Finally! Leica Lenses for the Fuji X-Pro1

Fuji Adapter for Fuji X-Pro1 to Leica M mount Lenses

Man! A day after I review the Kipon adapter, that I just got, for my Fuji X-Pro1 to accept Leica M Mount lenses, and Fuji announces that they have finally released their version of the adapter. That will teach me to be overly excited and impatient. The difference Fuji’s adapter has over the Kipon or Rainbow Imaging, and other third-party adapters is that is will have electronic signal contacts on the adapter along with a function button on the adapter that will tell the camera to automatically set the Menu option of “shoot without lens” to on and bring up a menu where you can set the focal length of the lens. The adapter will be available in June for the price of $199.00 USD along with a new firmware update. This firmware update, will allow the user to correct for different lens issues such as “distortion”, “peripheral illumination” and “color shading”. I wonder if this fine tuning will be available for non Fuji branded adapters. I don’t see why not. This is a great feature to have. On Fuji’s site it doesn’t say anything about view finder lines in the OVF (optical view finder). If you read the review of the Kipon L/M to Fuji FX adapter that I wrote, you will know that one of the issues was the camera didn’t give any frame lines in the OVF. I thought this was silly and I hoped that Fuji would change this. Hopefully after the updated firmware this will be fixed.

So am I upset that I didn’t wait for the Fuji Adapter? Slightly. Will I buy the new Fuji adapter? The answer is based on two things. First, if the new adapter and firmware combination allows the user to set and store the lens corrections for each lens and automatically let me set the lens as soon as I put the lens on this is a plus. Second, if they had the firmware recognize the lens you are using and automatically set the frame lines in OVF this would be a win. If the new adapter just basically set the “shoot without lens” menu option to on, and the other options are available to 3 party adapters, such as the lens corrections. Then all the Fuji adapter did was go to the menu and turn on a couple of options for me. Is that worth 200.00$ Heck No! It may be nice and as I get older I may still buy it but its way down on my spending budget for sure. So everyone, cross our fingers hope for the best!! Couple weeks into June and we’ll know! Happy Image Making!