Although the Fujinon lenses are excellent, even the kit lens, it can be fun to try other lenses on the Fuji EX series cameras. I found an old 50mm minolta lens at a car boot sale and decided to give it a whirl. All that was required was an adapter, which cost me £10 off Ebay. I simply searched for an M-Mount to Fuji , and it worked with no fuss. This mount will work with any old minolta glass. I had to set the focal length to the closest length available in the lens menu, and then it was simply a case of practising the manual focussing technique. Here is a sample shot.
You can see it’s not quite as sharp as the Fujinon lenses, but if you cannot yet afford the lens you want, it’s an excellent second choice. Focus peeking on the Fuji EX1 and 2 makes manual focus a breeze, you can also hit the dial below the shutter , which presses inwards , to zoom in and check that eyelash is nice and sharp. However for shooting quickly manual focus is not great, the exception being in the studio, where you might be able to shoot at F8-11 and then once you have got the focus spot on, your depth of field is great enough to be able to shoot as quickly as the flash will allow, with no pesky autofocus delay to hinder your efforts.
Another interesting lens, which I picked up off Ebay again, is the Helios 44-2, an old Russian lens which is built like a tiny tank. The really great thing about this lens is the background bokeh, which has a unique swirly pattern to it unlike any other lens. This is to do with the construction, and is particularly good when you have many small points of light in the background. Here is an example.
Once again all you have to do is find the correct adapter, and away you go! I should mention I found with my copy that the colours were a bit washed out, and the aperture ring was also very loose, but for under £10 you cannot complain. I will be using this lens again, having finally got it back of my brother who borrowed it for some time!!! Here is another shot taken with the Helios.
I hope this post encourages all you Fuji owners to get some cheap and cheerful old glass and see what it can do when mounted on the X Trans sensor!