miguel_tejada_flores

Quick update, with pictures. I wound up buying a Spiratone Minitel, in a Canon (EF) mount, and am using a Viltrox adapter (the EF-M2), which both reduces the focal length (from 500mm to 350mm) and adds an extra stop (from f/8 to f/5.6) on my Olympus EM-1.1. The early results appear encouraging. This is a distant shot (of the electric power pole across the street)-- And here is an interior, closer (Macro mode?) shot of a small stuffed toy monster, on a bookshelf-- So far so good...!

I realize this is a relatively ancient post, but I'm curious if you are still putting some - or any - of your old mirror lenses to use these days? And how they are holding up? I do have a hidden agenda: I'm considering buying one of the ones you mentioned - the Spiratone 500mm Minitel M - for a relatively low-price, and then adapting it to use on my Olympus E-M1 via a nifty combination adapter-and-speedbooster, which should give it a slightly faster aperture (f/5.6 as opposed to f/8) and reduce its focal length to a tidy 350mm. Is yours still working well?

<p>B-U-M-P<br> <img src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8686/16851593656_9bc684a212_b.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p><img src="https://farm9.staticflickr.com/8749/16391273184_99fd275bd8_b.jpg" alt="" /></p>

"S" is for Smokey-the-Bear - seen here in the back of a pickup truck, during a small-town parade.<div></div>

"A" is for Americana - in this case a giant roadside Chicken, in Bend, Oregon.<div></div>

"P" is for Pyracantha, a nasty thorny plant I dislike, but one which our bees seem to adore.<div></div>

<p>Hey, Alex, I think I probably read the same EOS-M reviews that you did - and one or two of them specifically mentioned that the manual focus wasn't good. But if I remember correctly, those reviews were also from people who were complaining a lot about the slow autofocus. With the improved firmware, autofocus is definitely better though one wouldn't describe it as a speed demon. But my personal experience so far has been the opposite of the negative reviews: I've found the manual focus easy and highly accurate....and fun to use.<br> Let me add a few things to that. Like on the Coolpix A, manual focus on the 22mm lens is 'by wire' - not mechanical, like in older analog lenses - so if you're used to the precise feedback of manual focusing on certain 'legacy' lenses, both the Coolpix A and the EOS-M's manual focusing can feel a little weird at first. But it really works.<br> The 2nd point worth mentioning is that like the Coolpix A,manual focusing has to be done on the rear LCD screen. In extreme sunlight this is very, very difficult. The Coolpix A does have a very expensive accessory EVF available but it costs nearly $400 and that pretty much put the whole package out of my budget reach. But both cameras have a nifty feature which is also part of many other high end mirrorless cameras I've used - a focus magnification button. You can magnify the area on which you're focusing by a factor of 10x or 20x I think. It really allows you to do critical close focusing. On the Coolpix A, there's a dedicated button in the back of the camera for just this purpose, which is nice. On the EOS-M, there's a dedicated little 'virtual button' for this down in one corner of the screen which works just as well, once you get the hang of it. <br> Once you're done close focusing, you press the button (either a physical one on the Coolpix A, or a virtual one on the EOS'M's screen - and the view reverts to the normal frame, for framing.<br> A final point about the EOS-M. In its relatively logical and easy Menu system, when you're shooting in Aperture priority ('Av' in Canon-talk) which I used for 90 to 95 % of my shooting, there are 3 focus modes (accessible either through an easy and logical Menu button or a virtual screen button. The modes are AF - AF + MF - and MF. To my surprise, I've found the middle mode much quicker and as accurate as normal manual focusing. It works well with the EOS-M's spot focusing mode (something the Coolpix A has as well) - which allows you to pick a focus point anywhere on your screen (with a small focus 'rectangle'), then use the 10x magnification button to increase the size of the focusing area in a special central window - and then tapping the appropriate button for autofocusing - which locks in very quickly on specific magnified areas of focus. Fine-tuning can then be done with the manual focus ring.<br> I realize this sounds rather technical but in practice it's easy and soon becomes automatic.<br> One last quirk of Canon EOS cameras that I've had to learn with the EOS-M but which comes in very handy for the above AF + MF mode is what Canon calls 'back-button focus'. Basically what this means is that instead of using the shutter button to focus (depressing it halfway, like most digital cameras) - you can reassign certain camera functions. The setting I use is assigning the focus function to the * key (equivalent to the left hand side of the central control wheel) - and assigning an exposure lock (aka AE) to the shutter itself. Sounds complicated, but it has the huge advantage of allowing the photographer to lock focus with a dedicated button (the * one, in this case) - and then not have the camera try to refocus when you press the shutter.<br> Obviously if you're in just plain MF mode, none of this matters. But if you used the EOS-M's nifty AF + MF mode --- it seems to be far and away the best way of shooting - and also having the ability to do critical manual focus adjusting.<br> Sorry for the complexity of this post - but I literally had to learn all that from scratch. But it's made the EOS-M infinitely more powerful - and turned it into a better camera.<br> The Coolpix A doesn't have all these quirks. But it also costs more than twice as much as well. And it's a brilliant camera in many ways - so depending on your budget, I'd highly recommend that as well.<br> Good luck!</p>

<p>Taken in the small Oregon town where I live - the reflection in a water puddle after a recent rain downpour. Taken with my EOS-M, and the 22mm pancake lens.<br> <img src="https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3929/15385056006_32557d3e14_z.jpg" alt="" /></p>

<p>Depends on how small you really want or need, Alex.<br> The small micro 4/3 bodies - some of which have been mentioned above - almost all have superb capabilities for manual focusing. In particular, the Olympus PL-5 - or its Panasonic counterpart, the Lumix GX1, are both excellent in this regard. The Olympus E-PM2 is even smaller and a tad better.<br> If you want to go even smaller, the Nikon Coolpix A - which has a fixed 28mm lens (actually the equivalent, in an APS-C sensor) is a superb and totally pocketable compact - with a nifty manual focus mode on its lens. Its competitor, the cool Ricoh GR, which also comes with a single and superb quality 28mm equivalent lens, doesn't have a manual focus ring. Previous generations of the Ricoh compacts - including both the GRD IV, do apparently have manual focus rings on their lenses (or so I've heard).<br> Finally there's the diminutive Canon EOS-M - a tiny APS-C sensor body with superb IQ. It's got a quirky touchscreen-centric command/control screen, with few manual traditional 'buttons', and the early versions of the camera suffered from slow AF/autofocus which got partially corrected in a firmware update. But all of the specific EOS-M lenses - including the compact 22mm pancake (a 35mm field of view equivalent) come with manual focus rings - and the focusing works really well. I know because I just bought one myself: I was in the same boat as you, and wanted a very compact, high quality almost pocketable camera, which also had manual focus capacity. I narrowed my choice down to the Coolpix A and the EOS-M with the 22mm pancake. Both cameras were way overpriced on introduction, but both have been heavily discounted lately. The Coopix A is probably a slightly better camera, in terms of overall IQ/image quality - but even discounted, it still costs almost double what the EOS-M/22mm combo does. I shot with both and wound up getting an EOS-M - and it's a remarkable camera.<br> You can see some of my EOS-M pictures at this link https://www.flickr.com/photos/migueltejadaflores/sets/72157648046770335/<br> But you've got a number of good, interesting, and affordable choices. Good luck!</p>

<p>A lot of the suggestions here are for excellent CSC - compact System Cameras - where you need to buy a body + lenses. If you want to really keep your budget below $500, you might seriously consider some of the smaller Olympus or Lumix (Panasonic) offerings here. The Olympus PL5 is small, has a superb sensor, takes wonderful tiny affordable lenses, and was recently discontinued so it's heavily discounted. On the Panasonic side, Lumix's compact GX1 camera also has been discontinued and discounted - it has a small body with a very good sensor (not quite as good as the PL5's) - and since both of these cameras are Micro 4/3 - they accept a range of excellent, affordable and light (as opposed to heavy, I'm talking about weight, here) lenses.<br> There are a lot of other choices too. For cameras with built-in EVF's, the slightly more expensive Olympus E-M10 is superb - as is the now discounted and wonderful Olympus E-M6. The Panasonic equivalents - a Lumix GH3 - or a G6 - or even the recent cool rangefinder-styled and wonderful GX7 - are all fantastic cameras. I have a GX7 and a GX1 now, but formerly had an Olympus E-PL5 - all of them are semi affordable, easy to carry around, and have the advantage of a great selection of affordable and super high quality lenses.<br> Incidentally, I started shooting with these cameras after I decided my superb Pentax DSLR kit plus lenses...was just too damn heavy to lug around. The Pentax had superb IQ/Image Quality - but so do all the cameras I've mentioned.<br> For an all-in-one camera, you have quite a few choices. The tiny and now discounted Sony RX100 has fantastic quality. The slightly larger all-in-one mirrorless Sony - the RX10 - is another amazing camera which can replace an entire Camera + multiple lens DSLR kit - and almost equal them. The RX100 is almost in your price range; the RX10 may be a bit above it, but worth considering. There are also a few excellent Lumix 'Bridge' (all-in-one with super zooms, usually) cameras available - which almost but not quite rival the IQ of some older DSLR's.<br> Last but not least, Lumix's inexpensive, almost pocketable LX7 compact camera has an ultra wide angle to moderate telephoto zoom, great photographer-friendly controls, and quite good IQ....though maybe not quite as high as the cameras previously mentioned. SO does its Olympus competitor, the small XZ1 and its successor the XZ2. Olympus also makes a very cool and quite high quality DSLR-styled compact, the digital Stylus - which is a great camera too. The advantage of this last group is that they're very very affordable; the disadvantage is that their overall IQ isn't quite up to that of those I mentioned previously.<br> In short, you've got a lot of good - and affordable - options.</p>

A pink Holga camera that belongs to my friend John.<div></div>

Drinking faucet at a State Park near the Oregon coast.<div></div>

Speed Limit sign in the parking lot at City Hall.<div></div>

A Butterfly kite in my local supermarket.<div></div>