FUJI X-PRO 1 Grip

The detachable grip for the X-PRO 1 arrived yesterday. Provides something a little more substantial to hold on to. Useful with these somewhat heavier m-mount lenses.

Concerning that, this combination is pretty chunky. Its only the same as a Leica etc. would weigh, but after what I've been used to recently it feels quite heavy. 

I have a plan B.

N.B. to see more on the cameras and lenses featured in this post click on the relevant labels (tags and keywords) below.

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Fuji X-Pro 1 + M-Mount lenses

Fuji X-Pro 1 Voigtlander 75mm f/2.5 Heliar Kipon LM > FX adapter

THE ADAPTER

At this moment in time the only adapters that I know of are made by Kipon. I got mine via ebay. I have one already for Nikon mount lenses, which was excellent and this one for m-mount lenses is also very good quality. The lenses fits well with no movement and likewise the adapter slots nicely onto the camera and the whole thing feels very secure. 

Also like my Nikon adapter, infinity is infinity. This is very useful, as it allows for accurate zone focusing using the hyperfocal distance with the depth of field markings on the lens. On several occasions yesterday I just set the lens at infinity, confident that what I was photographing would be in focus. 

From my experience with them these Kipon adapters seem every bit as good as Novoflex ones I've bought in the past. They aren't cheap (£60), but then if you are using m-mount lenses, its probably a good idea to get a decent adapter.

THE LENSES

I have two m-mount lenses currently. The recently updated Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2 Nokton and a 75mm  f/2.5 Heliar. This latter lens is an old Voigtlander design and is a screw mount, which I have an m-mount adapter for.

FOCUSING WITH THE LENSES

For anyone who has used MF lenses on the latest Panasonic m4/3 cameras this will seem very familiar as the process is almost exactly the same. There's a thumbwheel on the back of the camera, easily accessible for my thumb while looking through the viewfinder. After setting the camera up for manual focus and turning the SHOOT W/O LENS option to on, pressing this thumbwheel brings up a magnified view. I'm having trouble finding out exactly what this magnification is, but its certainly enough. In good light it works well, but in low light the refresh rate on the EVF is a little slow and there is a fair amount of "smearing" in the viewfinder. However, while not being as clear as a Panasonic EVF, it still works well enough.

There is no focus peaking as with the Sony NEX system, but I haven't found it to be a problem. It even coped with my wearing dark glasses. Non-polaroid, I should mention, as my polarised glasses turn the EVF completely black.

I often had the aperture set to f/8 and f/11 and I was still able to focus accurately on the 35mm lens, without having to open the lens up to get precise focus. The 75mm lens, with its more limited depth of field was really easy to focus at all apertures. I was also able to focus without using the magnificaton on the 75mm lens, though the 35mm was somewhat more difficult.

Without the focus peaking of the Sony NEX-7, NEX-5n, its somewhat slower, but as I said almost exactly the same as the Panasonic system and somewhat better and less fiddly than that on the Olympus Pens.

Fuji X-Pro 1 Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2 Nokton

PLEASE NOTE:- All of the samples in this post are available as full-size samples by clicking on them > flickr > Actions > View all sizes > Original. I am happy for you to view these images, but would remind you that they are copyright and would ask you to respect that.

USING THE X-PRO 1 AS A MANUAL FOCUS CAMERA

All of a sudden this is a different camera or me. All the clicking, clattering and grinding of the AF system goes away. Suddenly you realise that the shutter is actually very quiet. Not as quiet as the X100, but still not intrusive. My 35mm lens is also much heavier than any of the Fuji native lenses and the camera has a very solid feel with it fitted. This is very different to the feel of the X100.

In fact the whole outfit feels very "Leicaesque". It reminded me very much of using cameras like the M8 and M9. I know its just psychological, but with these metal lenses on the camera, the body suddenly developed more "gravitas", but thats just me!!

I indicated yesterday that I enjoyed shooting like this, and that was certainly the case. In a previous post I wrote about using my Nikon mount Voigtlander 20mm and how easy that was. This is similar. I personally enjoy this simplified approach and its going to be how I mostly use the camera.

Its a very personal view, but my X-PRO 1 has changed from being a flawed camera that I struggle to make do what I want, into a nicely balanced picture taking machine that I feel completely in control of. I really do have a problem with noisy cameras. I dislike them. The X-PRO 1 is the most persistantly noisy I've ever used, and the AF grinding makes me think that its going to self-destruct any minute! Using these MF lenses I feel like a photographer again, instead of a technician.

I also love the fact that I do everything through the viewfinder. I compose, focus, change settings and check my results through the EVF. I had the screen turned off throughout most of yesterdays shooting, which considering the poor battery life is useful.

The camera mostly handles very well with these lenses. However I have ordered the grip, which is due to arrive today. I found that using handgrips on both of my Leicas gave me better handling on those cameras. I don't particularly like the "neither one thing or the other" feel of the X-PRO 1 as it is, but I didn't have any particular problems.

THE RESULTS

I'm going to go through some of these pictures individually.

Fuji X-Pro 1 Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2 Nokton

I had the camera set on ISO 320 the whole time. Now I can't tell the difference between this and ISO 200. In fact up to about ISO 640, the images are still amazingly clean. Because there's no IS available, I wanted fast shutter speeds and the smallest aperture I could get. This was taken at f/8 I think and was focused on infinity. This allowed me to keep the boater sharp. If you look at the full size file you will see that the writing on the lock gate is slightly out of focus. 

Fuji X-Pro 1 Voigtlander 75mm f/2.5 Heliar

This is the 75mm at f/4.The bokeh on some Voigtlander lenses is not the "creamiest" but still nice enough.

Fuji X-Pro 1 Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2 Nokton

This shot was taken wide open at f/1.2 on the 35mm lens. If you look at the full size version you will see that very little of it is in sharp focus. However, I discovered that the X-PRO 1 does an amazing thing. On the out of camera jpgs. it "cleans up" CA from non-native lenses. This 35mm lens is very prone to CA and fringing wide open, but as you can see there's none here. We are all aware that in many circumstances, manufacturers use the cameras firmware / software to "correct" lenses, but that is usually with lenses that the camera can "see". However what seems to be happening with the Fuji is that it is making these CA "corrections" on the image itself. Both of these Voigtlanders show both CA and fringing at wide apertures on other cameras, but not here. If it is the case that the Fuji cleans up the image itself rather than applies some kind of preset to a particular lens, then that is a very significant and very useful development.

Fuji X-Pro 1 Voigtlander 75mm f/2.5 Heliar

This was a shot focused without using the magnification and I took quite a few "duck bothering" pictures. Most were successful.

Fuji X-Pro 1 Voigtlander 75mm f/2.5 Heliar

Its in these telephoto shots where the Fuji scores over the Leica rangefinder system. With a Leica its really difficult to see if you have focus when the subject is some distance away. If you have a lens with proper infinity focus then its no problem. I had an old Leica 135mm which didn't and it was very tricky to use.

Fuji X-Pro 1 Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2

Fuji X-Pro 1 Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2

These last two are from raw files. The top one has one of the Velvia presets applied in Silkypix. Its a bit over the top even for me! And of course it looks nothing like Velvia. I'm currently engaged in scanning a lot of Velvia transparencies, so I know what it looks like. It isn't this!

The bottom picture shows just how well these files upsize. This is upsized to 60MB or about 20MP. 

THE BOTTOM LINE

For me this was just what I'm looking for. I enjoyed the process and the results are very good indeed. Chris (CMHHK) has reported some softness in the jpgs. from some of his Leica lenses and I guess it may depend on what you use. Certainly I have no complaints about these two Voigtlander m-mounts, or indeed the 20mm Nikon f-mount lens I used before. I enjoy using the camera a lot more, and though there isn't much improvement using the Voigtlander 35mm over the native 35mm Fuji lens, there is some, and thats worth it for me.

Finally a contentious point. When people were comparing this cameras results to those from a Leica M9, I was somewhat skeptical, and to be honest couldn't see how that could be possible. Steve Huff in his review of the X PRO 1 is very definite that the Fuji can't equal the M9 in terms of image quality. While I take his point, these judgements are based on either jpgs. or an ACR (M9) v Silkypix (XP1) comparison. I'm not sure this is a way to actually make that comparison. Certainly my Leica M9 shots processed in Photoshop are (slightly) sharper than what I can get out of the XP1 + Silkypix. But since I can't use Photoshop for the Fuji shots I don't know what they are capable of. 

However what I can say is that I think I prefer the results from the Fuji. They are certainly sharp enough (somewhat of an understatement!) but the real advantage is that they are free from any type of noise or colour distortions. And this applies to the jpgs. which are far and away the best I've ever seen straight out of a camera. Add in the ISO bonus from the Fuji and I have no reason to change my opinion when I first got this camera that this is the best image quality I have ever seen. 

Anyway, have a look at the full size samples and see what you think.

By the way for anyone who is planning to shoot with alternative and/or legacy lenses on an X-PRO 1, I've started a group for that over on flickr.

Its at:- http://www.flickr.com/groups/1933080@N21/ I'd be happy to see you and your pictures there.

N.B. to see more on the cameras and lenses featured in this post click on the relevant labels (tags and keywords) below.

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M-mount to Fuji X-Pro adapter arrived

My adapter finally arrived. A few test shots and the pictures look good. I'm off to do something a bit more serious.

N.B. to see more on the cameras and lenses featured in this post click on the relevant labels (tags and keywords) below.

All original material on this blog is © Soundimageplus
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The man-made landscape - Location photography

Sony NEX-7 55-210mm zoom

Photography by David and Ann Taylor-Hughes

Photographing nature can be difficult. It tends to be chaotic and random. As landscape photographers, we are in the same position as others who do what we do, in attempting to find images of harmony and balance in the midst of all this. This is made easier whenever the hand of human beings has shaped what we see. Living where we do there is very little "pure" nature and landscape left. The non-urban areas are largely agricultural land and there are canals offering a green corridor through all of this. 

Sony NEX-7 Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2 Nokton lens

Sony NEX-7 55-210mm

Sony NEX-7 Zeiss 24mm

I often use the phrase location photography to describe the kind of images that we produce, as often its difficult to describe the images as landscape photographs. In the UK apart from a few wilderness areas, there are very places left that haven't been shaped by human activity of some sort. These tend to be the most difficult to access and photograph. 

The benefit of a landscape that is one step removed from any notion of  a "natural" state, is that its often much easier to produce images with strong visual shapes, patterns and lines. Since we seem to like imposing some kind of order on what we see, mostly to serve our needs, these man-made landscapes work very well in photographs. Particularly when what we have created has, over time, blended in to what was there before. 

Sony NEX-7 55-210mm zoom

Sony NEX-7 Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2 Nokton lens

Sony NEX-7 Zeiss 24mm

Sony NEX-7 Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2 Nokton lens

Sony NEX-7 55-210mm

Sony NEX-7 Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2 Nokton lens

Some recent digital excursions

m4/3

Panasonic GX1 Olympus 45mm f/1.8 Multi image panoramic stitch

Panasonic GX1 Olympus 12mm f/2 Multi image panoramic stitch polarising filter

Despite all the advantages of the NEX-7, I still have a preference for the colour and on-screen look from m4/3 files. Also despite having to stitch images together to get a large file size and having to handle the restricted dynamic range, I do very much like the finished result.

Panasonic GX1 Olympus 45mm f/1.8 Multi image panoramic stitch 

Panasonic GX1 Olympus 12mm f/2 Multi image panoramic stitch polarising filter

With careful exposure and processing m4/3 certainly "punches above its weight" and these images, all ending up at between 60-80MB each certainly have the potential for large scale reproduction and heavy cropping. I do have to do some work to get them to this state but after doing it for a few years, I have all sorts of photoshop "tricks" that allow me to produce a clean, sharp, contrasty, artefact free file. 

The reason I've stuck with it for so long is the excellent colour from the Panasonic sensors and the low strength anti-aliasing filters that they use. Sony don't seem inclined as yet to let their sensor "off the leash" and demonstrate exactly what it can do. Samsung seem also disinclined to do that and its going to be interesting to see what the Fuji X-Pro 1 sensor can do.

Its certainly true that this weaker AA filter can cause problems, but I'd rather it was that way than have a soft image. Its often stated that m4/3 has to try and compete with APS-C sensors and DSLR's. I see it the other way round. When you talk about final image quality and how files look when viewed and published, in many ways APS-C sensors and DSLR's have their own catching up to do. Now I wonder if there's anyone who could remove my NEX-7 AA filter?

Panasonic GX1 Olympus 45mm f/1.8 Multi image panoramic stitch

Panasonic GX1 Olympus 12mm f/2 Multi image panoramic stitch polarising filter

f/1.2 lenses

I tried out my Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2 lens with the NEX-7 and also for the sake of comparison, borrowed back my Nikon 50mm f/1.2 MF lens.

Sony NEX-7 Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2

Sony NEX-7 Nikon 50mm f/1.2 MF lens

Sony NEX-7 Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2

Sony NEX-7 Nikon 50mm f/1.2 MF lens

Both lenses go some way to negating the effect of the AA on the Sony, and produce very sharp files. (But then they can both be used on m4/3 too) I think the Voigtlander is very marginally sharper but the Nikon has a slightly warmer colour balance. Both are top class lenses and demonstrate yet again that there is really no substance to this "designed for digital" myth that manufacturers come up with to justify the prices of their lenses. m4/3 and Sony NEX cameras now have great systems for using these manual focus gems from the past, and they are difficult to beat for engineering, build and optical quality. 

Whether that difference is enough to justify using them exclusively, I'm not sure. Certainly the 12mm and 45mm Olympus lenses I was using for the pictures at the top of the page are pretty good, and the 45mm f/1.8 in particular is something special. However if you're a sharpness junkie like me, you may think it worthwhile. And you like the feel of beautifully constructed metal lenses in your hand, then they certainly give these modern cameras a real "classy" feel.

Sony NEX-7 - Voigtlander lenses in use

Sony NEX-7 Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2 Nokton

Until yesterday, I'd only done some indoor tests with the Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2 Nokton and 75mm f/2.5 Heliar lenses on the NEX-7. Though these were very impressive, I needed to try them out in a real world situation. 

Sony NEX-7 Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2 Nokton

Sony NEX-7 Voigtlander 75mm f/2.5 Heliar

I'm pleased to say that the promise of the testing was confirmed by this excursion. Very sharp results, with I'm pleased to say, very little CA and fringing once the lenses are stopped down from their widest apertures, plus excellent colour and contrast.

I seem to be whittling down the number of lenses I actually want to keep for the NEX-7, and its proving more difficult than I thought. The NEX-7 seems to throw more challenges at lenses than the NEX-5n. Not in terms of sharpness, as everything I've put on it so far has performed well or adequately in that regard (with one exception I'll come to later*) but in terms of CA, fringing and vignetting. 

These two Voigtlanders, however, are the equal of the Zeiss 24mm f/1.8 in terms of resolution, and apart from their fine performance, I really enjoyed using them. With the excellent focus peaking feature, they were a pleasure to use, and this Sony innovation really does open up the possibility of being able to use manual focus lenses with speed and accuracy. I'm sure something similar will start turning up soon in other CSC's, and I wouldn't be at all surprised if Leica are having a look at it, not neccesarily for their m-series cameras, but for this interchangeable mirrorless system they are apparently working on. 

Sony NEX-7 Voigtlander 75mm f/2.5 Heliar

Sony NEX-7 Voigtlander 35mm f/1.2 Nokton

Sony NEX-7 Voigtlander 75mm f/2.5 Heliar

THE PROBLEM LENS

Sony NEX-5n Voigtlander 28mm f/2 Ultron

*The third of my Voigtlanders, the 28mm f/2 Ultron, however doesn't work very well at all. Apart from the vignetting and colour cast, its just not that sharp. In contrast to its performance on the NEX-5n, when it was very good indeed.

The problem seems to be that this Voigtlander is a symmetrical design (as opposed to retrofocus) There's a link here to a piece by Carl Zeiss on the difference. Not only is there a tendency to the vignetting and colour cast problem illustrated in an earlier post, but with certain types of sensors, there can be a reduction in sharpness also. 

Apparently this is the reason that Ricoh designed their m-mount module for the GXR system in the way that they did. According to my internet research on this, the NEX-7 sensor is configured in such a way as to make symmetrical lenses perform less well than on the NEX-5n, which is a different design. I'm not going to explain why this is, as I simply don't know enough about it to enlighten you, but I've most definitely seen it in operation, and what was a very good lens on the NEX-5n has suddenly become a quite poor one on the NEX-7. 

There are 28mm Leica lenses which apparently work fine on the NEX-7. Unfortunately they are substantially more expensive than my humble little Voigtlander, which seems to have accepted its fate and realised its destined for a new home anytime soon!!

So, the NEX-7 seems to be a demanding beast! In order to squeeze out the best value from those 24MP, it gets very picky about what works with it and what doesn't. I am prepared to continue trying to sort out my best options however, since when it gets it right the results are spectacular. Now can I really afford £4000 for that Leica 16-18-21mm Tri-Elmar, because apparently that works brilliantly with the NEX-7? No I can't. That was easy!!