Medium Format lenses on mirrorless bodies?

Karhallarn · Joined: 26 May 2009 Posts: 577

Hi guys!

Do any of you folks use medium format lenses on their mirrorless cameras? I was looking into Mamiya 645 lenses the other day and a steal for a Schneider Kreuznach 150mm f4 P6 lens went by the other day.

I used to have some P6 lenses for my Nikon and Pentax cameras some years ago and remember the 180mm to be huge but the 80mm f2.8 as being very nice on those cameras. As far as I know, the mamiya lenses are very sharp and they are smaller than the P6 lenses, so I was thinking about getting one or the other for my NX11!

What do you guys think? Anybody has some pictures of medium format lenses mounted to a mirrorless?

Cheers and merry Christmas,

Karhallarn

Pancolart · Expire: 2013-11-18

See the small red part of the lens projected image that you'll be able to use. Your needs should be very specific to make this sensible.

std · Joined: 09 Feb 2010 Posts: 1826 Location: Bulgaria

Apart from being huge and with long adapter there's nothing wrong with those lenses.
They are good (specially the Schneider ones) so feel free to try them Smile

I think i have posted here somewhere a picture of f4.5/300mm Tair-3 from Salyut 6x6 mounted on Olympus E-P2

Attila · Expire: 2025-11-18

I do use any kind of lens on mirror less bodies, huge , small irrelevant all works well. You keep lens in your hands and camera in air, I do same with SLR camera also with big lenses. I am not fond of big lenses , but up to 120mm perfectly easy to use and Medium format lens just like a 35mm SLR lens.

kds315* · Expire: 2021-03-09

Well, as Attila said, you can use about any lens on mirrorless camera, considering the small part it actually only uses of the available projected image. I used it with any lens I have so far, also with a Hypergon that has a 234mm x 234mm image format (330mm image diagonal size) and got amazingly good results (also as you're only using the best part that lens does - its center) :biggrin:

David · Expire: 2013-01-25

One advantage to APS-C sensors in general is that only the center part of the image circle is used. So only the sharpest part of it. Using a medium-format lens means that you'd only get the very sharpest part of the image cone on the sensor, arguably resulting in higher-quality images.

NOW, that said, I've read conflicting articles that medium-format lenses have both higher and lower resolving power (measured in lines per mm) than 35mm lenses. Not yet having my P67 to PK adapter, I can't testify one way or the other from experience.

woodrim · Joined: 14 Jan 2010 Posts: 4060 Location: Charleston

APS-C is the same regardless of mirror or mirrorless - the register is accomplished by the adapter. But if the concern is about size of the lens and its proportion to the camera, that could be concern. I wouldn't try to just hold the camera without also supporting the lens when using a heavy lens for fear of damaging the camera mount. I have not yet used my P6 lenses with my NEX, but only because I haven't purchased that adapter yet. However, I think my Meyer 300/4 is going to look a bit silly attached to that camera.

Joe Ogiba · Joined: 25 Oct 2009 Posts: 9 Location: Millstone NJ

With Pentax 1.7x AF adapter TC :

peterqd · Expire: 2014-01-04

Pancolart's argument about the small size of the APS-C sensor in the centre of the large image circle cuts no ice with me. There is no difference using an 80mm lens on a mirrorless camera as on an APS-C DSLR. And, apart from the crop, as on a medium format camera too. An 80mm lens is still 80mm, whatever the camera.

hifisapi · Joined: 25 Sep 2012 Posts: 941 Location: USA

I think using medium format lenses on small aps-c or m43 mirrorless cameras is a bad idea. Generally speaking these lenses do not have as good a resolving power in lines/mm as lenses designed for the smaller formats so your not only giving up image quality, you also have to deal with large and massive lenses that are overkill in terms of image circle.

Aanything · Expire: 2014-05-30

All the medium format lenses i tried on my apsc camera (volna-3, biometar 120, sonnar 180, flektogon 50) worked great, delivering good (volna-3) to excellent (flektogon 50) iq.
So, in my opinion, the only thing you should worry about is size and handling, especially considering that the adapters will add significant bulk to the lenses.

Pancolart · Expire: 2013-11-18

Now the real question remains: why to buy medium format over full frame lenses if camera is APS-C?

Crop already cuts soft edges even with full frame lenses. You can get nice CZJ Tessar 2.8/50mm for few bucks. What would be medium format equivalent? Can you buy it for less then 50 EUR? Hardly. You can only dream of F1.4 in medium format.

30mm is fish-eye in medium format. These are costly beasts! You have an ocean of nice 28mm & 35mm lenses to chose from in full frame class. There are practically no solutions for wider angles.

Maybe one still can snatch a nice 2.8/150(165, 180)mm or 4/300mm.

Joe Ogiba · Joined: 25 Oct 2009 Posts: 9 Location: Millstone NJ

I would not purchased a MF lens to use on an APS-C or full frame DSLR but since I have four Pentax 67 lenses it does not cost me anything to use.

David · Expire: 2013-01-25

The only 6X7 lens (that I own) I could see myself realistically using on an APS-C or FF body would be the 105mm 1:2.4. That's a nice portrait lens and is very bright. It's also super-sharp. I also have the 200mm 1:4, which is WAY to heavy for a 35mm camera. Also the 55mm 1:3.5 is super heavy and why would I used a monstrous and difficult-to-replace lens when 55mm 1:1.8s are like $25.

In terms of lenses I don't own, I could see myself using the 6X7 135mm macro lens on a 35mm body.

jjphoto · Joined: 17 Mar 2009 Posts: 410

Medium format lenses come into their own when used with tilt, shift or tilt/shift adapters.

Joe Ogiba · Joined: 25 Oct 2009 Posts: 9 Location: Millstone NJ