed for Fujifilm GFX). Much less so with telephoto lenses - but it is there when you look very closely.

Longer telephoto lenses usually have no problems with thicker sensor glass, likely because the light rays fall onto the sensor nearly in a straight manner, including going though any thicker sensor stack / glass.

But light rays coming in from an angle (by using wideangle lenses) then you're in trouble: as the thick layered sensor glass adds extra densities, distorting the light-paths - and with it - the sharpness. It smears details. It bends. It darkens. It distorts, and creates extra aberrations.

Worst at the borders, and really bad in the extreme corners where you sometimes don't even find any real sharp details. Each lens reacts slightly different.

 

 

 

Projection Snoot

That, i ordered too. Finally.

It means I can project patterns on the background in my photo studio. Or why not on portraits with either discreet patterns or even strong, graphical patterns projected onto the face. Suddenly a lot more options are available in ways , I never really thought of. I tried once or twice projecting patterns/images with a slide film projector - but with only limited results, rather mediocre results. Well, those were just meant to be experiments in 1990, actually mostly funny jokes we made (Jonas and I).

 

Lantern Softbox & Dark curtains

On top of the Projection snoot, i ordered a Lantern Softbox, for general wide soft light (when needed), and dark gray curtains which are not transparent in any way - in order to keep out strong springtime and summer time.

So that i can have portrait session regardless what time it is, or light will shine. It will cover all the three openings to our living room - shielding the room entirely from sunlight. Or at least enough, so that i can see the studio flash lights (modeling lights) without interference.

With all that, it should then be a formidable home photo studio. Well, I have never used anything else than simple Home studio setups... Yet - it worked, and my old photos have shown that from 30+ years ago. Now, i think the setup can be made even nicer with some more variations.

I love the stimuli that comes from all this. To revive studio portrait photography - really gives me some serious inspiration, i haven't felt in a long time.

Or - Do I just entertain myself in a sort of isolated micro-capsule ?

 

Well, as long it is fun...

...then I'll do exactly that, bitches


Page 36 • Year 2025