Panasonic DMW-MA2ME M lens adapter on an Olympus Pen EP-1 for Leica Tele lenses?

[wlaidlaw]

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Is anyone using the Panasonic DMW-MA2ME M lens adapter on an Olympus EP-1 for using with Leica M tele lenses?

 

I am off to South Africa and Namibia over Christmas and New Year. My original plan was to take my Viso III and Telyt 280/4.8 V2 for taking animal pics on my M8 or 9 but it is all a bit of a large and hefty lump. My wife has just told me her Sony TG3 video/still camera is not working properly (as if it ever did!) and I am not inclined to spend a penny mending this bit of rubbish. My thought is to get her an Olympus EP-1 with the 14-42 zoom, the Panasonic DMW-MA2ME M lens adapter and then use my 135/4 Tele-Elmar on it for animal pics, which would be equivalent to a 270mm lens, with the benefit of the sensor based image stabilisation on the Oly.

 

It would be an alternative to get the cheaper Voigtlander MFT to LM adapter but I have heard there may be some issue about the focus magnification with this adapter. I would therefore be very interested to hear from anyone who is using either of these adapters on an Oly EP-1 or 2.

 

Wilson

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[bill]

Wilson, I used my 90mm Elmarit-M on my EP-1 earlier this year in Lisbon. It was almost unusable without adequate support. I took a few shots but found holding the camera steady away from my eye and focussing on the (magnified) screen view, which of course magnifies movement as well - was almost impossible. Certainly I managed to get only one passably sharp shot out of almost a dozen, focussed almost to infinity.

 

Not a good option, IMO on safari. The last time I went, a good few years ago now, I was using a constant 2.8 80-200 telezoom and a 1.4 converter.

 

Regards,

 

Bill

[stunsworth]

Based on using a Panasonic GF-1 with just a 50mm Summicron I'd recommend using an EVF. As Bill says it's very difficult to hold the combination stably using the rear screen to focus. Also I've found the EVF on the panasonic to be a much better option than the rear screen when using the 20mm lens.

[wlaidlaw]

Based on using a Panasonic GF-1 with just a 50mm Summicron I'd recommend using an EVF. As Bill says it's very difficult to hold the combination stably using the rear screen to focus. Also I've found the EVF on the panasonic to be a much better option than the rear screen when using the 20mm lens.

 

Steve,

 

I think I would get an earful if I bought my wife a camera as big as a G1/GH1/G2. I agree with what Bill says and I too hate holding a camera at arms length. The EP-2 with the EVIL is however, twice the price of a EP-1. The downside of the Panasonic GF1, is that there is no in body image stabilisation to use with non-IS lenses. I suppose it is really back to weight lifting classes to cope with the 280 Telyt.

 

I had rather hoped that the built in image stabilisation of the EP-1 would cope with hand wobble but it seems not. If it is close to unusable with a 90, as Bill says, it would be useless with a 135, unless on a tripod. I was intending to take my Leki stick which has a Leitz table tripod ball head mounted on the top but not a tripod.

 

Wilson

[bill]

Wilson, it strikes me that you may be better off getting a V-Lux 2 or the Panasonic equivalent for your needs. I have, as I have said elsewhere, just picked up a secondhand FZ50 for tele and macro work and I am very impressed.

 

This, incidentally was the best (technically) of the shots I got in Lisbon with the E-P1/90mm combination:

 

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Regards,

 

Bill

[wlaidlaw]

As you say Bill - the 90 + EP-1 is not too crisp. I am not a big fan of the small sensor Pana/Leica image look. My wife had a C-Lux, which was very disappointing and unreliable to boot, at exactly the wrong time. On the basis of a very good Which report, I bought my son a Pana TZ7 for his travels to Central America last year. Now maybe his was not a very good one but the pictures don't have a lot of sparkle to them. If you compare them to his travel companion's ones taken with a Canon 450D plus just the bog standard kit lens, the Panasonic is just not up to scratch. That is why I was thinking of a EP-1 for my wife, being a smallish camera with a big sensor. I am not going to buy her an X1 to kick about in her handbag with all the rubbish she keeps in there (I suspect the cause of the demise of the TG3). In the end, I am guessing we will just take the Pana TZ7, which my son has now replaced with a Sony Alpha 350/Zeiss Vario Sonnar 16-80 and I will hump the Viso and Telyt along. In that we are self drive in Namibia in a Discovery, it can just sit in a bag most of the time.

 

Interestingly I was just reading a review of the V-Lux 20 and it complained about exactly the same things I see in the TZ7 images. Quite severe colour fringing at the tele end and and a "milkyness" on shots taken in strong light and/or high contrast. I would assume a flare related phenomenon due to the absence of a hood plus lens configuration. It is the exact opposite of what you get when you use a ZM Biogon lens on an M9 when to quote one of Ken Rockwell's better metaphors: "I can't get it to ghost. You'll set your shutter curtains on fire before you'll make any ghost images."

 

Wilson

[stuny]

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Wilson -

 

If you consider the TZ7, consider the cheaper TZ5 which is the same sans the GPS.

 

I too think you should at least try the V-Lux-2 (or the Pany equivalent) in a shop. In my pre- DMR days I traveled with a much earlier Panasonic version of it and a D2. Here are some samples from that camera:

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[wlaidlaw]

Stuart,

 

The TZ7 is a zero cost option, since my son's one is sitting unused in a drawer. I don't think it has been used since it came back from a guarantee repair (the usual Panasonic issue of lens sticking on retraction and jerky focusing). It was part of the deal of my subsidising the cost of his Sony Alpha 350 and Zeiss zoom, that the Panasonic was put into the family digital camera pool for use by anyone along with a Canon Ixus 850iS in a 40M diving case. This is a camera for my wife not me and I think the V-Lux-2 would be too big. The EP-1 is a nice size but if it does not work well with longer Leica lenses, I am not going down that route. The MFT to Leica M adapter also is pretty expensive at £175.

 

She reports that my son has got her Sony TG3 working again by leaving the battery out for 4 days and then doing a factory reset with a freshly charged battery but only the original one. The cheapish but Sony branded battery I bought in a back street shop in Tokyo, may have been part of the issue.

 

Wilson