Uploaded September 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 day ago
I bought into the Fuji GFX system because of one lens: the Mitakon 65mm f/1.4. It has almost exactly the look of the Pentax 67 105mm f/2.4, the legendary medium format portrait lens, and that character was the entire reason I went medium format at all.
Nobody sent me any of it. No loan unit, no embargo, no relationship with Fuji to protect. I bought the system, used it, and eventually sold it at a loss.
This is what I learned in between. The lens is massive and nearly impossible to focus, peaking doesn't help, because the softness wide open is the character. When I gave up and adapted Canon autofocus glass instead, the character disappeared entirely. Sharp, clinical, correct, and somehow even heavier.
That's the thing I've thought about most since. The quality that made the lens difficult and the quality that made it beautiful were the same quality. You can't remove one without losing the other.
Slog3 LUT:
buymeacoffee.com/egillbjarki/e/91819
Optimised for Sony 10bit 422 (Sony A7SIII, A7IV, A1, FX6, FX3, ZV-E1). Any Sony camera with Slog3 Picture Profile (SL3SG3C to s709).
Instagram:
instagram.com/egill_bjarki
Portfolio:
https://egillbjarki.cargo.site
I bought into the Fuji GFX system because of one lens: the Mitakon 65mm f/1.4. It has almost exactly the look of the Pentax 67 105mm f/2.4, the legendary medium format portrait lens, and that character was the entire reason I went medium format at all.
Nobody sent me any of it. No loan unit, no embargo, no relationship with Fuji to protect. I bought the system, used it, and eventually sold it at a loss.
This is what I learned in between. The lens is massive and nearly impossible to focus, peaking doesn't help, because the softness wide open is the character. When I gave up and adapted Canon autofocus glass instead, the character disappeared entirely. Sharp, clinical, correct, and somehow even heavier.
That's the thing I've thought about most since. The quality that made the lens difficult and the quality that made it beautiful were the same quality. You can't remove one without losing the other.
Slog3 LUT:
buymeacoffee.com/egillbjarki/e/91819
Optimised for Sony 10bit 422 (Sony A7SIII, A7IV, A1, FX6, FX3, ZV-E1). Any Sony camera with Slog3 Picture Profile (SL3SG3C to s709).
Instagram:
instagram.com/egill_bjarki
Portfolio:
https://egillbjarki.cargo.site
