[LRflex] leica M lenses on the Micro 4/3rds G1

Date: Mon, 29 Dec 2008 00:05:33 +0100
From: Douglas Sharp <douglas.sharp@xxxxxx>
Subject: [LRflex] Re: New Year and new camera - exposure problem

Steve,
I recently read that you have to tell new micro-four thirds cameras that 
no lens is connected before you can use Leica-M lenses on them - BTW
Novoflex has an M to Micro-4/3 adapter in the pipeline - or perhaps
already available.

Cheers
Douglas



Dear Douglas,
I posted this on the LUG several days ago and thought that most Flexers might have seen it there, but for those who don't inhabit both lists here is my take on using M lenses on the G1 with the RayQual adapter. 
To those that have seen it elsewhere I apologize for the redundancy.
I trust it is okay to post this rangefinder topic on the reflex forum. You could use R lenses on the G1 via R to Oly to Micro 4/3rds 
adapter(s) but the lenses would seem awfully big.

Hi Luggers,
Ray Tai and Chris Topher and I met at the China Tee Club December 23 and mated my L > M4/3rds RayQual adapter with Chris's black Panasonic G1. We used my 15 Heliar, the 24 Elmarit, the 35 Summilux Asph, The Tri-Elmar, the 50mm Summilux Asph, the 90 Summicron APO, my old 135 Elmar (from 1964) and Chris's 50mm Zeiss f1.5. 

Pictures taken with some of these lenses can be found at:

http://gallery.leica-users.org/v/Howard+Cummer/M+Lenses+to+Micro+4-3rds/

http://tinyurl.com/9bh9zx
The EVF is better than I remember it at Photokina. Under fluorescent lights there is strobing in the viewfinder but with daylight or other lighting the EVF works quite well. A Leica rangefinder viewfinder it isn't but still it is usable. You have to set the G1 to fire the shutter without a lens on the camera and that takes some digging through the instruction 
book to find the menus within menus.
What is very appealing is that in manual focus you touch the left arrow of the control wheel on the back and that brings up a 10X magnification box. You can move the box over the area you want to enlarge and then push the set button in the center of the control wheel to enlarge that section. You have to be quite fast to fix focus because the magnification shuts off in about 3 seconds. It is easiest to use with wide angle lenses because the magnified camera shake is not so great. For telephotos like the 90 Cron and the 135 Elmar - the shaking of the hand held camera is so magnified that it is hard to fix focus before the magnification turns off. Chris believes a firmware upgrade has already been announced to allow the user to extend the timing of the magnification. (Update I have installed the new firmware and now the magnification stays on) I didn't get to take the camera out for any street shooting so I can't comment on its use there and I didn't have time (nor inclination) to work through all the camera's features and menus. Still, as you can see from the pictures it performs pretty well - although we did notice that white balance when set to auto 
fluctuated quite a bit from shot to shot.
A feature which appeals to me for street shooting is the moveable view screen on the back but I will have to test it 
another day.
Bottom line: Would I buy one? Could be, but I wasn't so blown away that I ran next door to get one today. Still, I might 
when the new prices fall a bit more.
Comments and questions welcome.
Cheers
Howard
PS: The update to the above is that I have bought a G1 (gave it to my lovely wife for Xmas - a red one - which she liked after trying it at Photokina so we now have a back up for my M8 when we go traveling). Beats hauling around my D700 which I did to Photokina.
PPS: The G1 works in stopdown mode with the M lenses, the viewfinder brightening as the lens is closed down and the exposure remains consistent. 
None of the Canon variation mentioned in the list earlier.
PPPS: It is interesting that the G 1 kit is selling for C$750 in Canada and I had to pay C$935 for the kit (G1 plus 14 - 45 kit lens) in Hong Kong. That is the first time ever in my experience that Canadian prices have been less than Hong Kong prices. 

On 29 Dec 2008, at 3:01 PM, FreeLists Mailing List Manager wrote:

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