Olympus Air

[henningw]

The 50/2 is an excellent lens, but it is not autofocus, and that makes a lot of difference when you're trying to digitise hundreds of negs or transparencies. The singular advantage that m43 has over full frome, and why I generally do not use full frame for digitising, is the matter of autofocus. A regular camera system cannot autofcus at 1:1, which makes full frame useless for dealing with 35mm slides. Since m43 copies 35mm slides at 1:2, it can easily autofocus. As mentioned before, focussing on each slide or negative is essential for best quality, so autofocus speeds up my workflow immensely. If your copy setup limits your working distance, the new 30mm Panasonic macro might be of interest.

If I were to accept dealing with manual focus, I would use my Aristophot setup with the Photar 80 and put the Leica M240 on the back of that. Definitely higher quality, but a fair bit slower.

 

[Godfrey]

The 50/2 is an excellent lens, but it is not autofocus, and that makes a lot of difference when you're trying to digitise hundreds of negs or transparencies. The singular advantage that m43 has over full frome, and when I do not use full frame for digitising, is the matter of autofocus. A regular camera system cannot autofcus at 1:1, which makes full frame useless for dealing with 35mm slides. Since m43 copies 35mm slides at 1:2, so it can easily autofocus. As mentioned, focussing on each slide or negative is essential for best quality, so autofocus speeds up my workflow immensely. If your copy setup limits your working distance, the new 30mm Panasonic macro might be of interest.

If I were to accept dealing with manual focus, I would use my Aristophot setup with the Photar 80 and put the Leica M240 on the back of that. Definitely higher quality, but a fair bit slower.

The ZD 50/2 will certainly autofocus ... It autofocuses quite nicely on both the E-M1 and E-PL7, although it will focus faster on the E-M1 due to the PDAF implementation. Same goes for the ZD 35/3.5, and Macro-Elmarit-DG 45/2.8. I'm sure all of them will also autofocus on the Olympus Air.

G

 

[henningw]

The ZD 50/2 will certainly autofocus ... It autofocuses quite nicely on both the E-M1 and E-PL7, although it will focus faster on the E-M1 due to the PDAF implementation. Same goes for the ZD 35/3.5, and Macro-Elmarit-DG 45/2.8. I'm sure all of them will also autofocus on the Olympus Air. G

My bad. You're quite right, of course. My mind was on the OM 50 macro; a whole different beast.

 

[mazor]

You folk have got me thinking.

I am happy to use my V600 for quality scans but I do want a system that lets me pick up a roll of 35mm and crack it in five minutes.

I have just realised that my Oly 12-40 pro will produce 1:1 images.

I have ordered a cheapo stand from eBay and I have dug out an old transparency viewer box. I plan to put some cardboard guides on the box so I can slide a 6 image 35mm neg through and click on each frame. I like the idea of seeing the frame numbers in my files.

I then will put the images through a Picture Window Pro workflow to convert them to positive and do what needs to be done to rationalise the tones.

The results will not be masterpieces but they will show what negs exist and that is the prime purpose.

Way OT the Air - but if I got one I'd have a neater and even faster system.

Tony

true, sounds like the air will be very suitable for you application . Once the rig is setup, ie good consistent light sources, light table etc for negatives, just leave the air in place for a powerful digitization station.

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My bad. You're quite right, of course. My mind was on the OM 50 macro; a whole different beast.

think the Om 50mm macro was a f3.5, quite distinctively different from the ZD 50mm f2.0 macro

 

[mazor]

The best lens for copy work and macro with this camera might be the Zuiko 50mm f/2.0 for 4/3. Aside from being a stellar lens in most respects, it can be stopped down almost indefinitely without losing quality to diffraction. Even the dirt cheap Zuiko 35mm f/3.5, also for 4/3, is of great quality.

http://slrgear.com/reviews/showproduct.php/product/35

This is very interesting information indeed. Did not know this ZD lens suffers from less diffraction than other m43 lenses. Wonder how well the oly 60mm macro performs in comparison with respect to diffraction.

 

[Jorgen Udvang]

think the Om 50mm macro was a f3.5, quite distinctively different from the ZD 50mm f2.0 macro

There were two version of the OM 50mm macro, a 2.0 and a 3.5mm I have the 2.0, and it's a gem