Old lenses on Panasonic G1 m43

Jimwah

Jimwah

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Hey,

I have been searching this morning for some pointers on this subject, but I'm struggling to reach a conclusion.

I've got the kit 14-45mm lens included with the G1 - but I'm looking to get an adapter & a decent old lens or two, more suitable for Macro photography (primarily bugs & flowers), and also a decent zoom for wildlife/birds later.

I'm still getting to grips with the G1, but I'm really keen to explore old lenses and get my head around f-stops, apertures and these all these other terms which don't really mean a great deal to me at the moment!

Has anyone got any suggestions on what approach to take? What adapter should I go for, that would give me the widest/cheapest range of options? Could/should I use some extension tubes or Raynox-type lens (although I this appeals to me less somehow)?

I'm happy using manual focus, I rarely use AF, but I rely heavily on the kind of "electronic zoom" you get from the G1 when you use the thinner focus adjustment ring to fine tune it - will I struggle with a proper old MF lens?

I've got a few old Praktica lenses, although I can't identify exactly what kind of lenses these are, and what they are suitable for - so I'm not getting an adapter for these until I can figure that out!

As usual I've made a 2 sentence question into a wall of text... :bonk: Hope you peeps can extract the info you need & help me out like you have in the past :D

Cheers
 
Get the Canon FD 50mm 3.5 Macro and a Canon FD adapter, and maybe some extension tubes - I have the Raynox DCR250 which is good but I think you can get a little more dof with the Canon lens. An external flash is handy too.

Thinking of selling all my stuff so I'll let you know if I put mine up on the classifieds.
 
Go for the adaptor or adaptors to suit the lenses you want to use, I dont think theres a make not covered now.

Mode wise you will be limited to Av or manual modes, but the digital zoom can be used to aid manual focusing.

I got rid of my G1 but still have the adaptor and a couple of PK mount fast primes laying around somewhere.
I used mine for my old sigma 400mm.. having an 800mm F5.6 was nice ;)
 
Not wishing to sound like an advert, but my OM 300mm f/4.5 prime and OM m4/3rds adaptor are still for sale. That [or similar] would give you the quality of a prime and an effective doubled focal length. So, in my case, it'd be a 600mm f/4.5. With the 1.5xTC, that's a 900mm f/6.3, which is brighter and sharper than any equivalent digiscope setups, and far better quality - and longer telephoto - than an SLR mirror lens.

Look around, there are options galore.
 
I recently bought a cheap M42 adaptor for my G1, but the old M42 lenses I had were pretty poor compared to my Panasonic lenses.
There are a ton of good old lenses about though, but once you've bought a few, and the adaptors for them, how much money will you have saved over buying the Leica 45/2.8 mft?
 
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Thanks for the replies! Much appreciated :)

The thing that confuses me, is the fact that searching for macro lenses turns up all sorts of size lens - from little 30mm jobs to the 300mm prime you have for sale dan.

Would a 300mm lens like this be suitable for Macro work out in the countryside, and what kind of distance would you find yourself shooting from, if capturing detailed images of insects for example? Presuming you can use it in this way, does this kind of lens also double up as a good long distance lens, for shooting birds & wildlife?
 
From wikipedia

Macro photography is close-up photography. The classical definition is that the image projected on the "film plane" (i.e., film or a digital sensor) is close to the same size as the subject.[citation needed] Lenses designed for macro are usually at their sharpest at macro focus distances and are not quite as sharp at other focus distances.
In recent years, the term macro has been used in marketing material to mean being able to focus on a subject close enough so that when a regular 6×4 inch (15×10 cm) print is made, the image is life-size or larger.[citation needed] With 35mm film this requires a magnification ratio of only approximately 1:4, which demands a lower lens quality than 1:1. With digital cameras the actual image size is rarely stated, so that the magnification ratio is largely irrelevant; cameras instead advertise their closest focusing distance.
Click to expand...

This is with the Canon FD 50mm 3.5 by the way

4897779086_707884992f_z.jpg


Although it's not macro, the 20mm can focus reasonably close, and is a fantastic lens.

5057918191_e09e645863_z.jpg
 
Nice pics grum - thanks again for your help. Let me know if your 50mm lens + Raynox go on the classifieds mate.

Jim
 
I managed to get a set of Canon FD lenses on ebay for £25 delivered, included is a Canon 50mm 1.8, Vivitar 80-200mm 4.5, Sigma 135mm 2.8 & some FD extension tubes. Will the 50mm 1.8 in this little set be capable of producing Macro shots, like the 3.5 above, or are these entirely different beasts?

Either way, I'll have fun playing with them, once my adapter arrives :)
 
Sounds like a good deal!

The 50mm 3.5 is a dedicated macro lens, so you can do macro without the extension tubes. But the tubes will allow you to do macro with any of those lenses I think.

I have used tubes and the 50mm 3.5 combined (I may have used them in the fly shot, I can't remember).
 
Graham,

How do you control aperture when using tubes (assuming you have some without electrical contacts) ? Do you need to set the camera to 'shoot without lens' ? How do you adjust the aperture before taking shots ?

I was thinking about p/x ing my G1 for a D90 or D7000, but think that I need to persevere with tubes / third party lenses etc before I make the jump to a proper DSLR.

Any help / advice would be appreciated.

Cheers,
Daniel.
 
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