Hello everyone I finally got a native lens for the GFX system, and boy is it sharp.  The Fujifilm GF 35-70mm f/4.5-5.6 is a “kit lens” and is the cheapest and one of the lightest GF lenses at something like a pound.  Mounted on the medium format GFX 50S it’s not heavy at all and is way better balanced than a 24-70mm f/2.8 for FF.  I got this lens for technical reasons, as the detail that this thing delivers is great for large prints, or appreciating the detail of architecture in landscapes around town.

I’ve had this lens for only a couple of weeks, but here are my “lens tests” at the random events and communities around town that I actually enjoy attending and covering. If you’re looking for test charts and brick walls, then click elsewhere.  I don’t know of too many gear reviewers that give you photos of J-Pop singers, luchadors, food, and GT racecars.  Internet camera reviewers went on their influencing tangent years ago, and forgot that photography gear is meant to take photos of the things we love and find cool.  So here are a bunch of photos taken with the GF 35-70mm.  Hope to add more as Georgia rolls into Autumn leaf season.

Outside at f/8 is where this lens shines. I know we are looking at recompressed jpegs on my 1000pixel wide blog here, but on my computer even the out of camera files are super sharp at 100%, with a detail that is knocking on the door of Sigma Foveon level.

It’s really sharp at f/5.6, especially at far off distances.  Up close subjects though, it reminds me of the haze you get from other Fuji lenses, like the one on the X100 series.  And f/5.6 is still f/5.6 so for low light or indoors it’s not going to give you the results that a better tool like a FF with f/1.2 lens will give you.  As with all things photographic there are compromises only you can deem workable or annoying.  This lens and the clarity of the Fuji files allow for crazy crops that can give you multiple end uses from the 28-55mm full frame equivalent field of view.

I bought this lens from KEH up in Smyrna as usual, and here’s an image of their trophy wall inside the store.  These 100% crops show the detail this lens can deliver.  It’s very sharp, even on the edges and corners, which is something I’ve been used to with my Sigma Foveon cameras, but never really experienced with Canon and Nikon EF and F mount era lenses.

Again f/5.6 is still very small in terms of light gathering and you’ll have to live with Auto ISO going up to 12,000 if you want to utilize this lens in motion situations.

Random toys at the flea market.  At 100% you can definitely zoom and admire all the details in these loose action figures. Which oddly enough still fetch $3-5 each!

The slow GFX is not exactly what one would use to photograph lucha libre in action, but I wanted to try anyway.  This older gen camera definitely has the typical Fuji confused AF, as it locked on to the ropes.

The GFX automatically stops down the lens in bright lighting to protect the sensor so you can see it in the EVF even when you are shooting in Aperture priority at larger fstops.  You will see the sunstars in real time, but in order to get this look I had to physically stop the lens down to a crazy f/32.  Which is insanely small and still requires high iso even in broad daylight.  Diffraction definitely kicks in as well, so you’re denying yourself the peak sharpness of this lens.  Sunstars are much easier on Canon lenses and older Nikon F mount lenses with straight bladed apertures.