As I discussed before I picked up a couple of cheap K&S adapters for Nikon F and Olympus OM lenses. I have a few of each in each lens family and I wanted to evaluate them on the GFX 50s ii for vignetting. The sensor is only 44mm across, so larger than 36mm full frame but not so big as 56mm fil medium format film. There are some discussions on forums that mention some lenses that perform well with the GFX series cameras. Sadly, my lenses do not seem to be amongst them.
I have the following lenses.
OM Series
Zuiko 28mm f2.8 This is a nice wide lens. Generally regarded as a very good lens.
Zuiko 135mm f2.8 This lens get consistently great reviews. It can be quite costly to buy second hand. Mine I bought in almost mint condition.
Tamron 70-210mm f4-5.6 Again a well-liked lens surprising for a non-Zuiko lens.
Nikon F Series
Nikkor 50mm f1.4 This is a classic lens and well-made and a joy to use. It was optimized for black and white and as such has a slightly yellow coating to aim for blue sensitive film.
Nikkor 80-200mm f4.5 N This is rated as one of the top ten Nikkor lenses. Fall off reported at all settings for full frame.
These are all pretty good glass. I did not look at sharpness. The images were taken in aperture priority at ISO 400 with the camera selecting the shutter speed. When stopped down the shutter speeds could get below 1/60th.
They all exhibit vignetting even when stopped down. Some results below. I made a photo of the sky in each case. I note the native Fuji resolution images as 4:3. The camera also has a 35mm mode and I confirmed the lenses work well with it noting these as 3:2. Even at 35mm crop the image is 33 Mpixels!
Zuiko 28mm f2.8
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| Zuiko 28mm @ f2.8 4:3 |
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| Zuiko 28mm @f22 4:3 |
When shot with 35mm crop on a little vignetting is present and this is consistent with lens reviews comments for big sky shots and strong light.
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| Zuiko 28mm @ f2.8 3:2 |
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| Zuiko 28mm @f22 3:2 |
Zuiko 135mm f2.8
Next is the 135mm prime lens. It exhibits some vignetting fully open but very little stopped down
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| Zuiko 135mm @f2.8 4:3 |
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| Zuiko 135mm @f22 4:3 |
As expected in 35mm crop
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| Zuiko 135mm @f2.8 3:2 |
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| Zuiko 135mm @f22 3:2 |
Nikon 50mm f1.4.
Significant vignetting with this lens.
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| Nikkor 50mm at f1.4 4:3 |
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| Nikkor 50mm at f16 4:3 |
Much better as expected at 35mm crop.
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| Nikkor 50mm at f1.4 3:2 |
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| Nikkor 50mm at f16 3:2 |
Nikkor 80-200mm f4.5 N
First at 80mm focal length.
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| Nikkor 80-200mm @80mm @f4.5 4:3 |
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| Nikkor 80-200mm @80mm @f32 4:3 |
Again good performance at 35mm crop.
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| Nikkor 80-200mm @80mm @f4.5 3:2 |
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| Nikkor 80-200mm @80mm @f32 3:2 |
Now at 200mm focal length
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| Nikkor 80-200mm @200mm @f4.5 4:3 |
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| Nikkor 80-200mm @200mm @f32 4:3 |
Again good performance at 35mm crop.
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| Nikkor 80-200mm @200mm @f4.5 3:2 |
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| Nikkor 80-200mm @200mm @f32 3:2 |
In summary I didn't have any winners in terms of medium format use. The Zuiko 135mm could be good enough though. What does occur to me is these lenses are much smaller and lighter than the Mamiya lenses. One could assemble a small compact kit for travel and rely on the 35mmm crop. The Olympus 70-210mm plus the 28mm would make a nice setup. Alternatively, Nikkor could give me a good 80-200mm + 50mm kit and only carry one adapter. I would probably go with the Zuiko setup.
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