Good news, Bad news
By Roy
Rated 5 out of 5
Date: 2023-03-20
The good news is, this retro adapter is made exceptionally well, typical of Novoflex. The design is superb, the engineering is precise, the functioning is flawless, and the aesthetics delight the mind. It is also made tough and for decades of use. It is hard to heap more praises on it. BUT here are the several problems.
First, on a Fujifilm GFX camera, the DOF is already shallow compared to a 35mm camera. So when the subject is hugely magnified, the DOF really falls off a cliff. Which means for any 3-dimensional subject (i.e., not a flat subject like a postage stamp), you have to use focus stacking and take many shots, if you hope to have a reasonably sharp image with some DOF to it.
That is where you run into the next problem. The Fuji GF lenses were not really cut out for this. In this reverse mode, the lenses don't autofocus well, and also show lateral CA that is not normally present when the lenses are used normally. The captured images are just not very good.
Then when you put the images together, the composite is quite underwhelming. I tried both Helicon and Zerene stacking software, in all the different algorithms they provide. None of them gave a good result - it's garbage in, garbage out.
Lastly, when you're hanging a lens from its filter thread for the purpose of using this retro adapter, you really don't want to use a heavy lens. So forget about using lenses like the 32-64, 45-100, or heaven forbid, the 85/1.7, 100-200, 110 f/2, or 250 f/4 prime. Not advised.
So you're left with the lighter lenses like the 35-70 kit zoom, the 50/3.5, or maybe the 45/2.8. They just don't give you enough flexibility or image quality to make this work.
I think the Novoflex adapter idea is very nice and usable. But it is probably best to use it with a 35mm camera like a Sony A7R5 with a manual focus lens like a Voigtlander APO Lanthar or a Sony prime. Or Canon or Nikon or Leica SL. These systems have more compact and lighter weight lenses, and you can experiment with them to see what gives you the best results. But I don't think this product is practical with a Fuji GFX camera.
BTW, I also have the Novoflex pro bellows with Tilt / Shift and Castel Micro with adapters for the Fuji GFX system. My Fuji GFX 100s works beautifully with these - this is where it really shines, especially with the Schneider 90mm f/4 document repro lens that Novoflex offers. That is a fantastic solution. But my advice is, forget about retro adapter for the GFX system.
