I am seeing some very strange results using an old Takumar 50mm lens with a 4/3 adapter and am wondering if I am doing something very wrong. The problems is this:

With the lense wide open, f1.4, the shots look pretty good though about +1EV helps. As soon as I start stopping down the lens, the images get really dark and need a minimum of 2EV to be even close to exposed correctly.

I was under the impression that if the camera was put in the aperature priority mode (A), and the lens in the manual stopped down mode, the camera would adjust the shutter speed and get a correct exposure. This does not seem to be working.

There isn't a lot said about this in the manual and all the articles I've read about using old glass on m4/3 cameras indicate that using the aperature priority mode is the way to go. The only other setting I am aware of is the 'shoot with lens off' setting, which is on.

Anybody have any ideas what I am doing wrong?

50mm f8 +1EV
Attachment 3983

50mm f1.4 +1EV
Attachment 3984

These shots were taken at a diliberatley very high ISO.

I just grabbed my GF1 and Canon 50mm f/1.4 and am not experiencing the same problems that you are seeing. My settings are similar to yours; shooting in A, "Shoot with Lens Off" enabled, lens set wide open, and that's about it. I tried at auto, intelligent, and presetting ISOs to a few higher settings, and all came out fine. Increasing EV just blew out highlights, and it looked fine at 0EV. I even set up my kitchen very quickly like your's! :p (will try to grab the shots off the card shortly)

Could it be your WB settings? Lighting in my kitchen right now is cloudy (overcast out), with the incandescent range hood light on.

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[ everythingsablur ]
Olympus E-P3 (black) + VF-2, Panasonic GF1 + LVF1
Panasonic lenses: 20mm f/1.7, 14-140mm f/4-5.8 HD, 7-14 f/4, PL 45mm f/2.8 Macro, 100-300mm f/4-5.6
Olympus lenses: 14-42mm II R f/3.5-5.6, 15mm f/8 BCL
Legacy: Canon FD 50mm f/1.4 SSC
Flashes: Olympus FL-50

What happens when you mount the len wide open then stop it down to take the shot?

do you have auto-iso limit on? Maybe actual ev of the scene is too low for the limit set on the camera?

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Lumix DMC-G1, Lumix DMC-GF1, Lumix DMC-G5, Lumix LX5
Lumix 14-45mm, Lumix 20mm f1.7, Lumix 14mm f2.5, Lumix 45-200mm, Lumix 100-300mm

Sorry, didn't notice you stopped down to f/8 as well.

At f8 the picture is slightly dimmer overall, but still perfectly acceptable. Intelligent ISO (ISO 125) and shutter was 1/30s.

At f8, ISO 800, shutter speed shot became 1/320s, and the picture was slightly dimmer again, but nowhere near the level in your picture.

At f8, ISO 1250, shutter speed shot because 1/400s, and it was oddly a tad brighter with a little more highlight blowout, so I'm wondering if it just got ambiently brighter in the room.

__________________
[ everythingsablur ]
Olympus E-P3 (black) + VF-2, Panasonic GF1 + LVF1
Panasonic lenses: 20mm f/1.7, 14-140mm f/4-5.8 HD, 7-14 f/4, PL 45mm f/2.8 Macro, 100-300mm f/4-5.6
Olympus lenses: 14-42mm II R f/3.5-5.6, 15mm f/8 BCL
Legacy: Canon FD 50mm f/1.4 SSC
Flashes: Olympus FL-50

Thank you for that. Here's more information to throw in:

Later last night I took a series of shots starting at f1.4 then stopping down one stop at a time all the way to f16. (all at ISO12800 and auto white balance) As with the two images in my first post, the f1.4 looks good. All of the others are dark like the f8, but they do not get decreasingly dark telling me that the camera is able to sense that the aperture is getting smaller. Also, the shutter speed was almost exactly doubling, as it should, with each decrease in the aperture. Weird.