Novoflex Adapters

[siddhaarta]

Just saw it on their webpage, Hasselblad X1D-Adapters now available from Novoflex:

Nikon
Canon FD
Hasselblad V
Leica R
Leica M
Contax/Yashica
Minolta

I was waiting for them, as I have only good experiences with Novoflex. Will buy the Leica R-Adapter for my APOs (100mm Macro and 180mm), and the Hasselblad V for my 110mm Planar.

[JoeC]

Not on B&H yet. I better start saving my pennies.

Joe

[BostonBoy]

I've ordered the X1D to Nikon G Novoflex Adapter yesterday (in Germany). My dealer already received a shipment notification, so they seem to be in stock. I report back once I've tested a few lenses...

[BostonBoy]

Looks like I found an Easter Egg...

The Novoflex XCD to Nikon F Adapter arrived in less than 2 days. I just picked it up from my dealer, and ran some initial (quick and dirty) tests.

I took the Nikon 14-24 F2.8 G, the Nikon 200mm F2 G, and just for kicks the 105mm E which I know is not supposed to work (electrical diaphragm*). The disclaimer here is "*it does not work other than wide open" - and @ F1.4 it seems to do work exceptionally well, see below. It does vignette at full size, but the 6x6 crop mode comes out just fine. Im posting the full wide OOC JPEGs below though so that you can see the vignette. I have no time today to work the RAWs in Phocus, maybe tomorrow.

Jim Kasson pointed me to his excellent blog and write up - obviously he had run similar test already a year ago with another Nikon Mount Adapter, and he has some excellent clues in there which I need to test and feel myself next with a variety of lenses.

The Adapter itself is solid, manufactured in the usual Novoflex quality - tight but not too tight mount, very happy with the product. Just what you expect for the price.

Now, it's very obvious that the X1D sensor readout times in ES Mode are very long. I'm not entirely sure yet if this a workable solution (handheld). I need to run more tests with the tripod as soon as I have time for it. On the one hand being able to use the 105mm F1.4 wide open is great, but my gut feel is that for portrait your sujet needs to sit exceptionally still...asks me in a few weeks. Plus you really must want the "wide open" look which is not always beneficial or desired.

Overall I'm happy that I can put some of the good Nikon Optics to good use...how practical the solution in the real world is time will tell. That's all for now.

P.S.: Had to split up the post in order to post the OOC JPEGs - 5MB Limit


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[BostonBoy]

X1D w/ Novoflex and Nikon 200mm F2

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[BostonBoy]

X1D w/ Novoflex and Nikon 105mm F1.4 "E" wide open only


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[BostonBoy]

For kicks once more developed in Phocus RAW, 6x6 (6200x6200 pixel), but I had to scale them down to 2400x2400 to meet forum posting rules and sizes.

I think the vignette is just fine....

Nikon 200mm F2


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[BostonBoy]

...and once more Nikon 105mm F1.4:



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[rent]

... but my gut feel is that for portrait your sujet needs to sit exceptionally still...

I found this, surprisingly, not to be the case. The electronic shutter works fine for normal, casual, still poses. No need for the subject to be absolutely motionless. I think the reason is that while the overall sensor readout from top to bottom is 0.3 second, any small motion on the part of your subject accounts for a small fraction of that overall lag time, and the distortion might be just small enough to not matter.

On the other hand, any camera shake caused by a slow shutter affects the entire picture. So my approach is to ensure 1/2x shutter speed, then hold steady for a half second or so after the viewfinder black-out starts. This has worked well for me so far.

Alex

[BostonBoy]

Good to know! I will run some portrait tests myself, and stop judgement until I can draw some of my own conclusions.

[BostonBoy]

Playing with the Adapter is fascinating. My technique is still flawed, light was not controlled (natural light), and the test is entirely unscientific, but I do agree that the Nikon 105mm F1.4 E is indeed workable on the X1D w/ the Novoflex and e-Shutter. Photo attached:


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[BostonBoy]

In this particular case the native XCD 90mm shot @ F3.2 is clearly better though:


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[rent]

@bostonboy Would you care to comment or post samples of the Nikon 200mm F2 G on the X1D, especially the amount of vignetting at f/2 and infinity?

Many thanks!
Alex

[BostonBoy]

The first picture above is from the 200mm F2, but not necessarily at infinity. Vignette is heavy, unusable w/o cropping. Quite good in 6x6 mode.

Stopping down helps but this expensive fast glass is best used wide open IMHO.

I have a long list of lenses to go through (300mm f2., Otus 55mm F1.4 that I want to test next. I report back, but Jim K. did already all the grund work as you can read it in his excellent blog. I'm just a hands-on guy and need to test and feel it out for myself.

The fast long pro primes look quite "heavy" on the smallish X1D body, so I'm glad the Novoflex Adapter is mechanically sound. However, this setup will never be a 'fast action setup', especially with the e-shutter on the X1D. It's for a very, very specialized occasions, and I'm glad it's an option in a pinch.

The "Look" of the Nikon glass is however very different on the X1D (compared to the native XCD glass), which makes it interesting. Piqued my interest.

Bottom line: Nice to Have, but I'm still looking into the 120mm once the AF issues are fixed, or maybe even wait for the 135mm / TC combo with native AF. I have so say, I'm also very curious what the maximum aperature on the fast prime on Hasselblad's roadmap is ultimately going to be...

[BostonBoy]

I did run some additional tests yesterday with the Otus 55mm on the X1D. Not the ideal portrait focal length, but I found it quite usable:



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