John Leathwick
Well-known member
I've recently been enjoying using several Mamiya RZ lenses on my GFX via an Arca-Swiss F-Universalis. The longest lens that I had been using on this setup was an Apo 210mm, which has proven to be a fantastic performer, so much so that I bought a Fotodiox adapter to allow me to use it directly as a non-tilt-shift lens. Even better, I then discovered that it played very happily with my Fuji GF1.4x extender, giving results difficult to tell apart from my GF250 with the extender.
I then discovered a 2010-era brochure for the Mamiya RZ Apo series lenses that included MTF curves for all the lenses, these suggesting that the Apo 350mm was probably the best performer of their Apo series. This offered the tantalizing possibility of replacing the Canon FD 500 L that has been my best long lens option for my GFX, despite its vignetting and lousy corner sharpness. I found a mint Apo 350mm in a Japanese EBay store for the princely sum of US$370, and it arrived a couple of weeks ago. I finally had an opportunity to try it out at a local tern roost today, and am very happy with the results. It's difficult to find any significant difference in sharpness between images shot at 350mm or with the extender, there is no sign of any vignetting, and sharpness extends right into the corners. The Canon 'great white' is now for sale 'on behalf of' at the local camera store. The example image below is about a 90% crop of full frame.
For those not wanting to wait for Fuji's promised 500mm tele, I would highly recommend this as an option, particularly if you already have the GF1.4x extender.
John
I then discovered a 2010-era brochure for the Mamiya RZ Apo series lenses that included MTF curves for all the lenses, these suggesting that the Apo 350mm was probably the best performer of their Apo series. This offered the tantalizing possibility of replacing the Canon FD 500 L that has been my best long lens option for my GFX, despite its vignetting and lousy corner sharpness. I found a mint Apo 350mm in a Japanese EBay store for the princely sum of US$370, and it arrived a couple of weeks ago. I finally had an opportunity to try it out at a local tern roost today, and am very happy with the results. It's difficult to find any significant difference in sharpness between images shot at 350mm or with the extender, there is no sign of any vignetting, and sharpness extends right into the corners. The Canon 'great white' is now for sale 'on behalf of' at the local camera store. The example image below is about a 90% crop of full frame.
For those not wanting to wait for Fuji's promised 500mm tele, I would highly recommend this as an option, particularly if you already have the GF1.4x extender.
John