Question about using OM lens' on DSLR

[StellaG]

Has anybody tried/done this? What did you think? I have an old Olympus OM1 with a pretty decent lens on it, I bought a adapter for the E-510 and was going to try it out. I understand you can only use man. focus, but that's not a prob. If I get good results, I may buy some more lens', they're dirt cheap on ebay...So, thoughts? Anyone?

Betty

[inkista]

I use an OM 50/1.2 on my Canon. It works great. Try it! You'll like it! There's a lot of extremely good lenses in the OM mount that you can pick up for bargain prices. And because they're still Olympus, some of those lenses are extremely small. The 50/1.8 is nearly a pancake lens; ditto the 28mm f/2.8 and f/3.5. The actual pancake lens, the 40/2, though, goes for outageously high prices, since all the other pancakes are f/2.8.

Also, you may not want to limit yourself to just Oly OM glass--you can also easily adapt the same six mounts that Canon users can (theoretically, you could adapt far more, but it's hard to find the adapter rings). The two other mounts most alt. glass users are going for are Leica R (expensive, but cheap for Leica), and Contax-Yashica Zeiss ('cause--y'know, Zeiss). Those lenses will be larger and heavier than the OM glass, which could make an Oly E-series nose-heavy, but again, some great glass at much lower prices than current lenses.

The main problem you may have with manual focus lenses, however, is manually focusing with accuracy. Autofocus confirmation can help.

[StellaG]

Thanks much for the reply. I had read the the OM len's were actually better on the Canons as well...Now will the AFC work with the OM lens do you know?

[inkista]

AF confirm is more about the adapter you use and less about the lens. The lens itself has no electronic contacts on it to communicate with the body. A chipped adapter can fake a lens for the mount system. With Olympus four-thirds, I've heard that some chipped adapters will also activate the in-body stabilization system, but obviously I have no experience with that. (Ah. non-issue. Looks like the E-510 has that ability built-in. Cool!)

I've used chipped rings from happypageHK and big-is on eBay with good results. The happypage ones seem to fit better for me, though. I had a serious problem with one lens (Planar 100/2) and the big_is C/Y->EOS rings, while the happypage ones were better machined.

And yes, the lenses behave differently on APS-C than they do on four-thirds, just as they behave differently again on full frame.

With nearly all my MF lenses, a chipped adapter ring and AF confirm were enough to help me nail focus, except for my 50/1.2 wide open. For that, I've needed to use liveview magnification to accurately focus. However, not having an AF-chipped ring isn't that big a deal. My eyesight isn't what it used to be, and I needed the extra help. You may be able to get by just fine without it.

[StellaG]

Oh my this is pretty much all over my head LOL but thanks for the response. I had read about the chip, and I was wondering where the heck they put it ;-) in the adapter itself...makes sense. I should be getting the adapter in a day or two, and I'll check it out with the lens I already have. I'll go take a look at your chipped adapters as well, they might come in handy. I'd really like a 50/1.2 as well ;-) Glad to hear you're happy with yours. Thanks again!

Betty