Sunday, May 22, 2016

Fujifilm X70 - finally making sense

Yep, I have been shooting with a Fujifilm X100S for a while, I got the wide angle adapter (and the tele adapter too). Great camera, love it! But, there always has been this gap to the Ricoh GR, in terms of wide angle and being compact.

The Easter Bunny left me with a Fujifilm X70, which got the Fuji-qualities and the angle of view provided by the Ricoh GR. Despite the manual controls and the XTRANS-sensor, the X70 did not add that much...

Until lately!

First, have a look at a veteran street-photographer Harvey Stein:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_f28OMnI3Q

Now I was committed to equip one of my street-cameras with 21mm equivalent optics.
There is an option for the Ricoh GR, however, it is dependent on a rather flimsy adapter, so, for  the time being, I wont consider the Ricoh GW-3.

In contrast to that, Fuji offers the WCL-X70. And you guessed it... I got mine already. The WCL-X70 is a screw on adapter, very sturdy and solid.
Together with the X70, the WCL-X70 provides a 21mm (35mm equivalent) field of view, as recited by Harvey Stein.

The X70 could just be the camera to enable the style of Mr Stein!

Tuesday, May 10, 2016

Add Your Canon EF and EF-S Lenses to M43

Interesting twist on adding lenses to your micro-4/3 system, active electronic lens adapters.

Having had Canon (D)SLRs for a long time, the lenses I own collected dust for the better part of the last years.
Lately, I learned that some manufacturers created active EF/EF-S to M4/2 adapters, allowing to control the aperture and the autofocus of Canon compatible lenses.
So, finally, I bought a second hand specimen of such an adapter. With the adapter in house, it was time to test it with various combinations of lenses and cameras.

Here are my first experiences:


  1. Panasonic Lumix GF5
    • Canon 50mm f/1.8 II - autofocus problematic
    • Canon 18-55 EF-S kit lens - works perfectly
    • Canon 35-80 EF (film) kit lens - works perfectly
    • Sigma UC 70-210 EF (film) lens - total fail!
    • Sigma 70-300 macro EF - works perfectly
  2. Panasonic Lumix G3
    • Canon 50mm f/1.8 II - OK
    • Canon 18-55 EF-S kit lens - works perfectly
    • Canon 35-80 EF (film) kit lens - works perfectly
    • Sigma UC 70-210 EF (film) lens - sort of OK, focus might fail, but will grab in a second attempt
    • Sigma 70-300 macro EF - works perfectly
  3. Olympus OM-D EM5
    • Canon 50mm f/1.8 II - good
    • Canon 18-55 EF-S kit lens - works perfectly
    • Canon 35-80 EF (film) kit lens - not great, but works, aperture displays weird behaviour
    • Sigma UC 70-210 EF (film) lens - focuses only on the wide end, aperture weird
    • Sigma 70-300 macro EF - works perfectly
  4. Olympus E-PM2
    • Canon 50mm f/1.8 II - good
    • Canon 18-55 EF-S kit lens - works perfectly
    • Canon 35-80 EF (film) kit lens - OK-ish
    • Sigma UC 70-210 EF (film) lens - focuses on the wide end, aperture weird, shuts down during zooming
    • Sigma 70-300 macro EF - works perfectly

Conclusions

The old film EOS (EF) lenses are essentially unusable. Maybe the Canon could be used on the E-PM2. IBIS wont work properly, since the old lenses don't communicate the focal length correctly.

The Nifty-Fifty struggles with the older camera, with the newer ones, it seems to be doing OK and is a usable portrait lens with great bokeh!

The cheap 18-55 seems to be making a great all purpose walk about zoom. The focal length is communicated correctly, so Olympus' IBIS will work fine.

Similar to the Canon 18-55, the Sigma 70-300 macro will communicate the focal length correctly. Autofocus could be better, but, this is a special purpose lens on MFT, reflecting an all purpose wildlife lens in an affordable and portable package.

Would it be worth to buy such an adapter and buy those lenses? I don't think so. Focusing is just too slow. However, if the lenses are already in your possession, such an adapter might be very useful to you.