Not all that strange actually. It seems they changed the manufacturer for this particular adapter, since the one I got looks different from that pictured on their own home page. The one they picture is the one most people here got and that one seems to work fine. The new version that I got unfortunately doesn't.
Many thanks for taking the trouble! I do appreciate that!Firstly the infinity shot with Minolta MC Rokkor-x 1.7/50 F8 mounted on G1:
Secondly: adapter looks like your from ebay ( I mean finger ribs) but without "Fotodiox" engraved - just "MD-M4/3
Thirdly: overall length 28.7mm; flange to flange 24.5mm. All dimensions have been taken by mechanical caliber in (mm)
Hope this is helpfull
However, 24.5 mm sounds a bit much even if we believe that 19.25 mm is the correct value for the m43 flange distance. Under that presumption, the flange-to-flange distance of the adapter should be no greater 24.25 since the Minolta MD mount has a flange distance of 43.5 mm.
I assume you tested this with multiple MD lenses...
Well, that's a small amount of error but too long is too long. I suppose there is some manufacturing tolerance which is why the nominal measurement is a bit short. Also there may be manufacturing tolerances on the lenses themselves, and while I imagine Minolta had tight tolerances third-party lens manufacturers may have not been so strict, so erring on the short side is a good idea for adapter manufacturers. I know some people complain when it is possible to focus past infinity, but it is better that way than not geing able to achieve infinity focus.
Mine is only a few months old--I ordered it in January. However, I wonder what they do with old adapters that may be slightly out of tolerance? Somehow I can't imagine them throwing them away. They may try to sell them over time, hoping people will not notice, or not care to send them back (I admit I am being cynical here and I have no evidence to support this conjecture). Note that I purchased mine through Amazon, not directly from Fotodiox. I did this because it is slightly cheaper through Amazon, but it may be important that Amazon has online reviews and lots of people use these reviews to make purchasing decisions. The last thing Fotodiox would want is to get a bad review on Amazon (and Amazon wouldn't like it either). While it is possible to submit reviews on the Fotodiox site, I don't think these are as important a marketing tool as the reviews on Amazon. What I am trying to say is that buying from Amazon may be a better bet than from Fotodiox itself because one negative review on Amazon can really affect business and therefore it is more likely that you will get the most up-to-date product. Also note that my adapter was shipped from Fotodiox, not Amazon itself, but Fotodiox has to know which orders are from Amazon and which are from their own web site. My extremely well developed cynical sense says that they could handle these orders differently although, again, I have no evidence to support this idea...
Apparently flange to image plane distance is critical (optical register) and Panasonic worked with Leica on the official adapter so I guess you are paying for the engineering tolerance, 3rd party adapters probably won't come with such guarantees but you may or may not get lucky
Mysterious! That seems far too short if we trust that 19.25 mm is the actual flange distance of M43 cameras.
Yes, both lenses and cameras might be slightly different. Tolerances are never zero. On the other hand, they should be on the order of 0.01 mm or so.
Half a mile is certainly far enough to qualify as infinity. As you can see in the example I just posted, the problem is in my case clearly visible at a distance of a few hundred meters.
Yes, I did.
Yes, I can live with the fact that I can focus past infinity. Not reaching infinity is clearly worse. ;-)
You are probably right that I will rarely encounter the problem in actual shooting for exactly the reasons you point out. Still, it doesn't feel satisfactory not to be able to do it if/when I'd want to.
Yes, but mine is even younger: I ordered it at the end of April or beginning of May.
I guess that Fotodiox might be able to return a faulty batch to whoever actually produced the stuff. What happens after that is anybody's guess.
Yes, you are right that buying from Amazon may be a better way to go, particularly since they are also cheaper through that channel. The problem I faced, and the reason I ordered directly from Fotodiox, is that it usually impossible to get shipping to Sweden/Europe via Amazon if the seller is in the US (as is usually the case for stuff like this).
One of the points of my long digression about Amazon is that your adapter may be older than mine if is from an old batch and they are trying to sell them off piecemeal. My uber-cynical mind says that they may avoid selling old ones via Amazon, and that they may prefer to sell old ones overseas since it may be less likely to be returned. I wonder which one I would get if I ordered it via Amazon today?
I wonder. Sure, if the whole batch was bad, but what if it was only some of them?
I understand. Well if not Fotodiox there is RainbowImaging, Bower, Novoflex, and eBay. The Bower is $99.95 at B&H, and the Novoflex is $211.99 at B&H. Both are overpriced: the Bower is probably Fotodiox quality selling for 3x the price, and the Novoflex is just very expensive although I'm sure the quality is high. The RainbowImaging model is $25.99 at Amazon and looks like the one I have but is labeled "Fotasy MD-m 4/3" (if that is what they are currently shipping). eBay can be good or bad, but it's hard to tell up front...
Okay, that clearly demonstrates the problem. What I still don't understand is how our adapters can measure the same and yet produce such different results. The problem must be in (1) the cameras, (2) the lenses, or (3) our measurements. It is almost impossible to check the cameras without mounting the same lens on both, so we almost have to assume they are identical. Since we have both tried multiple lenses and see the same effects on our sets of lenses I do not believe it is related to the lenses. That leaves our measurements. I am going to measure more precisely to make sure we are accurate. The mounting face on the female end of my adapter (silver) is flat, and extends a very small (but visible) amount above the black adapter body edge. Check to make sure this is the case on your adapter. Looking closely at the male end of my adapter from the inside to the outside there are 3 levels on the mating surface (not counting the bayonet itself):
That's indeed a nice way of putting it.Very nice bokeh
Always friendly
S.
Well, when I first complained, Fotodiox told me the adapter would allow me to focus beyond infinity and advised me to dial back a bit to find proper focus. So all their adapters are presumably designed like that. Regrettably, mine fails to conform.
Hmm. Now I see what you mean. And I am not going to tell you that you are wrong.
Could be of course, although it doesn't seem particularly likely to me.
Yes, I think that's a pretty good market review. There's also one from Kipon, sold by Adorama for 57 dollars:
Many thanks for this very generous offer! Very kind of you. Luckily, I won't have to bother you this time since my son lives in NYC at the moment. In fact, I am going there to visit him in just a few days.
I have checked, and yes it is the same.
Again, my adapter is the same in this respect.
I tried to measure again, but I still don't quite understand how you can measure this with such precision. What kind of wonder-caliper are you using?
My OM-u4/3 adapter is loose on the lens end. The lens does lock into place, but it is possible to turn it slightly and there is some axial play. I probably should have returned it, but I needed to test a used lens I bought so I kept it. It seems that Fotodiox has some tolerance issues (or, to put it more clearly, their suppliers have tolerance issues). On the other hand, my Nikon G adapter is quite snug and my Minolta MD adapter is just right...
I have a dial caliper which has indications for every thousandth of an inch. I am estimating at the ten-thousandth of an inch level...
Okay, it is impossible for you to measure accurately enough with your caliper--I just assumed that you had a dial (or digital) caliper. It's no big deal, I am just a curious person and I would like to understand why your adapter produces different results. It seems that there is at least a 0.1 mm difference between our adapters, possibly as much as 0.15 mm. I guess that is enough to make a difference...
