Leica+Fuji?

[Tomas M]

Not sure if this has been posted yet, but I was just looking on the Fuji site when I saw this banner:



X mount 35mm on the way? If I wasn't so bad with money, I'd be saving for it right now

[Matthieu]

Is that the adapter in the upper right corner? Why would it need those electronic contacts?

[Archlich]

Originally Posted by Matthieu

Is that the adapter in the upper right corner? Why would it need those electronic contacts?

6-bit code reader might it be?

[mabelsound]

Oh wow. If fuji's adapter is going to have six-bit contacts, that could be very interesting.

[gavinlg]

omg.


What on earth are they up to? Are they actually going to make this M mount adapter thing work properly?

[t6un]

Using the optical codes may still be protected by a patent, so I'm hoping that the contacts are for the distance sensor. And that the next revision of the camera has some (more) use for them.

[mabelsound]

The image suggests to me that perhaps they have actually licensed the technology from Leica. It could certainly benefit both companies.

[crispy12]

Oh wow, this is interesting.

[dcsang]

This would make a lot of sense - The Kipon adapter, while it works just fine imho, is still "just the Kipon adapter" - that is, since Fuji is making an M-mount adapter (we all knew this when the camera was announced) it would have to have some other benefits to it otherwise the Kipon adapter would just be the "Fuji" adapter but likely less expensive.

What I mean by this is; Fuji's m-mount adapter will likely cost a bit more money than the Kipon currently is priced at. Even now there's a knock off of the Kipon adapter floating around on Ebay at even less money than Kipon's are priced at! So, Fuji has to bring to the table something else other than the basic adapter - don't know what that will be but it's clear it will be something that may warrant people dumping the third party adapters to head towards Fuji's version.

Cheers,
Dave

[j.scooter]

I always was under the impression that Fuji's adapter was going to be "smart". If it was just a block of metal that was a mount for M lenses, I am certain it would have been released a long time ago.

[robert blu]

Short time ago I read (don't remember where) that Fuji is planning to position itself at same level of the 2 biggest japanese camera producers. Probably they cannot (or do not desire) compete on the same playground where competitors are already more or less well established and therefore they try an innovative way, a modern no rf no reflex camera, innovative sensor etc etc. Following this logic an "innovative" adapter like a smart adapter could be in the logic, which could also be the reason for which it took time to engineer and produce it.
Just my opinion, anyway even if I do not own an xpro1 (yet?) I'm sparing some money for a possible purchase...
robert

[willie_901]

The electrical contacts are a great tease. So is not showing about 60% of the ring.

I think I'm going to vote the contacts are for a focus cam interface.

[dct]

Originally Posted by dcsang

:
:
What I mean by this is; Fuji's m-mount adapter will likely cost a bit more money than the Kipon currently is priced at. Even now there's a knock off of the Kipon adapter floating around on Ebay at even less money than Kipon's are priced at! So, Fuji has to bring to the table something else other than the basic adapter - don't know what that will be but it's clear it will be something that may warrant people dumping the third party adapters to head towards Fuji's version.

Cheers,
Dave

Still my expectations! Together with an intelligent adapter Fuji could offer one or more of these half-baked ideas- Of course most of it requires a software update:

• EVF focus assist (peak? other?)
• menu item storing a few lens EXIF data like: LensMake, LensModel, LensInfo, FocalLength...
• knowing the FocalLenght could reset the OVF frame lines to the correct displacement
• focussing cam readout?
• knowing the manual focus lens position could lead to well... at least interesting possiblities, having also the metered AF distance of a selected AF point to compare with...

Ok, I stop dreaming. At least I keep quiet!

[f16sunshine]

( 1 color ) ???

[Griffin]

Exciting indeed. This is like Nintendo going 16-bit type exciting.

[FrozenInTime]

Originally Posted by willie_901

I think I'm going to vote the contacts are for a focus cam interface.

If they do that I'm selling my GXR

[robert blu]

...and this thread only a few days before the 10th of M
robert
PS: I'm still saving for a ...not sure what !

[jsirevaag]

Originally Posted by f16sunshine

( 1 color ) ???

Black. The camera only comes in Black.

[scho]

We need to see the lens side of the adapter. I'd also guess (probably wrong) that there will be 6 bit coding.

[Tomas M]

Originally Posted by willie_901

The electrical contacts are a great tease. So is not showing about 60% of the ring.

I think I'm going to vote the contacts are for a focus cam interface.

This would be absolutely amazing. With the fuji 35 and it's aperture chatter and slow focus, this will be a life saver.

[JHutchins]

I don't think that can be six bit coding, can it? It's an optical system and those look like electrical contacts...

I'm curious.

Edited to say -- oh, but that's the camera side -- I guess it could have a reader on the lens side & translate that to electrical information on the camera side. And would have to. Duh.

[f16sunshine]

Originally Posted by Tomas M

This would be absolutely amazing. With the fuji 35 and it's aperture chatter and slow focus, this will be a life saver.

Since firmware adjustment... aperture chatter is in the past.

[Dante_Stella]

Originally Posted by mabelsound

Oh wow. If fuji's adapter is going to have six-bit contacts, that could be very interesting.

Not to fuel the speculation, but contacts could be:

1. Six-bit coding, reading the frameline lug position, or some way of transmitting a manually set focal length into the camera.

2. Output from a simple distance encoder (feeding the DOF scale). This does not seem tremendously likely given the shallow depth of a Leica to X adapter.

3. A way for the camera to know that an M lens is attached and to adjust the color shifts/vignetting/etc.

Or it could be all of them. Or none. The inclusion of an X-mount with contacts in the picture might just be a graphic design decision.

Dante

[rommelgc]

Originally Posted by willie_901

The electrical contacts are a great tease. So is not showing about 60% of the ring.

FWIW, here is another image showing almost the whole line of contacts.
http://fujifilm-x.com/accessories/ja/m/

[BobYIL]

Originally Posted by Dante_Stella

Not to fuel the speculation, but contacts could be:

1. Six-bit coding, reading the frameline lug position, or some way of transmitting a manually set focal length into the camera.

2. Output from a simple distance encoder (feeding the DOF scale). This does not seem tremendously likely given the shallow depth of a Leica to X adapter.

3. A way for the camera to know that an M lens is attached and to adjust the color shifts/vignetting/etc.

Or it could be all of them. Or none. The inclusion of an X-mount with contacts in the picture might just be a graphic design decision.

Dante

The other two are not that "exciting" however the #2; assuming they would employ a sort of transducer in the adapter to convert the focusing cam height into an analog drive signal to operate something similar to a rangefinder for example.. but they did not provide anything for it; no provision in the design, only a CDAF-circuitry with a confirmation signal in the finder.. (Weird..)