Medium Format Lens on 35mm Bodies

[Mongo]

This subject has been touched upon before. From what Mongo has read, most seem to believe that MF lenses are not really as good on 35mm bodies as their 35mm counterparts which were intended for those bodies.

This may largely be true but there is some useful real estate between being “not really as good” and what may be pleasant and useable anyway.

Mongo has a number of 645 Pentax lenses which he likes a great deal and which are not being used on the 645 film body (which remains unused). This prompted him to look into how useful or desirable they would be to use on the Nikon 35mm bodies.

First, the adapter. Purchased from China in reasonably good quality for between $35 and $65 dollars (cannot recall exactly how much)(SEE image #1)

Although several lenses fit and work nicely on the nikon bodies, the 120mm f4 macro is the one Mongo most uses (equivalent to 75mm). It look , feel and woks great; especially on the D4s (See images #2 and #3).  A terry towelling wrist band (which mongo sometimes uses to protect lenses) was used to momentary hold the lens up while taking these two images. There is also a 150mm which equates to 90mm for portrait work (not pictured).

The lens is sufficiently sharp and yet has a nice colour and mellow rendering. Some quick sample images from Mongo’s garden all hand held and most at very low shutter speeds. If Mongo had not been lazy he would have used a tripod. Processed as Mongo would process any other of his images. Most images have the original full sized version followed by a 100% crop of same.

PROS:- very nice quality lens, nice colour and rendering generally, lovely handling in conjunction with the camera body, generous focusing ring with beautiful smooth buttery action, works with focus indicator of the camera to f 9.5, the metadata is correct (except for f stop number).

CONS:- need an adapter, there is no tripod mount on the lens but it is only just small enough to use the camera’s mount for the tripod, camera focus indicator only works to f 9.5 - alternatively , focus wide open and then step down the aperture before taking the image, light meter does not connect directly so there is a little bit of fiddling to set this up at first before shooting.

[Mongo]

several more

[Mongo]

last one

[Akira]

These are all very convincing images.  120/4.0 macro offers quality images up close, and D4S is not demanding in terms of the resolution.  So, it should be a friendly combination, which is proved in these images.  I love #10/10a.  Looks really cool!

150/2.8 (3.5?) should be a good portrait lens on FX.  The bokeh circle should be kept round even into the corners, thanks to its larger image circle.

[Mongo]

Thanks Akira. Agree with you also re the D4s with this lens. Will try it on the D800E just to see how that marriage with extra resolution works. Mongo's favourite is also 10 and 10a. The leaf from that plant has been in the garden for 20 years and it was not until these images that it's true texture and features were pleasantly revealed.

The 150 is an f3.5 and is half the size of the 120 macro. You are probably correct about the bokeh circle and from memory, these lenses have 9 blade apertures. Will soon find out when Mongo tries it.

[Fons Baerken]

Fine results, Mongo; will these lenses do well on the Fuji gfx50?

[Mongo]

Fine results, Mongo; will these lenses do well on the Fuji gfx50?

Not sure Fons as Mongo does not know enough about the camera you mentioned. It will probably give best results with cameras with less resolution power i.e. a 16mg sensor instead of a 36 mg sensor etc. However will try it on the 36 mg sensor over the next few days to see  how it performs.

[John G]

Mongo does it again, you've captured a great set of close up images with pleasing use of light. I'm very Frond of those Ferns.

[Mongo]

Thanks John. The images were only meant as samples to demonstrate the capabilities of the lens. The fern was one of the images that tended to demonstrate this reasonable well. Mongo had not given any thought to the actual composition or the images as desirable 'photography images' if you know what Mongo means.

Appreciate your feedback.

[John Geerts]

Very sharp, crisp and detailed, Mongo.  Although may be  the bokeh (and perhaps the colour of it) are not the strongest points?

[Roland Vink]

I just spent yesterday afternoon photographing my entire Pentax 645 kit with the intention of putting it up for sale. You are not making it easy ... it is a great system, and of the lenses the 120 macro is by far my favorite. I often wondered how it would perform on a Nikon DSLR, the focal length gives just that little bit extra working distance compared to the 90-105mm class of macro lenses, which could be useful. The build and handling of the manual Pentax 645 lenses is superb.

[Mongo]

Very sharp, crisp and detailed, Mongo.  Although may be  the bokeh (and perhaps the colour of it) are not the strongest points?

thanks John - appreciate your comments. Not trying to defend these lenses but perhaps none of the test shots were really the type of shot that might show up how well the bokeh may or may not perform. As for the colour, Mongo found it to be rich and very accurate to the original subjects. This also sometimes is influenced by camera settings and other software.

I just spent yesterday afternoon photographing my entire Pentax 645 kit with the intention of putting it up for sale. You are not making it easy ... it is a great system, and of the lenses the 120 macro is by far my favorite. I often wondered how it would perform on a Nikon DSLR, the focal length gives just that little bit extra working distance compared to the 90-105mm class of macro lenses, which could be useful. The build and handling of the manual Pentax 645 lenses is superb.

thanks for your comments Roland. Mongo did not wish to make life any harder for you but it is a little difficult sometimes to part with such beautiful build quality, handling and performance ("superb" only just begins to describe them). On the other hand , what do you do with a lovely near new 645 body that you have not used in years because it is hard to buy slide film for it. Even if you do, it seems all too hard to be finding a medium format projector and setting it up every time. Having said all that, Mongo has never seen anything as superb as colour slide image from this camera and could just look at them by just holding them up to the light all day long! Mongo made this post to show there is some potential use at least for the lenses if nothing else.

PS - if you do sell any of the 645 gear it would be helpful to know what it is worth and if there was any great enquiry for it.

[Roland Vink]

I haven't gotten to the selling part yet. I'll probably re-shoot a couple of things first as they were covered in more dust than I thought (digital shots reveal every speck). I always go to ebay (USA) for the current market price. I don't expect to get too much for them. What kit do you have? I have manual focus 45, 75, 120 macro, 150 and AF 300/5.6 with Pentax 645NII.

I know what you mean about colour slides ... I don't have a projector for my 645 slides but I do have one for my 35mm pictures. Shooting colour slides with a manual camera can be an exercise in frustration - mis-focused shots, exposure errors, camera shake etc - but when a picture turns out right, it really sings!

[benveniste]

I haven't gotten to the selling part yet. I'll probably re-shoot a couple of things first as they were covered in more dust than I thought (digital shots reveal every speck). I always go to ebay (USA) for the current market price. I don't expect to get too much for them. What kit do you have? I have manual focus 45, 75, 120 macro, 150 and AF 300/5.6 with Pentax 645NII.

I have the manual focus 45mm, 135mm LS, and 200mm f/4, plus a 300mm f/4 from the Pentax 67 line.  In autofocus, I've got the 75mm, 120mm macro, and the 45-85mm and 80-160mm zooms.  I hope to shoot some 120mm with the 645n this fall.  Alas, the 135mm LS doesn't work as a leaf shutter lens on the Nikon adapter.  And while I've gotten some nice results with the 120mm macro with the adapter, unless my 105mm VR is out on loan there's no real reason to use it that way.

So to me, medium format adapters are pretty much like a dancing horse.  It's interesting that they can "dance" at all, but not an ability with a lot of real-world application.

[David H. Hartman]

Are there digital backs for Pentax 645 cameras that mortals can afford?

I have a Hasselblad 500CM with an 80/2.8 T* Planer and an NC2 prism. It condemned to the petting zoo. I had projects in mind when I bought it in about 2000. They won't happen, not now.

Dave