Retain AF functionality with Nikon/Canon/etc lenses

B

Brian@202020

Veteran
Ok does anyone know of an adapter either currently made (which I doubt) or in the works (entirely possible) that will have the electronics needed to keep the Auto Focus functionality of Nikon, Canon, or other camera lenses with a micro 4/3's camera? I know of the 4/3's to Micro 4/3's one. I just want a fast zoom (f2 or f2.8 zoom thru or better) with AF functionality. Or does anyone know of a fast Micro 4/3's zoom in the works?
 
As you mentioned, the only system that is currently electronically compatible with mFT is FT. An adapter for Canon EF is in the works by Birger Engineering. Once the Canon adapter is released supposedly a Nikon one will follow. Watch the following thread for updates.

The community consensus (at least for the first generation of Panasonic bodies) on the fastest standard zoom with AF capability is the Olympus 14-54/f2.8-3.5 II. Almost all Olympus FT lenses are supposed to auto-focus on the second generation bodies, but there has not been any in-depth reports yet. Barry Green briefly tested the 14-35/f2.0 on AF100 and found AF performance comparatively slow and noisy. An interesting lens to watch is Olympus 12-60/f2.8-4.0, which is reportedly one of the fastest lenses for FT system in terms of AF speed.

There are rumors that Panasonic is working on a native mFT "bright zoom" as well. If true it likely is a year away from being available.
 
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Minor correction - the Olympus I was testing was the 14-35 f/2. I would presume that all the lenses in that line behave similarly, but can only really speak for the 14-35. (and even then, I reserve the prospect that I may not be remembering 100% correctly, but I think I was). The way the 14-35 worked in AF, as I recall, is that it would only autofocus when I manually held down the "PUSH AUTO" button, and wouldn't AF when I set the camera in "AF" mode. And yes, it was noisy and "grindy" and slow to AF, so it didn't seem to be a practical option for video autofocus. Would work for focusing-before-the-shot, but not really suitable for focusing during a shot.
 
svecher said:
An interesting lens to watch is Olympus 12-60/f2.8-4.0, which is reportedly one of the fastest lenses for FT system in terms of AF speed.
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Hey, I hadn't paid that much attention to that lens, but yeah, that's a pretty ideal focal range and the fast wide is pretty darn nice. And the price isn't bad at all, and the Olympus lenses seem to be rated quite highly at dpreview, so ... yeah, that's interesting!
 
Brian@202020 said:
The Birger mount will be controlled by a controller of some sort correct?
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I hope not. We don't know exactly what they're going to do, but we've been asking them to make it a translating adapter that reads the incoming protocol from the camera and translates it into the protocol the lens needs. I hope that's what they make.
 
Barry, yes, there is no 14-45/f2 lens :)

I found only one report of 12-60 used with G2 on dpreview forums, which described it "slow" (AF wise). Perhaps that will change with GH2s overall AF system improvement due to 120fps refresh rate in live-view mode. It sounds like AF in Cinema Mode will still be quite slow due to 24 fps rate, but maybe Panasonic will surprise us and change base sensor sampling rate to 48 fps and drop every other frame in encoder.

I also hope Birger will make two variations of the mount: 1) just a pass-thru adapter, and 2) the adapted version of their current EF-PL mount with controller. AF100 will have its own electronic FF functionality built-in, but GH2 and GH13 still need options.
 
Barry_Green said:
I hope not. We don't know exactly what they're going to do, but we've been asking them to make it a translating adapter that reads the incoming protocol from the camera and translates it into the protocol the lens needs. I hope that's what they make.
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I hope you're right Barry. I want the Nikon one tho. I have too much Nikon glass to change now.
 
Barry_Green said:
Minor correction - the Olympus I was testing was the 14-35 f/2. I would presume that all the lenses in that line behave similarly, but can only really speak for the 14-35. (and even then, I reserve the prospect that I may not be remembering 100% correctly, but I think I was). The way the 14-35 worked in AF, as I recall, is that it would only autofocus when I manually held down the "PUSH AUTO" button, and wouldn't AF when I set the camera in "AF" mode. And yes, it was noisy and "grindy" and slow to AF, so it didn't seem to be a practical option for video autofocus. Would work for focusing-before-the-shot, but not really suitable for focusing during a shot.
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The 35-100 behaves the same way as far as the noise and grindy feel - however, I've never been able to do an AFS with that lens on the GH1 so have no idea about the speed. Panny just released their new lens compatibility chart for the GH2 and both the 14-35 and the 35-100 are now listed as AFS capable. That won't help with the noisy, grindy part, but since these lenses (at least the 35-100) don't have focus ring stops it should help to at least get quickly in the ballpark and then do a fast manual tweak. I rarely count on autofocus anyway if I have the time to do it manually.

One of the things that always pissed me off with the 35-100 is that the focus goes to default whenever the camera is turned off. So you can't just leave it and expect a static shot to still be in focus when you return. It means always needing to refocus. The AFS should be a big help with these lenses even though they're not suitable for focusing during a shot.

Owning both is a big investment, but it gives you a constant 2.0 from 14-100mm using just two lenses. And they're both highly-rated glass. My 14-35 should be here tomorrow. His big brother should be happy. :)
 
tflak said:
The 35-100 behaves the same way as far as the noise and grindy feel - however, I've never been able to do an AFS with that lens on the GH1 so have no idea about the speed. Panny just released their new lens compatibility chart for the GH2 and both the 14-35 and the 35-100 are now listed as AFS capable. That won't help with the noisy, grindy part, but since these lenses (at least the 35-100) don't have focus ring stops it should help to at least get quickly in the ballpark and then do a fast manual tweak. I rarely count on autofocus anyway if I have the time to do it manually.

One of the things that always pissed me off with the 35-100 is that the focus goes to default whenever the camera is turned off. So you can't just leave it and expect a static shot to still be in focus when you return. It means always needing to refocus. The AFS should be a big help with these lenses even though they're not suitable for focusing during a shot.

Owning both is a big investment, but it gives you a constant 2.0 from 14-100mm using just two lenses. And they're both highly-rated glass. My 14-35 should be here tomorrow. His big brother should be happy. :)
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Well this seems to be the best solution so far. What we really need is the zoom range of the GH1 kit lens, but at an f2 or 2.8 all the way thru the zoom range, and can work with the GH1/GH2/AF100 electronics either by itself or via adapter. I guess one can dream.
 
Thinking about this more, I think the difference between holding down the PUSH AUTO button, and using the auto/manual focus switch in "auto" position, is probably the same electronic communication that happens when you hold the shutter halfway down (AFS mode) vs. going into full AFC mode. I think the AF100's "PUSH AUTO" probably instructs the camera to send the AFS signal, whereas the auto/manual switch in "auto" tells it to send the AFC command.

If that's the case, then you can look at that table and see how the various lenses might perform.
 
Barry_Green said:
Thinking about this more, I think the difference between holding down the PUSH AUTO button, and using the auto/manual focus switch in "auto" position, is probably the same electronic communication that happens when you hold the shutter halfway down (AFS mode) vs. going into full AFC mode. I think the AF100's "PUSH AUTO" probably instructs the camera to send the AFS signal, whereas the auto/manual switch in "auto" tells it to send the AFC command.

If that's the case, then you can look at that table and see how the various lenses might perform.
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Think you're probably right about this.

Should have included a link to the lens compatibility page in my previous post - here it is: http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/dsc/connect/gh2.html
 
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