Is it the lenses or the cameras?...... Panasonic aperture rings

Maybe someone more technical can help explain to me why the aperture rings don't work on Olympus bodies?

My initial assumption is that it's the Olympus camera that decided to leave it out.

There's one combo I really wish I could have that feature, and it is the Pen-F and 15mm Leica.

I do own a Kodak S1 and Yi M1.  I can comfirm...

The Kodak S1 DOES support the aperture ring feature.  Even the old four thirds lens all work. The one thing to note is the Kodak S1 has IBIS and also came out around the time of the Panasonic gx7.  Maybe it's some Panasonic engineering?   They have helped with drone project m4/3 cameras, maybe they helped with this?

The Yi m1 does NOT support the aperture rings.

I've always wanted it. The white is cool.

Funkmon wrote:

I've always wanted it. The white is cool.

Very interesting that the aperture ring works on the Kodak S1.

Did Panasonic make it for them under private label?

Tedolph

But they have in body stabilization so who knows

Funkmon wrote:

But they have in body stabilization so who knows

An OMD Pen camera with an ability to use the Panny aperture ring would have a huge appeal to me.

Tedolph

1. Funkmon wrote:

I've always wanted it. The white is cool.

Unfortunately no, sorry.

My honest opinion, don't look for, the shutter can jam very easily. I had one jam for good.

I only acquired them for fun.

It's a terrible camera in practice. The rear thumb wheel is Skippy. The art modes literally take like 15 seconds of processing tp finish you pic.

It was nice they tried, but it's a crappy camera.

Funkmon wrote:

But they have in body stabilization so who knows

Very common!  I would be willing to bet they will all be jammed some day.

Crazy Micro Four Thirds Dude wrote:

Maybe someone more technical can help explain to me why the aperture rings don't work on Olympus bodies?

My initial assumption is that it's the Olympus camera that decided to leave it out.

It was a pure marketing decision by old Olympus. They could very easily implement aperture ring support in camera firmware the day after Panasonic introduced it. Same for OMDS, if they wanted they could easily add support for it for new camera models, and for old ones too with new firmware releases if and when those happen.

They simply do not want to encourage you to buy Panasonic lenses. And since this aperture ring is not part of the initial m43 standard, it is easy for Olympus and now OMDS to justify and uphold their decision.

There's one combo I really wish I could have that feature, and it is the Pen-F and 15mm Leica.

I do own a Kodak S1 and Yi M1. I can comfirm...

The Kodak S1 DOES support the aperture ring feature. Even the old four thirds lens all work. The one thing to note is the Kodak S1 has IBIS and also came out around the time of the Panasonic gx7. Maybe it's some Panasonic engineering? They have helped with drone project m4/3 cameras, maybe they helped with this?

The Yi m1 does NOT support the aperture rings.

I think this was not on purpose. They likely did not know about some few Panasonic lenses having this extra feature, that is likely not documented in the m43 standard which was managed by Olympus for the m43 consortium.

Guy Parsons wrote:

tedolf wrote:

Funkmon wrote:

But they have in body stabilization so who knows

An OMD Pen camera with an ability to use the Panny aperture ring would have a huge appeal to me.

Tedolph

That's where we part ways.

To me to reintroduce the aperture ring is a backward step.

Unless you need 3 controls. Once in a while it's nice to use ol' "m" mode! Many bodies carry the 2 dials, and when using a panasonic body everything is right there. Dials for shutter speed and ISO, and the ring for aperture, beautiful implementation!

The first system camera I met that had aperture control from the body was my wife's film Pentax SLR where when the lens ring was set to A I could twiddle the toggle lever around the shutter button when in aperture priority mode and alter the aperture setting. Way better to use than my Nikon where I needed to turn the darn ring on the lens.

Now of course with my E-P5 the rear dial with thumb applied does the needed aperture changes, so smooth.

How about a lesser PEN model, with one dial, surely you can see the use in that case?

Retro is good when it is useful but in this case (bringing back aperture rings) it is retro for retro's sake and seems more awkward to use.

Also seems deliberately left out, and that's simply sad. Why have a consortium?

Maybe Panasonic should have put in algorithms to ignore the manual focus clutch on Olympus lens.

They didn't though, because they want you to have the best experience with their camera, which might include another brands lens, you know, the whole consortium thingy again.

Maybe Panasonic should have some how locked the lens OIS, as to not be able to function on an Olympus body.

I get that none of us need the aperture ring, especially if we have a camera with two dials, and shoot in P, S, A. That being said,Leaving it non-functional just seems like a prick move, and another thing looking back to say of the two main brands, Panasonic has done more right by their customers, and maybe just another small touch of why they outlasted Olympus in the four thirds game.

Is there any other real defensive talking point to be made for a non-functional aperture ring, than "I don't personally use it?"

Dear friend, there is A on those PL lenses having aperture ring control. So, you can passtge aperture control to the camera (Pannys can, not sure Olympus) if you wish.

When I went digital, I wished to put all analog thing behind. No mirror box, no ovf, use universal and programmable dials/wheels instead of specific dails etc. But the aperture ring on PL 15 is fun to have.

Crazy Micro Four Thirds Dude wrote:

Guy Parsons wrote:

............................

To me to reintroduce the aperture ring is a backward step.

Unless you need 3 controls. Once in a while it's nice to use ol' "m" mode! Many bodies carry the 2 dials, and when using a panasonic body everything is right there. Dials for shutter speed and ISO, and the ring for aperture, beautiful implementation!

I too never cared for an aperture ring or support for it.

Until very recently I bought a 15/1.7 which has it. And it is fantastic on my GM5. That camera is so small, just has one small dial wheel you see. And it is even more fantastic on my GM1, because that camera does not even have one dedicated dial wheel.

Now, of course I miss that aperture ring function on my 3 Olympus bodies too. It should really be supported. I do not think it is a backward step. It is about having choices.

.....

alcelc wrote:

Dear friend, there is A on those PL lenses having aperture ring control. So, you can passtge aperture control to the camera (Pannys can, not sure Olympus) if you wish.

Understood.  There's also a series of numbers, and they all equal A on a Olympus camera.  The lens still functions, totally understood.  I have the products in question.

When I went digital, I wished to put all analog thing behind. No mirror box, no ovf, use universal and programmable dials/wheels instead of specific dails etc. But the aperture ring on PL 15 is fun to have.

..... And deliberately nonfunctional on Olympus bodies.  Which is the point of the thread.

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Albert
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Guy Parsons wrote:

tedolf wrote:

Funkmon wrote:

But they have in body stabilization so who knows

An OMD Pen camera with an ability to use the Panny aperture ring would have a huge appeal to me.

Tedolph

That's where we part ways.

To me to reintroduce the aperture ring is a backward step.

Yes, backwards.  That is what we want.

Backwards like Fuji.

The first system camera I met that had aperture control from the body was my wife's film Pentax SLR where when the lens ring was set to A I could twiddle the toggle lever around the shutter button when in aperture priority mode and alter the aperture setting. Way better to use than my Nikon where I needed to turn the darn ring on the lens.

That was obviously the work of the Devil!

Now of course with my E-P5 the rear dial with thumb applied does the needed aperture changes, so smooth.

So, you could se the dual wheels to aperture and shutter speed but you still can not reat them from above when the camera is off.

That is the advantage of dedicated shutter speed dials and aperture rings.

This is what God intended.

Retro is good when it is useful but in this case (bringing back aperture rings) it is retro for retro's sake and seems more awkward to use.

See above.

Tedolph,

Earthly Spokesperson for God.

nsd wrote:

It's Olympus being Olympus and not wanting a Panasonic lens feature to work. Oly marketing had a habit of restricting features artificially. Other things they did is limit some "pro capture" (buffer a burst before the shutter is pressed all the way) modes to their own more expensive lenses, and I think some of their focus stacking modes are also restricted to only certain lenses.

Even the focus clutch of the premium 12/2 and 17/1.8 lenses has restrictions that the pro line of lenses do not have. You can't get automatic peaking/magnify, but only on Olympus cameras. Like magic, these two lenses on Panasonic cameras do not suffer from this limitation.

I hoped when OMS took over that the marketing person(s) who were blocking these little life improvements would get the axe, or at least be ordered to play nice and not block m4/3 features through software. The menus got fixed by OMS (yay!), but these things haven't.

(For the record, Panasonic's marketing doesn't do this as much. AFAIC recall only dual-IS with Oly lenses (because Oly won't share) doesn't work. And the fanciest VLog video format is a paid software upgrade on the G9.)