Dawn of New Era? Panasonic/Oly/Leica 4/3 camera system

If you haven't seen the reports, the June edition of Shutterbug

details the Leica Vario 4/3 lens with stabilization that is being

built in Oly 4/3 mount for use on the new Panasonic Lumix....and

quite possibly the next next round of Leica Digitals.

 

I'm hoping I may have bet right the last time, going for the Oly E-1

4/3 system, while having 3 Leica M mount bodies. With an adapter,

this could be a whole new trip.

 

Cheers,

Ray Hull

fwiw, and sadly, I don't think M (and therefore not LTM) lenses will adapt for the same reasons they won't adapt to Canon DSLRs...

 

The impending Panasonic Leica seems to share the Oly 330 body and mount, incidentally...interesting convergence...

John Kelly wrote, "The impending Panasonic Leica seems to share the Oly 330 body and mount, incidentally...interesting convergence..."

 

What I find interesting is how Panasonic is the link between what is arguably Japan's most inventive/creative camera manufacturer and Germany's LEAST creative and inventive camera manufacturer.

 

Since Panasonic is likely functioning as paymaster for both Olympus and Leica the fact that they (Panasonic) are getting a technology and reputation boost from both not only isn't surprising, it's probably a fair trade in my opinion.

 

I eagerly await the new camera(s)

Just adding a footnote that the Olympus ED Zuikos are already top drawer, said to be designed for greater digital resolution than their mates in the 35 mm full frame legacy list. The advent of image stabilization is a nice feature coming around though. I am waiting for a 100-105 mm 4/3 glass,but it has to be good stuff and autofocus, to round out my lenses. (The 50-200mm being too big for what I need I think.) Alas,my FD Canons are not going to mate with the E system. Kaput for them,R.I.P.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but FD lenses were orphaned long ago - they can only be made to mount on FD bodies I believe.

Mats, ie Matsushita has always dabbled with technology by partnering with battery makers, Speaker makers, transisor makers, IC makers, disc drive makers, radio makers, home Computer makers, camera makers, vcr makers, this goes back many many decades. They have very deep pockets. Mats was founded in 1918. Matsushita markets globally under the "Panasonic" and "National" brand names. More recently the Panasonic brand name is being used worldwide. Matsushita is like saying Mahtsu sheeta..They once paid my paycheck for awhile, and were interesting folks to work with,

If olympus/panasonic can reduce the noise of the sensor in the 4/3 camera it would be an interesting system. The lenses olympus produce are top notch.

Alan Krantz wrote, "If olympus/panasonic can reduce the noise of the sensor in the 4/3 camera it would be an interesting system. The lenses olympus produce are top notch."

 

Alan, I've had my E500 for about a month and a half now. I've come to the conclusion it would NOT be adequate for someone who shoots a lot of concert photos or Astronimical photos, but there is no noise that i can see at ISO 400 and below, Noise at ISO 800 is quite manageable with Noiseware and the like. Above that, it gets progressively less satisfactory.

 

I almost purchased a Nikon D70 because of the noise issue. but I realized, I shoot nature photos, still life shots and landscapes! I've shot photos at an ISO higher than 400 maybe 5 times in my life! For ME, the tradeoff of low noise at high iso for lower quality kit lenses from another manufacturer would have been short sighted. With the kit lenses, the image quality at lower iso is quite good, with other, higher priced Olympus lenses I would expect nothing short of spectacular.

 

I think photographers need to take a hard look at what they shoot and how they shoot it when deciding which features are important to them. Noise may not be the most important decision point for many photographers.

"Correct me if I'm wrong, but FD lenses were orphaned long ago - they can only be made to mount on FD bodies I believe." Sure. True enough that FD lenses can only mount to FD bodies. I have three,including two T 90s that still work. What I was getting at is the situation where one can mount any,any OM lens by a ring,lots of other Leitz and Pentax and Contax also, to the new E series mount,but not-zero- FD lenses. Apparently, the pins and levers that the FD system entailed will not permit it,(without some homemade cutting and stuff I have read about.) Pity is that the FD lenses,some of them anyway,were just great and are good bargains on the used market. But no future in the digital world. Which is OK,the 14-54 Zuiko and the 50 macro covers most of what I need for now. As in audio,we get used to being supplanted every decade or so. C'est la guerre.

The FD "back focus distance" is ok for the 4/3 mount. Somebody has to figure out how to "saw off" all that metal on the back. Someone figured it out last summer (ref old Canon FD Forum) but then became ill and haven't heard anymore. I wonder if Canon "turned loose" the "Dragon Society" to prevent the "Return of the FD"? I'm keeping all my FD's awhile longer. Regards.

Ray - this is pretty old news :?) See for example the write-up I have in the Leica FAQ I maintain, with lots of links to press releases etc. at:<p>

 

<a href="http://nemeng.com/leica/007f.shtml">http://nemeng.com/leica/007f.shtml</a><p>

 

You won't be able to mount M lenses onto EVolt bodies as the lens-to-film distance is too short to allow infinity focus. You can however mount Leica R slr lenses with a lensmount adapter. Cameraquest make them, but I'm using the cheaper Roxsen. Works fine.<p>

 

One irritant, the Four-Thirds chip is so small you get a 2x cropping factor. So you better break out the R ultra-wides to get decent coverage - eg. the 15mm or 19mm Elmarit-R ($ ouch!).<p>

 

I'm currently using the Olympus E500 with a 50mm R-Summicron (see the "Leicympus" heading at the above URL). Works well, but it's effectively cropped to the equivalent of a 100mm.

Although not a Leica fan, I think your Leicas will outlast by far the digital Olympus. Why ? Because if we take the case of the OM line not turning Autofocus, we learn Olympus is a relatively small company, and now they have been left without their genious designer, Y. Maitani. With the next technological leap they will show their low breathing capacity for starting investment and research anew to match bigger companies like Canon or Nikon.

 

Therefore fidle as much as you like with the digital Olys, but never sell your Leica glass nor bodies, and even less to pay the Oly bills.

 

Sorry for my pesimism but I have been already burnt.

 

Ruben

Ruben,

 

You sound like many Canon FD users back in the late 80's who said they'd never forgive a company that would obsolete their system overnight (yeah, right), but like then it ain't comin' back. You go forward or lament forever. It isn't like you can buy a lot of manual focus cameras from anyone at this point (other than big brother of course) now that even Nikon has decided there's no money in it. If anything, Olympus would probably be worse off today had they committed to the OM system longer.

Greg Chappell wrote, "Olympus would probably be worse off today had they committed to the OM system longer."

 

I have to agree, In business, you got to know when you are losing. and what you got to know what to do in order to survive. Business is just like the rest of life, survival is the only success symbol.

Predictions of the fall of the company have not panned out,but it makes for great chit chat and one can't prove it will never happen,a negative. I am happy I made the switch to Olympus. And some of my best friends shoot Canon:-). I did for twenty five years. No legacy EOS glass makes for choices. Nothing is a lifelong commitment. That is me. I prefer photography.

<i>"What I was getting at is the situation where one can mount any,any OM lens by a ring,lots of other Leitz and Pentax and Contax also, to the new E series mount,but not-zero- FD lenses."</i>

<p>

OK, now I understand where you're coming from! It must be possible to make an appropriate adapter, but the fiddly nature of the pins and protuberances probably make such an adapter costly to produce for another manufacturer.

The problem is that all of the adapters can only get you stopped-down metering, which in actual use is a PITA. I tried it with OM lenses and a Canon 20D, without any real satisfaction. Yes you can get an image, but you would really not want to use it as a walkabout lens on a sunny day. <p>But Andrew N is only partially correct in his web site link when he says that all DSLR's have that issue. The Nikon D200 works just like a film SLR with Nikon lenses from the 1970's and forward. I've been trying it for the past couple of weeks and it works perfectly well. I've seen various people say they're waiting for the Zeiss F mount lenses to try out on this combination.<p>OM vs Leica? I have both, an M7 and an OM4Ti, and if pressed I would dump the M7. Leica glass is fractionally better at full open aperture, but not enough to really make a difference in one's 35mm photography. As far as I am concerned, the OM4Ti with a 40mm pancake is THE perfect take anywhere film rig.<p>PS: Try the $35 Zuiko 28/3.5. Lovely.

I won't bite on the "Nikon vs. Olympus vs. Leica" which-glass-is-better remark... :?) ... but for coping with stop-down metering, I've found using the E500's "Preview Shot" mode a help.

 

You re-program the "...[]..." button via the menus, and then take a preview shot when you think you've got the exposure right. If you're out then adjust the shutter speed and try again. Nothing gets written to disc, so the battery drain is minimal.

 

This way there's no guessing as you can see, with a histogram if you like, whether the exp. is right.

 

Of course previewing is awkward for fast action work, but in that case so too is using any manual lens (_not_ impossible - just slow) :?)

Even with the porroprism the flange back on the 4/3rds SLRs is way too short to mount an

M lens. I'm not quite sure why everybody is hoping that this camera or its inevitable Leica

clone will mount M lenses.

Ironically, I feel that Olympus made the best decision of all from a legacy lens standpoint. By starting anew with a short flange to focal plane distance, it's easy to adapt MOST other lenses to the Olympus digital mount. - The ones that can't be adapted seem to be Leica M and Canon FD, but pretty much anything else is adaptable without too much problem.

 

I actually switched from Nikon film to Olympus digital, because the Nikon DSLRs below the D200 don't support my Nikkor manual focus glass as well as the Olympus E series does. My Nikkors meter on my E-1 and E-300 bodies, but they won't meter on a D50, D100, D70, or D70s. In addition to my manual focus Nikkors, I can also use my OM-mount lenses, my Pentax M42 mount lenses, my Pentax K-mount lenses, and my Leica R mount lenses (and Contax/Yashica if I had any), on my Oly DSLRs WITH metering. And with a good Katz-Eye focusing screen, these lenses are EASY to focus as well.

 

This is especially valuable for macro lenses and fast primes ranging from 50mm f1.4 to 85mm f2, 180mm f2.8, to 300mm f2.8 etc.

 

I got a used Nikkor ED IF 300mm f2.8 for under $350, when the Olympus Autofocus 300mm lens would cost me over $6000. And the Nikkor is it's equal optically.

<i>"... then take a preview shot when you think you've got the exposure right. If you're out then adjust the shutter speed and try again."</i>

<p>

That's what I do anyway using OM lenses on Canon digital (except I take a real photo, and reshoot if need be). It's really no problem once you get used to it.

I too have Nikon film but Olympus Digital cameras.So far the 14-54 & 50-200 have proved themselves to be very good.I really doubt anything will be gained by using Leica M on a Olympus digital.I do however intend to buy an adaptor to use my Nikon 55mm F2.8 Micro on the E1.

E1 users have one advantage in that the viewfinder is better than average & facilitates manual focus quite well.

I posted the most recent annual report for Olympus somewhere else on P.N a little earlier. The bottom line is this: Cameras are a mere sideline for them. They're mostly a medical equipment manufacturer.

I am thinking that Panasonic,having a little more time, and with a little more Moxie and cash, may get their version better. Meaning include a darn AC power source for one. Looks are significant, and the L-1 has an upscale and sleek look,which will appeal to the Leicaphiles,bless their hearts. I may wind up with a Lumix body,who knows? This will be an interesting camera year as noted. As for Olympus financial diversity, yes, I have become acquainted with their endoscope products. Good show for them I say. Camera buyers are inherently fickle anyway and ready to go for the next pretty face:-)

Fortunately (or not, depending on one's perspective), Endoscopes do not require to be seen by a pretty face, nor put a pretty face forward.