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M8 Competition?


wilfredo

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Ok I'm almost sold. But the one question that I need to ask from those that have either the Pana m4/3 or the Olympus Pen is which m4/3 to M adapter is best.

 

There is one from CV and I think John Milich (JLM??? on this forum) is making one and I think there is one from Novaflex(?).

Which one is recommended?

 

As of now, the Pana adapter ( Panasonic offers Leica M and R mount adapters: Digital Photography Review ) is the most recent and also produced by one of the official M4/3 partners. I would trust that most. The CV and Rayqual (my own and it is fine) are about equal. The JMilich adapter seems very heavy, and the the Novoflex comes bottom, because it had lots of 'teething' problems ( see the GET-DPI-Forum), so you might receive a dodgy copy.

 

( Dpreview also quotes: "These adaptors also allow users to use the movable MF assist function, which enlarges the selected area when focusing manually". IMHO, that - useful when you have a viewfinder - function has nothing to do with that (Pana-)adapter, but is a firmware function that can be applied with any adapter when the in-camera "Use without lens" function is activated. This sounds super confusing, but it just means that the camera will then not search for a proprietary Pana/Oly lens, but accepts any other lens, e.g. a Leica Lens with the adapter)

Edited by vanhulsenbeek
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Ok I'm almost sold. But the one question that I need to ask from those that have either the Pana m4/3 or the Olympus Pen is which m4/3 to M adapter is best.

 

There is one from CV and I think John Milich (JLM??? on this forum) is making one and I think there is one from Novaflex(?).

Which one is recommended?

 

I have the one from Steve Gandy at cameraquest and the Milich version. Both are working fine for me. Initially the Novoflex had problems but I haven't followed the details. Also, not sure if it is available yet (don't think so) but Panasonic is releasing one for M and there are also R adapters.

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Jono I havent written it off as irrelevant they were straightforward questions.

I still think using the olympus lenses system is likely to be a more suitable set up, for the reasons I gave, but then Ive seen nothing indicating clear advantage of the M lenses, including what I have seen at posted links. To be fair I have seen truly awful stuff at olympus sites too.

I am not sure what zone focus, and the M8 have to do with anything, Im looking at the Olympus.

 

Interesting what you said about the LCD. Its a big step up from the one on p/s like the Lx? Are the files a step up from from the Lx/DLux/G10?

Edited by rob_x2004
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Well said.

Small point .... I'm a she

 

terry

 

Yes, I agree. Yesterday I put a Zeiss 21 2.8 Biogon M mount on the E-P1 using a Novoflex adapter (Novoflex replaced mine with a revised version as the original batch was problematic). Shot primarily using zone focus and it was fun and the IQ far better than the D-Lux 4 and it is way faster than the DP1/2.

 

It is not an M8 replacement so everybody here can calm down and put the knives away. I have read a couple of post in this thread that are just plain mean for no reason.

 

Again, thank you Ken and Terry you are both very brave.:)

 

Best regards, Terry.

Edited by terrycioni
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I have the one from Steve Gandy at cameraquest and the Milich version. Both are working fine for me. Initially the Novoflex had problems but I haven't followed the details. Also, not sure if it is available yet (don't think so) but Panasonic is releasing one for M and there are also R adapters.

 

I had one of the very first Novoflex adapters, they recalled because of a machining error, and sent me a revised version that works flawlessly.

 

Indeed I had the opportunity to compare it to the Rayqual and the CV adapters and it is on par with them.

 

One thing I didn't like about the original Novoflex is that you couldn't remove the lens without removing the adapter from the body - why they did this I don't know but the revised version fixed this problem as well. I am a happy Novoflex user.

 

Best regards, Terry.

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Jono I havent written it off as irrelevant they were straightforward questions.

I still think using the olympus lenses system is likely to be a more suitable set up, for the reasons I gave, but then Ive seen nothing indicating clear advantage of the M lenses, including what I have seen at posted links. To be fair I have seen truly awful stuff at olympus sites too.

I am not sure what zone focus, and the M8 have to do with anything, Im looking at the Olympus.

 

Interesting what you said about the LCD. Its a big step up from the one on p/s like the Lx? Are the files a step up from from the Lx/DLux/G10?

 

Hi There

Sorry if I seemed snappy.

The LCD is much easier to see in bright light than the Dlux4, and it also has a much better angle of view - there have been complaints about the relatively low resolution (230,000) but I suspect this is to do with power / speed / battery issues, and it works well for me.

 

As far as the difference in image quality between it and the Lx/Dlux/G10.

everyone thinks of 4/3 as small sensor - looking at relative pixel densities is a bit of an eye opener:

 

M8: 2.1

EP1: 5.1

G10: 34.0

 

I think their relative image quality probably reflect that ratio fairly well :)

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Thanks for that.

You had a DLux at one stage didnt you?

 

HI Rob - I still have a Dlux4.

 

as for the 'zone focusing' . . . what I meant was the time honoured technique of focusing at around 2.5 metres (or whatever) manually, and then shooting from the hip - tricky at the best of times, but with the E-p1 you can still see the LCD well enough to point in the right direction.

 

As Others have said - no competition for the M8, but useful and innovative in it's own right.

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Or AF something the right distance to get a fix and flip to manual. Lot quicker than mucking round, youve got to laugh at anyone attacking the joystick on the DLux. Ive understood zone focus since childhood. Calypsophots arent rangefinders:D.

Have you played with the 17mm?

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I already tried all my M lenses on E-P1. Images look great and all that except I can't focus when I shoot in bright day light when LCD can't display clearly. But E-P1 is really fast and snappy; I love the feeling so much. Leica should seriously take advantage of these gimmicks.

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Maybe it's a complimentary camera rather than competition? What's intriguing me about the E-P1 is the possibility of shooting 100mm+, currently the domain of my dSLR. The 50mm which most Leica users have would turn into a handy 100mm, while a 90mm would become a rather respectful 180mm equiv. Lack of viewfinder hardly a deal-breaker with these lenses - not ideal but as much of an inconvenience as using a 135mm on a Leica...

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agree. e-p1 is not a replacement for my m8 for sure. e-p1 is not for serious work.

 

Maybe it's a complimentary camera rather than competition? What's intriguing me about the E-P1 is the possibility of shooting 100mm+, currently the domain of my dSLR. The 50mm which most Leica users have would turn into a handy 100mm, while a 90mm would become a rather respectful 180mm equiv. Lack of viewfinder hardly a deal-breaker with these lenses - not ideal but as much of an inconvenience as using a 135mm on a Leica...
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I already tried all my M lenses on E-P1. Images look great and all that except I can't focus when I shoot in bright day light when LCD can't display clearly. But E-P1 is really fast and snappy; I love the feeling so much. Leica should seriously take advantage of these gimmicks.

 

"Fast and snappy" does that mean no shutter lag? I agree, Leica should take this seriously but...

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"Snappy" is a very apt metaphor for how the Olympus E-P1 feels in operation. Very apt, indeed. The shutter has a solid, confident click not dissimilar from that of an M8. The whole camera has a very good feel.

 

I don't know just how Leica would take the Micro FourThirds format "seriously" but I very much doubt that we'll see such a camera with a red dot brand. Leica seems to be putting it's entire table stakes into the S2, I fear to its peril. But I'm digressing into another pool of discussion.

 

I expect be able to try some of my M lenses on my E-P1 tomorrow. I'm quite eager.

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Maybe it's a complimentary camera rather than competition? What's intriguing me about the E-P1 is the possibility of shooting 100mm+, currently the domain of my dSLR. The 50mm which most Leica users have would turn into a handy 100mm, while a 90mm would become a rather respectful 180mm equiv. Lack of viewfinder hardly a deal-breaker with these lenses - not ideal but as much of an inconvenience as using a 135mm on a Leica...

On the contrary. As I find shooting a Digilux3 with R glass, with long lenses using the LCD the camera loses all stability, as the camera is supported in one axis only. With a viewfinder the head provides the third resting point. Long lenses are very shaky using a camera without viewfinder. Waving a 180 mm equivalent 30 cm in front of your face is going to call for pretty short shutterspeeds and nifty framing.

Edited by jaapv
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On the contrary. As I find shooting a Digilux3 with R glass, with long lenses using the LCD the camera loses all stability, as the camera is supported in one axis only. With a viewfinder the head provides the third resting point. Long lenses are very shaky using a camera without viewfinder. Waving a 180 mm equivalent 30 cm in front of your face is going to call for pretty short shutterspeeds and nifty framing.

 

HI Jaap

not sure I agree here - after I laughed at the EP-1 with the Zuiko 50-200 f2.8 (i.e. 100-400) attached I thought I'd take some pictures with it. I'm not sure whether it was the IS, or the fact that one was basically holding the lens rather than the camera, but with a bit of practice (and using an elbow as the third point) I found it to be really good - no blurry pictures at all. What's more, the S-AF+MF worked splendidly - zooming with first and third finger and touching up the MF with the index.

 

Rob - the files are (IMHO of course) the very best that are available for 4/3, a light AA filter and Olympus excellent colour makes them really good - together with the surprising high ISO qualities, they'll be right up with the other consumer dSLR - if you throw in the fact that the Olympus lenses are much better than most other manufacturer's consumer lenses (read the dpreview reviews if you don't believe me), then you have an excellent combination.

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