This Fujifilm 24mm f1.9 Natura For Leica M is Incredibly Rare
This Fujifilm 24mm f1.9 Natura was removed from the camera and rehoused in Leica M mount.
You could say this is a one-of-a-kind, and you’d be totally right! The lens in the Fujifilm Natura S is legendary. We’ve even featured photographers who’ve used and loved the camera. Besides the great metering, the small size and the fun colors, the main appeal is the lens. At the heart of the small point and shoot is a Fujifilm 24mm f1.9. This is the smallest variant of the lens perhaps ever made. That’s what makes this very rare eBay find every more fascinating.
This Fujifilm 24mm f1.9 Natura lens was rehoused within the body of a Canon 50mm f1.2 for Leica M mount. It’s also currently only bidding at $600. Seriously, it’s a one-of-a-kind. According to the seller nmpearso:
“As street photographers know, full-frame wide angle lenses tend to be either bulky…or slow (narrow-aperture). Fast, tiny wides prove incredibly rare and tough to come by.
Enter this unique Leica-mount 24mm f1.9 lens, a one-of-a-kind tiny fast LTM wide rescued and adapted from Fuji’s legendary Natura S film camera, which put this unsurpassed fast, tiny full-frame 24mm in a pocketable point-and-shoot body.
This one was expertly adapted by Ken Ruth (of Bald Mountain, back in the day), into the rangefinder-coupled tiny barrel of a Canon 50mm f/1.2 LTM rangefinder lens, with its own new custom distance scale applied, and a nice infinity lock for secure stowage. It makes for a tremendously compact, rf-coupled pancake wide that mounts readily on a Leica M3 (see attached pic); later Leica bodies may have metering parts jutting into the mount that preclude mounting this lens.
And awesomely for modern shooters, I have also checked and found that it mounts and shoots fine(!) on Fuji’s new medium format digital GF mount (GFX100s); just make sure to use electronic shutter, to leave safe distance from the rear element glass. Moreover, it -may- adapt readily to other modern short-register, wide-mouth digital mounts (such as Sigma/Leica/Panasonic L, Nikon Z, etc.), though I haven’t tried those directly.”
In case you weren’t aware, the Leica M mount is incredibly adaptable and versatile. Pretty much all their lenses can be mounted onto any modern mirrorless camera mount. But as the seller states, you might want to be a bit cautious about it. To that end, it’s not perfect.
But if you happen to get your hands on it, you’ll be very happy with the results from the Fujifilm 24mm f1.9. It’s incredibly sharp. And if you use it with a flash, you’ll realize just how sharp it really is. Here’s what we said in our review:
“I’m absolutely in love with the Fujifilm Natura S. It’s small, lightweight, inconspicuous, can deliver great images, and will give you more keeper shots on a roll than you’ve probably gotten before. With a 24mm f1.9 lens attached and automatic modes that you can actually trust, there is nothing to complain about here.”
In fact, this is one of the last film cameras I own personally. I encourage you to go take a look at the listing. Put in a bid, and give that lens a great home. It’s bound to give you image quality that you’ll enjoy. More importantly, there is nothing as awesome as owning a very rare lens.
All product images taken from the listing by seller nmpearso