Help finding a lens! - 50 / 1.8

faceman

Im having trouble finding a 50mm lens with a 1.8 app for my Olympus DSLR. Searches online didnt have much luck bar finding lens that were €600.

Anyone know where i can get my hands on one?

Kintarō Hattori

http://photography.shop.ebay.ie/Camera-Lenses-/3323/i.html?_nkw=Olympus+50mm&_catref=1&_fln=1&_trksid=p3286.c0.m282


Have a look at the above results. Older manual focus lenses can be gotten quite cheaply and they can work brilliantly on DSLRs. The price is low as we've all come to like our autofocus. I have an older manual focus lens and I really like the fact that I can't autofocus, it makes me feel more connected with the camera somehow.

As I use a Pentax I'm fairly lucky that they haven't really changed the lens mount in 40-50 years so I don't have lens mount compatibility issues. I don't know what the situation is in regards to your camera, as in what mount it uses but definetly have a look at the older manual focus lenses. I'm sure folks here will be able to tell you if they would work with your camera if you tell them the model number.

magicbastarder

i don't know if there is one - 50mm on an olympus body is 100mm in FF equivalent, which is not the usual sweet spot for cheap fast primes.
i'm going to be selling a sigma 30mmf1.4, four thirds mount, once i get the finger out.

magicbastarder

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Older manual focus lenses can be gotten quite cheaply and they can work brilliantly on DSLRs.

OM zuiko lenses will not mount on an olympus DSLR without an adapter; plus, there's the problem of the smaller viewfinder in an olympus DSLR making manual focussing that bit harder.

Kintarō Hattori

magicbastarder wrote: »

OM zuiko lenses will not mount on an olympus DSLR without an adapter; plus, there's the problem of the smaller viewfinder in an olympus DSLR making manual focussing that bit harder.

Ah fair enough (I really am thankful I don't have these mount issues). Hmnn while it might be awkward to use an adapter and having a smaller viewfinder, is it a workable solution? Is it practical to give someone a flavour of what the nifty fifty is all about without having to spend hundreds?

bullpost

There is one , but as he says its very expensive.

Have you looked at the 35mm olympus lens - Its very good for the money , about 250 euros I think, and is a great macro lens to boot?

magicbastarder wrote: »

i don't know if there is one - 50mm on an olympus body is 100mm in FF equivalent, which is not the usual sweet spot for cheap fast primes.
i'm going to be selling a sigma 30mmf1.4, four thirds mount, once i get the finger out.

magicbastarder

Kintarō Hattori wrote: »

Ah fair enough (I really am thankful I don't have these mount issues). Hmnn while it might be awkward to use an adapter and having a smaller viewfinder, is it a workable solution? Is it practical to give someone a flavour of what the nifty fifty is all about without having to spend hundreds?

one of the reasons i bought an olympus DSLR kit was so i could use my OM lenses, with the adapter, but i found i rarely used them because focussing was so difficult.

AnCatDubh

magicbastarder wrote: »

one of the reasons i bought an olympus DSLR kit was so i could use my OM lenses, with the adapter, but i found i rarely used them because focussing was so difficult.

Does the Oly have a "catch in focus" feature? Custom menu perhaps?

When enabled and with camera in autofocus mode with a manual focus lens attached, the camera refuses the release the shutter unless a focus is achieved.

So while it still requires some skill, at least you know when you take your shot that *something* is in focus.

I've really gotten to love this of late with a lens which I had more or less discarded but i've found with a little practice i'm getting some quite acceptable results.

The only issue I really have with it is speed. I'm still a heck of a lot slower with a manual focus lens than autofocus (understandably) but that is only a problem if you are in a rush / kinda depends on what you are shooting.

magicbastarder

AnCatDubh wrote: »

Does the Oly have a "catch in focus" feature? Custom menu perhaps?

not that i'm aware, and i suspect not, as i don't know if it was ever really anticipated that people would try using manual focussing much on the cameras.

duffarama

The system was designed as an entirely new mount and camera system, fully "designed for digital" so Olympus didn't think anybody would want to mount older lenses to the cameras.

However there are many options to mount cheap manual focus lenses to your olympus, you can get chinese adaptars from ebay, focus confirm adaptors exist and then there's the €150 olympus adaptor with no focus confirm.

You can also get a focussing screen from katzeye and if you have an E-400/10/20/50 or an E-500/10/20 I can sell/give you one of those as I don't need it anymore.

Morrisseeee

I've an Oly E510 and I've tried the OM 50mm f1.8, the Pentax 28mm, 50mm & 100-300mm, and a Nikon 50mm f1.4, and yes focussing is a bitch, but only when you need to fast focus (& get it spot on) on something, ie. I would use the Live-View to get pin sharp focus on still-life, portrait or landscapes, although landscapes are usually set to infinity anyway. BTW the quality & resolution of these older primes is excellent.

dinneenp

Does a Pentax fifty fifty fit an Olympus dslr?
probably not but if so I have a SMC PENTAX-FA 1:1.7 50mm autofocus

Morrisseeee

Pentax fifty fifty fit

Whats that ? oh I know, its a tongue-twister (sorry couldn't resist):o

Does a Pentax fifty fifty fit an Olympus dslr?

Answer: yes, I have an old Pentax 50mm F1.7 and an appropriate adapter and it works a treat.

duffarama

His lens is autofocus, is that a problem? I thought it was k-mount manual lenses and M42 only

Morrisseeee

Sorry, yes my adapter is K-mount only.

dinneenp

It's such a great, hard to find lens I must be crazy to be selling it.
But, for you my friend it's available....

dinneenp

here's some pictures I've finally uploaded.

faceman

dinneenp wrote: »

It's such a great, hard to find lens I must be crazy to be selling it.
But, for you my friend it's available....

Will it work on an Olympus without any adaptors?

Kintarō Hattori

faceman wrote: »

Will it work on an Olympus without any adaptors?

No as it uses a different type of mount to your Olympus.

Thecageyone

I've been trying to find dirt cheap 50mm lenses on ebay for Nikon, but there's so many different types of old MF ones I have no idea which ones would work for me without adapters [on a D200, which apparently works with 'most' older lenses]

I imagine it's the same with Olympus? for the old classic ones you'll probably need an adapter, just a matter of finding the right one to match maybe.

duffarama

faceman wrote: »

Will it work on an Olympus without any adaptors?

I don't believe that autofocus lens will work on an Olympus body even with an adaptor, you must be able to manually focus and manually change the aperture.

magicbastarder

yep, you compose wide open and stop down when taking the shot. the camera does not do this automatically for you.

thefly

faceman wrote: »

Im having trouble finding a 50mm lens with a 1.8 app for my Olympus DSLR. Searches online didnt have much luck bar finding lens that were €600.

Anyone know where i can get my hands on one?

There's your problem!!!!!