Olympus Zuiko 14-54 F2.8-3.5 Mark I Four Thirds Lens slow autofocus - adapter issue?

I just bought a used Olympus Zuiko 14-54 F2.8-3.5 Mark I,

It's originally for four thirds...

The autofocus takes around 3-4 seconds with a fotga adapter. That's the most popular adapter I've seen.

However I had a Zuiko 50-150 lens before which hunted in low light but focused fast in good light.

But this lens takes forever even in good light...I just bought the adapter new, and sold the old one, so could this be an adapter issue? I haven't tested the adapter on different lenses.

It seems to turn over focus quickly but when narrowing the focus it moves very slowly which is why it takes 3-4 seconds. Basically it gets close to the correct focus, then moves VERY slowly to the correct focus, refocuses, then beeps into place.

Any suggestions?

I've heard the Mark II version of this Four Thirds lens focuses better, but I'm not sure I can recommend this first version if this is how it's supposed to work, unless I should try to replace the adapter.

I'm using an Olympus E-PM2

The Mark I 14-54 isn't configured for contrast-detect autofocus. The MK II version includes an additional signal line in the lens contacts that helps facilitate contrast-detect autofocus. The lens is behaving normally, it's not your adapter, nor your camera.

It will auto-focus, it will just be slow.

I agree with Dave's assessment in general, although I believe it would be considerably faster on a body with phase-detect on sensor (the E-M1 or E-M1 Mk2.

Garry Schaefer wrote:

I agree with Dave's assessment in general, although I believe it would be considerably faster on a body with phase-detect on sensor (the E-M1 or E-M1 Mk2.

It is!

Andrew

The adapter just passes electrical signals, and electricity travels at nearly the speed of light. It's the body that determines which signals are given to the lest and how fast they come.

On my G80, this lens focuses in about 2.5 seconds. That's with both the MMF-3 adapter and a cheap Chinese knock-off.

Good used E-M1 mk1 bodies are now fairly inexpensive.

My E-M1 mk1 focuses very fast with the 43 lenses. On other bodies, the AF woth 43 lenses is versy slow.

Eric Nepean wrote:

Good used E-M1 mk1 bodies are now fairly inexpensive.

My E-M1 mk1 focuses very fast with the 43 lenses. On other bodies, the AF woth 43 lenses is versy slow.

In good light, I might agree with you.  However, I've found in low contrast situations, my E-m1 mark I hunts badly while my E-5 snaps into focus immediately using the mark I 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 lens.

In particular, I do at least one whale watch each year, and when you are trying to focus on a whale in the ocean if you don't have the E-m1 mark I oriented correctly, it will hunt badly and not achieve a focus lock.  The year after I discovered this, I brought my E-5 out of mostly retirement, and it had a much larger keeper rate.

The reason is the E-5 had cross shaped sensors for each of its main phase detect focus points.  I.e. the camera could find straight lines in either horizontal or vertical orientations.  The E-m1 mark I on the other hand only has sensors aligned in one direction.  So if you have the camera aligned so it is looking for horizontal lines, and the subject you are focusing on has vertical lines, it will hunt.  The work around is to switch the camera's orientation, and it should find focus much faster (obviously you will need to crop if you wanted a landscape orientation photo and you have to shoot in portrait orientation.

The E-m1 mark II fixes this as it has cross shaped sensors.

The first generation lenses that I own (14-54mm mark I, 50-200mm mark I, 11-22mm, 50mm) were made long before Olympus decided to do micro 4/3rds.  The last generation of consumer lenses (40-150mm mark II, 14-42mm, 70-300mm) as well as the 14-54mm mark II had some support for contrast detect auto focus (used in micro 4/3rds cameras, and also the last generation of classic 4/3rds cameras in live view mode).

This means the 14-54mm mark II now focuses somewhat faster on other bodies than the E-m1 mark I, but it is by no means a speed demon.  The difference between the two on a non-Em1 body is between dreadfully slow and merely slow.  I bought the 14-54mm mark II specifically to use with my E-m5 mark I and it is still somewhat slow to achieve focus.  Fortunately the use case is when my E-m5 mark I is inside my steampunk camera case, and generally people are posing for photos, and having a 1-2 second delay isn't bad.

Michael Meissner wrote:

Eric Nepean wrote:

Good used E-M1 mk1 bodies are now fairly inexpensive.

My E-M1 mk1 focuses very fast with the 43 lenses. On other bodies, the AF woth 43 lenses is versy slow.

In good light, I might agree with you. However, I've found in low contrast situations, my E-m1 mark I hunts badly while my E-5 snaps into focus immediately using the mark I 50-200mm f/2.8-3.5 lens.

In particular, I do at least one whale watch each year, and when you are trying to focus on a whale in the ocean if you don't have the E-m1 mark I oriented correctly, it will hunt badly and not achieve a focus lock. The year after I discovered this, I brought my E-5 out of mostly retirement, and it had a much larger keeper rate.

The reason is the E-5 had cross shaped sensors for each of its main phase detect focus points. I.e. the camera could find straight lines in either horizontal or vertical orientations. The E-m1 mark I on the other hand only has sensors aligned in one direction. So if you have the camera aligned so it is looking for horizontal lines, and the subject you are focusing on has vertical lines, it will hunt. The work around is to switch the camera's orientation, and it should find focus much faster (obviously you will need to crop if you wanted a landscape orientation photo and you have to shoot in portrait orientation.

The E-m1 mark II fixes this as it has cross shaped sensors.

The first generation lenses that I own (14-54mm mark I, 50-200mm mark I, 11-22mm, 50mm) were made long before Olympus decided to do micro 4/3rds. The last generation of consumer lenses (40-150mm mark II, 14-42mm, 70-300mm) as well as the 14-54mm mark II had some support for contrast detect auto focus (used in micro 4/3rds cameras, and also the last generation of classic 4/3rds cameras in live view mode).

This means the 14-54mm mark II now focuses somewhat faster on other bodies than the E-m1 mark I, but it is by no means a speed demon. The difference between the two on a non-Em1 body is between dreadfully slow and merely slow. I bought the 14-54mm mark II specifically to use with my E-m5 mark I and it is still somewhat slow to achieve focus. Fortunately the use case is when my E-m5 mark I is inside my steampunk camera case, and generally people are posing for photos, and having a 1-2 second delay isn't bad.

Useful comments; you have more 43 gear than I have, and older as well.

I based my comments on the mark II 50-200 SWD which works well on the E-M1 mark I, and has quite useless AF on other bodies.

correct, the OMD cameras manage a bit better. Still not very fast