Macro Arm Light (MAL-1): Incompatible with all mark II's?

[mount evans]

The Olympus Macro Arm Light (MAL-1) plugs into my old E-M5 just fine, but on my E-M1 mark II the underslung pluggy thing as nowhere to go.



[IMG width="400px" alt=""Underslung pluggy thing" is a trademarked term of art. "]https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/61eB8XyWNEL._AC_SL1500_.jpg[/IMG]
"Underslung pluggy thing" is a trademarked term of art.

I see in the reviews people satisfied with how it worked on their E-M1s, but other people complaining that it is incompatible with their E-M5 mark IIs. Did Olympus abandon a whole generation of hot shoe accessories in going from mark I to mark II, across the board?

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My pictures: https://flickr.com/mount_evans/albums

 

[goblin]

Yes, they did take the connector out.

If it's any consolation, the generation of accessories was electronic viefinders and said macro arm.

 

[Messier Object]

JJC (and maybe others) has a similar products for <$20 which is self-powered which means it needs no connection to your camera other than non-electrical clamping to the hot shoe.

Peter

 

[fourthirdcam]

That was really something for the old PEN cameras. Due to the height and size of the old E-M1, it sometimes made using the MAL-1 difficult.

But yeah, Olympus has retired the accessory plug as of the E-M1mk2. It never caught on as much as Oly hoped because folks began asking for Viewfinders to be embedded into the camera, and not a carbuncle on the top that could be lost.