>Richard Dale wrote:
>>
>> Has anyone any experience of the Contax AX autofocus system (using manual
>> lenses), does it work, is it a way forward for the OM system. Doesn't sound
>> too promising.
>
>One person from Olympus once told me, that Olympus considered to produce
>a AX like camera body.
>Against AX type AF speaks the complicated and heavy (AF speed!)
>mechanics, the limited range for tele lenses and it will render
>"floating elements" useless.
>
>Richard
>
The article I read on the Contax made it sound HUGE. Essentially, it is a
large hollow box with mirror, film holder, pressure plate and pentaprism
free to move back and forth to focus an image on the film plane. It
evidently gets most of the way there as do most autofocus designs, but it
it allows you to touch up the focus on the lens if you are as persnickety
as, I believe, most Olympus users are.
I have an OLD Mamiya 6 dating from the early fifties which sucked me in at
the Buena Park camera show because it had a Zuiko lens on it. What is
interesting is that it focuses by moving the pressure place back and forth.
It is coupled to the rangefinder. It allows the lens on this old folder to
be mounted fairly rigidly when extended since it does not have to move back
and forth. It seems like Oly could better the Contax design by cleverly
linking the film plane to a moving element in the pentaprism viewing system
without greatly increasing the size of the camera. The space for the
pressure plate movement is not great in the Mamiya. It probably could be
little more than a discrete bulge in the back including the viewfinder. The
trick part is making it as rugged as the rest of the camera. It could also
have a limited range so that close-ups that would benefit from the
employment of a floating element would give a message to focus manually
once the near focus is exceeded. The motor to move just the pressure plate
could be much smaller and lighter. It would allow quick, easy autofocus in
normal ranges, careful, more accurate in the close ranges when speed is
less of an issue. Gee, I might buy one of these myself!
Winsor Crosby
Long Beach, California
mailto:wincros@xxxxxxxxxxx
< This message was delivered via the Olympus Mailing List >
< For questions, mailto:owner-olympus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx >
< Web Page: http://Zuiko.sls.bc.ca/swright/olympuslist.html >
|