Olympus Lenses and Canon Camera

[Troy_Schwaller]

Hello,

I was wondering if you fine folks could help me out. I have found a good deal on a pair of Olympus lenses (14-42mm and 40-150mm) however I have Canon cameras(Canon XT and T1i). I was wondering if it would be worth it to get an adapter for my canon. I understand autofocus is out the window, but what other pros and cons there are.

[Eastree]

The only Olympus mount adapter I'm finding to fit Canon's EOS mount is for Olympus OM lenses. If that's the mount on the Olympus lenses you have, then great. It would set you back roughly $30.

I did find one that even preserves the auto focus for about $120 .... again, if it's OM mount.

Since I really don't know much about Olymous lenses, I can just regurgitate something I've heard about some other cross-mount issues: If the focal plane is off a little, you'll possibly lose either the closest focusing distance or infinity.

I'll read a bit more and see if I find anything useful.

edit: This page has a lot of information that may be useful:
http://photo.net/canon-eos-digital-camera-forum/00QepX

[inkista]

Digital Zuiko (four-thirds) lenses--which those two are--cannot be adapted to Canon EOS. Only the old OM manual-focus mount Zuiko lenses can be adapted to Canon. The six mount systems that can adapted to Canon EOS are: Nikon F, Leica-R, Contax/Yashica, Pentax-K, M42, and Olympus OM.

You can really only adapt a mount system with a larger mount-to-sensor/film distance to one with a smaller distance. The four-thirds system has a smaller flange-to-sensor distance than Canon's digital EOS mount (38.67mm vs. 44mm). The reason you can only go in one direction is that it's easy to add to the distance with the adapting ring and impossible to shove a lens past the mount into the body of the camera without impeding the mirror's path. And the lens has to be held at that specific distance so that you can focus to infinity (think macro extension tubes).

Be aware that using an adapted lens also means no autofocus, no aperture control from the body, and half-empty EXIF. The second of these probably has the largest impact, as that means stop-down metering only, and being limited to shooting only in full Manual or aperture-priority modes.

That's not to say it's not worth it. I picked up an OM 50mm f/1.2 for less than $300. Wide open it lets me handhold in the dark, has a razor thin DoF, surprising sharpness, and it's roughly the same size as my EF 50mm f/1.8 II.


coffee break II by inkista, on Flickr