Looking for begginers help

[wizofoz]

Hi all

A few days ago I made an impulse buy of a Om EM10 mk1 and a pair of lenses, 14-24 f3.5 -5.6 and 40-150 f4-5.6.

I did it for a couple of reasons -

• it was relatively inexpensive , under $600 Au
• I have been thinking about some lighter weight gear for some time. My Pentax K-1 is a magnificent beastie, but bloody heavy and being now in my 66th year I'm not a strong as I used to be.
• Its a new toy to play with

I know as much as anyone about the Pentax system, but bugger all about any other. I'm looking to expand my knowlege of the OM system, tips and tricks, good places to find info, anything you old hands can point me towards.

For instance, I have ordered a 'dumb' PK to M43 converter so I can have a play with my collection of Pentax lenses on the EM10. Is there anything I need to do in camera to make that work? I have a dozen or more Takumar's and other off brand manual focus lenses I'm keen to try. I wonder what the helios will look like on this small sensor?

Don’t waste money on expensive lens adaptors. I’ve adapted many lenses from various systems… Nikon AI-S, Pentax SMC Takumar, Voigtländer M and L39 mount, etc…

I get dumb adaptors (no lenses or electronics) from FotodioxPro.com. If you really like the experience,

M4/3 magnified focus assist is a revelation compared to optical viewfinders, the adaptors are cheap enough to be able to get one for each lens. I found that juggling lenses AND adaptors was such a PITA, I decided on dedicated adaptors for each lens.

I understand the crop ratio will be 1/2 compared to my full frame camera, so the 40-150 is effectively a comparable FOV to an 80-300, but does that also aply to F stops? Do I lose a stop of light, so that f4 on the lens is equivalent to f5.6 of a FF lens? or have I got that wrong?

The f-stop stays the same, but the depth of field doubles. f2.8 stays f2.8, but DoF is f5.6.

G'Day Jeff, thanks for your input.

I bought a K&F adapter, no contacts, no electronics. I have a dozen or more M42 and K mount prime lenses (and a M42-K mount adapter) and probably the same amount of zooms I can use in full manual mode. Maybe one day I'll get a speedboost type adapter, or something else with electronics, but this week, start simply.

I'm used to MF focus assist and magnified focus assist from my K-1. I use it all the time when focusing landscapes, etc.

I had a search through the EM10 menu following your comment, and now have it assigned to one of the function buttons. Cheers!

 

[wizofoz]

I started using legacy lenses 15 years ago on my EPL1, mainly because of budget. They work well on that camera and should work better on the EM10 with it superior 5 axis IBIS. By the way, you probably won't need IBIS under 50mm in good light.
Back to legacy lenses...probably picked up a dozen or more. Most were inexpensive, like a token $5-10, but I did pay $115 at KEH for an FD 85mm f1.8. Until I could afford the Olympus 75mm, the Canon was a very good substitute.
I found all of my film zooms pretty poor, relative to the inexpensive Olympus kit 40-150, All soft with poor contrast. My old Vivitar Series 1 70-210 zoom was the best of the bunch. Primes work better, but I think the Olympus 14-42 zoom is better than old 28mm and 35mm primes. I would say don't be spending money for old glass, but do enjoy what you already own,

It's not always about image quality. I made my own adapter for my Miranda 50mm f1.7. This lens came with my first SLR camera in 1970, and I got a kick out of using it 40 years later, I picked up a .7X focal reducer adapter in 2012. That made the 50mm's more like 70mm's and a little more useful.

The reason I steered down the Pentax path 18 years ago, was the camera store guy (who happened to be a Pentaxian, rare beast) convinced me the K200d he was trying to sell me could mount any lens made for the mount since the K mount was released in th '74. (and for screw mount with an adapter)

The first off brand lens I bought, and still have was an Asrtra (?) zoom I picked up for $20. I used to buy old film cameras just to get the lenses, and then sell off the film bodies, like K1000's and Spotmatics. Folk didn't really know what they were selling. 'Dads old camera' may have a gem of a lens attached, like a Supertak 50 F1.4, for example.