Vintage Rangefinder Lenses on M4/3 Bodies

photoman12001

photoman12001

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I've got several rangefinder cameras from Leica, Nikon, & Canon. I shoot them alongside digital M4/3 bodies with adapters for the LTM & Nikon S-mount lenses. I'm having a lot of fun doing that and seeing what the glass is capable of producing on digital while I finish rolls of film. I figured I'd share the results here.

To begin, here are a few photos from an Olympus E-M1 & Nikkor 35mm f/2.5. I picked this lens up a few days ago via Craigslist while I was on a trip to NYC. I've been very impressed by it. The resolution/sharpness of its photos really stand out. I love its rendering.

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Thanks for sharing. The old Nikkor and Leica (and others) glass is something I hope in a couple of years to have time to tinker with on a smaller digital body. I also have a Sony Projector lens I got at the ISU Surplus sail a few years back. It's huge and I have no idea what it will be, but it was too much glass at such a low price to pass up.
 
I love using the old glass on these bodies. Right now I usually carry an LTM film body and an Olympus body with various LTM lenses. In a few days I'll probably switch to a Nikon S mount body with an adapter on the Olympus. This all works really well and it's a lot of fun. One day I'd like to get a mirrorless Nikon because I have a ton of Nikon SLRs, DSLRs, and F-mount glass but I'm not willing to spend much money on digital bodies anymore. Prices will need to come down before I pull the trigger. I'd like to use the rangefinder lenses on that as well.
 
Some lovely results!

I have used various Leica mount (LTM and M-mount) on mFT quite a lot (mostly Panasonic G1, GF1, and Olympus E-M1 bodies). Made a lot of excellent photos for me. I still have the E-M1... It's been quite a while since I used it much, so before I take it out to use I'll have to read through the user instruction manual again. Compared to the Leica M digital bodies, the E-M1 is dauntingly complex in the number of commands and configurations it can be set up with. But it remains a fine camera in use, once I remember how to configure it! :D

G
 
I really like the GF1. I sometimes carry a pair of them with 15mm & 42.5mm lenses. The E-M1 is one of my favorite digital cameras. I even like it more than the Mark 2 version. The menus are daunting but I rarely dig into them once I’ve adjusted the settings I want. The Super Control Panel quickly & easily adjusts the most common settings.
 
I have a cheat sheet which lists out my most common config for the E-M1. My primary criticism of the camera is that Olympus didn't include an 'export/import settings' facility (Leica did this and it is a godsend!).

Regardless, the E-M1 is simply a brilliant camera. 👍

G
 
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