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guest post by Peter Sills – www.digitalfocus.net

Several months ago, I first read about adapters that would allow me to mount my Canon lenses to my new Fujifilm GFX 50S. Interested, I reached out to the various companies mentioned inquiring about their availability and acquiring one for potential testing. Of these, only one, Steelsring, got back to me. After some conversation, we agreed that I would test the unit and write an article as to my findings. Several months later, in December of 2017, I received my adapter.

I was intrigued. When first released, the Steelsring EF>GFX adapter was reported as being the only adapter of its kind which would also property report the Lens EXIF information to the camera and turn off the automatic lens correction (for the Fuji 63mm lens) in the process. Having this ability allows you to create your own special “Lens Profiles” for the camera/lens/adapter combination – something I find quite useful and important.

When the unit arrived, it came in a very attractive wood and aluminum case. It was extremely well packaged and after careful examination appeared to be well constructed as well.

Of course, how these adapters operate is that on one side of the adapter is the Native Mount (Fuji) side, and on the opposing side is the Lens Mount (Canon side). Most adapters are “passive” so there are no contact pins. The Steelsring adapter is of a new generation of mounts that allow a camera to actually obtain accurate focus using “non-native” lenses. In this case Canon lenses.

So, the next step was to mount this to my Fuji GFX and begin testing.

I found the fit to be quite tight and secure, both on the Fuji side and on the Canon side. I would say even more so on the Fuji side. Many of the Canon lenses I found “clicked” right in to place. A few required a little adjustment of the lens release button to ensure they were indeed “locked-in”. Once this was properly engaged, the connection was tight, with no looseness or “wobble” at all.

My objectives were quite simple.

1. Determine if a lens adapter, in this case an auto-focus lens adapter, could provide usable AF accuracy and speed using my existing Canon lenses.
2. Determine if the “vignetting” of these lenses would be significant enough to render them useless or usable for my testing.

Alright, so how to begin?

DRPreview just published their Fujifilm X-H1 review and it gets the silver award with a 86% score. It’s as usual a long and in depth review, so I will share just some highlights from the conclusions:

Overall Conclusion:

The X-H1 is, in many ways, an excellent camera: adaptable to a wide range of photographic challenges and with most of the tools you’d need to shoot excellent video. It brings stabilization and video improvements over the Gold-winning X-T2, along with the kind of ‘big camera’ ergonomics that some photographers love. However, all of this comes at a price, both financially and in terms of size.

If you already have a number of X mount lenses, the X-H1 is the most capable camera you can mount them on. Its performance is as solid as its construction feels and the addition of stabilization will be appealing. It’s also well worth considering as a stills/video hybrid, if you haven’t yet picked a system. However, given how good some of its competition is at this point in the market, we can’t wholeheartedly recommend it in the way we would with the X-T2, which means it earns a Silver Award.

Image Quality:

The X-H1’s image quality is a match for the X-T2, with perhaps a few tweaks having been made to the JPEG noise reduction at high ISOs. The Raw results are similarly impressive, with low noise levels and plenty of detail being captured. Dynamic range is also good: a little behind the very best of its APS-C peers but still sufficient to give plenty of processing flexibility. As always, the standout feature for Fujifilm is the JPEG engine that provides an extensive series of well-judged color modes that provide interesting creative choices.

Autofocus:

The X-H1 can be a highly competent performer in terms of autofocus and is able to both focus and subject track effectively. However, there are some significant caveats. Face detection isn’t very consistent and subject tracking often fails if the subject as allowed to move beyond the central, phase-detection region of the sensor. […] Overall, though, paired with a fast-focusing lens, the X-H1 is able to autofocus sufficiently quickly and reliably to be used for a wide variety of shooting situations.

Video:

The X-H1’s video quality is very good, with very good levels of detail capture and reasonably well-controlled rolling shutter. […] The 200Mbps footage looks very good when lined up against almost anything else

Make sure to read the whole review at DPReivew here.

Fujifilm X-H1: BHphoto, AmazonUS, Adorama, Focuscamera
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Fujinon XC 15-45mm

The official “shipping embargo” ends tomorrow, and finally BHphoto, AmazonUS and Adorama will start delivering Fuji’s smallest zoom lens, the XC 15-45mm F3.5-5.6 PZ OIS.

The XC15-45 is an interesting option for those of us, who’d like to travel as light as possible, but do want to keep the flexibility a zoom lens offers.

The Fujinon internal competitor of the XC15-45 is the XF 18-55 (the XC16-50 will probably be discontinued).

Having 3mm more at the wide end can make the difference especially for landscape photography. I personally applaud Fuji’s decision to go wider (15mm) and sacrifice a bit of reach at the long end.

True, the XC15-45 won’t be able to keep up optically with the XF18-55 and it is also a slower lens, but these are inevitable tradeoffs for a lens, the XC15-45, that is about half the size of the XF18-55.

It remains to see how well it performs optically, and we now have the first review at photographyblog. Their conclusions:

What we do know about Fujifilm’s lenses, even the budget-friendly ones, is that we can expect very good image quality. The Fujinon XC 15-45mm f/3.5-5.6 OIS PZ lens is no exception. Paired with the Fujifilm X-A5, we have been able to make images with wonderful clarity.

Fine and complex detail is handled and reproduced very well for such a compact and affordable lens. Usually kit lenses are below par, not so here.

All in all, the handling of the lens is average. Really, it’s to be expected of a lens at this level and price point. With an unmarked electronic zoom, it’s more friendly to filmmakers than photographers.

What is clearly the champion feature is its diminutive size and weight, and for that reason alone we expect the lens to be very popular.

Yet, what may get overlooked is how much wider this lens is than many other kit lenses. If you are into landscape photography, then the lens’ 23mm wide setting will be very accommodating.

Bottom line; the Fujinon XC 15-45mm f/3.5-5.6 OIS PZ could handle better, but it is compact, it is light, it has a wider angle of view than most kit lenses and creates very sharp images indeed.

So overall a nice little lens, that performs better than comparable kit lenses of other manufacturers.

Fujinon XC 15-45: BHphoto, AmazonUS, Adorama
Fujifilm X-A5: BHphoto, Adorama, AmazonUS