Using Olympus 60mm macro lens on EP-1

mbar63 wrote:

Hello,

my son would love to start shooting macro photos, and, given that I'm not using my venerable Olympus Pen EP-1, I am considering buying the Olympus 60mm f/2.8 macro lens for that purpose and let him use the resulting kit.

The only doubt I have: will he suffer any major limitation due to the age of the camera? Apart from speed in general, I mean. What about autofocus? Any problem with the MSC lens autofocus when mounted on the EP-1?

Many thanks for your help, feedbacks and comments.

Best,

Massimo

There should be no problems. The official compatibility chart shows that all is OK. http://www.olympus.co.jp/en/support/imsg/digicamera/compati/pen_mzdl.cfm

The lens is slow to focus anyway on any body due to the range it needs to cover. The selection switch helps with that by keeping the lens in an appropriate focus range to suit the subject distance.

In most case though with macro AF is a nuisance, it may be best for hand-held to manually focus and move to and fro to get correct focus. Even on a tripod that may be best, manually move the focus until it looks good.

Macro needs small apertures for sensible depth of field so low light and f/8 or smaller and with more limited high ISO ability of the older sensor then extra lighting or flash may need to be used to avoid really slow shutter speeds.

Hopefully someone else has used that combination and can add to this thread.

Regards.... Guy

mbar63 wrote:

Hello,

my son would love to start shooting macro photos, and, given that I'm not using my venerable Olympus Pen EP-1, I am considering buying the Olympus 60mm f/2.8 macro lens for that purpose and let him use the resulting kit.

The only doubt I have: will he suffer any major limitation due to the age of the camera? Apart from speed in general, I mean. What about autofocus? Any problem with the MSC lens autofocus when mounted on the EP-1?

Many thanks for your help, feedbacks and comments.

I'm sure the camera and lens will give good results together, and the output from the E-P1 remains impressive, even after all this time.

BUT the biggest problem with the E-P1 is usability - I find it fine for indoor and controlled macro conditions (I prefer to use a decent legacy macro lens) but outdoors and on the fly*? Forget about it; using the LCD alone is very frustrating in bright sunlight or in awkward positions.

Additionally, the inaccessibility of magnify mode and lack of focus aids don't help to make macro shooting a delightful experience

The limitations and deterrents to getting into macro won't be the lens or the sensor, but the camera itself. I'm guessing that, as in my own case, there is a reason you are no longer using the E-P1.

*See what I did there

mbar63 wrote:

Hello,

my son would love to start shooting macro photos, and, given that I'm not using my venerable Olympus Pen EP-1, I am considering buying the Olympus 60mm f/2.8 macro lens for that purpose and let him use the resulting kit.

The only doubt I have: will he suffer any major limitation due to the age of the camera? Apart from speed in general, I mean. What about autofocus? Any problem with the MSC lens autofocus when mounted on the EP-1?

Many thanks for your help, feedbacks and comments.

I'm sure the camera and lens will give good results together, and the output from the E-P1 remains impressive, even after all this time.

BUT the biggest problem with the E-P1 is usability - I find it fine for indoor and controlled macro conditions (I prefer to use a decent legacy macro lens) but outdoors and on the fly*? Forget about it; using the LCD alone is very frustrating in bright sunlight or in awkward positions.

Additionally, the inaccessibility of magnify mode and lack of focus aids don't help to make macro shooting a delightful experience

The limitations and deterrents to getting into macro won't be the lens or the sensor, but the camera itself. I'm guessing that, as in my own case, there is a reason you are no longer using the E-P1.

*See what I did there

The magnification actually comes out automatically when you af....even on the ep1.maybe not on legacy lenses but for sure any m4/3 lenses

jiayaw wrote:

mbar63 wrote:

Hello,

my son would love to start shooting macro photos, and, given that I'm not using my venerable Olympus Pen EP-1, I am considering buying the Olympus 60mm f/2.8 macro lens for that purpose and let him use the resulting kit.

The only doubt I have: will he suffer any major limitation due to the age of the camera? Apart from speed in general, I mean. What about autofocus? Any problem with the MSC lens autofocus when mounted on the EP-1?

Many thanks for your help, feedbacks and comments.

I'm sure the camera and lens will give good results together, and the output from the E-P1 remains impressive, even after all this time.

BUT the biggest problem with the E-P1 is usability - I find it fine for indoor and controlled macro conditions (I prefer to use a decent legacy macro lens) but outdoors and on the fly*? Forget about it; using the LCD alone is very frustrating in bright sunlight or in awkward positions.

Additionally, the inaccessibility of magnify mode and lack of focus aids don't help to make macro shooting a delightful experience

The limitations and deterrents to getting into macro won't be the lens or the sensor, but the camera itself. I'm guessing that, as in my own case, there is a reason you are no longer using the E-P1.

*See what I did there

The magnification actually comes out automatically when you af....even on the ep1.

Sure it does, but IIRC you can't change the timeout so it is either too quick for you to finish focusing, or too slow, and (also IIRC) the shutter release doesn't exit magnify mode so you then have to wait for it to time out.

Not really wanting to go into detail here, but to initiate magnify mode manually you have to be in one particular view mode (the E-P1 doesn't combine modes as newer cameras do) and again, the shutter release doesn't exit magnify mode.

maybe not on legacy lenses but for sure any m4/3 lenses

Definitely not on legacy lenses.

The E-P1 did and still does take excellent images and is an excellent general purpose camera but for some uses, it is a dog.

pannumon wrote:

I once bought the E-P1 because of IBIS for manual focus lenses, but I quickly sold it because MF on that camera is so annoying.

hindesite wrote:

Not really wanting to go into detail here, but to initiate magnify mode manually you have to be in one particular view mode (the E-P1 doesn't combine modes as newer cameras do) and again, the shutter release doesn't exit magnify mode.

Yes, you need to press a button to exit the magnification on E-P1. Another thing is that the LCD is very low resolution, which makes MF impossible without the magnification. On the other hand the AF of E-P1 is much slower than any other µ4/3 camera. It's a shame.

Its only a shame in the context of today's cameras. The E-P1 was Olympus' first m4/3 camera and although they stuffed up a lot of things, they got a lot right - IQ being the most important.

But they stuffed up MF, focusing and EV bracketing to the point where passing the camera on to somebody to get them interested in photography is counterproductive.

It is astonishing, really - a camera that is what? 6 years old? is history now. The rapid pace of development of m4/3 is unbelievable, and I put it down to having 2 manufacturers competing against each other in the same space.