Fuji X100S + 58mm Tele-Converter *SAMPLES*

So I bought one one of those old, solid metal and glass 1.5x tele-conversion lenses on ebay:
View attachment 12320
Untitled by the_sardonic_iconic, on Flickr

In terms of looks, what it lacks in discretion, it more than over-compensates in hilarious bad-assery. I wanted a larger one with a 58mm thread in order to eliminate any vignetting/blackout in the resulting image.

This was an exercise mainly in curiosity, knowing that the optical elements in these kinds of "converters" aren't exactly made to work perfectly with a precision instrument like the X100S. However, given my overall shooting style and philosophy of "aesthetic over technical perfection" I thought it may be worth a shot to have a quick and quirky 50mm-equiv perspective on the X100S. I'm also not a believer of shooting test shots and controlled environments, I'm much more interested in how equipment will perform in the environments and situations I intend to use them. The following are samples from a shoot I had yesterday with Sasha @ Wilhelmina:

View attachment 12322
View attachment 12324
View attachment 12326
View attachment 12327
View attachment 12329
View attachment 12331
View attachment 12333


My overall thoughts is that this isn't some magical 50mm lens solution for the X100S. It has it's quirks. Namely, only the VERY CENTER of the frame is sharp. I'm no pixel peeper and actually go out of my way to introduce imperfections in my images... but even for me it's a bit too soft outside of the center. With that said, the added blur/shift of the teleconverter lends itself well to my shooting style, so the main challenge is composing interesting images with the focal point in the very center of the image. Also, from my non-scientific tests, you're only losing about 1/3rd of a stop of light with the converter on. Conclusion: It's mostly quirky, and only semi-useful. :)

The rest of the images from this shoot can be see in my X100/X100S Fashion Portraiture thread.
 
Fun experiment! I can see what you mean about the center sharpness, it's only particularly noticeable though on the bottom edges of the frames where the model's lower half is in that portion. Cool stuff, worth a try at least :)
 
I'm also not a believer of shooting test shots and controlled environments, I'm much more interested in how equipment will perform in the environments and situations I intend to use them.

As we all should be in my opinion. I doubt we'd even notice half of the 'issues' that are cited as weaknesses of various cameras/lenses if we were.
 
You're far too modest, you could shoot most anything except maybe sports with a pinhole, haha and even then I wouldn't bet against you.

Joe
 
After seeing this thread I dug out my old wide/tele converter set that I have for my paperweight Yashica Electro 35 GT and tried them both on my X100S.

As Sardonic mentions with these things, if edge to edge sharpness is what you want, don't bother, but I was quite pleased to see that both the tele (which gives approx 45mm FOV) and the wide (which gives about a 28mm FOV) both work on the X100S without vignetting. They are designed to mount on 55mm threads so I mounted them with a 52mm-55mm step up ring in conjunction with the 49mm-52mm ring I keep permanently attached to my camera. They're obnoxiously large and the tele is a little weighty (they look pretty much just like Sardonic's photo above), but they may be kind of fun to use.

I had been considering picking up the Fuji 28mm conversion lens and the Yashica is certainly no replacement, but seeing as I like to use the 28mm for close up portraits wide open where corner sharpness doesn't matter, I'll just play with these for a while and see what I can do with them. The center of both lenses seems fairly sharp, but that sharpness does drop off quite quickly. I don't have any worthwhile photos to post yet, but when I do I'll post them here if Sardonic doesn't mind. I never would have thought to do this had it not been for this thread, so many thanks!
 
After seeing this thread I dug out my old wide/tele converter set that I have for my paperweight Yashica Electro 35 GT and tried them both on my X100S.

As Sardonic mentions with these things, if edge to edge sharpness is what you want, don't bother, but I was quite pleased to see that both the tele (which gives approx 45mm FOV) and the wide (which gives about a 28mm FOV) both work on the X100S without vignetting. They are designed to mount on 55mm threads so I mounted them with a 52mm-55mm step up ring in conjunction with the 49mm-52mm ring I keep permanently attached to my camera. They're obnoxiously large and the tele is a little weighty (they look pretty much just like Sardonic's photo above), but they may be kind of fun to use.

I had been considering picking up the Fuji 28mm conversion lens and the Yashica is certainly no replacement, but seeing as I like to use the 28mm for close up portraits wide open where corner sharpness doesn't matter, I'll just play with these for a while and see what I can do with them. The center of both lenses seems fairly sharp, but that sharpness does drop off quite quickly. I don't have any worthwhile photos to post yet, but when I do I'll post them here if Sardonic doesn't mind. I never would have thought to do this had it not been for this thread, so many thanks!


Glad they work out! Looking forward to samples. :)

If anything, all this REALLY makes me wish Fuji would put together a tele converter of their own. Even if we lose a 1/3rd stop or 1/2 stop of light, it really would add SO much more usability for what I do.
 
Glad they work out! Looking forward to samples. :)

If anything, all this REALLY makes me wish Fuji would put together a tele converter of their own. Even if we lose a 1/3rd stop or 1/2 stop of light, it really would add SO much more usability for what I do.

I was thinking about that yesterday after this thread. I wouldn't mind an X100S + the wide angle converter + a teleconverter option. At some point it makes sense to go with an interchangeable lens system of course, but the X100S with a little wider and a little tighter option would be pretty slick as a small portable setup. (y)
 
Mine are 55mm thread mount as opposed to Sardonic's which is 58mm. Even at the slightly smaller size, mine don't vignette even with the wide adapter. Sardonic's tele however is a 1.5x whereas mine is only a 1.3x I used step up rings on the end of a JJC adapter ring to mount the adapters. Here are a couple examples I shot last night while playing around with them (as well as what they look like mounted to the X100S). My model has more clothing on, but fewer teeth than Sardonic's:

Wide:

View attachment 12384
DSCF0809 by ericarthur, on Flickr

8666136406_42ae4d69f1_c.jpg

P4201062 by ericarthur, on Flickr

Tele:

8664860048_585688c383_c.jpg

DSCF0852 by ericarthur, on Flickr

8666139232_9c6eeaff5d_c.jpg

P4201060 by ericarthur, on Flickr

I'm interested to see how they do outside in more light. I think they'll be a fun (and free!) addition to the camera.
 
Very nice Sardonic!

What kind of adapters or threads to do y'all use to mount the tele onto the X100s?

I use the JJC adapter, then a 49-58 stepup ring that came with the tele-lens. In a tragic turn of events, more indepth examination revealed some pretty extensive fungus on the outer rim of a middle element in the lens... it will be retired/destroyed accordingly. I've already scoooped up another replacement on ebay, hopefully one that is fungus free!
 
Interesting, the soft edges are more pronounced there, kind of gives it a tilt-shift effect to some of the photos.
 
Interesting, the soft edges are more pronounced there, kind of gives it a tilt-shift effect to some of the photos.

Yes, you can certainly tell the lens is sharp right in the center, but the sharpness is all but gone relatively quickly. For creative use its fine, especially with the type of processing I tend to like, but I don't know that I'd pay all that much money for one. Luckily I just happened to have mine lying around collecting dust.
 
I posted a thread with some full sized samples from a Petri adapter set that is identical to the Yashica-
https://www.fujixspot.com/f8/really-cheap-tele-wide-adapter-set-petri-aux-lens-422/#post3780

If it were a 1.6 or 1.8 adapter and producing the same results, I feel it would be more useful. Going from 35mm to 45mm isn't that much different, it most cases it is better to just get closer to subject. But there are times where the blurred periphery could be desirable, OP's photos are a great example of this.
 
pretty cool post. Thank You guys. Fuji has told it is not possible to make an quality tele converter. But if they did. It would be awesome. X100 has the high speed sync that rare camera has. Even other X series, like X-Pro1 dont have that so...
It would make a lot of sense to have the 28mm 35mm and 50mm setup from one camera + 2 adapters :)
 
Back
Top