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Why are M43 lens release buttons on the wrong side?
- Thread starter Abrak
- Start date
J
Jon Ragnarsson
Guest
I don't know why Olympus designers thought it was a good idea to make the lens release mechanism just like everybody else. I think the old OM release-button-on-the-lens design was better. You grab the lens, press the button, and turn, still holding the lens. And it doesn't matter how you hold the camera.
It even works better when the camera is on tripod, hold the lenses in your hands and swap them even without touching the camera.
I blame marketing peer-pressure. "But Canon and Nikon are doing it that way!"
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It even works better when the camera is on tripod, hold the lenses in your hands and swap them even without touching the camera.
I blame marketing peer-pressure. "But Canon and Nikon are doing it that way!"
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This is an interesting question. I've never paid attention to the release button location while changing lens, and have never thought this is a wrong location. Still, can't believe the location is wrong.
P.S. I've never had difficult times while changing lenses and still being puzzled what is wrong.
P.S. I've never had difficult times while changing lenses and still being puzzled what is wrong.
Art_P
Forum Pro
the release button is also a switch- depressing it cuts power to the contacts. Would that be possible if the release was in the lens?
slimandy
Forum Pro
ernstbk
Senior Member
Strange that nobody has mentioned yet that your need a hand to remove the lens caps, for most persons the best tool will be the right hand. This is also the most reliable method to juggle an expensive piece of glass as the left hand (for most of us) is not that experienced. When you look at the complete sequence of events then the "free" hand (not holding the camera) must perform a number of complex movements: prepare lens by removing the cap, unscrew lens from camera and put it down, pick up next lens and screw into camera, put on lens cap and put lens into a safe place. All this time the other hand is supporting the camera (the left) and one finger is required to press the lens release. Makes sense to me, until this posting I wasn't even aware that this may not be the intended method for lens changing.
As others have commented, I have no problems with the release button on the right; it's arguably a bit easier to reach on that side when you don't have a grip. I grab the lens with my thumb and index finger while pressing the release button with my middle finger, so it's really quite convenient. I agree that the classic OM design with the release on the lens may have been the most elegant.
What annoys me more is how most camera makers, including MFT ones, don't make it easy to align the lens for mounting without visual inspection. I come from over a decade of using Leica M cameras. Leica has the release on the opposite side but, more importanly, the release button serves as an alignment mark for the lens. Each lens has a very prominent, easy to feel, red dot. You align the red dot with the release button and twist clockwise to lock.
My Panasonic lenses have a tiny, slightly raised red dot but it doesn't align with anything - you have to orient it 70 degrees left of the top to align it with a non-tactile red dot on the mount - something that must be done visually. Olympus lenses don't even have a raised dot. So far, Leica M cameras are the only ones I've used where I can change lenses without looking at the camera. For me, this is important when working in dim light.
Since I still use MFT and Leica M as well as Nikon, I'm still continually irritated at Nikon's design decision of having to turn the lens counterclockwise to lock. People get used to it, but they really do have it backwards - turning something clockwise is a generally accepted convention for screwing something in. I also genuinely wonder how photojournalists change Nikon lenses quickly in bad light.
What annoys me more is how most camera makers, including MFT ones, don't make it easy to align the lens for mounting without visual inspection. I come from over a decade of using Leica M cameras. Leica has the release on the opposite side but, more importanly, the release button serves as an alignment mark for the lens. Each lens has a very prominent, easy to feel, red dot. You align the red dot with the release button and twist clockwise to lock.
My Panasonic lenses have a tiny, slightly raised red dot but it doesn't align with anything - you have to orient it 70 degrees left of the top to align it with a non-tactile red dot on the mount - something that must be done visually. Olympus lenses don't even have a raised dot. So far, Leica M cameras are the only ones I've used where I can change lenses without looking at the camera. For me, this is important when working in dim light.
Since I still use MFT and Leica M as well as Nikon, I'm still continually irritated at Nikon's design decision of having to turn the lens counterclockwise to lock. People get used to it, but they really do have it backwards - turning something clockwise is a generally accepted convention for screwing something in. I also genuinely wonder how photojournalists change Nikon lenses quickly in bad light.
Someone on this very forum did once suggest buying a load of 3rd party rear caps, and then gluing them back to back and using nothing but those. When it comes to changing lenses, there is a free empty cap sticking up from the lens you are about to use, so you detach the current lens, screw it into this free cap, turn the whole contraption (2 lenses joined at the rear cap) upside down, unscrew new lens from cap... and they curse the makers that you can't easily line up the new lens with the mount
Having the alignment dot both marked on the face of the camera mount ring so its covered up when you attempt to put a lens on, and having the starting point (before you turn to lock) not located at a N-S-E-W 90 degree position is way more daft than having the release button this side or that.
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Since proper holding technique is to support the lens with your left hand with the thumb on the side away from the shutter release, your thumb is already over the lens release. To remove the lens, I simply push back with the thumb and twist at the same time. Works on both my E-PL2 and Canon DSLR the same way.
It is not as simple as you think (for me at least). If you really want to make this simple, you have to post video that depicts this very important, let me say crucial, moment from photographer's lifeBob Tullis wrote:
Lens in left hand, take the mount cap off and palm it, press release with left hand, remove lens with right hand while having right wrist. . . heck, here's a video. . . the only video on the following link's page. . .
Use this link to find the page w/video
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...Bob, NYC
http://www.bobtullis.com
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bobtullis/
"Well, sometimes the magic works. . . Sometimes, it doesn't." - Little Big Man
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Looking for equilibrium...
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have it on the left side, especially for one hand shooting. If on the right side, I would think there is an extremely small chance of pushing the button inadvertently when gripping the camera (well at least some cameras) maybe. I'd also rather use my right hand when changing lenses to grip the lens, rather than push the button when changing ( if I was a complete lefty, I'm only partial, then might feel differently)....but that process does seem more intuitive to me, the way it is.
Sometimes I hold the camera with my left hand, push the button with a finger/thumb on my right hand while gripping the lens at the same time, twist it off. I really suppose, it wouldn't matter or shake the earth no matter which side it was on...once a person got used to it. I mean like people drive on one side of the road in one country, and another side in another...they get used to it (hopefully)
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Sometimes I hold the camera with my left hand, push the button with a finger/thumb on my right hand while gripping the lens at the same time, twist it off. I really suppose, it wouldn't matter or shake the earth no matter which side it was on...once a person got used to it. I mean like people drive on one side of the road in one country, and another side in another...they get used to it (hopefully)
--
My Gallery is here -
http://www.pbase.com/madlights
Why so serious? :The Joker
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Day Hiker
Forum Pro
So we have a thread that is over 50 responses on the placement of the lens release button, especially when it's in the same place it always has been?
I really need to get a life. There certainly is not one here.
Jim Pilcher
Summit County, Colorado, USA
I really need to get a life. There certainly is not one here.
Jim Pilcher
Summit County, Colorado, USA
J
Jon Ragnarsson
Guest
This actually makes sense. My armchair engineering insights have failed me.
I think you may be on to something very profound. We should be out using those buttons instead of talking about 'em...or maybe taking a nap...
Bobo Hodls
Forum Pro
I've inadvertently unlocked a lens from the adapter because the adapter release was on the right side, where my right hand fingers could touch it w/o trying.
As one said, there's no right/wrong placement - it only feels wrong if used to something else and it requires re-training of muscle memory. We humans are good at adapting, if we're open to the concept.
As one said, there's no right/wrong placement - it only feels wrong if used to something else and it requires re-training of muscle memory. We humans are good at adapting, if we're open to the concept.
No, I don't think it's on the wrong side, it's on the right side. Right side is the wrong side, left side is the right side.
Snapshot7
Forum Enthusiast
The lens release is on the CORRECT side IMHO. It also happens to be the same side on Nikon & Canon cameras.
I find your title "misleading". The M4/3 lens release is NOT on the wrong side; nor is it different from most other major system camera makers. A more accurate titel would be something like: "Why is the Lens Release on MOST System Cameras on the Left Side?"
You title makes it sound like M4/3 camera makers did something different or wrong from what most other camera makers are doing; and that is simply not true or accurate.
I find your title "misleading". The M4/3 lens release is NOT on the wrong side; nor is it different from most other major system camera makers. A more accurate titel would be something like: "Why is the Lens Release on MOST System Cameras on the Left Side?"
You title makes it sound like M4/3 camera makers did something different or wrong from what most other camera makers are doing; and that is simply not true or accurate.
george4908
Well-known member
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Yup. With OMs, it's a faster, one-step operation. Less fiddly. I'm surprised they didn't carry this forward to the OM-D, but maybe the 4/3 consortium ruled otherwise.
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