During CES 2012 Fujifilm confirmed that they will be releasing their own adapter for attaching Leica M lenses to the X-Pro1 mirrorless camera. There is still no official word from Fuji yet, but the Leica M-Mount adapter for X-Mount cameras is currently listed at Adorama for $199.95. Some third party solutions for using Leica M lenses on the X-Pro1 have been available for months, like the Kipon L/M-FX adapter.
Update: Fujifilm just officially announced the adapter. The adapter can store lens profiles and trigger the correct framelines. Here is the press release and some more images:
Valhalla, N.Y., May 24, 2012 – FUJIFILM North America Corporation today announced that it will release an M-Mount Adapter for the FUJIFILM X-Pro1 interchangeable lens digital camera system, specially made to enhance the experience of taking photos with the professional X-Pro1 digital camera. The all new M-Mount Adapter is designed to expand the lens selection of the FUJIFILM X-Pro1 interchangeable lens digital camera system, and give photographers a wide range of shooting capabilities.
“Since the introduction of the FUJIFILM X100, Fujifilm has made a commitment to expanding the functionality of the X-Series, and today we are very pleased to offer customers a premium accessory that they can truly be excited about – an M-Mount Adapter for the FUJIFILM X-Pro1,” said Go Miyazaki, division president, Imaging and Electronic Imaging Divisions, FUJIFILM North America Corporation. “We listened very carefully to our customers about their desire for an M- Mount for the FUJIFILM X-Pro1, and we are proud to announce that this accessory will be available soon for everyone.”
Precision Made M-Mount Adapter
Similar to the FUJIFILM X-Pro1’s exacting design standards, the precision made M-Mount Adapter is engineered to deliver superb results for discerning photographers.The M-Mount Adapter is comprised of three parts: an aluminum mount for the body, a stainless steel mount for the lens, and an aluminum central tube. This construction enables an accurately-maintained distance of 27.8mm from the lens mount to sensor, which is crucial for delivering high quality and high resolution images.
The camera side of the M-Mount Adapter features an array of electronic connections that automatically pass information to the FUJIFILM X-Pro1 body based on pre-registered lens profiles. With firmware version 1.10 or later, this information is transmitted by pressing the Function button on the side of the adapter, which allows users to access the M-Mount Adapter Settings menu on the rear LCD.
While attached, the M-Mount Adapter still allows users to enjoy the benefits of the FUJIFILM X-Pro1’s extraordinary Hybrid Multi Viewfinder. The Electronic Viewfinder (EVF) and LCD monitor both offer a 100% field of view, and the Optical Viewfinder (OVF) displays a bright frame corresponding to the focal length in use.
M-Mount Adapter ProvidesUltimate Control
The FUJIFILM M-Mount Adapter provides ultimate control by allowing users to create and fine tune lens profiles through the X-Pro1’s Mount Adapter Settings menu. This menu allows X-Pro1 users to profile up to six lenses. There are four pre-sets for 21mm, 24mm, 28mm and 35mm lenses, plus two optional settings for additional optics.With the Fujifilm M-Mount Adapter attached, profiles can be user-defined, based on distortion, peripheral illumination and color shading corrections.
Three levels of distortion correction are also available to combat barrel distortion on wide-angle lenses, and pincushion distortion on telephoto lenses. Users can select from Strong, Medium or Weak correction, or simply turn any correction off.
Peripheral illumination controls the amount of darkening at the four corners of an image. Eleven levels of correction can be applied from +5 to -5 (including “0”) with users given the choice of darkening the corners of the image to emphasise a central subject or lightening edges for more even illumination across the frame.
Finally, color shading correction allows each corner of the frame to be color corrected to combat any shift in color between the center and edges of the frame. Corrections can be made to red/cyan color shading and blue/yellow color shading from -9 to +9 relative to the green channel.FUJIFILM M-Mount Adapter key features
- Three-piece aluminium and stainless steel construction
- 27.8mm lens mount to sensor distance
- Electronic connections and Function button
- Compatible with Hybrid Multi Viewfinder
- Lens profiles and corrections available through Mount Adapter Setting menu (firmware version 1.10 or later must be installed for using above features)
The M-Mount Adapter will be available in June 2012 for $199.99.
