Would love the chance to try these, but while I'm here I just thought I'd also give a recommendation for Mamiya 645 glass on the GFX. After trying the 80mm f1.9 first, I think I've ended up with nearly all of the older Sekor C focal lengths.
Thank you for the comment. The Mamiya 645 glass is awesome. I have not had the opportunity to shoot with it on the GFX system, but have shot film through the Mamiya in the past.
Finally a video showing vintage Zeiss lenses on the GFX. The Zeiss Jena 50mm Flektogon f/4 Zebra version is my favorite lens on my GFX 50r. I picked up a near mint copy about 6 months ago off eBay. I also plan on getting the 180mm Sonnar. Or I should say re acquiring them.. As I actually use to own these already a few years ago, and shot with the Flektogon 20, 35, and 50 and the 180mm Sonnar on my Fuji Xpro1 and Xpro2 and got amazing results. But regrettably sold them.
Nice! I'm glad to hear there are others out there using these lenses on the GFX system. The 50mm is great as well, but I have not used it enough to consider it one of my "favorites". What type of shots do you mostly use the 50mm for?
100th subscriber here! Great video, thank you for sharing your experience with the Zeiss medium format lenses on the GFX. How much do you use (% wise) the vintage lenses compared to you GF glass? I am working on a series of videos where I use the GFX with 35mm vintage lenses and treating the GFX more like a super full frame as opposed to medium format. The GFX system is great, and with the prices dropping (I got my 50R used for ~$2000) a lot more people will be able to experience this format. Little feedback: Your image quality in your video is great but the sound has a pretty strong hiss behind your voice. I am hear you fine, but the hiss (noise) is there during the whole video.
Thank You So Much For The Sub! And for the feedback. To your questions - I use the vintage lenses approximately 30 to 40% of the time vs the GF glass. I really like both. The GF glass is amazing. I focus on using only vintage glass that produces good results, otherwise I'm using GF glass. I'm super interested to hear your experience with 35mm glass on the GFX system. I have used a few vintage 35mm lenses with mixed results. The entry price to get into the GFX system is gettiing very attractive. I hope that it keeps growing. I really like the format a lot. Thank you for the feedback on the sound. I'm new to video and really trying to figure that part out.
Wonderful video! Thanks for sharing! I’ve owned all these CZJ lenses for my Mamiya for over 35 years including 50 & 500. In my opinion, the 50 & 120 are the best in this series! Later, I found the Carl Zeiss 50/4,0 Distagon for Rollei 66 was much better than CZJ 50 (of course no focusing ring), the CZJ 50 has been ignored but I could not find any 120 Marco lens for medium format to replace the CZJ 120! I utilised them on my digital Pentax 645 before and now changed to GFX 100 with amazing result! Carl Zeiss J is always amazing! 👍🏻
Thank you for the feedback! Enjoy that GFX 100, and it's good to hear you get amazing results with those vintage lenses with all those additional megapixels.
Great suggestions! I’m thinking of buying a GM670 and was looking for lenses to adapt to it, assuming that’s possible. People are asking crazy prices for good examples of the old Fuji medium format lenses. I think these might be the move!
I really enjoy using the 80mm and 180mm Carl Zeiss Jena lenses on that other 'affordable' medium format brand, Pentax. My copy of the 120mm however is very soft and I never use it, thanks to your video I might get me another example of this lens. One advantage of the Fujifilm GFX system is focus peaking I imagine, what are your experiences with this?
Thank you for the comment. Too bad to hear that your 120mm copy isn't that sharp. I really love my copy. Focus peaking is amazingly helpful with the GFX system. Especially when I'm shooting with a shallow depth of field and want to make sure that the focus is exactly where I want it.
I was so close to getting vintage glass with my gfx, but having nikon modern glass, it made more sense to adapt those for now to fill in the gaps left by my 2 GF lenses. I comfortably forgot about my craving to put manual focus lenses on this camera, till this video. Thanks?
Thanks a lot for the great video! It give me a lot of inspiration. I just purchased a GFX 50r, and became a new Medium Format user. (Mainly, since the price of X100VI is even higher than GFX50r + a native lens, crazy world~) And...Pardon me for asking, which kind of adopter do you used for CZ jena lens? I hope I can find a nice 180mm CZ jena lens for my 50r. I have a native 50mm lens, but I think I still need a telephoto lens:)
Thank you for the comment and welcome to the Medium Format Digital World! I use the Kipon Pentacon 6 to GFX adapter. There are a variety of adapters available, and since they do not have any electronics I really don't see much difference between them. Hope that helps. Enjoy that 50r.
Thank you for the question. I use the Kipon adapter, and it works well. The lenses I used in the video were the Carl Zeiss Jena DDR lenses with a Pentacon 6 mount.
Thank you for the comment Phillip. I am using the Zeiss Jena DDR Biometar 80/2.8. I specifically use the lens with the Pentacon 6 mount. That lens was made for medium format so it covers the whole GFX sensor and my version does not have any vignetting.
Thank you for the question. There are many lenses that you can use that have autofocus. I usually do not consider them vintage, yet. I use Canon EF lenses on my GFX with an adapter that has electronics in it so the autofocus works. Many of the L lenes cover the sensor so there is minimal or no vignette. That said you have to try them to see which work and which don't cover. The easiest way to find lenses that work is to look for adapters that are made for that lens mount to the GFX mount. If they make an adapter it's a high probability that that lens mount will work. The results are not always great for all lenses, but I can say I've used EF lenses and gotten good results.
There are many vintage lenses that will work on with the GFX system. I would focus on making sure you use medium format specific lenses to make sure you cover the fully image circle. The adapter would be based on the lens mount of the vintage lens you use. ie for the Carl Zeiss Jena lenses in the video I use an adapter that is a Pentacon 6 mount to GFX mount.
Thank you for the feedback. You bring up a great question that I should have answered in the video. The adapter is a Pentacon 6 to Fuji GFX mount. They can be purchased in the US through Adorama, B&H Photo, or even Amazon. There are a few companies that make the adapters for this mount. I use the Kipon adapter and it has worked and held up well.
This is a great question. I will do my best to answer. The pentacon 6 is a square format camera with a film size of 54mm X 54mm. The Fuji GFX system has a 43.8mm X 32.9mm sensor. Therefore the Fuji Sensor is a crop of about .5 based on the area. That is not completely perfect since one is square and and the other 4:3 but close. That said, if you are referring to focal length, an 80mm lens is an 80mm lens. The adapter corrects for the flange distance for infinity focusing and in the case mounting a P6 lens on the Fuji, the whole image circle of the lens would not be used compared to the P6 camera, but the focal length would still be 80mm. Hope this helps. A person can dive really deep into the optics and conversions, and such. I recommend using some vintage lenses to see which focal lengths work best for you.
I bought all lenses years ago (including the 50mm and the 300mm) and I love all 5 on my GFX. It is a great setup, only problem is that for whatever reason my 180mm has no aperture blades and I'm not the only one. I know at least two other photographers who have versions without aperture blades. Since I love it wide open, this doesn't bother me too much.
Super cool, and super interesting. I have the 300mm as well and love it, but it is super large. I use the 180mm much more often. That said, I have never seen one of the 180's without aperture blades. It is a great lens wide open so that work great I would guess. Thank you for the comment! Now I will keep my eyes open for a 180mm without blades.
@@marshalljvanderhoofphoto I wonder if these 180mm lenses were repaired badly or if they made a mistake by not adding the blades. When I bought it I thought it would be a problem that the blades are just sticky but my clean up ended with an open lens and no blades anywhere.
@@normansteinmetz643 I am super intrigued by this. There are a lot of possibilities. I know I have never seen one like that before. Your theory of a bad repair does seem like a good possibility.
Hello, thanks for your video with such good information, deserved LIKE. I would like to know if this lens is the same as the one you have, and if it is different, can you tell me if it works for GFX? Thanks and regards. "Carl Zeiss Jena f/2.8 180mm MC Sonnar 6x6 MF Pentacon Six"