Hello Michael,
Can you say more about your Actus LF lenses experience? What lenses have you use? Shift Tilt? How much ICC on the Raw is needed and what software have you use.
Thank you.
Having a fair number of fine lenses, in my experience the best bargains today on really fine lenses are those LF lenses in Copal #0 mount or lenses like the Nikkor AM-ED lenses (120mm and 210mm), where in "AM", "A" stands for apochromatic and "M" stands for macro. Many of the enlarger lenses also are fine, plus the various industrial lenses (for scanners, etc.) amount to a treasure trove of great lenses, if you take the time to pick through them. The Nikkon Printing Nikkors, like the 150mm, are impeccably corrected and work well in the studio or, with care (and hoods), in the field. I have three of them.
As for the GFX, while mounting my standard Nikon F-Mount lenses like the Otus, Leica R lenses (converted), and so on, the GFX did not work out to my satisfaction as too much IQ was lost in the adapter exchange, this is not true for the GFX on a bellows.
The GFX works on the Novoflex BALPRO T/S, the Cambo Actus, and the Rollei X-Act 2 technical cameras, which I have. I had ordered from Capture Integration their first unit off the line from Cambo that features the GFX mount, but had not received it yet. By using the GFX>Nikon-F adapter from Fotodiox, I tested it and the GFX works fine. The larger GFX mount will work even better, of course. If I were wealthy, I would perhaps keep the GFX just for use with the technical cameras. As it was, I had to sell a lot of lenses, good lenses that I never use, just to get the GFX.
The GFX worked fine on the Cambo Actus, but so does the Nikon D810 and other cameras like the Sony A7Rii, for which I also have an Actus adapter. And the Pentax K1 has an adapter available for the Actus, as well. I sold my K1 for similar reasons as the GFX.
The small, light, portable Cambo Actus does not have all of the movements that my Rollei X-Act 2 does, but the Rollei weighs around 14 lbs. I am too old to enjoy carrying that thing around. The Actus has all of the movements I need to use and I have just ordered a 300mm rail (and accompanying bellows) for the Cambo Actus, which will allow me to better use some of the more extreme industrial lenses like the Nikkor Macros (four special lenses for long bellows).
You have to keep in mind that I am primarily a close-up photographer and since I live in a cold climate (Michigan), half the year it is too cold to go outside with a camera and lenses; at least, I don’t. During that time I work in my tiny studio.
Bottom line, the best lens bargains today IMO are the LF lenses and the various exotic industrials, provided that you are not using them for landscape photography. Some don’t reach infinity. My single most-used lens is the El Nikkor 105mm APO lens. Note the “APO,” which is the one to get, not the standard non-APO El Nikkor 105mm.
I am branching out into landscape photography these days, so lenses like the Zeiss Otus 28mm lens are perfect for that IMO. I find that I have to pay top dollar for great lenses, but you only need like one or two of them to last a lifetime and they hold their value.
As for software, I use Adobe Bridge as a finder and ACR in Photoshop for post-processing. I know Lightroom inside and out, but it is too slow for my taste and its catalogs in my experience have been known to suddenly get unusable, losing the keywords, etc. on hundreds of thousands of images. Ouch!
