Why Hackers Love Zuikos George Fox Lang, novitiate DSLR & EVIL-user, former OM-2 shooter and enthusiastic Lens Hacker
© George Fox Lang, 2011
Register distance (mm) for various cameras and their lenses. A practical adaptation is possible only when the lens register exceeds the camera register.
Digital photographers using a 4/3 format DSLR, μ4/3 format EVIL, Sony NEX or Samsung NX camera are prime candidates for lens hacking. The shallow body depth of these cameras means they have a shorter register (mounting flange to sensor distance) than virtually all preceding interchangeable lens cameras as shown by the graph above. Because of this, adaptors can be made to mount a wide variety of film-era (legacy) lenses on these modern digital cameras with a full focus range from close-up to infinity. (Thicker DSLR bodies can make it impossible to focus a legacy lens fully to infinity.)
Own an extreme telephoto lens for candid wild-life photos or astrophotography. Revel in an affordable macro lens to document flowers, stamps or jewelry. Use your old wide-angle lens as a fast ‘normal’ on your DSLR or EVIL and grab great low light street shots. Or, simply enjoy owning a set of fine-quality prime (single focal length) lens to cover the range of your artistry. Maybe you just like the idea of building fine new digital images using fine old vintage lenses, or are enamored of the silky and precise feel of classic optical hardware.
What motivates photographers to fit ancient lenses to modern camera bodies? Many reasons, some sane. Legacy glass can be very cost-effective; high-quality ‘normal’ lenses are available for as little as $10 to $15 and you may already own one. That old 50mm from your film SLR makes a great high-speed medium telephoto for your digital camera. These precision-built lenses are typically far faster than the ‘kit’ zoom lenses offered by Olympus, Panasonic, Sony or Samsung. That big aperture lens offers you new choices: Use a lower ISO to reduce noise or a higher shutter speed to fight blur in given lighting or simply extend your work into the dark recesses of evening. Explore the flattering effects of shallow depth-of-field provided by a low f/ number setting in your human or animal portraits.
Portrait of my seven-pound shadow made with 85 mm f2.0 Zuiko wideopen exhibits very pleasing shallow depth-of-field. A lens-mounted Vivitar 5000 ring-light provided drop-stopping illumination.
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But what vintage lens or lenses should you mate to your new camera? This is always a personal call. For most, it’s the glass and brass that has been hiding in the hall closet since you last bought film for your SLR. For others, it will be an exciting search for new (and possibly unrequited) love. I may be able to bring aid and succor to this latter class of would-be hackers. I am a confessed Zuikoholic – it’s a common weakness suffered by many former Olympus OM-1, 2, 3 & 4 shooters. An OM-2 of 1975 sits proudly next to a Panasonic G1 introduced in 2008. Each is a technology showcase of its era. Interestingly, they reflect common thinking between their respective inventor/developers.
The family of OM Zuikos grew to include 69 lenses spanning 8mm to 1000mm in focal length, two focallength converters (1.4 x and 2X) and various extension tubes, bellows and platforms. It was a full and rich system of professional quality optics. All of these fine Zuikos share characteristics that reflect Yoshihisa Maitani’s thinking:
Author’s former traveling film companions: 200 mm f/5,135 mm f/3.5, 85 mm f/2, 50 mm f/1.8, 35 mm f/2.8, 28 mm f/2.8 Zuiko lenses for OM.
The OM Zuiko lens family was introduced in 1972 when the OM-1 was unveiled. This tiny professional SLR camera took the photographic world by storm. The genius of its designer, Yoshihisa Maitani of Pen halfframe fame, was immediately evident and the quality of Olympus construction made it clear the OM system was here to stay. Maitani trumped this entry in 1975 with the OM-2, a triumph of exposure automation/control.
They exhibit excellent optical quality with suberb resolution, high image contrast and excellent color fidelity. Virtually all are multicoated (MC marked).
They are robustly constructed of the finest materials exhibiting smooth focusing and iris adjustement and effective resistance to dust and moisture intrusion.
They are of compact design and light weight (yet enduring) construction.
They are consistant across lenses with regard to physical packaging, operating controls and optical characteristics.
They provide for close focusing. For example, all 50 mm standard lenses focus to under 18 inches.
The OM lens mount is a known constant. Olympus never changed any significant details of its construction throughout nearly thirty years of manufacture.
I purchased the six Zuiko lenses illustrated here as a travel kit over 35 years ago. These optics have sailed and flown with me, they have imaged in cities and upon sandy beaches and over salt water and they still function flawlessly. They are among the 14 OM lenses Olympus offered that share a 49 mm filter size and a maximum body diameter of 62 mm or less. They span 31 to 105 mm length and weigh 140 to 380 grams each. In short, they were and are a perfect set of travel optics. Note that I could have added 21 and 24 mm objectives within these dimensional limits (and now that I use 4/3 and μ4/3 cameras with a crop-factor of 2, wish I had). These vintage Zuikos play nicely with modern EVIL or DSLR cameras and with each other – they all share the same caps and 49 mm filters.
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OM Zuikos prime lenses were built for manual focus use and feature “automatic diaphrams”, facilitating focus with the lens wide-open and exposure with the iris closed to the selected f/ stop. They were built with a consitant human interface that you can run by touch. Each has a broad textured focussing ring that focusses closer as it is rotated clockwise (as seen from behind the camera). In like manner, the knurled f/ stop ring closes the aperature as that outermost ring is turned clockwise. Every lens has a distance scale with orange foot markings and white meter markings. (Macro lenses denote the 1: image ratio instead of meters in white.) The chrome ring nearest the body mount always has a depth-of-field scale and the red mounting-alignment dot at its top center. All lenses have their focal length marked in green on the this ring.
from under $20 to over $200. In my experience, the inexpensive generic adaptors made in China and sold via Internet are entirely satisfactory. I have purchased and used multiple OM-to-4/3 and OM-to-μ4/3 adaptors. I see little reason to invest in the expensive top-of-line adaptors when those that cost me $18 to $40 (delivered) have served so well. There is another class of adaptor that I have so far chosen to ignore. These are the so-called “focusconfirmation” units that contain an integrated circuit (the Dandelion chip in the trade) and connect to your camera’s electronics. You still focus manually, but if you enable the camera’s focus confirmation, it will mark that location in the frame that is currently in focus. Since reviews on the success of this function have been very mixed, I have not deemed the added expense worthwhile at this time. But, I remain open-minded.
The chrome-plated base ring of each lens also has two knurled rectangular push-buttons protruding from it 180° apart. These are rather unique features of the OM lens/mount. When the lens is mounted, the button nearest the red mounting dot is the lens release. You press this button in and then rotate the lens counterclockwise to remove it from the camera. The other button falls under your middle finger when focusing the lens. Depressing this spring-loaded momentary control closes the lens diaphram from wide-open to the stop selected on the f/ stop ring. This allows you to preview the depth-of-field (DOF). Of course, the OM finder grew dark when previewing the image to be taken with a small aperture. Most competitive single-lens reflex cameras of the era provided one or both of these functions as controls on the camera body rather than each lens.
Mounting a lens (step 1): align the red dots on lens and “flat” side of the adaptor; engage the bayonet-mount and twist clockwise to mate the two pieces.
Lens-mount side of μ4/3 (left) and 4/3 (right) adaptors for OM lenses. (Close-ups made using 35 year-old 50 mm f3.5 Zuiko macro lens.) Mounting a lens (step 2): align the red dot of the lens or the adaptor with that of the camera lens mount. Engage the bayonet and turn the lens clockwise to mate it with the body.
Today you can buy adaptors to fit Olympus OM-mount lenses to almost any DSLR, EVIL or ILC. These are available from a wide range of sources with a price span 3
Camera body side of previously illustrated μ4/3 and 4/3 adaptors. Note (at right) that the OM rear lens cap fits perfectly on the rear of the 4/3 adaptor. If you are hacking to other formats, you may need extra caps.
However, all Olympus 4/3 cameras use a moving mirror, prism and ground-glass optical eye-level finder. Many people prefer these to the electronic eye-level viewfinder (EVF) offered by some μ4/3 and other format cameras. I’m of the opinion that an eye-level EVF is clearly superior for lens hacking as it provides selectable image magnification for critical focus and automatically compensates for lens stop-down in the aperture-preferred metering mode, giving a bright focusing and composing image regardless of f/ stop (at the expense of EVF noise in low light). Optical finders just get dim and dark when you close the lens down.
OM-mount lenses made by other manufacturers may also be adapted. Shown here is a 600 mm f/8 mirror lens by Sigma on μ4/3 Panasonic.
Of course, an OM-mount adaptor will work with any manufacturer’s OM-mount lens. However, you may give up some optical quality or mechanical consistency. For example, the 600 mm Sigma catadioptric shown above and below is a high quality mirror lens. But its focusing ring turns opposite to all of my Zuikos and it clearly doesn’t use my favored 49mm filters!
Remove the stop tab (circled) from an OM-to-4/3 adaptor to enable push-button aperture shut-down to a preselected f/ stop.
The huge 600 mm Sigma looks equally awkward when fitted to a larger Olympus 4/3 camera.
However, you can remove the stop tab from an OM-to4/3 adaptor (using a #0 Phillips-head jeweler’s screwdriver) to enable the depth-of-field preview button on all OM-mount lenses. This lets you focus and compose wide-open, then press the DOF-preview to close the lens to the f/ stop selected on the aperture ring, then press the shutter release. Such stop-down operation is very nice for hand-held shooting; it can be less than desirable when working on a tripod.
OM Zuikos play particularly well with 4/3 cameras; the rear lens caps are even interchangeable! If your camera is an Olympus, you will enjoy in-body image stabilization (IS). All you need to do is enter the focal length of your legacy lens and enable IS. This makes for far-improved hand-held shots with long lenses. Otherwise, dust off your tripod and use it! No current competitive offerings facilitate IS compensation of legacy lenses. 4
Here is a comparison of the depth and perspective provided by these six lenses (at wide-open aperture). These shots were made with a tripod-mounted Panasonic G1. I simply changed lenses between shots without moving the camera.
28 mm lens at f/2.8. The focus is at the centered STOP sign.
35 mm lens at f/2.8.
50 mm lens at f/1.8.
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85 mm lens at f/2.
135 mm lens at f/3.5.
200 mm lens at f/5.
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A little closing catography seemed in order. My tiny tortoise shell cat, Lana, is my favorite model. She’s always willing to pose and I never know quite what to expect from her. I often photograph her lounging on our screened-in back porch. She loves feeling she is free in the great outdoors and I feel comfortable knowing she is actually confined within our home while she stalks birds, squirrels, rabbits and the occasional fox.
A green-on-green study captured using the 85 mm f1/8 telephoto lens.
For cat photography with 4/3 format cameras, I find the 50 mm and 85 mm lenses are my favorites. Using a lens of 35 mm focal length or less just brings me too close to my subject and she wants to play and interact with me. Besides, I prefer the images from the longer lenses. The 35 mm is more functional as a “people portrait” optic while the 28 mm is a nice general-purpose “normal” lens. All of these lenses are a little “long” for in-city snapshots and certainly for sweeping landscapes.
Lounging Lana caught by the 35 mm f/2.8 Zuiko lens.
Since the Panasonic G1 does not provide “in camera” image stabilization, I tend not to use the 135 mm and 200 mm telephoto lenses with it unless the subject and situation allows me to use a tripod. However, if the subject is moving, these telephoto lenses can make following and framing from a tripod a real challenge. My Olympus e-520 body does provide image stabilization for these lenses and I always use it when hand-holding these longer lenses. (You need to enter the lens’ focal length for proper results.) However, when using the e520 I really miss the resolute eye-level EVF of the G1. It provides x10 image magnification to aid focusing and a bright image reflecting depth-of-field as the lens is stopped down. Yes, I can see these things on the LCD using Live-View. No, it is not anywhere near as easy as using a high-quality eye-level Electronic Viewfinder. The OM-Zuikos were well thought out and implemented modern offerings of their era. They remain useful today because of their superior construction. Try one – you’ll like it!
A regal rim-lit portrait taken with the 50 mm f/1.8.
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