New Olympus / old lenses.

Hi,

My wife wants to get a new camera and because I have a couple Olympus
lenses, I want to know if the old lenses can be used on the new camera.
She's looking at the e-600 (Good price) and the new EM-5 (I like just
because of the look - but it might be too much $).

The old lenses I have aren't worth all that much, but are pretty good.
(a 50mm f/1.8 that I used a lot before I got the 35-105 that stayed on
my camera permanently afterward).

So can I mix old and new? I know the image won't scale the same, it
will be like having a double the mm lens. But will metering work?

We have a Canon P&S too.

Thanks,
Jerry

In article , Jerry Smith
wrote:

Hi,

My wife wants to get a new camera and because I have a couple Olympus
lenses, I want to know if the old lenses can be used on the new camera.
She's looking at the e-600 (Good price) and the new EM-5 (I like just
because of the look - but it might be too much $).

The old lenses I have aren't worth all that much, but are pretty good.
(a 50mm f/1.8 that I used a lot before I got the 35-105 that stayed on
my camera permanently afterward).

So can I mix old and new? I know the image won't scale the same, it
will be like having a double the mm lens. But will metering work?

don't waste your time. although it can work with the appropriate
adapter, it's not worth the hassle. you won't have autofocus
(obviously) and you'll have to manually set the aperture and use
stopdown metering.

the effective focal lengths will be double, which may or may not be
what you want. if you like wide angle shots, it's clearly a drawback,
but if you like telephoto it's a plus.

On 2012-03-02 17:59 , Jerry Smith wrote:
Hi,

My wife wants to get a new camera and because I have a couple Olympus
lenses, I want to know if the old lenses can be used on the new camera.
She's looking at the e-600 (Good price) and the new EM-5 (I like just
because of the look - but it might be too much $).

The old lenses I have aren't worth all that much, but are pretty good.
(a 50mm f/1.8 that I used a lot before I got the 35-105 that stayed on
my camera permanently afterward).

So can I mix old and new? I know the image won't scale the same, it will
be like having a double the mm lens. But will metering work?

The mount is different, but there are adaptors you can buy.

Not sure about metering - you may need to "stop down meter" which is
simple enough in theory but a pain in practice, esp. in low light
conditions. (You set the aperture "down" to what you want and meter
there - trouble is, of course you can't see well enough to focus).

You'll lose autofocus, but then the lenses you have are probably not AF
anyway.

One advantage is you only use the "sharp" center area of the older lens
with a cropped sensor.

I'd search for actual tester-moanials first in case there are issues.

Some (all?) new Olympus lenses are so-called "telecentric" which results
in the rays being nearly (or perfectly) perpendicular to the sensor from
center to edge. This results in less light rolloff towards the edges of
the sensor. I don't know if that's an issue with older Oly lenses on
the new bodies - so do your research. Or get new lenses for the new body.

Even if it's not an ideal solution, there's a certain fun to using old
lenses on digital bodies. I do it from time to time, but it's always
more work than I think it will be, I make exposure errors galore. But
the results are great as long as it's not action shooting.

--
"I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did.
I said I didn't know."
-Samuel Clemens.

On 2012.03.02 18:10, nospam wrote:
In , Jerry Smith
wrote:

Hi,

My wife wants to get a new camera and because I have a couple Olympus
lenses, I want to know if the old lenses can be used on the new camera.
She's looking at the e-600 (Good price) and the new EM-5 (I like just
because of the look - but it might be too much $).

The old lenses I have aren't worth all that much, but are pretty good.
(a 50mm f/1.8 that I used a lot before I got the 35-105 that stayed on
my camera permanently afterward).

So can I mix old and new? I know the image won't scale the same, it
will be like having a double the mm lens. But will metering work?

don't waste your time. although it can work with the appropriate
adapter, it's not worth the hassle. you won't have autofocus
(obviously) and you'll have to manually set the aperture and use
stopdown metering.

the effective focal lengths will be double, which may or may not be
what you want. if you like wide angle shots, it's clearly a drawback,
but if you like telephoto it's a plus.

Looking over the Olympus options, we don't want an adapter, we're going
to look at other cameras. There's no sense in sticking to Olympus if my
lenses aren't usable. So we're starting to look at Canon and Nikon.
There's a lot of info on the DPReview site. Too much maybe!

We're going to Euope this summer for 3 weeks. Need a good camera, but
not too heavy or bulky. I'd like to make it under $1500.

Thanks!

"Jerry Smith" wrote in message
...
[]
We're going to Euope this summer for 3 weeks. Need a good camera, but
not too heavy or bulky. I'd like to make it under $1500.

Thanks!

My current carry-round outfit is a Nikon D5000 (current would be D5100)
with an 18-200 mm zoom. Not /that/ heavy or bulky, but possibly slightly
over your $1500 (I don't know US prices). Versatile, good in low light
conditions, and has a swivel LCD.

http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/nikond5100/
http://www.dpreview.com/lensreviews/...p6_vr_afs_n15/

Cheers,
David

In article , Jerry Smith
wrote:

Looking over the Olympus options, we don't want an adapter, we're going
to look at other cameras. There's no sense in sticking to Olympus if my
lenses aren't usable. So we're starting to look at Canon and Nikon.
There's a lot of info on the DPReview site. Too much maybe!

adapters are indeed a pain and nikon & canon are much better choices
for slrs.

We're going to Euope this summer for 3 weeks. Need a good camera, but
not too heavy or bulky. I'd like to make it under $1500.

you can do quite well for half that. look at the nikon d3100 and d5100
as well as the entry level canons.

also, consider some of the mirrorless systems, like sony's nex. they're
much smaller and a *lot* easier to travel with.

On 2012-03-03 12:03 , Jerry Smith wrote:

Looking over the Olympus options, we don't want an adapter, we're going
to look at other cameras. There's no sense in sticking to Olympus if my
lenses aren't usable. So we're starting to look at Canon and Nikon.
There's a lot of info on the DPReview site. Too much maybe!

Don't stop at Canon and Nikon. Excellent choices there, of course, but
so are Pentax and Sony. (Self interest here in keeping Sony going
strong, that's what I have - but in fact they do have excellent offerings).

We're going to Euope this summer for 3 weeks. Need a good camera, but
not too heavy or bulky. I'd like to make it under $1500.

Sounds great - I've never been to "Euope"!.

In the low weight/bulk regard, look at the Sony NEX too. Not "SLR"
cameras but the same size sensor as most DSLR's (APS-C). Not that many
lenses though.

Otherwise the newer Sony SLT-65 is probably in your budget with a
moderate lens. One advantage of these is there is no flipping mirror.
"Above" that there is the SLT-77 but that would probably break your
budget a bit. Smaller and lighter would be the SLT-35.

Have fun.

--
"I was gratified to be able to answer promptly, and I did.
I said I didn't know."
-Samuel Clemens.

On 2012.03.03 14:06, nospam wrote:
In , Jerry Smith
wrote:

Looking over the Olympus options, we don't want an adapter, we're going
to look at other cameras. There's no sense in sticking to Olympus if my
lenses aren't usable. So we're starting to look at Canon and Nikon.
There's a lot of info on the DPReview site. Too much maybe!

adapters are indeed a pain and nikon& canon are much better choices
for slrs.

We're going to Euope this summer for 3 weeks. Need a good camera, but
not too heavy or bulky. I'd like to make it under $1500.

you can do quite well for half that. look at the nikon d3100 and d5100
as well as the entry level canons.

also, consider some of the mirrorless systems, like sony's nex. they're
much smaller and a *lot* easier to travel with.

Looks odd though! The 18-200 lens is very expensive and there's nothing
"below" that we want. There's a Nikon with the same zoom range and it's
a couple hundred cheaper from what I see on dpreview.

Bruce wrote in
:

RichA wrote:

You can buy adapters on Ebay from $10 to $300 depending the brand to
fit old lenses. Some of the old lenses work very well


And some of them do not.



True, but it's moot. The original poster is a camera novice so in this
case, there is no point in recommending old manual lenses. They take an
effort to use well.