Longevity/adaptability of m4/3 lenses

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pomoville

Well-known member
Hey, I was just suddenly curious about how adaptable micro four thirds lenses might be in the future, when the micro four thirds standard goes out of fashion. Are these lenses potentially adaptable to canon bodies, or are they too small to cover an APS-C sensor?

I bought a GH1 body and, for want of a reasonably wide zoom lens, am currently debating between the Tamron 17-50 F2.8 and the Olympus 14-42 F3.5-5.6. Obviously the Tamron is a much nicer lens in many ways, but it's larger, not as wide, won't auto-focus, and more expensive. It seems like the Tamron has more potential as a longterm lens, though.
 
Been thinking about the Olympus 14-54mm as well but it's a bit pricey and I'm spoilt by the cheapness of FD/M42 lens right now, I'm afraid.
 
I have a HDDSLR with an APS-C sensor, but I have been buying lenses that are designed for FF35mm coverage. I feel that these types of lenses are almost future proof, as I don't think that there is going to be large frame sensors, for video/digital cinema cameras, larger than FF35mm for a very long time. I just can't bring myself to spend money for a lens that is only designed to work on the smaller sensors. Too much gear becomes obsolete quickly in the changing technology world, so I would like to hedge my bet with lenses. The micro 4/3 mounts does have the advantage of having a large variety of FF lenses that can be adapted to them. Now, I am buying exclusively manual focus and manual aperture control lenses, as I have no interest in auto focus or auto aperture control. If that is part of your lens criteria, then you may be stuck buying lenses specific to each camera you get. I personally don't have the money for that.
 
Not likely. The m43 bodies use a very short flange focal distance, so the lenses are designed to work with that. Canon and Nikon use much, much longer FFDs. An m43 lens would probably have to sit deep inside the Canon body in order to focus properly, and that's not gonna work out.

You can easily adapt Nikon or Canon lenses to an m43 body, all you need is a cheap spacer mount. But you're not going to be able to adapt m43 lenses to Nikon or Canon bodies, at least not without putting some sort of optical element in the adapter to correct for the focal distance, and that'll mean either lower quality or a quite expensive adapter.
 
Barry_Green said:
Not likely. The m43 bodies use a very short flange focal distance, so the lenses are designed to work with that. Canon and Nikon use much, much longer FFDs. An m43 lens would probably have to sit deep inside the Canon body in order to focus properly, and that's not gonna work out.

You can easily adapt Nikon or Canon lenses to an m43 body, all you need is a cheap spacer mount. But you're not going to be able to adapt m43 lenses to Nikon or Canon bodies, at least not without putting some sort of optical element in the adapter to correct for the focal distance, and that'll mean either lower quality or a quite expensive adapter.
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and, then there's that!!! :happy: Thanks Barry.
 
Yeah, that's sort of what I figured. Obviously I wouldn't care terribly of losing the use of a cheap kit lens, but I'd prefer not to spend $500-$1000 on a lens which won't be of use on any other camera system.

To David: Nope, I've never much used any automatic features (except occasionally the aperture priority setting,) having gotten my photographic start with an old all-manual Praktica, working in the darkroom and all that. I've heard appealing things about the GH1's kit lens and its ability to auto-focus nicely while shooting, (as an alternative to pulling focus,) but otherwise I don't much care.

The Tamron I was looking at is a Minolta mount without an aperture ring, will I be able to find an adapter with its own ring? I know they're available for Nikons, but don't know otherwise...
 
pomoville said:
Yeah, that's sort of what I figured. Obviously I wouldn't care terribly of losing the use of a cheap kit lens, but I'd prefer not to spend $500-$1000 on a lens which won't be of use on any other camera system.

To David: Nope, I've never much used any automatic features (except occasionally the aperture priority setting,) having gotten my photographic start with an old all-manual Praktica, working in the darkroom and all that. I've heard appealing things about the GH1's kit lens and its ability to auto-focus nicely while shooting, (as an alternative to pulling focus,) but otherwise I don't much care.

The Tamron I was looking at is a Minolta mount without an aperture ring, will I be able to find an adapter with its own ring? I know they're available for Nikons, but don't know otherwise...
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I don't know about the Minolta mount. I just bought a Minolta mount zoom at a yard sale, ($5.00, whatta gonna do, say no?) and am looking to adapt it to a to an EOS mount. One of those get around to things. Good luck with that.
 
It's an interesting point...
I bought my Leica M lenses in the late 80's.
I'm now on my third generation and third brand of camera using these lenses.
M6 > Epson RD1s > Panasonic GH1

So far I've bought more legacy lenses for my GH1 than Panasonic ones.
Maybe that's the right way to go.
 
Mark my word -- someday the Panasonic 20mm pancake will be considered legacy glass, and adapted to iPhone cameras et al with much frothing over the dreamy, film-like quality it bestows.

All things electronic (well, post-tube anyway) eventually EOL. Fact of life. I've gotten so many priceless family images and videos from the GF1 in the time I've had it, though, that if it dropped dead tomorrow I'll have gotten more than my money's worth out of it.

I'm not worried about this stuff. The pancake is such a great lens I know people will figure out ways to adapt it to at least a few enthusiast cameras down the road.
 
shaveblog said:
...All things electronic (well, post-tube anyway) eventually EOL. Fact of life. I've gotten so many priceless family images and videos from the GF1 in the time I've had it, though, that if it dropped dead tomorrow I'll have gotten more than my money's worth out of it. .....
Click to expand...


+1

I'm pretty happy with all my Lumix m4/3 lenses...but then again, I'm not really a "film-maker" and I happen to like the instant spot focus and auto aperture for video, and AF-S and aperture priority for taking photos. And seeing as how I've shot about 50 weddings with the GH1...I figure I've almost paid for all that insanely expensive Lumix glass.

That being said, if Nikon makes a FF D800 that shoots videos with the same amount of practicality of the GH1...then my entire Lumix kit goes on eBay. :D
 
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