Pana L1 and Oly pancake problem

[Mika K]

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Bought last week Oly 25mm/2.8 pancake and have been testing it with my Pana L1 for few evenings. It seems that sometimes when powering up the system AF jams and does not work at all. In this situation MF works fine but only shutting down and powering the systen again solves the problem. This happens perhaps 30% of the times when powering the system up and have not encountered similar issue with my other lenses.

 

I could manage to live with this but the other task for this DSLR kombo to be the simple and easy setup for my wife to use if needed fails because of this. Have anyone else encountered such a problem?

 

Now considering whether to take the lens back to the store and look perhaps some other options. Some Leica Elmarit-R lens with the suitable adapter could be one option is can not find any other AF options than Pana-Leica 25mm/1.4 which is already little too expensive for the use it is going. So perhaps also would like to have some opinions of the Leica Elmarit-R 2.8/24mm or 28mm users with the 4/3 body and adapter ring..

 

Br,

 

Mika K

[ASpes]

Bought last week Oly 25mm/2.8 pancake and have been testing it with my Pana L1 for few evenings. It seems that sometimes when powering up the system AF jams and does not work at all. In this situation MF works fine but only shutting down and powering the systen again solves the problem. This happens perhaps 30% of the times when powering the system up and have not encountered similar issue with my other lenses.

 

I could manage to live with this but the other task for this DSLR kombo to be the simple and easy setup for my wife to use if needed fails because of this. Have anyone else encountered such a problem?

 

Now considering whether to take the lens back to the store and look perhaps some other options. Some Leica Elmarit-R lens with the suitable adapter could be one option is can not find any other AF options than Pana-Leica 25mm/1.4 which is already little too expensive for the use it is going. So perhaps also would like to have some opinions of the Leica Elmarit-R 2.8/24mm or 28mm users with the 4/3 body and adapter ring..

 

Br,

 

Mika K

 

I'm not having any problem with the Oly pancake on my L1 and D/3, so what I'm going to say is just a blind shot, forgive me for that.

 

In general it seems to me you have some electrical contact failure, so first thing first, cleaning the contacts with a soft cloth on both body and lens might possibly help.

 

Dunno about your copy but my pancake has a much tighter mount than all other lenses I have, and its handling is less easy due to its small size. Given all this, my suggestion could be to check that you turn the lens full way when mounting it. If you do not, awkward things can happen, the camera does still work but could show some erratic behaviour.

 

Another critical point could be the actual handling of the camera, the lens is very short so your left hand set around the lens could inadvertently push the lens release button, which is rather soft. This is immediately felt by the camera and again make for some strange things to happen. Try it by just pushing on it, without turning the lens, and you will see.

 

A point also worth to remember is that it is recommended to switch off the camera when changing lenses. I do not do that myself very often and usually get no problem, but if I see any I just power cycle the camera and everything gets back to normal.

 

Last option of course is that you might have a bad sample, so maybe you could ask the shop to try another one if the above suggestions do not work at all.

 

The pancake is not the best lens in the Oly range, but is a good lens and worth having as it makes for a wonderfully compact combo on the L1-D/3, so do not give up on it.

Using R lenses is quite possible, many do, and quality is good, but a full manual lens is neither that easy nor fast to use, so IMO this would fail the "simple and easy setup" you were looking for.

 

Hope this helps.

[Mika K]

Hi,

 

Have checked all the contacts and am quite familiar with all the basic things related to camera handling, so no help there. Anyway, thanks for the comments

 

Tested the combo still few evenings and the same problem came from time to time without any reasonable pattern. So yesterday took the Oly pancake back to my dealer and had a full refund since he didn't have another one in stock. Might still test another one when have a change.

 

So, any other comments considering the Leica Elmarit-R 2.8/24mm or 28mm with the 4/3 adapter ring? I might have to put another topic for this to get some answers for this since L1/Oly described in the topic are not the favorites in the forum I guess..

[hpu]

Mika,

I have seen on the Sigma site about the Sigma 30 mm F 1.4 EX for the FT series. I do not know about the performances. Maybe of help??

[nrj]

I use the R28/2.8 on the L1. I find it relatively straightforward and I like the results a lot. Prints have a deep rich colour to them and clearly show how good the lens is. Its also a handy and lightish package to carry. I also use an R50/2 with similar results.

[kdemas]

That's an odd problem. I was just out shooting my L1 with the 25 pancake yesterday, no problems at all (maybe 300 shots). Maybe the lens has a little electronic issue?

 

Kent