Leica S lens on Fuji GFX 50s

[helged]

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16 minutes ago, Einst_Stein said:

Any adapter firmware version to camera firmware version variations? Or adapter firmware version to GFX camera model variations?

Hard to tell, but as far as I understand the adapter should work on all GFX-bodies, irrespective of the FW-version used by the GFX-body. In my case, I use GFX 100S with 'Body version 2.12', 'Lens version 1.20'. 

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[Joakim]

11 hours ago, helged said:

I have recently tested…

Where to put photos taken with GFX & S-lenses: On the standard 'Leica S image' thread, or should we start a separate 'Adapted Leica S lens image' thread? Given the rather low number of (active) S-forum users, I would think the existing thread should be ok. Any views?  

I would actually prefer if we use the existing image thread to keep it simpler.

[Sarnian]

27 minutes ago, Joakim said:

I would actually prefer if we use the existing image thread to keep it simpler.

Agreed - and particularly as I'm the only person so far to post a photo from using such a combination! 🙃

[Sarnian]

15 hours ago, helged said:

I have recently tested GFX110S (FW1.2) with S35, S70, S120 and S180, exclusively with manual focus. Everything has been working. The GFX view finder is not the best (nor is the back screen), and the body feels quite plastic. The menu system is not to my liking either, but I can live with that. Aperture control, electronic shutter, IBIS and focus magnification are the features I use.

Yes, it is happy in manual focus mode. As soon as you change it to A (or C) it starts hunting for something to focus on.

I've never been very good at hyperfocal focussing but I guess I'll need to learn! 

[helged]

20 minutes ago, Sarnian said:

Yes, it is happy in manual focus mode. As soon as you change it to A (or C) it starts hunting for something to focus on.

I've never been very good at hyperfocal focussing but I guess I'll need to learn! 

Agree; AF is not reliable on the S-leses I have. 

[Tirpitz666]

So basically are you both telling that a more than 1000 bucks AF adapter doesn’t work reliably in AF? Even not in S mode? That’s a real bummer and wonder where all those months of “additional testing” went at Kipon..

Well for now looks like a non-purchase for me, let’s see if things will improve through FW updates down the line, but the start doesn’t look promising to me honestly..

[helged]

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1 hour ago, Tirpitz666 said:

So basically are you both telling that a more than 1000 bucks AF adapter doesn’t work reliably in AF? Even not in S mode? That’s a real bummer and wonder where all those months of “additional testing” went at Kipon..

Well for now looks like a non-purchase for me, let’s see if things will improve through FW updates down the line, but the start doesn’t look promising to me honestly..

Correct; I would not trust AF. There will be hits, but 1-2 sequences of forward & back focussing are quite normal with AF, and the final focus determination may not be spot on. It can be, but equally often it is somewhat off. Not a problem for me; I want an adapter that controls the aperture - plus provides correct transfer of the focal length for IBIS to work properly.

[Einst_Stein]

All products based reverse engineering instead of reliable specs unavoidably suffer many many corner cases. It would take a lot more skinny pigs to expose the problems. The firmware version update of the adapter and  the camera can make differences too  in this case, even the variations of camera models could be problematic. 

I would suggest the adapter firmware to have branches according to  camera,  lens, and corresponding firmware versions, This would help to identify and root cause the problems. 

Also, there should be an adapter user forum to track problems, likely in some kind of spread sheet format or bug ills. Users might use this forum to do some diagnostics to help the whole community.

[Einst_Stein]

9 hours ago, helged said:

Hard to tell, but as far as I understand the adapter should work on all GFX-bodies, irrespective of the FW-version used by the GFX-body. In my case, I use GFX 100S with 'Body version 2.12', 'Lens version 1.20'. 

What is the base of your understanding ?  Any insight message about the adapter’s spec and GFX global protocol?

[Sarnian]

1 hour ago, Einst_Stein said:

Also, there should be an adapter user forum to track problems, likely in some kind of spread sheet format or bug ills. Users might use this forum to do some diagnostics to help the whole community.

Kipon created a Facebook group specifically for this adapter "KIPON Leica S-GFX AF Adapter". 

[Sarnian]

3 hours ago, helged said:

I want an adapter that controls the aperture - plus provides correct transfer of the focal length for IBIS to work properly.

If someone else needs the adapter for these reasons I will list my second one in the Classifieds section of this forum. I will update it to FW1.2 before I ship it. 

[helged]

1 hour ago, Einst_Stein said:

What is the base of your understanding ?  Any insight message about the adapter’s spec and GFX global protocol?

Only based on the info on Kipon's FB page. 

[Tirpitz666]

23 hours ago, helged said:

Correct; I would not trust AF. There will be hits, but 1-2 sequences of forward & back focussing are quite normal with AF, and the final focus determination may not be spot on. It can be, but equally often it is somewhat off. Not a problem for me; I want an adapter that controls the aperture - plus provides correct transfer of the focal length for IBIS to work properly.

Thank you for the answer and of course for the thorough testing, it's a real service to the (small) S community.

I really hope for all the early adopters that Kipon will manage to nail it with FW updates at a later stage, but glad to hear that you are happy enough also with MF and that the rest works as intended 🙂

[Einst_Stein]

On 5/7/2025 at 8:41 PM, helged said:

Only based on the info on Kipon's FB page. 

Ok, then I will check the user “long term” feedback in a year. 

Edited May 12 by Einst_Stein

[Sarnian]

Firmware version 1.3 has been released. No mention of what improvements it's hoping to address!

https://kipon.com/download/leica-s-gfx-af-firmware-v1-3/

[AlanD]

https://kipon.com/kipon-released-firmware-v1-3-for-leica-s-gfx-af-adapter/
 

This suggests it’s just for the 50sII

Maybe something to do with the contrast detection?

[Sarnian]

3 minutes ago, AlanD said:

https://kipon.com/kipon-released-firmware-v1-3-for-leica-s-gfx-af-adapter/
 

This suggests it’s just for the 50sII

Maybe something to do with the contrast detection?

Oh, I missed that. I've downloaded and installed it (for use on my 100S) anyway! 

[ZHNL]

I bought a GFX 100 II to try My Kipon and S glasses. With firmware 1.2, I noticed following:

• 100mm Summicron is not supported. It is trying to focus back and forth but never stop regardless you are in AF or MF mode. 
• 180mm max aperture showing on the FUJI screen as 2.5. I haven't downloaded picture to check if focal length was correct or not. There seems no way to let Camera show focal length with cycling through shooting info, a fuji thing. 
• For AF, AF-S is the only function works. I don't think AF_C work at all at least not on 100 II but again AF_C never worked on any S camera TBH. S glass AF is just not good. 
• For AF-S to work correctly but kind of slow, your best bet is to put camera in M mode to set ISO, aperture and shutter speed manually. With this, I feel the focus is very readable for the lenses I tested 24, 35, 70, 120, 180. (100 is not supported) I can explain this behavior in detail later on why you can't in Aperture priority mode with Kipon and S glass, at least with 100MKII. 
• I use this the same as @Helged, as long as it support IBIS (works great so far) and aperture control (also works great) 
• My S006 is with latest firmware 2.5.0.0. all my glasses are with latest firmware using 006. However, I believe to get all the S glasses to latest firmware, you need 007 or S3 to do the firmware update which I can't. so 100mm may well be supported and 180mm may be with correct Aperture with latest firmware
• The majority of AF limitation is from S glass itself I feel. The communication protocol is slow, and motor is noisy and slow too. I talked to one dealer in Shanghai that co-develop this adapter with Kipon. I was told that Fuji open their protocol so that so many adapter company can develop this Canon, Nikon, Contax or even Leica Adapter now. However, the real bottom neck is Leica S glasses. (I will omit details here:D)

I think this adapter works great for anything I plan to use with S system and a modern MILC camera with top IQ. S glass will never be able to meet fast action shooting on any system, not on S OVF, not on SLx, and not gonna for MILC S4. In this regard, the adapter does all the things for me I want it to do. 

Edited Monday at 01:53 AM by ZHNL

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[helged]

3 hours ago, ZHNL said:

I bought a GFX 100 II to try My Kipon and S glasses. With firmware 1.2, I noticed following:

• 100mm Summicron is not supported. It is trying to focus back and forth but never stop regardless you are in AF or MF mode. 
• 180mm max aperture showing on the FUJI screen as 2.5. I haven't downloaded picture to check if focal length was correct or not. There seems no way to let Camera show focal length with cycling through shooting info, a fuji thing. 
• For AF, AF-S is the only function works. I don't think AF_C work at all at least not on 100 II but again AF_C never worked on any S camera TBH. S glass AF is just not good. 
• For AF-S to work correctly but kind of slow, your best bet is to put camera in M mode to set ISO, aperture and shutter speed manually. With this, I feel the focus is very readable for the lenses I tested 24, 35, 70, 120, 180. (100 is not supported) I can explain this behavior in detail later on why you can't in Aperture priority mode with Kipon and S glass, at least with 100MKII. 
• I use this the same as @Helged, as long as it support IBIS (works great so far) and aperture control (also works great) 
• My S006 is with latest firmware 2.5.0.0. all my glasses are with latest firmware using 006. However, I believe to get all the S glasses to latest firmware, you need 007 or S3 to do the firmware update which I can't. so 100mm may well be supported and 180mm may be with correct Aperture with latest firmware
• The majority of AF limitation is from S glass itself I feel. The communication protocol is slow, and motor is noisy and slow too. I talked to one dealer in Shanghai that co-develop this adapter with Kipon. I was told that Fuji open their protocol so that so many adapter company can develop this Canon, Nikon, Contax or even Leica Adapter now. However, the real bottom neck is Leica S glasses. (I will omit details here:D)

I think this adapter works great for anything I plan to use with S system and a modern MILC camera with top IQ. S glass will never be able to meet fast action shooting on any system, not on S OVF, not on SLx, and not gonna for MILC S4. In this regard, the adapter does all the things for me I want it to do. 

Thanks for this update!

On GFX100S with Kipon FW1.2, S180 works fine, as far as I can tell. The S-lenses I have (24, 35, 45CS, 70, 120, 180) are updated on S3. I don't trust AF for any of those (with manual ly set aperture and shutter speed), but MF with magnification works well. I don't have S100 any more, so I can't tell the status with this lens on GFX100S. 

[ZHNL]

5 minutes ago, helged said:

Thanks for this update!

On GFX100S with Kipon FW1.2, S180 works fine, as far as I can tell. The S-lenses I have (24, 35, 45CS, 70, 120, 180) are updated on S3. I don't trust AF for any of those (with manual ly set aperture and shutter speed), but MF with magnification works well. I don't have S100 any more, so I can't tell the status with this lens on GFX100S. 

For 180mm, is it show f2.5 or f3.5 on widest setting?