So, I’ve been toying with the idea of buying a new Fuji lens but I can’t make myself do it cause my entire gear is Canon. Firstly, I feel like a traitor; second, it’s too much work to build a lens kit for another system. Being the genius that I am (or am not) I decide to opt for another route. Fitting vintage lenses to my XT-4 body.
Now, this was a process! I tried a few different approaches. First, I wanted to use older M42 screw mount lenses, so I got the adapter and couldn’t find a good lens. So I shipped it back and ended up getting two different adapters. One for the Canon EOS EF and EF-S lenses to the Fuji X mount and Canon FD Lenses to Fuji X Mount. I got both of these from K&F Concept on Amazon. I have hyperlinked the adapters in case anyone is interested.
In this post, I will talk about the FD adapter. Below is a photo of the adapter. It is solid metal construction and for the price, you can’t beat it. It didn’t lock on always for me so there were light leaks, which is weird. But, you can get used to it. K&F was very easy to work with for returns etc.
I shot using the Kodachrome 25 present created on Fujiweekly. If you haven’t checked that website, it’s high time you do cause he has some amazing presets for all generations of Fuji Cameras. As for the lens, I used an old FD 50MM f 1.8 lens with an aperture ring. So do the math for a cropped sensor.
Ok. So, verdict? I loved shooting with this setup. The form factor of the whole thing is just so cool. I personally love the vintage lens and since I love shooting manually, having a fully manual lens makes it so much more fun. It is also a conversation starter if you trying to look cool (which I am always attempting and failing).
I did find that at lower f stops it is better to just shoot portraits and even at higher f stops there is some haze (is that the right word? Just zoom in and you will see what I’m talking about). I don’t think I’ll be able to blow up any of this to any large sizes, but then again I don’t know if it will be different with any other presets. Likely not. I miss the sharpness of a Fuji lens on this but I love the uniqueness I get from the lens on this body. and the vintage feel of being able to shoot with a fully manual lens is just cool.
The portraits on this lens-to-body setup are pretty cool and I want to shoot a lot more portraits before giving a final verdict. I mean, being a manual lens and all, if your subject doesn’t want to pose, like my dog, and doesn’t give you the time to set up your shot, then forget about it. But, if you can get your subjects to sit down and pose, then this setup may work for you. What I am going to do is, just shoot portraits for the next few weeks on this on my road trip and see if I feel any different. I must say, while I loved shooting on this, at the end of the day I was still inclined to buy a Fuji Lens so that I don’t have to work so hard. I’m lazy. You are likely not.
I guess I must say that the best part of shooting with the Fuji is being able to do all the edits on the camera as we shoot and the export gives you the film look. Considering I just said Im lazy with editing, this workflow makes the shooting and photo dump so much easier. Anyway, the photo dump is below. You judge.
A Writer's Discourse 