World Heritage Site "Völklinger Hütte" (Steel mill)

I took my X Pro 1 with the XF 14mm and 18-55mm to a visit to this spectacular place.  Enjoy!

On the way back, we passed by an old abandond factory near the mill, so I took some quick shots there as well.

to be continued...

The Heath

Recently I visited an area in the southwest of Germany called the "Mehlinger Heath". This is a several square mile large abandond military test area that has become a natural preserve. The landscape is vast with only few trees and mainly overgrown by heather. This one is the second largest heath in Germany.

In late summer the heather is blooming and being rather unspectacular during the day it offers some nice photo oportunities before sunrise, especially on a foggy day. So I went there about an hour before sunrise and took some shots with my Fuji X Pro 1 and XF 14mm and 18-55mm lenses. Enjoy!

 to be continued...

Monster!

I fullfilled myself a childhood dream and aquired a Leitz Telyt R 5.6 560mm lens.

Adapted to Micro 4/3 you get an impressive focal length of 1120mm with an aperture of 5.6 (!). The downside is, it's very big and heavy and it totally dwarfs the GM1 as you can see in the pictures.
But I like it!

It came with a shoulder stock, but I don't see much use of it since the lens is so heavy one needs to be bodybuilder to use it without a tripod. The latter needs to be a very sturdy one. In my case I use my good old Cullmann Titan with a heavy ballhead.

Another downside is the minimum focussing distance of about 20 ft. For some wildlife photography this just isn't close enough. I guess, I'll have to find some sort of extension tube to get closer.

Focussing is a pleasure with its Televit® rapid focus device. As for camera shake, there is non, since the GM1 has an electronic shutter and with 5.6 I should be able to get shutter speeds of 1/1000s or faster.
I haven't had a chance to use it yet, but as soon as I do, I will post pictures here.

to be continued...

Perfect match... ?

Some might remember that I got me an old Olympus Pen-F Zuiko 40/1.4 which I adapted to my X-Pro 1.

Even though this is a very sharp lens and due to the fact that it was originally made to cover an area of only 18x24mm, hence almost perfectly covering the APS-C sensor of the X-Pro, I wasn't really excited about the manual focussing abilities of that camera (missing a focus peaking function).

Therefore I wanted to part with it but haven't been able to find a buyer who was willing to pay the value of this superb lens... :-(

So a while ago I ordered an MFT -> Pen-F adapter to find out how the lens performs on my GM1.

It finally arrived and I have to say, that I'm quite happy with the result. Not only does it match the little bode of the GM1 better than that of the X-Pro, focussing is also much easier with the Panasonic.

I still have to take it out in the "field" to do some more than only a few test shots. Then I'll decide whether  I eventually keep it or keep looking for a buyer and maybe get an Olympus MFT 45/1.8.

I'll keep you posted :-)

To be continued...