Most compact options for adapted lenses.

The Leica M mount is the smallest adapter generally available, though the C Mount ones are smaller. I'm not sure where the Pen F lenses sit in the scheme of things.

Cheers

Ray

 

Pen F lenses are very compact and suit m4/3 cameras perfectly but they are also highly collectable and not particularly affordable when compared to equivalent 35mm SLR lenses.

 

The adapter has to be the right size so that your lens achieves focus on your camera. That is why the size advantage is minimal - it's basically limited to the size of the camera body. That is also why the Leica adapter will be thinner - Leica rangefinders have no mirrors, so no need for the space to put a mirror box - the lenses are closer to the film plane/sensor, and that is where much of the size advantage of the rangefinder comes in.

You cannot mount an SLR lens closer to the sensor just to save space - the lens does not magically bend the laws of physics just because it's mounted on a :43: camera. It will still focus at the distances for which it was designed, and your adapter has to be designed accordingly.

 

I think Pentax 110 is of the thinnest lens family that can fit to m4/3

also some of slow c-mount such as taylor hobson 1" f3.5 also very small

 

You know about the aperture setting problems, right?

 

The M Mount, or Leica Thread Mount (LTM), lenses are the most commonly available, with the shortest lens to sensor distance. M mount and LTM lenses come in numerous different brands and can be purchased quite cheaply, if you are prepared to play a hit or miss game with quality.

Cheers

Ray

 

The Konica 40 and Zeiss Tessar 45 are pretty compact even with adapters. The Konica would be the cheaper of the two, so it should fit nicely in your play budget.

 

It makes no difference if you go Konica-to-m4/3 vs. Konica-to-4/3-to-m4/3. It's the exact same overall adapter depth if the lens you use is a Konica mount.

 

They're the obvious ones, but there are also Minolta CL/CLE, Nikon (own mount), Canon (own mount), a whole bunch of Russian lenses (Zorki, Fed, Industar etc in M/LTM mount), Steinheil and others of the era (in LTM mount usually), and I'm sure that I've seen other brands as well. The Russian lenses appear to be the most prolific on eBay, generally the cheapest, and are the ones that can be 'hit or miss' regarding quality.

Cheers

Ray

 

They look spectacular on a :43: body!





And shooting wide open can be fun. This is the Oly E-PL1 with Canon 100mm f/2.8 Macro, wide open:

 

It can be done with film SLR lenses. I've seen perfectly good L series Canon FD lenses converted (i.e. hacked up) to a 4/3 lens mount, but the lens still has to sit the same distance from the digital sensor as it did from the film plane. The conversion allws the lens to be mounted without an adapter, but it won't make the lens/camera combination any more compact.

 

What he said:

You know, I have no idea! I only have the one adapter. :smile: That said, I'm very happy with it, and I bought mine from Rainbow Imaging.

 

C-mount lenses and the adaptors are quite compact indeed. You can buy cheap, Chinese lenses made for CCTV cameras and such. That is if you are not particularly stuck on sharpness all around the FOV etc.

And, of course, as everyone else said, rangefinder lenses and the 110 lenses.

This being said, even with the bulky adaptor, I do not mind EP2 plus a few Nikon lenses. There is still a size/weight benefit compared to carrying the DSLR + the lenses.