Other Lenses

Many MF lenses can be adapted and can provide very good results. Search "nzmacro" Danny on this forum for his wonderful bird images taken with various legacy Canon teles. "Cangopluto" adapts spotting scopes and likewise, has amazing bird photos.

Certain autofocus and aperture lenses can be adapted via smart adapter, but AF response varies greatly depending on the body. And all four-thirds lenses easily adapt to all m4/3 bodies, fully automatically.

Cheers,

Rick

Neil_T wrote:

I'm new to MFT, just got a Lumix G7. I read somewhere "almost any non-MFT lens will work by putting an adapter between the G7 and the lens's mount (be it Nikon, Canon etc fitting)

I am not a Nikon man so you will be best advised by others - Nikon mount lenses can be adapted but might need a mecahnical iris control.  Canon EF lenses have electronic adapters and obviously work best with an electronic adapter.  If such an adapter is used you should get AF capability and full control from the camera body.

Metabones adapters are best sorted out over most lenses - cheaper ones like Viltrox and Kipon are more pot-luck for compatibilty and AF performanace.

With FD, PK, M42, MD, LM and most other Legacy MF mount systems a plain mount to mount adapter is quite reasonably priced and works well.

You get manual focus only, “A” setting works best but others can be used constructively as well.  “S” will be the same as “M”.  I have never tried “P” but I think it would be effectively the same as “A”.  You will need to set “shoot without lens attached” in your menu setting as there is no communication between camera and lens.

One little trick about “S” and “M” is that S-mode gains the screen up or down at light extremes so you can focus the camera but it does not show estimated true exposure.  M-mode shows true exposure but might be difficult to focus in deliberate extreme light captures.  Therefore you can always focus in S and switch to M on the dial and see what the estimated exposure will loook light.  This is only useful for deliberate extreme under or over-exposure captures.

Most adapters can be had in focal reducer form (more expensive) which includes some internal lenses and gives a 0.70x multiplier of stated focal length and adds a full stop worth of extra light.

I'm looking for a long telephoto so this could be a way to go - if that statement is correct. I guess the lens will have to be used with manual focus and Aperture?

Yes.  Be aware that adapted long telephoto lenses are likely to be quite large.  But I have used such lenses as EF 100-400 f4.5-5.6 successfully on M4/3 bodies.

What's to know / be aware of?

Nothing much, other than MF with focus peaking via an evf is a whole lot easier on a dslr body.

Thanks in advance.

You might check out this thread:

https://www.dpreview.com/forums/post/58091516

I use only two manual focus lenses. Both are very wide.

I personally have found manual (focus and aperture) telephoto lenses too slow and too much hassle.  I know there are many whose experience is different, but I think you should be realistic about the difficulties.

The Zuiko 40-150mm f/4-5.6 (for example) is fully compatible and you could easily spend more on legacy lenses and adapters.

Cheshire-Chris wrote:

The Panasonic 100-300 is another reasonably-priced zoom.

Cheers,

Chris

Yes, but if you already have some very nice Canon EF lenses it would be a pity not to use them on M4/3 - it is only the price of an adapter away.  Once you have that (best) adapter then it is only a short step to such useful DC (aps-c) Sigma lenses in EF mount.  These of course can be optionally be used in focal reduction mode as well

Sigma DC 18-35mm f1.8

Sigma DC 8-16mm f4.5-5.6

Adapted lenses might not all be being used becasue they are cheap - they might already be on the shelf winking at us or potentially provide some horsepower that does not yet exist on M4/3.

Sigma DC 50-100mm f1.8

When cost and physical size doesn’t get in the way.

Thanks all, sounds like a lot to know about this, so maybe the Panasonic 100-300 would be the safest bet.

I was thinking I could find a reasonable legacy telephoto or zoom, looking 200+,maybe 300 or 400  and an adapter.  That would be a low-cost way of getting a long-range setup?

Neil_T wrote:

I was thinking I could find a reasonable legacy telephoto or zoom, looking 200+,maybe 300 or 400 and an adapter. That would be a low-cost way of getting a long-range setup?

For the same budget you could buy a long lens - perhaps even a new one - that's actually compatible with your camera.

Neil_T wrote:

I was thinking I could find a reasonable legacy telephoto or zoom, looking 200+,maybe 300 or 400 and an adapter. That would be a low-cost way of getting a long-range setup?

Have a look at these to perhaps whet your appetite. If I had the patience to slog and wait for cooperative birds and light, I'd love to give a lens like that a go.

Cheers,

Rick

Neil_T wrote:

I was thinking I could find a reasonable legacy telephoto or zoom, looking 200+,maybe 300 or 400 and an adapter. That would be a low-cost way of getting a long-range setup?

Might suit you, might not. With something like this:

https://usedphotopro.com/catalogsearch/result/?cat=0&q=vivitar+75-205

plus a ten dollar adapter you could experiment and find out without costing yourself a lot.  There would be plenty of similar options but I have the constant f/3.8 version of this lens and it is good but not spectacular.

Thanks all, youve convinced me native is the way to go. Just a shame the Lumix 100-400 is so expensive but that does seem to be thebest option.

Unless you really need the 300-400mm range, just get the 100-300mm II Power OIS lens, it has very good quality, including low chromatic aberration, and it's much smaller and weighs almost half as much...