Which prime Golden Age SLR 50mm lense to adapt to my Dig 3 ?

[Trius]

Did anyone mention OM Zuiko 50/1.2? No, it wouldn't be cheap.

To get 50mm equivalent, Zuiko 24/2.8. I'd say 24/2.0 for a faster lens, but I've never seen many samples from it. The 24/2.8 is very small and a great performer.

 

[peterm1]

I have the Panasonic L1 version of this camera and have been using Nikon and M42 adapters for my Nikkors and Takumars resepectively. I ended up owning 3 (cheap) M42 adapters and am not really happy with any of them. I initially thought the Nikon adapter I bought was better but have recently found that it is way off on close focus / wide open shots. (What appears in focus through the eye piece does not agree with the focus confirmation light.) My mistake I think is buying cheap ($20-$30) adapters. My thinking now is that no matter which lenses you use, it may be worthwhile to try to work up the courage to pay for the expensive adapters - I think they are far far too dear at $150 given that they are just a bloody mechanical linkage plus but there you go! (In fact its a bit of a rip off.)

I do not know about your Leica but I find that apart from the above issue, with my camera it is very hard to get visual confirmation of focus (the VF is a tad dim and my eyes are pretty cruddy anyway) and the focus confirmation light is so sensitive,mostly it flickers on then off again before I can react. I then spend the next 30 seconds hunting for focus. In short as much as I love this beasat it is not ideal for using MF lenses of other persuasions and if a bodgey adapter is thrown into the equation, this just makes it harder. So I am beginnning to rethink my posiion on using third party lenses on this camera. As an aside I find using manual lenses on my Nikon D70s much better in terms of the ability to focus successfully perhaps because there is no adapter to contend with. Unfortunately there is no metering of course.

Having said that if I were to persist and if I were to limit myself to lenses I currently have I would go the Nikkor route. If I were to adopt the view that I can buy any lens I would go for either a Leica R of perhaps Contax SLR. I have seen some very nice results with the latter two.

 

[shadowfox]

As I have mentioned before, I have an E-300 and three adapters, OM, C/Y, and M42.

Maybe because I have "persisted" and gotten used to it, I now have no difficulties getting focused results with any of the adapters, even wider lenses like the Zeiss Distagon T* 35/2.8 or the OM Zuiko 35/2 (my current favorite 🙂 )

The method that works for me the best is "bracketing" the focus (find the end of acceptable focus both near and far), sometimes I actually take extra shots, most of the times, by simply moving the focus ring in the smallest increment that I can muster around the focus distance, I can nail the focus just fine and I don't have to spend a lot of time as well.

One thing that would help is to get used to one lens, so you instinctly know which direction to turn the focus ring to get the focus once you're close to it (using pre-focus).

 

[dee]

Thanks everyone - I have had some practise with my K 10 D and
Pentax K 28/ 2.8 and 50/ 2.8 . But the finder of the L1 / Dig 3 is a lot more tunnel vision !
I have an adapter for my SR [ Minolta ] lenses on order - I hope that It will be Ok . PeterM - you have me worried now ! The downside is that it is one that fits right inside the 4/3rds bayonet , so I can't switch from Minolta to the zoom easily .

I admit that I have both the Dig 3 AND L 1 - but only because the used mint L 1 body was just £250 , so I will use one with Minolta .

Other than that I am tempted by the Olympus 35mm f 3.5 macro autofocus at £14 it would transform the L 1 into a neat street shooter with a 70mm reach !

 

[RIVI1969]

I have the L1, and a couple of adapters to use the 35mm and 50mm Leicas Summicrons. (fortunately now sold) I suffer so much trying to get in-focus images that I eded up selling everything. The depth of field is just so narrow that at f2 you only have a couple of millimeters of sharp focus. You need to stop down at least to f4 to start seen things with clarity which makes those lenses useless in low light situations. Maybe cheaper lenses just for fun could be nice though.

Cheers
R

 

[Avotius]

might I stick in a odd vote for a 50mm yashinon ds 1.4? I use one on my 20D and while it might not be the sharpest lens on the block, its has so much nice character that you expect from yashinon's such as the gsn's 45 1.7!