When I moved from film to digital in 2004, I had several Leica R lenses. Over
the years, I attempted to use them on a succession of Canon and Olympus bodies.
I even replaced the focusing screen on one of the Canon bodies to make manual
focusing easier. Invariably, I found that cameras work best with lenses
designed for those cameras. Adapters etc. are always a kludge, sometimes better
executed than others, but a kludge nonetheless. These days I only shoot manual
focus lenses on my Leica M8, a camera that was designed for that.
Cheers,
Nathan
Nathan Wajsman
Alicante, Spain
http://www.frozenlight.eu
http://www.greatpix.eu
http://www.nathanfoto.com
PICTURE OF THE WEEK: http://www.fotocycle.dk/paws
Blog: http://nathansmusings.wordpress.com/
YNWA
On May 3, 2012, at 11:20 PM, Piers Hemy wrote:
> You know, I suspect that the market for $1800 lens adapters is those same 10
> people. But the problem is the market for $180 lens adapters is probably not
> that different! OK, maybe it's 100 - let's be optimistic, make it 1000. Not
> much sense in going after that kind of market for Olympus, eh?
>
> Yes, quite a few of "us" have gone the 5D route. 10? And of those, how many
> are using manual focus lenses (whether OM or others)? How well-equipped is
> the 5D screen with manual focus aids? No, I thought not, so it's back to
> plain ground-glass - and how does that compare to a 2-4 screen? Yup, just as
> I expected - the 5D is designed for AF lenses, and manual focus lenses just
> don't work very easily. Although I don't have personal experience of the 5D,
> and would be very pleased to be proven wrong (the more so as 5D prices ought
> to be going lower and lower).
>
> But as for Olympus "marginaliz[ing] themselves almost entirely out of the
> business" I have to take issue firstly with your choice of the word
> 'business', and secondly, if it is a 'business' that it was one that Olympus
> had any 'business' (in a different sense) chasing! Yes, it was very
> disappointing at the time to hear that we could not use OM lenses on the
> E-1. And it seemed to be a case of sour grapes when they eventually released
> the MA-1 adapter together with that restrictive list of recommended
> apertures (f/4 - f/8 only for the 90/2; f/5.6 - f/8 for the 100/2.8 and the
> 35-80/2.8). But you know what? Having used OM lenses on the E-1 and
> experienced the problems in focusing and metering, I think they knew what
> they were talking about. I didn't see anything to deserve the description
> "near riot", nor to justify "error of their ways".
>
> Piers
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ken Norton [mailto:ken@xxxxxxxxxxx]
> Sent: 03 May 2012 20:26
> To: Olympus Camera Discussion
> Subject: Re: [OM] OM-D EM-5 review at dpreview
>
>> The market for $800 lens adapters is perhaps 10 people.
>
> OK, I'm one of those 10 people who would gladly pay $800. But, by the same
> token, there is probably only 20 or 30 people willing to spend
> $7000 on a digital rangefinder camera.
>
> Seriously, if somebody from Olympus Skunkworks were to offer me such an
> adaptor, I'd pay a premium much higher than $800. Maybe that makes me one of
> probably five people in the world. But I doubt that.
>
> If the transaction for a full-frame camera occurs for me in the next few
> weeks, then it's all over with and I won't even be one of those five or ten
> people.
>
> Just look at the number of people on this list alone (and we're just a tiny
> microcosm of Olympus users) who bought Canon 5D bodies because of the
> full-frame aspect and the ability to use Zuikos as intended. The problem is
> that many of them did so under that original intent but then ended up buying
> EOS lenses. Once the EOS lenses were purchased, these users are now pretty
> much locked into that system here on out.
> Olympus lost out entirely. By attempting to protect their own lens sales,
> they marginalized themselves almost entirely out of the business. Just look
> how difficult it was for them to even release the OM-E glassless adapter. It
> took a near riot for them to understand the error of their ways.
>
> AG
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