On Wed, Aug 15, 2012 at 10:20 AM, Anthony Farr <farranth...@gmail.com> wrote: > On 16 August 2012 01:14, Jeffery Smith <jsmith...@gmail.com> wrote: >> Olympus seems to be hinting that all 43 lenses will be fully usable on m43 >> bodies (via a future adaptor), which is somewhat comforting. >> > > There have been 4/3 to m43 adapters since the beginning of m43. The > Olympus version conveys every function of Olympus 4/3 lenses. The > Panasonic version adds the extra function of in-lens optical image > stabilization which is particular to their lenses and was developed > outside of the 4/3 blueprint, a bit like RIcoh's independent > development of aperture control linkage for K-mount lenses. > > Despite this you can still use an Olympus adapter between Panasonic > m43 cameras and 4/3 lenses, because it is the principle of the 4/3 > concept to be a universal fit regardless of brand. You simply > sacrifice the OIS function which Olympus gear was never meant to > support.
Actually, the FourThirds to Micro-FourThirds adapters are identical in function. Panasonic's in-lens IS on their Elmarit-D 14-50 and 14-150 mm lenses for FourThirds format works fine on the Olympus bodies (although it is unneeded for all the modern ones which have IBIS). Panasonic only produced four lenses for FourThirds SLRs anyway, and only three of them have OIS (the Summilux-D 25mm does not). Olympus bodies simply don't have the firmware for controlling the different options of the Panasonic OIS, just like they don't have the firmware to allow the Summilux and early 14-50/2.8-3.5 or 14-150/3.5-5.6 lenses' aperture rings. The OIS is switched on and off by a mechanical switch on the lenses, and operates only in Mode 1 (continuous). (The aperture is controlled by standard Olympus on-body controls.) Did a fine job with my E-1. All the FourThirds SLR lenses have been fully usable on all Micro-FourThirds bodies from the beginning with both Panasonic and Olympus adapters, with the exception of auto-focus capabilities. All Olympus bodies will support autofocus functions, albeit not particularly quickly, where Panasonic felt that the AF was poor enough on most that they limited support to those that at least had some CDAF logic built into them on the earliest bodies. The latest Micro-FourThirds bodies from Olympus manage the FourThirds SLR lenses' AF functions more efficiently so AF performance has been improved. My understanding is that they might implement a PDAF module in an adapter to supplement the CDAF and improve focusing speed, like Sony has done. Whew, has this discussion moved off the track from the Si ... ;-) -- Godfrey godfreydigiorgi.posterous.com -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List PDML@pdml.net http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
