Dante_Stella
Rex canum cattorumque
I picked up Rainbow Imaging's Nikkor G and Leica M adapters (together, about $50). These are some quick notes.
Adapters
1. The Nikon adapter handles fairly well, as long as you set the lens for minimum aperture and use the included ring to adjust the iris. If you try to use the lens aperture ring, the AI ridge will interact badly with the lens mount/release tab. Registration looked pretty good.
2. The Leica M adapter (at least the sample I got) appeared to be a couple of mills (probably 2/1000 inch or 0.05mm) too thick. This impacted distant focusing (you basically needed to stop down to f/8 with a 28mm or shorter lens; f/5.6 for 35mm). I am going to check with them to see if they have something that is slightly thinner. I bet it would work really well, however, with older Leica and Konica lenses that would otherwise back-focus on the M8 or M9.
Focusing
1. Yes, this camera would benefit from focus peaking or even 5x magnification instead of 10. Sometimes you can see "sparkles" (aliasing) on high-contrast objects that cue the focus point (essentially a weak form of focus peaking). Magnification on lenses 50mm and up is very hard on the eyes.
2. It is very practical to use the OVF and use the press-focus feature to EVF the center spot.
3. It is very difficult to focus a 21mm lens on this camera - or any lens stopped down. Zone focusing, however, is reasonably practical.
Lenses (Nikon)
1. 50/1.4D Nikkor (Japan). Quite good, actually. When focused precisely, it is embarrassingly good compared to a 75 Summilux. The essentially undamped focusing (it has heavy glass) takes some adjustment when using it on a precise system.
2. 35-105/3.5-4.5D Nikkor (aspherical, IF). For a lens that costs about $150 used, it is surprisingly good. A little distortion at the ends, but APS-C is right in the sweet spot. Get ready to clean the sensor a lot.
3. 17-35/2.8D AF-s Nikkor. A huge, heavy lens for the X-Pro, it actually blocks a good amount of the OVF. As with FX, very sharp at f/4 and smaller. Usable at f/2.8. The large, well-damped manual focusing ring is great.
Lenses (M - note that none would focus perfectly at infinity due to the adapter)
4. Leica 35/1.4 ASPH (6-bit coded and recollimated). As reported, this one has a little smearing at the corners. Not a problem on Leicas with microlenses, but this retrofocal lens apparently is not retrofocal enough.
5. Konica 21-35mm Hexanon Dual (recollimated). The viewfinder can show a 21mm FOV for zone-focusing. This lens is amazingly sharp (probably due to its pure retrofocal design and 2m MTF peak), and you can get all of that sharpness in the corners.
6. Konica 28mm M-Hexanon (recollimated). Very sharp and contrasty at close range. This is a Distagon clone and is retrofocus by design.
7. Konica 50mm M-Hexanon (recollimated). No issues. In shallow DOF situations, highlights that are just out of focus are softly rendered. It is not surprising that a 50mm would do well.
8. Konica 90mm M-Hexanon (recollimated). This focal length is really past the point where it is comfortable to use a manual-focus lens handheld with the X-Pro1. Performance is not too different from on film. Same rendering of OOF highlights as the 50.
I think that the Hexanons survived well because the wides are retrofocus to begin with.
Another thing I would note is that with non-Fuji lenses, the flash goes "pop pop" much more visibly (and slowly) when in TTL mode. My bet is that the Fuji TTL system depends in some part on the predictability of the Fuji lenses.
Dante
Adapters
1. The Nikon adapter handles fairly well, as long as you set the lens for minimum aperture and use the included ring to adjust the iris. If you try to use the lens aperture ring, the AI ridge will interact badly with the lens mount/release tab. Registration looked pretty good.
2. The Leica M adapter (at least the sample I got) appeared to be a couple of mills (probably 2/1000 inch or 0.05mm) too thick. This impacted distant focusing (you basically needed to stop down to f/8 with a 28mm or shorter lens; f/5.6 for 35mm). I am going to check with them to see if they have something that is slightly thinner. I bet it would work really well, however, with older Leica and Konica lenses that would otherwise back-focus on the M8 or M9.
Focusing
1. Yes, this camera would benefit from focus peaking or even 5x magnification instead of 10. Sometimes you can see "sparkles" (aliasing) on high-contrast objects that cue the focus point (essentially a weak form of focus peaking). Magnification on lenses 50mm and up is very hard on the eyes.
2. It is very practical to use the OVF and use the press-focus feature to EVF the center spot.
3. It is very difficult to focus a 21mm lens on this camera - or any lens stopped down. Zone focusing, however, is reasonably practical.
Lenses (Nikon)
1. 50/1.4D Nikkor (Japan). Quite good, actually. When focused precisely, it is embarrassingly good compared to a 75 Summilux. The essentially undamped focusing (it has heavy glass) takes some adjustment when using it on a precise system.
2. 35-105/3.5-4.5D Nikkor (aspherical, IF). For a lens that costs about $150 used, it is surprisingly good. A little distortion at the ends, but APS-C is right in the sweet spot. Get ready to clean the sensor a lot.
3. 17-35/2.8D AF-s Nikkor. A huge, heavy lens for the X-Pro, it actually blocks a good amount of the OVF. As with FX, very sharp at f/4 and smaller. Usable at f/2.8. The large, well-damped manual focusing ring is great.
Lenses (M - note that none would focus perfectly at infinity due to the adapter)
4. Leica 35/1.4 ASPH (6-bit coded and recollimated). As reported, this one has a little smearing at the corners. Not a problem on Leicas with microlenses, but this retrofocal lens apparently is not retrofocal enough.
5. Konica 21-35mm Hexanon Dual (recollimated). The viewfinder can show a 21mm FOV for zone-focusing. This lens is amazingly sharp (probably due to its pure retrofocal design and 2m MTF peak), and you can get all of that sharpness in the corners.
6. Konica 28mm M-Hexanon (recollimated). Very sharp and contrasty at close range. This is a Distagon clone and is retrofocus by design.
7. Konica 50mm M-Hexanon (recollimated). No issues. In shallow DOF situations, highlights that are just out of focus are softly rendered. It is not surprising that a 50mm would do well.
8. Konica 90mm M-Hexanon (recollimated). This focal length is really past the point where it is comfortable to use a manual-focus lens handheld with the X-Pro1. Performance is not too different from on film. Same rendering of OOF highlights as the 50.
I think that the Hexanons survived well because the wides are retrofocus to begin with.
Another thing I would note is that with non-Fuji lenses, the flash goes "pop pop" much more visibly (and slowly) when in TTL mode. My bet is that the Fuji TTL system depends in some part on the predictability of the Fuji lenses.
Dante
