Tuesday, June 02, 2026

Vintage lenses tested on GFX 100S

Recently I tested two Fujifilm lenses on the GFX 100S. Since I can't afford a full fleet of native glass my plan is to use my modest collection of fine vintage (manual focus) glass. I have been happy to use a selection of these on the full-frame (135 format) Panasonic S5. But not all of these lenses will support the larger sensor size. I expect some vignetting, especially wide open. Or the borders could simply be too weak (e.g. blurry with aberrations).

So... bring on the testing! I lined up a selection of Contax-Yashica mount Carl Zeiss lenses, namely:

  • Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 2,8/28
  • Carl Zeiss Planar T* 1,4/50
  • Carl Zeiss Makro Planar T* 2,8/60 C 
  • Carl Zeiss Sonnar T* 2,8/85
  • Carl Zeiss Planar T* 2/100

And a few M42 screw mount lenses:

  • Carl Zeiss Jena DDR Pancolar auto 1,8/50 MC
  • Meyer-Optik Gorlitz Domiplan 2.8/50
  • Pentacon 2.8/135

Pentax will have to wait since the adapter I purchased is apparently on a world tour.