Contax 645 lenses using AF on Fuji GFX 50S

biggles3 · Joined: 09 Nov 2009 Posts: 58 Location: Crickhowell, Wales

Having a number of Contax 645s and a set of their beautiful Zeiss lenses, I was hoping to use them on a digital camera instead of having to digitise the 645 with a Hasselblad Ixpress back plus its tethered hard drive.

I bought a Fuji GFX50S not long after it first appeared and fell instantly in love with it. It's a superb camera, the only thing missing being IS - this was rectified in the later model. It was an obvious vehicle to carry the big Zeiss glassware as it should be a match for its 50Mp medium format sensor. While using them in manual focus would be easy enough, would it be possible to find a way to use the lenses in AF mode? Then along came Fringer with a Contax 645/Fuji GFX AF Adapter...

The photo shows the camera attached to the amazing Carl Zeiss 35mm f3.5 T* Distagon via Fringer's adapter. The adapter can sometimes slow the speed of AF acquisition but for landscape and architectural work - my main use for this lens - speed is of no consequence. After updating the adapter's firmware, I was also able to use the 45-90mm f4.5 T* Vario-Sonnar which has been a real joy.

The Fringer AF adapter is an expensive piece of kit - but it does exactly what it claims to do: operate Zeiss' Contax 645 lenses on any Fuji GFX camera. For anyone who has previously invested in the Contax 645 system, this keeps the lenses highly relevant to today's photography. I wish I could afford the GFX 100S, not because I need a 100Mp sensor but just to see how well the old Zeiss glass performs edge-to-edge with such a large sensor...
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