Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2013/06/10
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]More rainy day ruminations. Give your old Leica lenses a new lease on life. Cheaply. Olympus EPL-1 cameras are being sold at near giveaway prices by various distributors. Last year I bought two, one body and one with a 14 to 42 mm kit lens from Cameta Camera in NYC, both for substantially less than $200 each. The sensor and much of the internal electronics is the same as in later models offered by the troubled Olympus company. I have had no problem using old film camera lenses on an Olympus EPL-1 provided I have the proper eBay sourced adapter. So far I have used Leica screw lenses (35 mm f3.5 Elmar, 50 mm f3.5 Elmar, 50 mm f2 Summicron and 90 mm f 3.5 Elmar), Robot lenses (32 mm f2.8 Zeiss, 40 mm f2 Biotar), Canon screw lenses (35 mm f2.8 Serenar, 50 mm f 1.2 Canon, 100 mm f3.5 Serenar and 135 mm f.3.5 Serenar), Olympus OM lenses (35 m f2.8 Zukio, 50 m f1.8 Zukio), and Olympus Pen F lenses (38 mm f2 Zukio). That's a lot of lenses and I still have a drawer full more. I have little problem focusing with the camera on a tripod. An Olympus eye level digital finder even lets me focus with the camera held to my eye. Its more trouble than focusing a Leica M3 but easier than a Leica IIIf. Now that I proved to myself that I could do it, I've mostly stopped using these lenses. The kit 14 to 42 mm Oly zoom works fine for most purposes and autofocus and auto exposure makes it dead easy. The three lenses I still use on the EPL-1 are the old 35 mm Elmar, mostly because it is so tiny that the camera will easily slip into a pocket, the Canon 35 mm f2.8 because of its needle sharp quality, the Pen F 38 mm Zukio f1.8 because it is a small fast lens, and the Canon 50 mm f1.2 as a short telephoto to take pictures of black cats in coal cellars. I've read all the Olympus and Panasonic propaganda about how specially computed lenses with wide rear elements are necessary for adequate performance with the 4/3 sensor. I have not found much difference between the digital 4/3 lenses and the old film lenses. Indeed picture quality is sometimes better than on film since the 2:1 reduced sized sensor uses the "sweet spot" in the center of the image circle. Edge fall off and distortion is minimized. This is certainly true for the f1.2 Canon. Olympus has just released a combination body cap and 14 mm f8.0 lens for the camera. I have one. The lens itself is just a tiny blob of glass with a clear opening of no more than 3 mm. This seems to violate all the warnings. Yet performance of the body cap lens shows it to be adequately sharp with even illumination over the entire frame. How come? Larry Z