Using Olympus OM mount lenses on a 450D

I have been gifted an Olympus OM10 with three lenses,

F.Zuiko 55mm f1.8 "Auto S'
Tokina 35mm f2.8 RMC
Panagor 80-200 Macro Zoom. This one has fungus and seems to be jammed on macro, so seems to be a bin job.

I am though keen to try out the other two on my 450D, I've found this converter on Ebay http://www.ebay.com.au …1423.l2649#ht_2​017wt_1006
but there are plenty of others at price points both higher and lower. Has anyone used one of these adapters and can advise if they are any good. Also, how does "autofocus confirm" work seeing as the lens and camera do not communicate with each other? I'm aware that I'll have to shoot manually with these, but that's just part of the vintage charm.

Thanks,

Hal55

Heya,

Olympus OM mount, like the Pentax M42, is a simple adapter to EOS, making Pentax, Adaptall2 and OM easy to adapt and often the vintage adaptation of choice. I use M42 a bunch, and have a few Adaptall2's. Haven't gotten any OM's yet, but will likely explore them soon too.

That said, a simple $15 adapter will do it. I would not bother with AF confirmation chips. They are junk, at best, glued to the adapter. They will not tell you correctly if it's focus (if they even work for you). Live View is the best simple way to manual focus these lenses. If you wanted to full time manual focus without Live View, then a different screen would be appropriate (to mimic old cameras that only had manual focus) as modern cameras are not kind to manual focus lenses. Some of those AF confirmation chips will also just cause havoc on the camera. So be aware. I had one on one of my M42 adapters fritz my camera out, where the scroll wheel stopped working because I took the lens off while the camera was on. Dumb thing. I don't use AF confirmation chips on anything anymore. Not worth the electrical weirdness and they never worked for me anyways. Live View nails it every time for me.

Very best,

Hi, and welcome to the wonderful world of alternative lenses, and the thing that brought many of us to Canon in the first place. We are lucky that many older lenses can be used to our EOS bodies.

The adapter you have linked to will work. The chip on the adapter tricks the camera into thinking that there is an electronically controlled lens connected to the body, and "turns on" the circuitry for auto focus. You must rotate the focus ring on the lens, but if you half press the shutter button while doing so and hold the chosen auto focus point over the desired spot in the scene, the camera will "beep" and light the AF point when focus is achieved, just as if it were an auto focus lens...sort of. I end up focusing from there by eye with better success, though that may be difficult to do with the 450D pentamirror viewfinder.

It works pretty well, better with some lenses than others, and better with some chips than others.

You will have to work the aperture manually as well, open to focus, stop down to capture. Metering works fine in Aperture Priority mode and center-weighted average metering- when you set the taking aperture, the camera should choose the correct shutter speed

I don't know that seller, I've used adapters from seller big_island that work well. The priced seems close to right for chipped adapters (but I don't know the current exchange rate), non chipped adapters are less.

The only reason that I'd get the AF confirm chip is if a) the EXIF lens data was programmable and b) I were to get adapters for each lens - I like to keep track of what shot I took with what lens, and that makes it a little easier. As far as the AF confirm itself, I think that it's a roll of the dice - I've had some work pretty well and others that were inaccurate (relying on the AF confirm while you're out shooting and then seeing that it's off when you import them to your computer is a whole lot of no fun), so I just tend no to use them anymore.

When you get your adapter, check your infinity focus - if the thickness is off a little, it may not focus at infinity or the focus ring may not stop until beyond infinity. If it doesn't hit infinity, I'd return it. If it goes beyond infinity, I just want to know about it so I can adjust appropriately.

Thanks for the quick responses, I'm looking forward to playing with these, and hopefully some other telephoto lenses when I can hold of some. Should be fun,

Hal55

The OLY 50/1.8 is a small jem. One of the sharpest 50/1.8's ever made. The other 2 you menitoned are not worth spending much time on.

gasrocks wrote in post #16932705
The OLY 50/1.8 is a small jem. One of the sharpest 50/1.8's ever made. The other 2 you menitoned are not worth spending much time on.

I think this little bugger came standard with OM1 and OM2 cameras. Both classic cameras.

hal55 wrote in post #16932338
F.Zuiko 55mm f1.8 "Auto S'

There was no such lens AFAIK - did you mean the F-Zuiko 50mm f1.8? This one is far more likely to be found with the low-end OM-10 body. The F-Zuiko means it doesn't have modern multicoating; and, unlike most other Zuikos, the 50mm had optical improvements as it went along, so being an old version it won't be as good as the later ones.

About the 50mm f/1.8 lenses:

http://www.mir.com.my …ed/zuiko/htmls/​50mm1a.htm

There was also a G-Zuiko 55mm f/1.2:

http://www.mir.com.my …red/zuiko/htmls​/50mm1.htm

If that's what you have, it's a cult lens and worth quite a bit.

The above-linked site is the best source for Zuiko lens information that I know of. Here's their main page for all OM Zuikos:

http://www.mir.com.my …n2/shared/zuiko​/index.htm

I don't know anything about this lens, but cheaper 35mm lenses of this era generally did not have floating elements, let alone aspherical elements like the 35L's. A modern Canon kit zoom would probably outperform this lens.

Get rid of it. Personally, I would go out of my way not to mount any lenses from the same kit on my Canon bodies.

I don't want to rain on your parade, but you have nothing special here. I have the last "made in Japan" OM 50mm f/1.8, another cult lens, and stopped using it because my 50L is better. Your early 50mm, while probably a good lens if you don't shoot into the sun, won't be as good as my "made in Japan".

I agree with the advice to avoid focus-confirmation adaptors. If you didn't spend too much, an adaptor on the back of the 50mm could give you a fun lens that is more robust and more pleasant to use than Canon's cheapy 50mm f/1.8.

You are correct, the Zuiko is a 50mm, not 55 as I wrongly stated. Re the Panagor, yes I gather it's quite ordinary re SQ but I love the build of the thing. All metal, zoom and focus move beautifully freely and , although its around 40 years old, it feels WAY better than my Sigma zoom purchased just a few years back. I'm sorry the thing isn't useable since it would be fun to mount it and get a few shots.
Hoping to also get a nice Minolta Rokkor prime and a Nikkor telephoto in due course. It's a fun thing and yes, I'm not spending too much since I'm not sure these lenses will match the nice Tamron SPs I have - still going to be good mucking about with them though.

http://zone-10.com …ask=view&id=245​&Itemid=97

Thanks for the link and, from the tables given, once stepped down it's a rather fine little lens.

Hal55

I've used an adapter similar to that one, but it was significantly cheaper and worked fine. when not using Live View (which was most of the time) I've used the AF dot to know if focus is accurate and it worked pretty well. I had a 550D which is very similar to your camera and the viewfinder makes it almost impossible to confirm focus, just too small and dark (especially if you tried the Olympus OM viewfinder). The lens I had was Olympus Zuiko 50mm f/1.4 which is great. I imagine the one you have is worth trying also.

gasrocks wrote in post #16933705
http://zone-10.com …ask=view&id=245​&Itemid=97

That is not the same lens - it is the multicoated versions. There were at least 5 versions of this lens. It is said, largely on the basis of the linked lens tests, that the last version, dubbed "made in Japan" because it says that on the bezel (although all versions were), is the best version. I can tell you I also owned the very first "silver nose" version, and it was a dog. The OP's version may be somewhere in the middle, but for sure it is a different optical formula (6/6 rather than 6/5).

These are Gary Reese's lens tests from the Olympus mailing list in the 1990s. I was a member of that list when he conducted them, so I remember some background information that didn't stay online. People got suspicious of the poor results from some lenses, and it was eventually traced to the OM-1's lack of vibration control. The OM-2SP has higher shutter lag, and that's why he retested some lenses with it. I bought one, and it was true. When you read these tests you need to bear in mind that towards the end the list membership was just as interested in which body was best as which lens. Of course, Canon bodies (at least my 5D and 1Ds Mk III) had no such problem. Such are the risks of low mass body designs.

I can confirm that the "made in Japan" 50mm f/1.8 has high resolution and medium contrast, as the test says.

clarnibass wrote in post #16935011
The lens I had was Olympus Zuiko 50mm f/1.4 which is great.

I had the "serial number > 1 million" version of this, and it was OK stopped down but not great wide open (nothing unusual for a 50mm f/1.4 of the period). My copy presented me with a dead insect inside it one day, and was uneconomic to repair. I replaced it by the "made in Japan" f/1.8, which I found to be a better lens.

None of this takes away from the fact that the OP's F.Zuiko is definitely worth spending a moderate amount on an adaptor.

I've ordered the $15 Fotodiox adapter linked to above off Ebay. The very good feedback swayed me to go with this and I'm looking forward to using it. Keen to see how the Tokina goes as well and, never having used a telephoto prime, I'm also on the lookout for a Zuiko 200 or 300 vintage prime. Any suggestions as to what to put on the ebay watch list?
Thanks for all the input on this, much appreciated.

Hal55

hal55 wrote in post #16935240
Any suggestions as to what to put on the ebay watch list?

There is a 180mm f/2.8 and a 300mm f/4.5. The 180 does not have fluorite or ED glass, and there's some chromatic aberration. There is also a 65-200mm f/4 with a decent close focus mode; most, but not all, examples of that ended up with haze on one element. I have/had all of these lenses and recommend them, though of course current Canon L will be better.

There was also the usual mediocre 200mm f/4 lens of the period - it was popular at the time but I can't imagine any use for it now.