Mitakon 35mm/0.95 Review by Jonas Rask :: The Joy of GFX :: My X100T Menu Setup :: Studio Vs. Natural Light & More (miXed zone)

The Mitakon 35mm/0.95 verII costs $599 at BHphoto and $799 at Adorama

Mitakon Speedmaster 35mm F/0.95

Jonas Rask pulled the trigger on the super fast (manual focus) Mitakon Speedmaster 35mm F/0.95 Mark II lens and shared his review at jonasraskphotography. Some excerpts:

  • the f/0.95 on the APS-C will give you a depth of field close to that of an f/1.4 lens on a 35mm full frame camera
  • It does have a huge advantage over the f/1.4 lenses [on Full Frame]. It will collect light as a 0.95 lens. Mitakon even writes in the packaging notes that it is a T0.95 lens. So it will really suck in the available light. – This means that you can use higher shutter speeds (one stop), or reduce ISO (one stop) to achieve the same exposure as you would with the f/1.4 mounted on a full frame camera when shooting both wide open. So at the same DOF you get less shake or less noise.
  • First of all I get bitingly sharp center focus from this lens if I nail focus. Its sharpness does falloff into the corners at 0.95. I would not recommend shooting corner action and landscapes with this lens wide open
  • So, yes. The sharpness is great if you nail focus. It is actually not hard to focus this lens at f/0.95. Mainly because the contrast between the sharp, and very narrow, focus plane and the out of focus areas is so pronounced, making the focus peaking incredibly easy to use.
  • The bokeh is VERY good.
  • I really like the look of the Mitakon for close up portraits. Shooting it wide open and using flash lights and an ND filter, renders some AMAZING looking images. – Who says you need medium format or full frame for this kind of DOF and tonality.

There is much more to read, and especially to see, at Jonas Rask’s Review here.

Mitakon Speedmaster 35mm F/0.95 for Fujifilm X at BHphoto, Adorama, AmazonUS, [shoplink 55618 ebay]your eBay[/shoplink]

& More

Shooting Studio vs Natural at Nathan Elson youtube + Nathan Elson Custom Lightroom Preset Pack

X100F Lensmate Thumbrest + Half Case * GFX Sensitvity Stops at ISO 1,600 + Reviews * 50/2 Image Review * Fuji Guys X-T20 Top Features (miXed zone)

X20 Award Nominated Image

Award nomination with Fuji X20: Dario Ayala was just nominated for a Canadian National Newspaper Award, the highest recognition for Canadian journalists and photojournalists, for an image that he made last summer using the Fuji X20 whose line, sadly, has been discontinued. The X system gets a lot of love, but this series was a bit overlooked during its existence. See the image on instagram here and link to the nomination here.

Fujifilm GFX
USA BHphoto, Adorama, AmazonUS

Fujifilm GFX facebook member C. shared the image above on the group. It shows a heavily overexposed image and what seems to be an insane highlight recovery capbility of the Fujifilm GFX 50s. This image was a great opportunity to clarify what happens inside the GFX:

X-guru Rico (also GFX facebook member), looking at the image above, explained here:

“Sensor analysis shows us that the GFX stops writing gain into the RAW file beyond ISO 1600. So this ISO 6400 shot is actually a ISO 1600 shot that is 2 stops underexposed. So 2 stops of the “amazing highlight recovery” are fake. ;) Lightroom simply applied a virtual 2 stop gain on import, which is of course fully reversable. Basically shooting at ISO 6400 is like shooting with DR400% always on.

Nothing really new here, since all Fujifilm cameras with X-Trans I, X-Trans II and also the X-A1/2 and M1 worked exactly the same way. X-Trans III are different, they bake the gain into each RAW (except for ISO 51200, which is actually ISO 25600 with a 1 stop import gain).

To perform a proper test of sensor highlight recover potential, you have to expose a series of shots at base ISO 100, then try to recover and normalize each of them and see where you put your personal limit of acceptable quality.

it was always nice to have additional DR at high ISO with most EXR I and EXR II cameras. This feature is now back with the GFX, but sadly, Adobe LR/ACR fails to apply correct import amplification in most cases. Basically, everything except for ISO 100, 125, 160 and 200 is somewhat off, often by a larger margin than is acceptable. There’s also a white balance issue at higher ISO settings which affects pretty much all external RAW converters (RAWs from the in-camera converter are okay). Of course, I have documented all of this and sent it to Fujifilm, so maybe Adobe will improve GFX support in a few weeks/months with their next Lightroom update.”

Yesterday, GFX member Wei already pointed out over at the group here after the technical sensor measurements tests by Photons to Photos, that “you can’t push the sensitivity up by adopting an ISO higher than 1600. Your sensitivity stops there“

More GFX Links worth to be checked out

  • 20 Days with GFX 50s at huseyintaskin: “Once you enlarge the photo from the computer and look it up, it creates a quality threshold that will never come out of your mind. Whatever you do, your mind is staying in that quality. […] DR is an advantage for me, I can make cinematic tones more comfortable. Each transition is very soft in these colors that you give me in these intermediate tones. It gives a rich transition result.”
  • Fuji GFX portrait session review at mikekobal: “Impressive sensor performance at low and high ISO settings. Fuji’s color science shines once again, jpegs out of the camera are beautiful, lots of latitude for easy tweaks, better then raw files on certain cameras!”
  • Join our super-active and super-helpful Fujifilm GFX community
  • Don’t miss a single GFX tidbit and follow our public GFX Facebook page

Push READ MORE

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Fujifilm GFX Review: “Unreal Dynamic Range. It Feels like You’re Cheating… The Lamborghini of Medium Format?”

Fujifilm GFX: USA BHphoto, Adorama, AmazonUS EU: AmazonDE, AmazonUK, WexUK, ParkCamerasUK, PCHstore AUS: CameraPro

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by Allan Higa – website. This article has been posted orignally at allanhiga.com and shared at petapixel. Allan Higa is also a very active member of our Fujifilm GFX facebook community, and many of the images you can see in this article have also been shared at the group. He also wrote an interesting guest post for Fujirumors called “How I Capture Genuine Moments With Complete Strangers“. This article is shared here on FujiRumors with permission of the original author, Allan Higa (thanks :) )

Fujifilm GFX Review

Quick history lesson. The original Lamborghini motor vehicle wasn’t the supercar you know today. They were tractors. Yes, tractors. Full fledged farm going vehicular tools. Ferruccio Lamborghini always loved cars and owned Ferraris, but hated the quality of them. Frustrated, he approached Enzo Ferrari and gave him a piece of his mind and told him how to improve his cars. Enzo’s response went something like, “Leave the car making to me, you stick to making tractors.” Batman now drives a Lamborghini Aventador.

Fast forward and cross universes to cameras. The giants such as Hasselblad and Phase One have been untouchable and left alone to rule the medium format world for sometime. Sure, there’s Pentax and Leica, but it’s more like buying a Mazda Miata or a 4-door Porsche, it’s not what you think of when sports car or medium format camera comes to mind. But here we are with Fujifilm, originally a film company, pulling a move like Ferruccio Lamborghini; they’re opening the doors to somewhere that’s otherwise been locked for what feels like all of eternity.

Phase One makes amazing medium formats that few ever touch but all hope and dream of. Hasselblad is quite similar but have introduced something that seemed ground breaking, a mirrorless medium format in the Hasselblad X1D. Now, just like Ferruccio answered to Enzo Ferrari, Fujifilm has brought out the Fujifilm GFX. Will this be a classic like the Lamborghini Diablo? Or is this a Mazda Miata in disguise? Well, I’ve got the keys and this is what I’ve learned.

First off, like anyone else with a new toy in their hands I played with the lifeless camera as the completely dead batteries charged painfully slow. Here are the first impressions.

Body Design and Ergonomic

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Fujifilm GFX: Dynamic Range Tests, Long Exposures, Sharpness… and Having FUN with Third Party Lenses!

Robert F.: shared here – First long exposure shot (40 sec.) at lake starnberg / bavaria. Love the dynamic range :-).

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HOLY MOLY!!! I just realized that I didn’t post a dedicated GFX article in the last 7 blog posts… so high time for a dedicated GFX roundup. :)

As usual, all of it comes from our 9,600+ strong Fujifilm GFX facebook group. It’s simply a great resource for all things GFX. And what I post here is just a small fraction of what has been shared in the group the last few days. So in today’s roundup we will see:

  • A series of perfect long exposure shots
  • Some more images
  • Dynamic Range Tests
  • Sharpness Demonstration
  • Having Fun with Third Party Lenses

I’d like to add a few words to the last point, the fun with third party lenses.

There are really a lot of photographers at our GFX group, who enjoy to combine all kind of lenses on their GFX. To me, this is without a doubt one of the most fun aspects of this camera. The GFX really breaths new life into old glass, which btw, I hear has in some cases doubled its price on ebay, since the GFX launch.

So, focussing on sharpness and dynamic range is all well and good. But what I perceive in the group, is that the Fujifilm GFX has also a huge fun-factor, that results especially from his flexibility and adaptability to all kind of glass (also FF lenses, as you will see below).

There are already many adapters available on the market, for example from Fotodiox to Kipon, and more are in development, such as the smart adapter for Contax 645 lenses by Fringer.

This huge third-party lenses fun-factor would be basically non-existant, if Fujifilm would have opted for a “focal plane shutter-less” camera, since the camera would then work only with leaf shutter lenses.

And a final note about the endless leaf shutter Vs. focal plane shutter discussion: as photographlife pointed out in a review I’ve shared here:

“Considering that leaf shutter lenses cannot have very large apertures (and as of now, all three Hasselblad lenses are limited to f/3.2-f/3.5 maximum aperture), I struggle to find the real appeal of the leaf shutter lenses aside from the flash sync speed. If you are after beautiful bokeh, the focal plane shutter is the way to go.“

Fujifilm GFX: USA BHphoto, Adorama, AmazonUS

LONG EXPOSURES

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Fujifilm GFX Vs. Sony A7rII Vs. Hasselblad X1D Vs. Canon 5DSR

It’s inevitable: the Fujifilm GFX is on the market since 2 or 3 weeks, and the web is in a GFX-frenzy…. FujiRumors included. Believe me, all this will slow down soon, because something else is always just around the corner.

But now, right now, the big thing is the Fujifilm GFX. And there are massive reports about it.

In todays roundup, we are going to see:

  1. a comparison Fujifilm GFX Vs. Hasselblad X1D (via photographlife) – SPOILER: GFX wins
  2. Fujifilm Vs. Canon 5DSR at DIYphotography – SPOILER: GFX wins
  3. Comparing the Fujifilm GFX Vs. Sony A7rII Dynamic range – SPOILER: the GFX wins
  4. a guest post focussing on the dynamic range of the GFX by Paul

Fujifilm GFX: USA BHphoto, Adorama, AmazonUS

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Cambo Lens Adapter for Fujifilm GFX50s

Cambo CA-GFX for fuji gfx50s

Today Cambo announced a new lens adapter to fit Canon lenses to the Fujifilm GFX50s.

The CA-GFX will be the third Canon lens adapter that Cambo have manufactured and marketed for camera movement. Having successfully adapted Canon lenses to the Cambo ACTUS (ACB-CA) and more recently the WIDE series camera (WRES-CA.) It was a natural transition to manufacture the adapter as it gives many photographers the option of using their existing lenses with the latest mirrorless, large sensor, Fujifilm GFX50s (CA-GFX.)

Cambo CA-GFX Adapter

The CA-GFX adapter fits directly to the bayonet of the GFX camera body and the lens aperture is controlled electronically when dialling in the required f-stop. As there is no direct connection between lens and body, there is no data received; aperture, auto-focus or EXIF, from the lens.

Why make this lens adapter?

The Fujifilm GFX50s sensor measures 33x44mm and Canon lenses such as the 17mm T-SE and 24mm T-SE have very large image circles, they will cover the sensor size and will enable the photographer to apply movement.

Cambo CA-GFX for fuji gfx50sCambo CA-GFX Adapter

The CA-GFX (Product code: 99070301) is available from your local dealer.

via cambo

Fujifilm GFX “You Might Fall in Love with it for its High Resolution, but You Will Stay for its Tonality” (Images, Reviews & Impressions)

The GFX will be back in Stock at St.Patrick’s Day at BHphoto

miXed GFX Links

Fujifilm GFX USA BHphoto, Adorama, AmazonUS EU: AmazonDE, AmazonUK, WexUK, ParkCamerasUK, PCHstore AUS: CameraPro

Images & Impression

Markus Rack: New portfolio work with the GFX & the GF 120mm f/4 Macro. Thanks to Natalia Soboleva for the make-up and to Elisa for being a flawless model. For the Geeks out there: You might fall in love with this camera for its high resolution but you will stay for its tonality. markusrack.com – shared here

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Palle Schultz‎: The GFX handles highlights like nothing else. – share here

Push READ MORE and Enjoy the GFX Images :)

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Fujifilm GFX: 1/4000 HSS with Cactus V6 II, Lensrentals GFX Listing ($353/7 days), 5 Stop DR-Test… and a Wonderful Image!

Hüseyin T. – 63mm – shared here at the GFX Group. The group is private, so to see it larger on your screen, you have to join the group. Or download the image from FujiRumors (182kb) and then watch it full screen. Looks great even if it’s compressed :)

Fujifilm GFX Roundup

These are all images shared in our GFX facebook group. I will not add any comment, besides the one of the photographer, who took the image.

  • Patrick La Roque tries to resits the GFX GAS. More at laroquephoto
  • Lee Varis took his GFX at the Carnival in Venice. See the images and read his impressions at varis
  • Lensrentals has now listed the Fujifilm GFX at their website. It’s expected to be available May 18 only. The price is of $353 for 7 days. You can pre-order it here.
  • Fujifilm GFX Vs. Hasselblad X1D at akimagery
  • The Fujifilm GFX takes awesome shots in Madeira. In German at 0816fotograf (translation) – Shared by the photographer Oliver at our facebook group
  • GFX initial impressions report; plus a few test photos (from RAW files) at eyesuncloudedphoto

Fujifilm GFX USA BHphoto, Adorama, AmazonUS EU: AmazonDE, AmazonUK, WexUK, ParkCamerasUK, PCHstore AUS: CameraPro

Piet Van den Eynde: No Flash, No Problem. 5 stop recovery with Lightroom. Results at morethanwords here

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Haryanto: Gfx on [shoplink 55148 ebay]Linhof Mastertechnika 2000[/shoplink] – shared here. Fujifilm GFX with View Camera Adapter G

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Mike L.: Successful HSS setup with GFX at 1/4000 shutter speed (note the figures at the top left).
SMDV BRiHT-360 flash
SMDV FlashWave-5 TX trigger
Cactus V6 II transceivers x 2

shared here

Full of detail at 100% zoom

Fujifilm GFX Impressions: “Even if You are Used to High-End DSLRs, the GFX will Blow you Away” + GFX Vs. Sony A7rII Shadow Recovery

shared by Michael at the GFX facebook gourp here. Michael Schnabl photography: Photo: Michael Schnabl. Model: Alena Tsar shot with Fuji GFX and GF 120mm

Fujinon GF120mmF4 Macro: USA: BHphoto, Adorama, AmazonUS

Fujifilm GFX

The Fujifilm GFX facebook group has just reached the 9,000 members, and as you can imagine, the buzz over there is an incredible joy to follow.

And of course the feedback about the GFX is massive. It’s a closed group, so only members can see the content. But I can share a a few tidbits here on FujiRumors for you.

Let’s start with Marven, who shared his experience at the group here (visible only to members, but full story and images below) after shooting with the Fujifilm GFX + 32-64 handheld with the wrong settings (medium size JPEG only):

“My first impressions of the Fujifilm GFX 50S? Holly sh*t!!!

Even if you are used to looking at detailed images from a high-end DSLR like my Canon 5DSR (which is an excellent camera in it’s own right), the GFX images will blow you away! It has enough detail and resolution for even the most discerning pixel peepers.

I wasn’t going to upload any of these images because I hadn’t really set-up the camera yet and in fact discovered later that ALL of the settings were not to my liking straight out of the case. On my way home with the camera I passed by this gorgeous field of flowers and just hopped out and started taking pictures without thinking much about the camera’s default factory settings. In this case, the files were medium rez JPEGs in the sRGB colorspace. If I had checked my settings properly, I probably would have opted to shoot RAW or at the very least SuperFine (Fujifilm’s highest resolution for JPEG images) in AdobeRGB colorspace. I might have even chosen the Velvia Film Simulation for these high contrast, vivid shots.

Which is why these images impress me so much; the camera wasn’t even set up to deliver it’s best performance and yet when I cropped in on the Bee in the frame, the details simply blew me away. You can clearly see the pollen accumulated on his underbelly as well as the fine detail in his wings. And one must keep in mind that it wasn’t like he was a willing subject, he was buzzing around from flower to flower with me chasing him trying to snap a shot.

Which brings me to my final point. THE IS A MEDIUM FORMAT CAMERA FOR CRIS SAKE! Yet is feels so light and so nimble that I actually felt compelled to spontaneously jump out and shoot with it as though it were a point-and-shoot. Anyone who has shot MF knows the size and weight restrictions that accompany something like a Phase One XF system. It’s simply a massive camera with massive lenses and there is just no way I would want to lung it around for anything other than the most critical jobs. But the GFX is so lightweight, it makes shooting with a MF camera (dare I say) fun!!! I can tell I’m really going to love shooting with this camera.”

Fujifilm GFX: USA BHphoto, Adorama, AmazonUS
Fujinon GF32-64mmF4: USA: BHphoto, Adorama, AmazonUS

Fujifilm GFX + GF32-64mm + Handheld + medium size JPEG /sRGB

Crop of medium size JPEG /sRGB

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GFX member Sung owns both, the Fujifilm GFX and the Sony A7rII, and he decided to compare both cameras’ shadow recovery capability. As usual, you can read it at the group here if you are a member and eventually interact with Sung.

“Dynamic range comparison between GFX 50s and A7rII. GF 63mm at f2.8 on GFX and ZY Optics 50mm at f2.0 on a7rii. Each combination shot at ISO 100 with shutter speed adjusted to be 5 full stops below auto exposure level. Each imported straight into Lightroom at base setting with no sharpening or noise reduction. Exposure pushed 5 stops and shadows slider maxed out at 100. The GFX 50s looks to me about half a stop ahead of the a7rii. Color fidelity is also better on the GFX 50s. First 100% crops, then 4×3 jpegs are attached.”

Fujifilm GFX 100% crop of a 5 stops underexposed image and then +5 on exposure slider and +100% on shadow slider

Sony A7rII 100% crop of a 5 stops underexposed image and then +5 on exposure slider and +100% on shadow slider

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Another Dynamic Range test shared by GFX facebook member Hải S. here

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and for Bokeh lovers, shared by Gary here: Couple for the ‘Bokeh’ fans. Fuji GFX, 63mm, Hong Kong. All shot candidly in Central early evening today.

Fujinon GF63mmF2.8: USA: BHphoto, Adorama, AmazonUS

Fujifilm GFX: Outstanding Image Quality… But if Fujifilm Would Give Me A Free Camera, I’d Pick the… And You? – POLL

Amazing image, right? Taken with… the new Fujifilm X100F :) and shared by Kıvanç B. at our Fujifilm X100F facebook group here

Fujifilm GFX or X-Trans III

Ok, I admit, the samples GFX owners shared so far at our GFX group are simply… superb! I mean, every day I check out the images and everyday it’s just “WOW”.

But I was wondering, if I would not own a Fujifilm camera already and Fujifilm would send me a free camera (including 3 lenses), which one would I choose? (It’s really a mere thought experiment, since Fujifilm would not even clean my sensor for free)

Well… I think I’d still get the Fujifilm X-T2.

Why?

Yes, it’s true, the Fujifilm GFX has such a large sensor compared to APS-C, that no matter how sofisticated current APS-C sensors are, they can’t really catch up with a Medium Format sensor in term of image quality.

However, what I want from a camera is not only IQ (which is great already in my trusty X-T1, and it’s even better in the X-T2).

I also want a camera that is light and easy to carry around. I want a camera that works fast and reliable, when I occasionally have to track my crazy nephew riding downhill on his toboggan. I want a discrete camera on the street and one that allows me to carry around 3 lenses on my travels, without taking to much space in my backpack. I want a camera that looks sexy. And I want a camera that is the best allrounder possible in the smallest package imaginable.

So for now, the answer is: I want the Fujifilm X-T2 (or Fujifilm X-T20… but since it’s free I’d go for the X-T2 ;) )

Now you know I’m a rangefinder style lover. So why no X-Pro2 or X100F?

Well, here is the thing: I do make one film project every year with my students. And having a hybrid camera that gives me nice 4K video would be interesting for me, since I’m sure many of my students will have 4K TV’s at home in a few years… so the X-T2 is the way to go.

With all that said, if all I would need is the ultimate image quality, I guess I’d have no other choice than to grab the Fujifilm GFX… but I need an allrounder that can do everything very good (video included). So please Fujifilm, send me an X-T2 :)

WHY THIS POLL

I launch this poll, because I’d be interested to see, how many of you guys would grab the Fujifilm GFX if price would be no problem. Maybe the price is the only thing that keeps you from purchasing the GFX? Or maybe the advantages of current X-TransIII cameras (such as speed, better video and AF) would still make you pick an APS-C Fuji, even if all the gear would be given to you for free?

I won’t include every Fuji cameras in this poll. Only the latest generation, so X-TransIII and the GFX. Vote and feel free to tell us thoughts in the comments.

And of course… it’s Friday, so enjoy your weekend :)

Rule 1: You can Not Sell again the Camera and Lenses You Get for Free
Rule 2: Imagine you do not own a Fujifilm camera already

Imagine You Don't Own a Fujifilm camera, and You Would Get one for Free (3 lenses included)... which One Would you Take?

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Jonas Rask – Shared here at our GFX facebook group: Another day. Another GFX image.  GFX50s – 32-64mm at 37mm – f/4 – exp 1/4s – ISO200 – developed in Capture One 10. A lot of people talk about that elusive “3d pop” – I find that term complete nonsense. But let me direct your attention to the leg and foot of Jonas in this portrait. Even though the DOF is large enough for the ground both in front of- and behind his foot to be in focus, it still gives a distinct feeling that his foot almost “steps out of the frame” in another layer. – This might be because of added resolution, as well as the added colorinformation in the file. The effect is obviously best in the full resolution file which you can download here:  http://d.pr/i/DAhY You can see the GFX challenge video that we did for this shoot here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SftMz9HGZ_s