Pansonic Lumix GX1 FS-IR with Sigma 21-35mm lens Review
The Panasonic Lumix GX1 converted to Full-Spectrum by Spencers Camera & Photo [www.spencerscamera.com/fullspectrum.cfm] with the legacy Sigma 21-35mm f3.5-4.2 on a Prost Nikon to MFT adapter from eBay, the Spencers 665nm filter and a cheap sunshade in place.
The Sigma wide-angle is an awfully big lens for this small MFT. It was a fairly good lens when released, although it always had a problem with zoom-creep. By now it also has some dust inside and it shows the annoying center spot/glare when stopped down with IR. It's not always visible at f5.6 however. Probably because of the adapter, the focus is totally off, almost at the other end. Approximately 0.7m at wide and 1m zoomed equals infinity. It needs careful focusing from a tripod. Handheld shots are a gamble. Luckily the GX1 camera has some great focus assist features that make it possible to use the lens at all.
The adapter is more or less garbage. The lens mount is extremely loose, with proper stops missing. Not only has it rotational play of about 3-4mm, the lens to body can be wiggled sideways. I guess the mount on the GX1 is not the strongest either, not for that long of a lens anyway. It has worked okay and it let me use my old Nikon lenses, but I'm looking forward to some MFT lenses. I wonder if the expensive Novoflex adapters are tighter and maybe worth their high price?
The filters I got from Spencers as well. They claim they are the best filters around, but fail to describe them on their website. So far I can't tell if they are glass or optical acrylic. They are 1.1mm thick and have a very lightweight mount, the 77mm version weighs 19.71g compared to 25.87g of a Hoya ND8. They are glued into the mount, and both had a little glue creep onto the filter surface, which I managed to carefully scrape off without damaging the filter. On one filter the glass has become loose, but constitutes no problem so far. They are very difficult to keep clean, almost dust magnets, which makes me suspect they are off acrylic material, but I could be wrong and could it be the coating? They also seem to cover themselves with a slight haze, when stored away in their plastic packages. To see if the packaging gives off some vapors, I bought some filter stackers [great invention] and keep all my 77mm filters together now, between aluminum stacker caps. The filters work great otherwise. Unfortunately Spencers did not respond to my email questions after they sold me their products. I guess they are busy converting cameras.
Pansonic Lumix GX1 FS-IR with Sigma 21-35mm lens Review
The Panasonic Lumix GX1 converted to Full-Spectrum by Spencers Camera & Photo [www.spencerscamera.com/fullspectrum.cfm] with the legacy Sigma 21-35mm f3.5-4.2 on a Prost Nikon to MFT adapter from eBay, the Spencers 665nm filter and a cheap sunshade in place.
The Sigma wide-angle is an awfully big lens for this small MFT. It was a fairly good lens when released, although it always had a problem with zoom-creep. By now it also has some dust inside and it shows the annoying center spot/glare when stopped down with IR. It's not always visible at f5.6 however. Probably because of the adapter, the focus is totally off, almost at the other end. Approximately 0.7m at wide and 1m zoomed equals infinity. It needs careful focusing from a tripod. Handheld shots are a gamble. Luckily the GX1 camera has some great focus assist features that make it possible to use the lens at all.
The adapter is more or less garbage. The lens mount is extremely loose, with proper stops missing. Not only has it rotational play of about 3-4mm, the lens to body can be wiggled sideways. I guess the mount on the GX1 is not the strongest either, not for that long of a lens anyway. It has worked okay and it let me use my old Nikon lenses, but I'm looking forward to some MFT lenses. I wonder if the expensive Novoflex adapters are tighter and maybe worth their high price?
The filters I got from Spencers as well. They claim they are the best filters around, but fail to describe them on their website. So far I can't tell if they are glass or optical acrylic. They are 1.1mm thick and have a very lightweight mount, the 77mm version weighs 19.71g compared to 25.87g of a Hoya ND8. They are glued into the mount, and both had a little glue creep onto the filter surface, which I managed to carefully scrape off without damaging the filter. On one filter the glass has become loose, but constitutes no problem so far. They are very difficult to keep clean, almost dust magnets, which makes me suspect they are off acrylic material, but I could be wrong and could it be the coating? They also seem to cover themselves with a slight haze, when stored away in their plastic packages. To see if the packaging gives off some vapors, I bought some filter stackers [great invention] and keep all my 77mm filters together now, between aluminum stacker caps. The filters work great otherwise. Unfortunately Spencers did not respond to my email questions after they sold me their products. I guess they are busy converting cameras.