Using 4/3 lenses on Micro 4/3 bodies

I've been a long-time Oly user and have accumulated a sh*tload of e-system 4/3 lenses over the years. These include the Super High Grade Zuiko 7-14mm f4, the High Grade Zuiko 11-22mm f2.8, 12-60mm f2.8, the Standard Grade 70-300mm f4, and the Pan/Leica 25mm f1.4 Summilux D. I've recently put in an order for the OM-D EM5, and plan to use it with those lenses, along with my current e-30. But in the Micro 4/3 threads I came across a posting which said that focussing is slow on m4/3 bodies with standard 4/3 lenses. Does this tend to be universally true, or was the poster referring to the difference in focuss speed in bigger/heavier/more element 4/3 lenses to the newer/lighter m4/3 lenses? I'd like to keep using my current lenses with the newer body (yes, I'm aware of the body/lens size mismatch, but was used to that back in the OM-1 days), as most are either faster or superior optically to analogous m4/3 lenses, PLUS I'm not fond of the idea of having to reinvest in a whole new lens library. Any experiences with using standard 4/3 lenses in Micro bodies would really be appreciated here.

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al
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alsphotography/

Hi Al.

This has been discussed, both here and on Oly DSLR forum, so many times, that if you do a search, it will not be difficult to find lots of posts.

All 4/'s lenses, either from Olympus, Panasonic or Sigma, work with any micro4/3's camera, with an adapter, because of different lens diameters.

All lenses will autofocus. But, they'll do it with some serious limitations. Some are very slow to focus. Some are less slow. Some take two seconds to achieve focus, others take less. Even the 50mm 2.0 works well.

In the end, they will all achieve correct focus. Even my Sigma 50-500 works well with my E-P3.

This means that you can keep all your precious lenses and enjoy their performance, provided you will not use them for sports photography.

António GM

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Thanks. I figured that if it was the case, it would have been discussed in this forum before. Unfortunately the "search" function didn't provide me with any really useful hits (I stopped looking after 4 pages).

I guess I'll have to see how each lens works with the new OM-D. It seems odd though that a lens would focus slower on a m 4/3 body than it would on a standard 4/3 body. Given that a micro 4/3 lens is focussing the light at a more acute angle than a standard 4/3 lens due to its shorter distance between the back lens element and the focal plane, I would have expected just the opposite to be true. Has it been discussed as to why this occurs? Is it a question of the firmware not having specific data for these other lenses?
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al

AntnioGM said:

Hi Al.

This has been discussed, both here and on Oly DSLR forum, so many times, that if you do a search, it will not be difficult to find lots of posts.

All 4/'s lenses, either from Olympus, Panasonic or Sigma, work with any micro4/3's camera, with an adapter, because of different lens diameters.

All lenses will autofocus. But, they'll do it with some serious limitations. Some are very slow to focus. Some are less slow. Some take two seconds to achieve focus, others take less. Even the 50mm 2.0 works well.

In the end, they will all achieve correct focus. Even my Sigma 50-500 works well with my E-P3.

Click to expand...

Some of the 4/3rds lenses are optimized for contrast detect auto focus (CD-AF) or imager focus as Olympus calls it in some manuals), and these lenses focus faster than the other lenses which are more optimized for phase detect auto focus (PD-AF) used in DSLRs. Most of the standard grade lenses introduced within the last few years are optimized for CD-AF, along with the 14-54mm mark 2, which is the only high grade lens optimzied for CD-AF. None of the super high grade lenses are optimized for CD-AF.

The original Panasonic bodies (G-1, G-H1, G-F1) would only auto focus with the CD-AF lenses, and would not auto focus with the other 4/3rds lenses at all. The second generation of Panasonic bodies added support for focusing the other lenses slowly. There are a few lenses that are listed as being manual focus only lenses form Panasonic. The lenses include:

• Olympus 150mm f/2 lens
• Sigma 105mm f/2.8 macro lens
• Sigma 150mm f/2.8 macro lens
• Sigma 50-500mm f/4-6.3 lens
• Sigma 135-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens
• Sigma 300-800mm f/5.6 lens

In addition to the lenses above, many of the non-CF-AF lenses have a footnote that says the camera might not achieve sharpness (i.e. camera presumably mis-focuses) or is so slow that you should consider using manual focusing. The G-H2 compatibility is here (the other recent cameras from Panasonic are probably similar):

• http://panasonic.jp/support/global/cs/dsc/connect/gh2.html

The Olympus compatibility list says that all lenses are supported, but the non-CD-AF lenses it says you should consider shooting in S-AF+MF mode and switching over to manual focusing if the camera can't achieve a focus in a reasonable time. Here is the compatibility list:

• http://www.olympusamerica.com/files/oima_cckb/FT-MFT_Lens_Adapter_Compatibility_EN.pdf

None of the 4/3rds lenses will do continuous focus (C-AF), only single focus (S-AF).

This has been discussed.

I'm not a person with a vast knowledge of the matter. As far as I know, it has to do with the fact that most 4/3's lenses use PDAF (Phase detect auto-focus), while micro$ 3's lenses use CDAF (contrast detect auto-focus).

This means that the latest 4/3's lenses, such as the 25 2.8, 14-42, 40-150, 50-200 and 12-60, will work better with the micro cameras, and do achieve focus much faster than the older lenses.

Hope I've been of some help.

António GM
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al_in_philly said:

I've been a long-time Oly user and have accumulated a sh*tload of e-system 4/3 lenses over the years. These include the Super High Grade Zuiko 7-14mm f4, the High Grade Zuiko 11-22mm f2.8, 12-60mm f2.8, the Standard Grade 70-300mm f4, and the Pan/Leica 25mm f1.4 Summilux D.

Click to expand...

al_in_philly said:

Any experiences with using standard 4/3 lenses in Micro bodies would really be appreciated here.

Click to expand...

I have the 7-14 on a PEN e-pl1. The newer Gen 3 and later bodies would be better not you still have a handicap. The 7-14 is even twitchy on my E-620 because the field of view is so wide that the camera does not have the foggiest where it is you are pointing at. On a PEN, it will be several to and fro before it settles. The two kit lens are actually much better, they were designed with CDAF in mind. However even then, they don't do CAF properly but I don't use CAF much at all.

The slowness is not because of any optical properties or firmware - it is how the motors and electronics in the lens were tuned for PDAF vs CDAF

Olympus worked very hard to ensure that at least these old lenses AF in some way. But they cannot deliver the prompt speed of AF

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AntnioGM said:

This has been discussed.

I'm not a person with a vast knowledge of the matter. As far as I know, it has to do with the fact that most 4/3's lenses use PDAF (Phase detect auto-focus), while micro$ 3's lenses use CDAF (contrast detect auto-focus).

This means that the latest 4/3's lenses, such as the 25 2.8, 14-42, 40-150, 50-200 and 12-60, will work better with the micro cameras, and do achieve focus much faster than the older lenses.

Click to expand...

The 50-200mm SWD and 12-60mm SWD lenses are not CD-AF lenses. In particular, the three SWD lenses (14-35mm is the other SWD lens) were the last gasp for PD-AF lenses, and achieve their speed only when using the 4/3rds cameras using optical viewfinders. It is kind of sad in a way, in that Olympus evidently a lot of time and energy to make the auto focusing fast and then decided they couldn't really compete in the DSLR arena and go in the mirrorless direction.

The 25mm, 14-42mm, and 40-150mm (mark 2 only) are CD-AF lenses.

AntnioGM said:

All lenses will autofocus. But, they'll do it with some serious limitations. Some are very slow to focus. Some are less slow. Some take two seconds to achieve focus, others take less. Even the 50mm 2.0 works well.

In the end, they will all achieve correct focus. Even my Sigma 50-500 works well with my E-P3.

Click to expand...

I found the Sigma 18-50 f2.8 to be the exception here-- it would frequently miss focus completely at the long end, because of the size of steps that motor would allow. So beware of lenses that have motors incapable of the precise, short motions that CDAF requires. I think any lens with a focus-by-wire mechanism will work without question, ones that don't (such as Olympus SWD or Sigma-made lenses) deserve more scrutiny on a case-by-case basis.

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I have the 14-54mm II and the 70-300mm 4-5.6 and they do AF on the GF-1 albeit slowly

for slow moving subjects, it's acceptable, better than MF but don't expect lightning fast AF like the MFT lenses or on the DSLR bodies

the 70-300mm does hunt a bit at 300mm if the subject lacks contrast

To me the 14-54mm bright aperture beats out the dim 12-50mm MFT so it'll be the standard zoom on my upcoming E-M5 whenever I need 1 lens for most purposes

I also hope it'd AF a bit better on the OM-D too!

The same AF performance can be said for the 12-60mm but I sold it due to its size and weight; at wide I'd rather use the MFT 9-18mm

Cheers, ;-)

Michael Meissner said:

The original Panasonic bodies (G-1, G-H1, G-F1) would only auto focus with the CD-AF lenses, and would not auto focus with the other 4/3rds lenses at all. The second generation of Panasonic bodies added support for focusing the other lenses slowly. There are a few lenses that are listed as being manual focus only lenses form Panasonic. The lenses include:

• Olympus 150mm f/2 lens
• Sigma 105mm f/2.8 macro lens
• Sigma 150mm f/2.8 macro lens
• Sigma 50-500mm f/4-6.3 lens
• Sigma 135-400mm f/4.5-5.6 lens
• Sigma 300-800mm f/5.6 lens

Click to expand...

Add the excellent Olympus 50mm f/2 macro to the list of lens that are MF only on the G1, GH1, and GF1. I own the lens and have used it on the G1, GH1, E-PL2, and GX1. It's a beautiful lens that I don't use as much anymore since I picked up the MZD 45mm/1.8.

I love the Oly 50:2.0 for 4:3, but it focuses quite erratically on m43 on subjects that display even an ounce of movement. i love its optical quality, but use it in manual mode quite regularly.

I can not talk about other 4:3 lenses, since the Oly 50:2.0 is the only one i own (and I am glad i do).

I would keep the 43 lenses .. some are Ok with CDAF some dog slow (50/f2)
The 25/f1.4 DG is quite fast on m43 (it is heavy) tho
The 12-60 is passable and a gem just a bit heavy ;-)

--
John

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Thanks to all of you who responded to my question. It really helped! I guess I'll keep my e-30 around for abit then. When my EM5 comes in, I'll do a test comparing the focussing times of my existing lenses to the 12-50 kit lens. Stay tuned.

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al
http://www.flickr.com/photos/alsphotography/