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In this video I get a chance to try a very old lens. Specifically the Minolta 40mm f2 from the 70s!
It is a Leica mount so it was adapted for Fujifilm (sorry no idea what the adaptor was as it is not mine).
In the video I talk about my experiences using it as well as show you both photo and video footage from Venice using this lens.
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27 Comments
If they work fine but I don't think that I'd be able to tell the difference relative to the contemporary lenses?
The manual/auto car is a great analogy. I sometimes use a Meike 25mm f1.8 on my Canon M6 (40mm equiv) if I'm on a casual walkabout. It can be a challenge for my (exceedingly) mature age eyes but it still 'connects' with the process. Some lovely shots in there, thanks.
Shooting old film cameras i'm used to using manual lenses. At the moment I only have one vintage lens with an adapter for my fuji's. But getting one for my old Canon FD lenses is on the list. Great video as always.
Do you think you'll get some vintage lenses?
I can highly recommend the Voigtländer lenses, BUT, not the Fuji X mount. Don’t get me wrong, the X mount are ok, but I wasn’t really impressed with them. However, the M mount range is huge with so many styles of lenses to try, and they also (IMO) are superior in IQ. Also, M mount lenses always have great resale. Great video 👌
Superb images. Especially liked the image at 2:02. I too use manual lens on my Fuji cameras. Though I have few Carl Zeiss and a Helios lens, I prefer the Nikon 35mm f1.8 DX lens . Such an easy lens to focus on. But this Minolta , used in the video , surely has character.
The Minolta lens was designed by Leica for there CL camera I use the Canon FD lens on my Sony 6400 and fine them equal to the excellent Sigma lens you need to borrow a Leica M6 to find out how fast you can focus it you would be surprised
loved your email today about losing subscribers due to your various photography/video opinions and video choices. We need a world where people stay authentic.
I've been watching a lot of Youtuber 'movie reaction' videos lately (for my sins – and promise I'll stop) and it's astonishing how those sparky young vloggers 1) enter an emotional downward spiral if something too surprising happens in a film, such as a likeable main character dying and 2) there's bizarre conformity around hating seeing animals hurt even though it's just special effects, yet actively wishing ''baddie' characters are killed for things like theft, salaciousness etc.
Nothing too surprising there, except the overall strangeness of expecting people to serve us up EXACTLY what we want to hear. No wonder Disney/Marvel movies have become so profoundly vanilla and fan-service.
Glad you're keeping it authentic, and not doing some dirge such as posting your reactions to people's favourite bands and always saying they're "brilliant" for klout! Strange days!
birds around the burger? did the person eat it afterwards?
this lens works much better on a mirrorless digital camera with a full frame sensor.
Now that you tried a manual focus lens and used focus peaking, my question is, does the higher resolution viewfinder on the xh2s make a noticeable difference compared to the xt5 's?
But it's all right now, I learned my lesson well, you see, you can't please everyone so you got to please yourself (don’t you just love Ricky Nelson). You're doing fine Roman, keep doing what you're doing.
One of my recent favourites is the Laowa 25mm f/0.95. It's a little huge, about the same size as the Fuji 18mm f/1.4, but handles very similarly. Focus throw is looooong with nice dampening so it allows for precise focus, but vice versa it can be hard to nail quick focus for that single moment if you want to throw it from 1m to 5m for example. I've also tried the famous Helios 44M, Olympus Zuiko 35mm f/2 and 50mm f/1.4.
I bought a pair of cheap TTArtisan manual lenses to give my X-T4 a second life and it totally changed the way I photograph. Ive been enjoying manual focus much more than AF. AF is convenient when you need it, but now I rather manually focus and not worry about setting up AF correctly and placing the box where it needs to be.
You get faster at MF the more you practice and its so fun.
Great video 🙂 just to add to the plethora of recommendations you're getting, my favourite manual lenses are not actually vintage, but are from Samyang. They're very underated, made for the X mount, and it's the whole range of the 21mm f1.4, 35mm f1.2, 50mm f1.2, even the 12mm f2. They have great focus rings, very satisfying to use, well built, excellent image quality, internal focusing too, and pretty cheap, each used can be found for £100-£200, which I know isn't mad cheap but for the image quality they're very impressive.
Voigtlander 27mm f2 ULTRON Fuji X Mount to be released this month.
Nice video. You may also want to consider a speed booster when using vintage lenses to get the field of view closer to that of the way the lens was designed to look on a 35mm full frame. On a crop sensor you are missing out on some of the character you get near the edges of the vintage glass since you are only taking the middle portion to cover the Fuji sensor.
Great compositions; I particularly like the one of the man in the blue-hulled boat. For manual focus Fuji X-lenses, consider 7Artisans or TTartisan.
Love the Minolta M-rokkor 40mm f2 lens. Another one I'd recommend is the Konica M-Hexanon 50mm f2.
Honestly if you wouldn’t have told me I wouldn’t have known those images were from a 50 yo lens. Amazing stuff as always sir.
Sorry if I am being ignorant but how do you use a Minolta (or any other vintage lens for that matter) in a X-mount camera? Does it even fit by itself or you gotta get yourself an adapter?
Now try a cheap M42 lens with adaptor. Weighs a tonne, sticks out a mile and isn’t as quick to focus as that expensive Leica mount one!
The rendering on this Minolta/Fuji seen here in this Youtube viddy' would fool any film vintage eye of the beholder – I for one would be happily fooled seeing hanging prints of these shots and probably never think they were created on a digital Fuji platform – the Fuji film simulations are a gift from the camera gods as everyone knows but like so many, particularly the newer Fuji native lenses are becoming increasingly too sharp and accurate – what ever that means – I believe it's just an unexpected outcome from the pursuit of the optics engineers. Being more optically precise
and clinical is progress people!!…Or is it for many here? Hmmm…
I really love the Voigtlander 23mm f1.4 for X-Mount, it’s a little bit soft wide open but above f2/2.8ish it’s really sharp yet also has great character and colour rendition.
I think Doriyan Coleman and iamtongue have videos featuring it.
My very first SLR camera was a Minolta XD-5. Nostalgic.
What lens adapter did you use for minolta 40mm f2. Thanks
I needed (wanted) a wide angle lens for my XT4 for a specific shoot I was going on…NYC from up high. I just couldn't afford or justify the fuji lens version so I opted for the Rokinon 12mm manual focus. I am so happy with this lens, since I am using it for cityscape I count on the distance guide on the lens and it has been spot on every time. I have also put it on the camera and walked around with it just to have fun…still impressed.
Wow, that’s quite the find! Is the galati on natural from the lens or is it from a filter in front? Not going to lie, contemplating this plus a speedbooster so that the 40mm viewing angle is kept.