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Olympus' m4/3rds system

V

Vivek

Guest
Yes, it is!

I have been saying that it is an Olympus creation.

It took me about 2-3 seconds after unwrapping the G1 kit to figure that out.
Even before the battery was charged, I checked with an Olympus pen F lens. It did mount but would not make a tight fit. It took a while to find a right shim, add it to the lens and sure enough it would!:)


Shown here with the self made m4/3rds to Pen F adapter (will give you the details as to how you can make your own later here) and an Olympus Pen F lens.

With the ideal portrait lens for the m4/3rds system:



I am fortunate to be in an unique position to disclose more information on the Pen F system lenses (as applied to the digital) as I have all the primes except the 20/3.5 and the 800mm mirror lens (I do not have the zooms).


[Since the edit function disappears after a few minutes, I can't keep adding to this post. So, I would ask everyone not to respond now as I will add more details (may takes hours or days).]
 
V

Vivek

Guest
I think I posted this before (I hope I did not mis-label it as having been taken with another lens! :eek:).


42/1.2 @ f/1.2, ISO400

100% crop



BTW, this 42/1.2 lens is tested to be the fuzziest (unsharp) of all the Olympus Pen F lenses, especially wide open.

Upclose (0.3m) and under overcast conditions and with an insufficient hood (important for this lens that a suitable length hood is used- and for many other lenses from the Pen F line-up).



Under much more suitable lighting for a portrait (again, wide open):

 
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T

tofu

Guest
well, i hope you post your DIY instructions soon.... i have 2 20/3.5s!
eager to test them!
well, one has some mold :angry: but the other one is nice.
i have the Pen 150/4 too.... what would that be on the G1?

Happy Chinese New Year everyone!

tofu
 
V

Vivek

Guest
The "normal" lens, the pen F 25mm f/2.8 is excellent (the pen F 25/4, is not that great, besides being slow). However, the DOF is enormous and setting it at 3 meters basically makes it a P&S set-up. Only between 0.25m to ~2.5 m, at f/2.8 one can see any separation.

I did post this one earlier (Carl asked which lens it was).



The lens does not vignette (it was added in the post). At close quarters, it is very, very sharp (I will dig up some samples later).
 
V

Vivek

Guest
I found a couple of the Pen F 25/2.8 shots. Both wide open, closer distances.


25/2.8 at f/2.8, ISO400, 1/50s, hand-held

This shutter speed isn't enough to get the fine details.

Slightly different lighting conditions (again hand-held).


25/2.8 at f/2.8, ISO400, 1/80s, hand-held

This is fast enough (could have been faster) to see some finer details.

100% Crop

 
V

Vivek

Guest
Going to the opposite end (well this is the longest lens I have from pen F, just realized that I do not have the ultra rare 400/6.3 either). 3 consecutive shots taken with the continuous/burst mode under less than ideal conditions. Low light, pen F 250/5, ISO800, f/5, 1/160s, the setup was supported on a balcony rail and the shutter was pressed manually. Back yard pigeon at ~3.5m.








I did not do justice to the lens. Sharp and no CA. Tiny, with a nice built-in hood, compact and light weight.
 
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jonoslack

Active member
HI Vivek
Lovely shots - the boy and the bird.
I'd not thought of the Pen F lenses, but they're obviously a dead ringer for the G1
 
W

wblynch

Guest
Ebay sellers seem to think Pen-F lenses are made of gold.

Perhaps they are?
 
V

Vivek

Guest
HI Vivek
Lovely shots - the boy and the bird.
I'd not thought of the Pen F lenses, but they're obviously a dead ringer for the G1
Hi Jono, Thanks. Exactly what I said you could try if we meet up here!:)

I put some photos deliberately and not of the actual lenses (which are cute and handle beautifully) for a reason. One of the Olympus Pen F advertisements from the sixties said, "the lens alone is worth the price". And their selling prices were high, higher than their Leica counterparts in some instances.
 
S

Stuart Dean

Guest
I used a Pen FT for around 20 years and own the 20,38,100 and 150mm lenses plus an original Pen F.
The lenses will certainly be used on my G1 if and when I can make/buy a suitable mount adapter.
I well remember making 20X16 prints with the FT and if one used something like Ilford Pan F or Kodak Panatomic X film it was impossible to detect that the prints were from a half frame.
Using a slow film meant that the grain size on the finished print was similar to that of a full frame print.
I will never part with my FT and I’m really delighted that those gorgeous little lenses will used again.
I see that it is claimed that the FT lenses were as or more expensive than Leica optics.
I don’t own and have never used any pre digital Leica lenses but the Olympus half frame lenses were surely comparable with lenses from any manufacurer at any price!!
Can’t wait to see what Olympus come up with in u4/3.
 

Brian Mosley

New member
Vivek, just to be clear - are you saying that the Pen-F simply needs a spacer shim to be added, to make it mount to a m4/3rds camera?

Or, is that an adapter you've shown to the left of the cam?

Kind Regards

Brian
 
V

Vivek

Guest
Brian, You can mount any pen F lenses on the G1 with a spacer but they will focus way past infinity (except one lens, I will talk about it a bit later) since the registries are different. The m4/3rds having a significantly shorter camera registry.

So you do need an adapter to get the correct infinity focus of the pen F lenses on the M4/3rds.
 
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V

Vivek

Guest
To continue with my story..

Olympus Pen system had many normal lenses:



The 38/2.8 (on the left) is the oldest. It is superb on the G1 (rare, collector item).

The 38/1.8 is the most common. Absolutely fabulous!

The 40/1.4 is stunning. One of the best of all the pen F lenses!

The 38/2.8 pancake is a the cutest and the lightest (70g) lens one can have.

The G1 is not a pen F camera, digital or otherwise.

Not even close (that is my opinion).
 
V

Vivek

Guest

pen F 40/1.4, f/1.4, ISO800

One of my very early photos taken with the G1 (I think the 2nd day).
 
V

Vivek

Guest
Any system worthy of its name should have extension rings in its accessory list.

The Olympus Pen F system was no exception. There were two types of extension rings made. I have never seen the Type 1, single piece extension ring.

The later type extension ring is the set one can find nowadays.



This, IMO, is the hottest item especially when it comes to the m4/3rds adapter.

Initial trials with any of the combinations showed that it is simply not possible to get the right extension to make the adapter for the m4/3rds body.

As shown here:



I took rings A, B and D, ground them up a little (every one of them), screwed them together to make the m4/3rds to Pen F adapter (you still need that shim on the male end of the adapter to mount it on a m 4/3rds body).

I can not give the exact dimensions that need to be ground since my Vernier calipers broke (true). I used a flat (important) grinding stone with a fairly smooth surface for the shortening. It was done by trial and error. Rings A and D are brass (chromed) and ring B is aluminium.

Here is to show how small a shortening of the ABD ring combination you need.

 
V

Vivek

Guest
They are mine and I do as I please with them. ;)

See, the aluminium case on which the cameras are resting? That is a customized case for my pen F gear.:D

You haven't seen nothing.:ROTFL:
 
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