A couple adaptable lens bargains.

[fmw]

I found some nice buys this week which will adapt nicely to my Fuji system. One is the Leica 70-200 f4.5R zoom and the other is a Carl Zeiss 300mm f4 prime lens. They should be decent lenses and were quite affordable. I'll post images and test results when they arrive next week. Happy black friday.

 

[jcdeboever]

I found some nice buys this week which will adapt nicely to my Fuji system. One is the Leica 70-200 f4.5R zoom and the other is a Carl Zeiss 300mm f4 prime lens. They should be decent lenses and were quite affordable. I'll post images and test results when they arrive next week. Happy black friday.

Your going bigger again.....

 

[fmw]

Yes but not to carry around with me when I look for subjects. The Leica is for resale and the Zeiss is for special purposes.

 

[fmw]

The lenses arrived today. Both are in near mint condition with clean and clear glass. The 300 has one visible dust speck. As soon as the adapters arrive, I'll give them a test. Images below. Leitz 75-200 f4.5 R made in Japan for the Leica R SLR system. Carl Zeiss 300mm Tele Tessar f4 telephoto made in W. Germany for the Contax SLR system. I'm smiling so far.

 

[fmw]

I got a few shots with the Zeiss 300 Tele Tessar. The lens is brutally heavy. Actually it is a poor match for the small, light Fuji X system and it will never see any life in my camera bag. I will take it along in the car when I plan to make telephoto shots.

Below is a shot of Boots the cat and a 100% crop of the animal's head. The shot was made wide open at f4. Still the lens is reasonably sharp even wide open. It sharpens up by f5.6. It is a good argument that they made some good lenses in Germany a couple of decades ago.

 

[Gary A.]

Nice.

 

[fmw]

Nice.

Yes it is a fine lens optically. I wish I didn't need a dolly to move it around.

 

[fmw]

When Leica decided to compete in the crowded SLR market they farmed out most of the production. The R series cameras were made in Portugal and most of the lenses were made in Japan. The 75-200 f4.5 zoom you see above was made by Minolta and was also available with the Minolta mount and Rokkor name. It is a push-pull type of lens.

I would call its performance reasonable but not outstanding. I have a Fuji XC 50-230 plastic zoom that blows it away optically and is a lot smaller and lighter. The little Fuji is outstanding. I bought this lens for resale and I'm in the process of selling it. The shot below was taken hand held with the lens at 75mm and the aperture wide open. Shutter speed was 1/120 and the ISO was 800.

It is sharp enough for an inexpensive zoom lens but not better because of its iconic brand. Here is a shot of one of my wife's garden accessories.

 

[Gary A.]

For shear/raw sharpness, I love the Fuji lenses. A primary reason for sticking with the camera/system. I like the bokeh on the first shot.

 

[fmw]

For shear/raw sharpness, I love the Fuji lenses. A primary reason for sticking with the camera/system. I like the bokeh on the first shot.

Sure but the system doesn't have a 300 prime lens. It doesn't even have a 200 prime. I'm not willing to spend the money for the 100-400 zoom. I only paid a couple of hundred dollars for the Zeiss 300. As little as I will use it, it is more than sufficient. I don't even use the Fuji 50-230 zoom all that much. Perhaps one day I'll have enough adapted lenses to trade them all for a Fuji 100-400.

I don't pay much attention to bokeh. To me it is just out of focus. I'm glad it is good.

 

[petrochemist]

I don't pay much attention to bokeh. To me it is just out of focus. I'm glad it is good.

If it's bad you'd soon start to pay attention. It can be very distracting, but once you get reasonable bokeh it tends to take someone looking for it to notice the difference.

 

[jcdeboever]

Pretty neat test. Supposedly, Fujifilm is coming out with a 200mm f2.8 next year. That won't be cheap.

 

[fmw]

I'm confident it will be pricey. The little XC 50-230 is so good that I'm willing to crank up the ISO to compensate for the slower maximum aperture. So I don't need the 200. I prefer prime lenses but the Fuji zooms are really amazing.

 

[fmw]

I don't pay much attention to bokeh. To me it is just out of focus. I'm glad it is good.

If it's bad you'd soon start to pay attention. It can be very distracting, but once you get reasonable bokeh it tends to take someone looking for it to notice the difference.

I'm sure that's true. I remember the 500mm mirror lens I had years ago with the donut shaped out of focus highlights. They were distracting enough that I never used the lens on back lit subjects. Failing something really obvious like that I don't get distracted much by bokeh. It is not a issue for me at all.