Micro 4/3rds Owners Thread

A quick troll through another forum has turned up these for your edification. Click on the image to go to the original post:



Now this is what I call a lens:


Cheap and nasty, this is NOT (Leica M50 f1.0):


1200mm (equiv.) on a GF1!


A nice bit of Camera Porn:


Paul :cool:
 
And finally - honest!

You just have to click on these links to see the guy's other adapted lenses:


and here:


They've got to be worth more than my house! :eek:

Paul :cool:
 
a bit o/t - just checked the super new samsung gx100 in the store. didn't like it that much, probably because of the kit lens. the body is nice, the lens is too plasticy. IQ is stunning but overall the camera didn't seem fast enough. NEX5 + 16mm prime - totally different story ! :love: super fast ! loved it to bits

checked the epl1 - was alright. and again - kit lens. samsung with kit seemed better though.

if samsung drops to 300 with kit and has a 24mm prime I could put on, it could be a winner.

at the moment I'm having doubts as - should I have the ep1 as my only digital camera ?
 
Hi Porky4 . . .

Very interesting, I love the 'Gold coloured Pen', the lens looks silly but the body in gold is the business . . . (y)

. . . . you may have even changed my mind . . . ? The lenses on the G1, to my eye, look OK, apart from the 'Bazooka' may be :thinking:

G1 mounted, they look business like? As I said, 'wrong tool for the job' . . . (y)

I would still be worried about the long glass hanging on a modern 'plastic body', the strain on the tripod fixing:puke: The supported lenses are a much better way of doing it.

Nice one, CJS
 
Porky4 said:
And finally - honest!

You just have to click on these links to see the guy's other adapted lenses:


They've got to be worth more than my house! :eek:

Paul :cool:
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This one looks pocketable??? certainly in an anorak or duffel coat pocket? Popped in a small pouch, I think it would go, and in a back pack as well, not taking up much room . . . leads my mind to the 20mm pancake mounted on a G1 body . . . 'no compromise', all the practicality of a DSLR at half the size??

CJS
 
CJS said:
... I would still be worried about the long glass hanging on a modern 'plastic body', the strain on the tripod fixing:puke: The supported lenses are a much better way of doing it...
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Yeh! I think that the G1 has a lens mount weight limit of about 1Kg, or less. TBH, I wouldn't want to go that high without supporting the lens. Bit of a problem if the lens doesn't have a tripod mount though!

Paul :cool:
 
CJS said:
This one looks pocketable??? certainly in an anorak or duffel coat pocket?
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Hey CJS, if I recall correctly from the thread these photos came from, this lens was made in the 1930s. Brilliant that m4/3 has given these old lenses a new lease of life. Even if it does look a little strange! :eek:

Paul :cool:
 
Check this out.

5606-bellows.jpg

:)
 
Danny_Two said:
Check this out.
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Hi Danny, "playing" with a set of bellows can be great fun (and enable great macro performance). I got a old set of BPM Bellows, with FD body and lens adapters and a Leica lens adapter on eBay for £35. My m4/3 to FD adapter allows me to connect it to my G1 and with a nice FD lens on the front gives good IQ and pretty high magnification. I've also got a couple of v. cheap Leica fit (but not Leica make) enlarger lenses. Quality is OK, but nothing like I'd expect from a real Leica lens (or my Canons for that matter). Just waiting for someone to give me a Leica lens that is surplus to their requirements! :LOL: :shrug:

Paul :cool:
 
Finally bought my 'dream' camera:LOL: E-P1 with 14-42mm from Currys using £15 discount code and 3% Quidco cash back for a bargain price of around £287!! Also got an unboxed 20mm f1.7 from Mathers (£219):cool:

Hope to share some pics soon, cheers.
 
Haha I know I am a tight a*$e:D No seriously, the E-P1 is a bargain buy now. If you don't care about VF2 and onboard flash why pay more for the E-PL1 or E-P2? For me this is THE classic digital PEN;)
 
It's just that I'm thinking about canon 5d mkI more and more. although I would go for the a900 sony in a split second.
 
Thinking about getting some kind of (micro) 4/3 camera as a walk about and have a couple of questions about adapted lenses.
Some of those cameras have lens adapters on them, others don't seem to, how does that work? Machine the back of the lens to fit the 4/3 mount?
What does the adaptor do to the focal length of the lens? Ie, if I bought a Lumix L1, and Nikon to 4/3 adaptor and put my 50mm prime on it, what sort of equivelant focal length would I be getting?
 
Gaz81 said:
Are there any adapters that do AF confirm?
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Sorry, not really sure I understand the question. Most (if not quite all) of the adapters I am aware of will only allow manual focus with no electrical contact between the camera body and lens. There are Panasonic and Olympus adapters that will allow a 4/3 lens to be mounted on m4/3 body that do allow AF, but I doubt that is what you mean.

Can you give a specific example of what you would like to do? eg. Use lens x on camera y and have z capability.

Paul :cool:
 
andephotographic said:
Thinking about getting some kind of (micro) 4/3 camera as a walk about and have a couple of questions about adapted lenses.
Some of those cameras have lens adapters on them, others don't seem to, how does that work? Machine the back of the lens to fit the 4/3 mount?
What does the adaptor do to the focal length of the lens? Ie, if I bought a Lumix L1, and Nikon to 4/3 adaptor and put my 50mm prime on it, what sort of equivelant focal length would I be getting?
Click to expand...

Hi, I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure that the specific camera example you used (Lumix L1) is not Micro 4/3, but is one of the earlier 4/3 cameras. There is much less scope for using other manufacturer lenses on 4/3 that there is on m4/3. The beauty of the m4/3 system is that it is a mirrorless system which allows the distance between the lens mount and the sensor (lens flange focal distance) to be a lot smaller than in an "old-fashioned" :D DSLR. This article shows the differences. The m4/3 flange focal distance is 20mm, while the older style lens mounts are > 40mm. This means that as long as you can engineer a piece of metal, plastic etc. with a m4/3 mount on one end and eg. a Nikon-F mount on the other and the adapter is of the correct length, a Nikon-F mount lens will focus on the 4/3 sensor. m4/3 cameras need no electrical contact between the lens and camera to meter properly, so as long as you can focus the lens manually (MF ring), you can correctly expose shots using the lens. Of course, if you also have control over the aperture on the lens, you can stop down and don't have to soot wide open all of the time. (y) The 4/3 sensor used by both 4/3 and m4/3 mount cameras is smaller than an APS-C sensor and a lot smaller than FX. This gives any lens used on the camera what is called a crop factor of 2x over that of a full frame (Nikon APS-C has a crop factor of 1.5x). This means that a 50mm Nikon-F (or any other make, for that matter) mount lens will be twice the stated focal length when mounted on m4/3. In this case, it will appear to be a 100mm lens. There are a number of articles that explain the effect that has on the field of view and DOF, but I don't have links to hand and haven't really bothered to understand them TBH :eek:.

Hope that makes sense and answers your questions.

BTW if you are looking for a walk about m4/3 camera that will mainly use adapted lenses, the Olympus range E-P1/2, E-PL1 is probably the better choice as it has in-body image stabilisation. Panasonic have their image stabilisation in the lenses. I have a Panasonic G1 (which is a better all round camera IMO), so I'm not grinding any axes here. :LOL:

Paul :cool:
 
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Yeah I realised after I posted that the L1 was 4/3 not micro 4/3.
What I really want is a fairly compact body with a viewfinder (pref optical but electronic would suffice) and a manual focus prime lens.
I have a brace of old manual primes of different brands but most of them are 50mm, I have a nice, fairly flat Konica AR 40mm f1.8 but that'd still give me an 80mm focal length equiv on m4/3 which I reckon would be too long.

The other route I may go would be to keep on hunting for a Panny LC1.
 
Porky4 said:
Sorry, not really sure I understand the question. Most (if not quite all) of the adapters I am aware of will only allow manual focus with no electrical contact between the camera body and lens. There are Panasonic and Olympus adapters that will allow a 4/3 lens to be mounted on m4/3 body that do allow AF, but I doubt that is what you mean.

Can you give a specific example of what you would like to do? eg. Use lens x on camera y and have z capability.

Paul :cool:
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Different lens adapters (for example an OM to EOS) will allow the camera to confirm you have focus while still focusing manually.

For example:

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/AF-Confirm-ol...adaptors_ET&hash=item1c112e895a#ht_1333wt_888
 
grum said:
Still using my silly, inappropriately large lenses on the G1, as that's all I've got at the mo. :)

5093160050_f6ecca9ff0_b.jpg


Canon FD 50mm 1.4 at 1.4
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I think that this lens doesn't look too bad on the G1. The adapter adds to the length, of course, but we can live with that, eh? I've got that lens and it's a very good one and still reasonably priced. The FD 28mm F2.8 is a nice sharp lens as well and is even cheaper (I got an absolutely mint one for £10.50 :D). If you want to try another mount, I can thoroughly recommend the Olympus OM mount Zuiko 50mm F1.8. Can still be had for very little money and veerrry sharp.

Nice image, Graham.

Paul :cool:
 
andephotographic said:
Yeah I realised after I posted that the L1 was 4/3 not micro 4/3.
What I really want is a fairly compact body with a viewfinder (pref optical but electronic would suffice) and a manual focus prime lens.
I have a brace of old manual primes of different brands but most of them are 50mm, I have a nice, fairly flat Konica AR 40mm f1.8 but that'd still give me an 80mm focal length equiv on m4/3 which I reckon would be too long.

The other route I may go would be to keep on hunting for a Panny LC1.
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From what you say, I think the Panasonic G1 fits the bill. Really good EVF and a crystal clear articulated LCD that's great for tripod (eg. macro) work. As I mentioned in my reply to grum, the Canon FD 28mm F2.8 is a really nice lens and can still be bought for peanuts. The best thing of all is that as the G1 has been "replaced", well looked after bodies can be bought for around £150. Unfortunately, wider angle lenses (whether legacy or native) start to get a little expensive.

BTW, I've heard that the Konica AR 40mm is a very nice lens. Shame to see it collecting dust and not been used.

If you've seen the image that grum has just posted, you can see that a 50mm lens (100mm equiv.) is more than usable. Olympus and Panasonic just haven't got anything close to a 100mm (equiv.) F1.4 lens.

All just MO, of course.

Paul :cool:
 
Porky4 said:
From what you say, I think the Panasonic G1 fits the bill. Really good EVF and a crystal clear articulated LCD that's great for tripod (eg. macro) work. As I mentioned in my reply to grum, the Canon FD 28mm F2.8 is a really nice lens and can still be bought for peanuts. The best thing of all is that as the G1 has been "replaced", well looked after bodies can be bought for around £150. Unfortunately, wider angle lenses (whether legacy or native) start to get a little expensive.

BTW, I've heard that the Konica AR 40mm is a very nice lens. Shame to see it collecting dust and not been used.

If you've seen the image that grum has just posted, you can see that a 50mm lens (100mm equiv.) is more than usable. Olympus and Panasonic just haven't got anything close to a 100mm (equiv.) F1.4 lens.

All just MO, of course.

Paul :cool:
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The G1 is a bit bulky for what I'm wanting. Admittedly no more than the LC1/Digilux 2 but if I went that route I'd be doing so for reasons other than size.
The reason I'm thinking bout a camera like this is so that I have something quite different to my D3 & 24-70mm and soon to arrive D200 & 70-300 combos.
The Konica AR is a nice lens and the FS1 it's attached to is a nice camera too. I should probably just get my finger out and shoot more film rather than spend money on more digi equipment, after all I have a load more AR lenses plus about 4 or 5 more SLRs and assorted lenses for each and around half a dozen rangefinders!
 
andephotographic said:
The G1 is a bit bulky for what I'm wanting...
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From the other equipment that you've got, I can see where you're coming from, but I think that you will be hard pressed to find a smaller camera with a viewfinder/EVF than the G1 that you can use your MF lenses on. If you do find something, I'd appreciate your letting us know - just so's we can come up with a reason why you shouldn't get one and get a G1 instead! :naughty:

Paul :cool:
 
I think the L1 body is smaller than the G1 so would then be down to lens choice to determine the overall setup size and weight.
I'm sure the G1 would be a better camera though.

I'd definitely go the E-PL1/GF1 plus pancake lens and viewfinder route if the damn viewfinders weren't so expensive!
 
andephotographic said:
I think the L1 body is smaller than the G1 so would then be down to lens choice to determine the overall setup size and weight.
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Ah! But as it's 4/3 not m4/3 you wouldn't have the choice of MF lenses available! :eek:

I'm sure the G1 would be a better camera though.
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You know it makes sense! Just get bigger pockets! :LOL:

I'd definitely go the E-PL1/GF1 plus pancake lens and viewfinder route if the damn viewfinders weren't so expensive!
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Don't know about the E-PL1, but I've read that the GF1 V/F is a bit ropy. Nice camera though! (y)

Am I winning yet? :D :naughty:

Paul :cool:
 
I'v looked on ebay and there are adaptors available for the lenses I have to 4/3 but not as many as for m4/3.

As good as I'm sure the G1 is, with the cameras I already own there'd be no point in me buying one.
 
andephotographic said:
I'd definitely go the E-PL1/GF1 plus pancake lens and viewfinder route if the damn viewfinders weren't so expensive!
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EVF expensive :bat: . . . ??? from what I've heard I'm not so sure it much good either, compared with the G1 that is . . . double whammy :banana:

CJS
 
andephotographic said:
I'v looked on ebay and there are adaptors available for the lenses I have to 4/3 but not as many as for m4/3.

As good as I'm sure the G1 is, with the cameras I already own there'd be no point in me buying one.
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There is a convertor for pretty much any lens type to M4/3 I thought. You can certainly convert Konica Hexanon AR lenses - I use some and they are fantastic. Incredibly sharp.
 
:agree: (with both the above posts :))

Can even use the excellent MF Assist through the viewfinder! :clap:

Paul :cool:
 
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CJS said:
EVF expensive :bat: . . . ??? from what I've heard I'm not so sure it much good either, compared with the G1 that is . . . double whammy :banana:

CJS
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All the EVFs I could find in Warehouse Express and Jessops were around £120-150, there was an optical one for the Olympus E-P1 I but at around £99 it's still a fair old whack on top of a body that's maybe only going to cost me a couple hundred if I get a used one.
 
andephotographic said:
All the EVFs I could find in Warehouse Express and Jessops were around £120-150, there was an optical one for the Olympus E-P1 I but at around £99 it's still a fair old whack on top of a body that's maybe only going to cost me a couple hundred if I get a used one.
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The G1 EVF is a revelation, its how it should be don (y)
 
CJS said:
The G1 EVF is a revelation, its how it should be don (y)
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Agreed, although in really, really low light it's still totally useless. I'm going to keep a small torch in my camera bag I think.
 
bradleysmith said:
Agreed, although in really, really low light it's still totally useless. I'm going to keep a small torch in my camera bag I think.
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I never get to that low level of light, usually tucked up in bed by then :LOL: However, low light in a conventional viewfinder is not special either . . . dark is dark . . . :thinking: ??? There is a light/dark/colour function in the menu for the screen and view finder which may be of use?

I was out . . . 'baying at the moon' . . . the other night with G1 and tripod, I never noticed anything 'more or less' in the view finder than I would expect from my Nikon DSLR . . . The neighbours probably thought I was a bit :wacky:

Small torch to see the buttons is useful . . . although, I found the full screen 'real time, function display' invaluable . . . (y)

CJS
 
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