If you were an early subscriber to the 50R and a prime lens enthusiast, you had a limited selection of lenses. Consequently, your kit might look like the following.

How Might this Kit Have Been Created

The following train, though, might have resulted in this kit. Given your experience with the full-frame equivalent lenses, you may have avoided the 18mm. You likely would have acquired the 63mm as it was the only choice in this range; needing a good portrait lens, you would have compared the 110mm and the 120mm. Given that the 120 f4 is a macro and the 110mm f2 is a faster, more compact, and not a specialty lens, likely you would have selected the 110mm lens. Finally, at the time, there was a very cheap offer for the 50mm it was a very affordable way to acquire a pancake lens for street photography.

Now that the Lens Road Map has Changed

If you recently acquired a GFX 100 to replace your 50R, you might now be interested in the more extensive GF lens offering. Compared to what was available when the GFX series launched, now there are more ways to construct a prime lens kit.

Looking at the lens road map, the two lenses that might give you pause are the 55mm f1.7 and the 80mm f1.7. The question that comes to mind is whether reconfiguring the kit would be helpful. One way to answer that question might be to consider how you would create a kit if you had just bought your first GFX camera.

GF lens Compared to 35mm

GF lenses can be converted to 35 mm equivalencies by using the multiplier .79. In the case of the GF 63mm in the image below, by using the multiplier, you can see that it has the same field of view as a 50mm lens on a full-frame camera. Its light-gathering capacity, f2.8, gathers the same amount of light as an f2.2 lens on a full-frame camera. T

How Would a New Purchaser Construct a Kit

Here is how I would approach it: First, I would consider acquiring a lens in the 50mm equivalent range. There would be three choices: 63mm, 55mm, and 80mm. The 55 and 80 mm lenses let in twice the light compared to the 63mm. That would have narrowed the choice to either the 55 or 80. Given the increased interest in the 40mm equivalent lens, with claims that it is more versatile, I would have considered the 55mm lens first. I would then focus on the 80mm as the slight compress might also be helpful. This would then raise the question of a wide angle. If I were to consider the 45mm, it would concern me that it is too close to the field of view I would get from the 55mm lens. I would have settled on the 60mm as my first choice and the 45mm as my second choice.

Given some experience with the 23mm handle distortion, perhaps better than some full-frame lenses, I would have considered this lens instead of the 30mm 24mm equivalent. Then, I added the 110mm as the portrait lens, giving me the kit shown in the following chart.

At this point, I would look at the spread between the fields of view to see if it would create a problem. There is a 22mm shift between the two wide angles, but 35mm between 45mm and 80mm and 30mm between 80mm and 110mm. Here, the spread does look quite good. Given some compression with the 80mm lens, the next question I might ask is if I need the 110mm lens. So, if this were my initial lens purchase, I would not have purchased the 110 immediately and left that decision for later. In this case, my initial kit would look like the following:

A final thought would be the cash outlay, and if that was a consideration, I might start with two lenses. My preference would be just the 45mm and 80mm lenses.

Would you Change Your Older Kit?

If you constructed your prime kit early on, similar to the first image, would you consider any new lenses? Given that the 80 mm lens’s field of view is so close to that of the 63mm lens, it would be hard to justify that purchase. The spread between the field of view of the 30 and 45 would present a similar problem. So, a decision might be made on different grounds, perhaps a faster aperture or a preference for a specific field of view. In my case, I think the 80mm might be my first consideration, as it is a faster lens with some compression and easier to carry than the 110mm. I love the field of view the 45mm lens provides, and it is very close in size to the compact 63mm lens, so the decision would be difficult to make, but having the 50mm pancake lens in some ways is a better street lens size wise than the 45mm lens. Given that I already have the 30mm lens, I would not consider the slower, larger 23mm lens.

Lens Quality

At this point, a deeper dive needs to be done into the quality of all the lenses, how they resolve the GFX100 sensor, how well they are constructed, the focusing engines, etc. So, I will leave this for another post.

Several of these devices are on the market, but the Leica device does not clip to the phone. Instead, it uses a MagSafe connection. Using Bluetooth, it connects to the phone’s camera. It features a two-stage shutter like most cameras, and there is also a button to switch between shooting modes and two additional customizable buttons to allow you to adjust settings. The customizable buttons can be set to control zoom, aperture, shutter speed, and exposure compensation.

References

• Leica Just Released a Surprising Accessory for Diehear Mobile photographers, Abby Ferguson, DPreview
• Leica LUX Grip, Leica

There are a lot of filter systems, and among the more experienced photographers, you will hear them talk about brands like Urth, NiSi, and K&F. Kase, which has become quite popular because of their magnetic system. Rather than having an awkward attachment or having to be constantly screwing filters on or together, their system has on simple magnetic screw mount, onto which you can magnetically attach one or many filters. This simplicity has attracted several professional photographers to their system.

References

• In the Field Review – Kase Revolution Magnetic Filters, Darren J Sooney Photography
• Why I changed from Lee Filters to Kase Magnetic Filters, Roger Hance

A sensor has a certain number of light gathering pixels, and typically the higher the number of pixels, the higher the image’s resolution. This absolute resolution is directly related to much white light or luminance is reaching it. 

Colour in an image is created through a demosaicing process that interprets the light reaching the sensor through a colour array placed between the light source and the sensor. 

The colour array has a pattern of coloured pixel-sized pieces of glass that allow only one colour to reach each individual pixel on the sensor sensor, usually they are either red, blue or green. A demosaicing algorithm, know as colour reconstruction estimates what the original colours were and then blends this information together to create a colour image.

Bayer Filter Array

Bayer filter arrays are found in most cameras, Fujifilm X cameras being one of the few exceptions. A bayer filter has a two by two array with one red, one blue and two green filters. One of the problems with a bayer filter is the demosaicing algorithm working with this very repetitive pattern can result in the risk of moire. You can see moire in the image below. To prevent this, camera manufacturers would reduce the actual resolution of the image using an anti-aliasing filter. As sensor resolution increased camera manufactures began removing the anti-alias filters in favour of better resolution, however this remove the problem. When moire does occur post processing is one method of removing it, in otherwords the defocusing or slight blurring is done in post processing.

X-Tran Filter Array

An X-tran filter array placed over the sensor has a six by six pattern instead of the two by two pattern of the Bayer filter. So it will have a more complex demosaicing algorithm than the Bayer array. The resolution from cameras will be the same as a similar sensor that does not use an anti-alias filter, however the colour resolution will be less. Colour simplification is not necessarily a negative thing as it is often used used in post processing to enhance an image. As the resolution is not impacted it becomes a matter of personal taste. All cameras use a different processing engine which will result in a different look to its JPGs or RAW files, and in some instances this influences photographers camera choices.

RGBW Filter Array

A RGBW filter array uses a six by six array like the X-Tran array but rather additional green filters it uses white. In otherwords there is no filter the open pixel allows more light to pass through the array onto the sensor. The colours for the white filter are estimated by looking at the surrounding coloured filters. The net result is superior performance in low-light situations. This can be done in a number of ways as illustrated in the image below.

References

• X-Trans: The Promise and the Problem, Jonathan Moore Liles.
• Joint learning of RGBW color filter arrays and demosaicking, Chenyan Bai Faqi Liu and Jia Li
• Color reproduction pipeline for an RGBW color filter array sensor, Wonseok Choi, Hyun Sang Park, and Chong-Min Kyung