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Recommended weight limit for M4/3 lens mount?

I do recall reading somewhere on this forum that the M4/3 lens mount is not particularly strong and mounting a heavy lens may put strain on it. Is there a recommended weight limit for lenses that are not supported?
 

Jorgen Udvang

Subscriber Member
I do recall reading somewhere on this forum that the M4/3 lens mount is not particularly strong and mounting a heavy lens may put strain on it. Is there a recommended weight limit for lenses that are not supported?
Wouldn't heavy lenses mostly be held by the lens and camera, reducing the strain on the mount? Apart from that, the strength would vary depending on which body. The GH3 and GH4 are generally very strongly built and can probably take a lot of weight, the plastic bodies not so much. The E-M1 and E-M5 seem reasonably strong also.
 
Wouldn't heavy lenses mostly be held by the lens and camera, reducing the strain on the mount?
If the camera body was mounted to a tripod while also being attached to a heavy lens, there would be a fair bit of strain on the lens mount from the weight of the unsupported lens. When I use Canon FD lenses with my G2 and G6, I use an adapter that has it's own tripod socket in which case the lens is supported.
 

Jorgen Udvang

Subscriber Member
If the camera body was mounted to a tripod while also being attached to a heavy lens, there would be a fair bit of strain on the lens mount from the weight of the unsupported lens. When I use Canon FD lenses with my G2 and G6, I use an adapter that has it's own tripod socket in which case the lens is supported.
I doubt that there is a written weight limit, but since all m4/3 lenses starting just under 1 kilogram have tripod mounts, I would hesitate using heavier lenses than that on a tripod without a mount on the lens or the adapter. For long lenses, that would also be a rather useless exercise, since with the camera mounted to the tripod, the pivoting point is more or less at the sensor plane, increasing the effect of any vibration or movement. This is a problem with mirror-lenses, that mostly don't have a tripod mount.
 

Annna T

Active member
Some MFT bodies have plastic mount, so I would be cautious with those bodies. I agree with the above list of more solidly built bodies.

That said : the instruction manual of the m.Zuiko 40-150mm say one should support the lens with the hand while using it. It comes with a tripod mount.

I think that common sense will tell you when a lens risk being too much for the mount. I wouldn't walk around with the 40-150mm pro lens hanging free on the body without additional support, even if Olympus didn't mention it. You just feel it when it is too much.
 

Bugleone

Well-known member
Do yourself a favour and assume that the "weight limit" is zero........

........The m43 lens mount is neccessarily small and far from robust and a strained lens mount is essentially a destroyed camera....you can attach small lenses similar in size to the 'kit zoom' but anything larger it's a case of 'putting the camera ON the lens' rather than the other way around, so, as Anna recommends, caution should prevail.
 

Petrochemist

New member
Do yourself a favour and assume that the "weight limit" is zero........
That would mean trying to fit a tripod mount to a body cap lens!

I think it's safe to say if the lens weighs no more than the body it will be comfortably within the weight limit. I'd be very upset if the mount couldn't comfortably support at least twice the bodies weight - though in actual shooting supporting nearer the center of mass (typically the lenses mounting point if there is one) would might give better results when nearing that ratio.
 
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