I ƿill
ſtart to blog a little bit about photography. Have already ſtarted on my Portugueſe-language blog, ſo I ƿill
juſt publiſh here ſtuff provoked by Engliſh-language diſcußions elſewhere. As ðere, my focus
ƿill be on open
ſtandards and compatibility.
People keep aſking about uſing legacy lenſes on digital cameras. Ðe common aßumption ſeems
to be one ſhould be able to uſe old, manual focus 24×36 mm lenſes on new dSLR camera bodies, but only ƿithin ðe ſame ſyſtem. But has it to be like
that?
Olympus proves not.
Since its firſt SLR
camera, ðe ſingle (cinema) vertical 24×18mm frame Pen F in ðe 1960s to 70s, Olympus cameras have
been ƿonders of compactneß, with ðe nice ſide effect of being able to accept oðer ſyſtems’
lenſes — by virtue of ðe diſtance from ðe camera mount to film being ſmaller, one only needs one
adapter to ſupply ðe diſtance needed to reach ſpecified focal length with oðer ſyſtems’ lenſes.
Ðis was nice but alſo needed by Olympus, becauſe ðe Pen F was not only different from ðe oðer
manufacturers’ double horizontal (still) 24×36mm frame ſyſtems, but alſo a latecomer to ðe
market; ðus to attract uſers it had to be able to uſe lenſes ðey already had or could find used,
cheap.
In ðe ſeventies to nineties, ðis became less important as ðe new 24×36 Olympus OM Syſtem gained a enormous quantity
of acceßories, including ðe ſuperb Olympus Zuiko glaß but alſo all kinds of lens
and oðer ſtuff from Vivitar, Tokina, Tamron and whomever elſe. Still you could do ſome nice
ſtuff ſuch as mount M42 lenſes.
Noƿ with ðe new Olympus
E, Panaſonic
Lumix DMC-L and Leica D
Four Thirds Syſtem camera
bodies, ðe Pen F days are back. Once again you can uſe (nearly?) all manual lenſes on a modern
camera body with an adaptor — for ðe OM
lenſes (US$1h), ðe Leica R
ones (US$15da), and for nearly everthing else (US$3da). But ðere’s a
catch.
Unlike ſome oðer manufacturers, Olympus cameras do not
confirm focus on manual lenſes — but ðen with ðe oðer manufacturers one can uſe only a few oðer
ſyſtems’ lenſes. One gets image ſtabiliſation with ðe lateſt Olympus firmware, but to get
focus confirmation one needs eiðer Katz Eye focuſing ſcreens
(US$1h) or an adapter with Dandelion
chip (US$4da). Ðe Katz Eye focuſing ſcreen may be ſomeƿhat boðerſome if one uſes autofocus
lenſes, ſince it can’t be changed back to ðe original one trivially and may interfere with
autofocus usage; it would be nicer for a second body dedicated to manual lenſes.
Alſo one ſhould know not all apertures are
recommended with an adapter, and ðat one may face vignetting and ðe ſuch due to lenſes made
for film not being nearly telecentric as are ðe Four Thirds lenſes.
Posts
Letters to Lalage: The Letters of Charles Williams to Lois Lang-Sims by Charles Williams
