In only a few years after entering mirrorless camera arena, Fuji has made some of the best cameras and lenses available. But not for the FF — Company always claimed it will stay faithful to its philosophy of making APS-C and Medium format cameras only. Disappointing? Well, maybe the story is not over…
What if Fuji X mount optics projection circle can cover full frame sensor? In that case, it would be rather simple to make a new model and take a piece of that delicious FF cake. Can we check a projection circle of Fujinon lenses? With a little imagination, it is possible, like John Caz has proved…
His comparison revelations with a primitive cardboard instrument were surprising:
The XF 56mm and the XF 23mm both gave me a result of 35-37mm. The XF 18-55mm at 18mm also was able to cover the 35-37mm range though just barely with obvious fall off at the edges. At 55mm the XF 18-55mm showed a much smaller circle around 30mm with fall off. The Samyang 12mm f/2 and the 8mm f/2.8 surprisingly showed a circle of only 18-23mm with heavy fall off. Wow, this was a true revelation, since up to this time I didn't really expect to see much of a difference.
Furthermore, his investigation provoked ‘Foodgrapher’ Albert Chandra to modify lens mount of his Fujinon 56mm f1.2 and adapt it to Sony A7ii & A7r. It had to be done with the mount modification, since the sensor-mount flange difference is only 0.3mm, which means it is not possible to make an adapter. Fortunately…
As it happens, one of my friend is a very skilled lens technician, he did a great job modifying this lens to fit my Sony A7r
Those results were even more surprising:
Fuji 56mm f1.2 with Sony A7r, straight out of camera (photo: Albert Chandra)
It is possible! Fuji X mount can deliver full frame image circle, even at f/1.2!
Yes, Fuji refuses to make FF sensor body — today. They also said there won’t be a Fuji with in-body stabilization. Then we got Fujifilm X-H1. Tomorrow, the FF temptation can get too overwhelming, and it’s good to know that technical specification allow easy transition…
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