Hi,
not so much going on here in the mFt section. is there anyone except me who uses mFt?
Thank you!
regards Reinhard
Hi Reinhard,
M43 user here, converted from Canon to M43 about 3 years ago, starting with a Lumix G5 then progressing after selling it on to an E-M10, E-M5 and the E-M5 II. I finally sold all my Canon gear about 18 months ago, I chose Canon because of the ability to adapt the older manual lenses I had but I've also sold most of those now as well leaving me with just a collection of Tamron Adaptall 2 with Canon FD mount lenses to play around with.
My favorite combination is my E-M5 II and the Olympus 14-150mm f4-5.6 II and my E-M5 with a Tamron 28mm f2.8 (CW-28) with or without a FotoDioX Pro FD-M43 EXCELL + 1 depending on what I'm after. My E-M10 is the camera that suffers the most lens changes, I don't know why, LOL.
One of the main reasons I just love the E-M5 II is it's image stabilization, the 50% crop of the moon shot below was taken hand held using my Tamron 500mm f8 at 1/200 with an ISO of 160 at around 16:05 on a clear January day in 2022. The moon was just coming over Snowdon and I just went back into the house grabbed the camera and took a few test shots.
Dave
If a week were eight days long I could have finished this tommorow.
Hi Dave,
thank you for your response
I also started the digital mirrorless career with a Lumix G5. This camera is still in use :)
@dwrcymru Interesting photo and lens! I had never heard of that lens for Micro Four Thirds before now. Can you speak to its practicality? I'd imagine as a mf lens, and f/8 lens, it is limiting. Does it make up for those traits in any ways?
Nicholas
@reinski I ended up selling mine and actually regret doing so now. I had lots of legacy lenses and as the G5 had no in body stabalization I went for the Olympus OM-D E-M10, then the E-M5, and later the E-M5 II. I sold most of my legacy lenses and pick up the odd one or two to try. I mainly had Canon FD lenses then founf the TAMRON AdaptAll system and stuck with that for many years.
Dave
If a week were eight days long I could have finished this tommorow.
@greatwhiterattlesnake The lens is an old lens made for the 35mm film cameras and I use it with a Tamron Adaptall 2 to Canon EOS to M43 adapters. It's a very hard lens to focus correctly and get a decent shot but with the added depth of field given by the M43 system I manage to get more shots than I thought I could.
As you can see from the images above it's quite a large lens but very easy to handle. The focus is the major problem, move just slightly away or towards your subject and focus is lost, of course using it on the M43 system gives the point of view of a 1000mm lens and that initself is something I would never have tried hand held on my film cameras of old.
It is best used with a tripod but I have used it hand held a lot of times without much bother. I have more luck using it with my E-M5 II than with the other cameras I have so the IBIS is definatley improved on that version.
Some folks don't like the out of focus regions created by this lens as any bright hilights that are out of focus tend to look like donut rings.
Dave
If a week were eight days long I could have finished this tommorow.
@dwrcymru Very cool, Dave!
Thanks for sharing. When googling the lens you mentioned, I also came across the Tokina 500mm f/8 which on B&H says there is a micro four thirds mount option. It appears to be a similar lens to the tamron. Interesting stuff.
Nicholas
@greatwhiterattlesnake The Tokina lens is quite good but it is not, well, something I would recomend as it is not specifically designed for the M43 system. Tokina made quite a lot of great lenses in the days of film, many were re-badged under various names. The 1000mm effect is quite something to behold when looking through the viewfinder but as with all lenses made for the full 35mm frame light will be bouncing around internaly which can affect contrast.
To be honest I don't use this lens very often, I love the reach but then you need good light to get results especially at shutter speeds that are stable enough even with the in body stabilasation to get a decent sharp shot. I have a few Tamron Adaptall 2 lenses and my favorite is the Tamron 28mm f2.8 (CW-28) and when used with the FotoDioX Pro FD-M43 EXCELL + 1 is very pleasing. That particular focal reducer was given realy bad reviews by so called experts in the photographic industry as they wre comparing it to a device that probably cost 10 times more, I'm quite happy with the results from it, a couple of shots with the 28mm Tamron with and without the focal reducer. I'm finding using this forum very limiting as to replying to posts, I get notifications an then when I click on the link I can't reply unless I log in using some kind of two stage process that at one time took me 5 attempts and I just gave up.
I hope the filename expalin the shots, but after having to reduce the resolution of the images to make them up-loadable I'm not sure you can see the difference.
If a week were eight days long I could have finished this tommorow.
@dwrcymru Wow I have that exact lens and I use it often on my Panasonic G9 and my Nikon Z6. I've gotten some great shots with it...actually you can see one at the bottom of the G9 review we've recently posted here on PL:
@jpolakphotography Brilliant, there are so many lenses sitting in a cupboard somewhere that could be used to create some great photography. I've always liked the Tamron Adaptall system but with all these adapters available there is so much wasted glass, LOL. Sorry, I get carried away with the older glass because of the way they render images on modern equipment.
I must take some hi-res shots with the 28mm but the way the weather is here it maybe a while yet. Love the review by the way.
If a week were eight days long I could have finished this tommorow.
I got myself some new legacy lenses in the last couple of weeks but the weather hasn't given me the option of really testing them out so have been taking quick shots out of the window or from the front door when the wind and rain wouldn't flood the hallway, and even some shots from the back garden.
I always used Canon equipment when I could afford it in the mid 70's and I still remember my FtB QL and my favourite the Canon Pelix QL. One of the lenses I recently purchased was the Canon 135mm f3.5 SC made around 1976, it came with the Canon Extender 2x "B" and all they needed was some TLC. The glass on both lenses is mould, haze, and scratch free with very little wear to the breech mounts.
The other lens I got was a Tokina 60-300mm f4, I've read some very un-favourable comments about this particular lens with users getting some poor results from it, but from the few quick test photographs that I have taken so far all I can say is that this zoom lens seems to have some hidden talents and not half as bad as others have said it is, maybe I was lucky and got a good copy. This lens is also very clean and looks as though it hasn't been used very much at all. It came with the original box which contained the instruction manual along with the guarantee card which the buyer had filled in with the purchase date being 30-09-89 which makes it around 34 years since it was first used.
Here is the Canon 135mm mounted onto my E-M5 II
And some quick test images taken just to ensure that it is working as it should.
Yr Wyddfa or Snowdon in English from my front door looking right, as you can see the weather wasn't very good.
Looking straight ahead and slightly to the right from my front door. The weather brightened up for a few minutes but when the sun is out in force the views are stunning.
Taken from my back garden looking 0ver the houses to my right. There is an active quarry there and on some days the dust flying around can be really bad, so bad in fact that it looks as though there is a thick fog over the area.
Now the same lens but with the supplied Canon 2x Extender type B mounted onto my E-M5 II, it's much larger and heavier than the standard 2x teleconverters I was used to, even the Tamron BBAR MC (01F) is lighter and smaller.
And another few quick test shots
I have taken many shots of my neighbour's chimney stack as it has lots of detail available against a bright background.
A crop of the center of the original image that was taken through the window.
Another crop taken against a fairly bright featureless sky.
I have used this old church to test my lenses and sensors for many years, the not so good ones don't even resolve the lightning rod on the spire. This view will soon dissapear though as the trees are gowing taller and will one day hide the whole building.
The image above is of the road to Nantle and beyond, the B4418, this was taken from my front garden. Not seen in this image is the entrance to "Beatrice Square" which used to lead to "Dorothea Quarries", it kind of still does if you are willing to climb over the hurdles put in place to stop you going there.
The other lens I purchased is the Tokina 60-300mm f4-5.6, here it is mounted on my E-M5 II. It's a beatiful piece of craftmanship and looks as though it was rarley used. I have read so many horror stories about how bad this particular lens was. It was one of those lenses that was re-badged and re-sold by many lens suppliers of the day. The one I have seems to be a genuine Tokina and is solidly built and looking at the very limited results I had with it it's going to be part of my manual only kit.
The original guarantee filled out by the original owner, notice the date, 30th of September 1989 which was a Saturday according to the Google Oracle:
And some quick indoor test shots using just the poor available light coming through the window at around 9:15 AM.
This doll is sitting in the corner of the window, the cobwebs and dust are plain to see, LOL.
This was taken while sitting on the couch with a focal length of around 200mm
This shot of the clock surprised me, taken at the shorter focal length of 60mm
This was taken through the double-glazed window cropped to avoid the window frame on both sides.
All the test photographs were taken handheld, and the IBIS focal length setting was set to 150mm for the Tokina 60-300mm f4-5.6 zoom lens and not changed for different focal lengths.
The E-M5 II was set to Aperture Priority and the lens was set to f5.6 or f8 depending on the shutter speed and/or ISO chosen by the E-M5 II, IBIS on, and Auto ISO with the limits set to 200-6400.
The only processing was done in IrvanView using the raw ORF file, selecting "SmartCurve" from the "Adobe 8BF Plugins" menu item in the "Image" menu. Then select the "Auto" button, then "OK". I then use "Shift S" to just sharpen the image. The image was then re-sized to 1920 x 1440 to keep the size low enough to upload to most websites and forums such as this one, It's a workflow I use when adding sample images taken by the lenses I sell online.
If I'm happy with the results from doing this then the lens is a keeper and I will use "OM Workspace" to get the most out of any image I want to keep, print, or show off. And looking at the short tests I did on these two lenses I think I'm going to be very pleased with anything I thow at them.
If a week were eight days long I could have finished this tommorow.
I've been shooting with a Panasonic G95 and a growing mix of lenses since July. Since my most recent cameras have been various point-and-shoots, this represents quite a major step-up. There's nothing about this set-up that seems to make my picture taking gear limited in any important way, and I love how portable it all is. If for some reasonI ever wanted to carry the camera and all 8 lenses with me on a hike, the whole thing would weigh less than 5 1/2 lb.
I'd be delighted to see more discussion of MFT gear on this site, since it's the best photo site I've found on the web so far. But since it's predominantly a Nikon shop, I'm content to read the occasional post on MFT from Nicholas Hess or Jason Polak.