What Lenses will Adapt?

R

RS-Colo

Active member
I tried this question in the GH1 Hardware area, but not very many people seem to look there. So here it is again.

My general question, beyond the specifics of my lenses, is how does one figure out if a lens will work with the GH1 and what will the limitations be if it does work.

I'm planning on getting the GH1 and for a while I plan to just use the kit lens. But I have a lot of old lenses, 30-40 years old. Three are for the Leica CL. The 40mm and 90mm Leitz and a 28mm Minolta. I also have some Canon lenses for an old FTb camera. A 55mm and a 24mm. There are a lot of nice optics here.

So here are the questions:

1. Will they work at all. Is there enough coverage for the format, etc.?

2. Are there adapters? I'm pretty sure the answer is yes, especially for the CL lenses. They are M-Mount, I think. I'm not as sure about the Canons.

3. None of these lenses have auto focus or appature. So I assume I would need to use manual exposure. Or would appature priority work? I understand manual focus will be necessary.

4. What other issues don't I even know about?

Thanks for any help on this.
 
Canon FD lenses (for FtB) adapt easily, so do the M-mounts. You will not get anything automated (like the A mode on FD mounts), so yes everything will be working in manual mode (which is what you want).
 
1. Any lens designed for 35mm (or larger) photography of any kind will work. This includes rangefinder lenses.

2. Check eBay. Currently, there are ways adapt almost any photographic lens, though you may have to stack adapters.

3. Everything will be manual. Why would you need auto exposure?

4. I can't think of any other issues.
 
ydgmdlu said "1. Any lens designed for 35mm (or larger) photography of any kind will work. This includes rangefinder lenses."

Let's talk about my 4x5 lenses. How the heck would I ever mount one of those on a GH1? I have a 210mm Schneider that is a beautiful piece of optics. Then there is the Fujinon (sp?) 400mm...
 
RS-Colo said:
Let's talk about my 4x5 lenses. How the heck would I ever mount one of those on a GH1? I have a 210mm Schneider that is a beautiful piece of optics. Then there is the Fujinon (sp?) 400mm...
Click to expand...
I think he means "theoretical" as in "simple to convert" using mechanical means due to inherent nature of micro 4/3rds system. It doesn't mean that an adapter is currently available to everything on the planet, it simply means that the adapter could in theory be made. If you REALLY need an adapter for your 4x5s I'm sure there are individuals online that could make one for you on-demand.

Naturally as with most large lenses you cannot rely on the body of the camera supporting the weight of the mount - i.e. additional accessories for them might be required. Any wildlife photographer can probably shed insight on this.
 
I have several Nikon lenses from 30 years ago which work beautifully with a cheapo chinese adapter from greedpain but double the focal length.
I also have some c-mount glass which vignettes unless I double the zoom.

I wish Pana made a FW update and gave more zoom levels than x2 and x4!!
If I had x1.2-x1.4-x1.6 etc I could get my c-mount glasses to become my primary lenses because some vignette barely and others heavily ( like my Angenieux 12-120mm 1:2 a nice old 16 mm glass with a nice soft tone)
 
RS-Colo said:
ydgmdlu said "1. Any lens designed for 35mm (or larger) photography of any kind will work. This includes rangefinder lenses."

Let's talk about my 4x5 lenses. How the heck would I ever mount one of those on a GH1? I have a 210mm Schneider that is a beautiful piece of optics. Then there is the Fujinon (sp?) 400mm...
Click to expand...
I just did a Google search for 4x5 SLR lens adapter, and this appeared on the first page of results: http://www.rugift.com/photocameras/4x5-camera_nikon_adapter.htm

Any further questions?
 
Rabot said:
I think he meant the other way around 8-)

edit: it's pretty lol. the page.
Click to expand...
You might've misread the page. That adapter does exactly what he wants, except that he would need an additional Nikon to Micro Four Thirds adapter.
 
I'm sorry. The first two replies answered all my questions. I was joking about the view camera lenses. They are monsters. I think the 400mm has about 4 inches of glass BEHIND the mount and the other two about 2 inches.
 
I figured that you might not have been serious. But the point is still that you don't really have to worry about "will these lenses work?" That's the beauty of the Micro Four Thirds system.
 
With this adapter you can mount your digital Nikon camera onto your 4x5 large format camera. Check your results instantly with LCD. It also turns your 4x5 camera into a digital camera.

It sound wierd to me.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top