A while ago, I had written about a Bower made Minolta AF to OM adapter that I was able to use on my Minolta 800si/Sony Alpha 700 to mount Zuiko and other 3rd party OM mount lenses.
The Bower adapter is actually a weak teleconverter since it has a glass element that permits infinity focus – since I got the A700, I have been checking out all my manual focus prime and zoom lenses – Zuiko, Vivitar, Sigma, Soligor, Panagor and Kiron primes and zooms. Most of them fit on the Alpha 700 without any problems – with the exception of the Zuiko 28mm f/3.5 and the Zuiko 35mm f/2.8 (more on this in a future post)
There was a very interesting discussion on the DP Reviews forum regarding the use of manual focus Olympus OM Zuiko lenses on the Sony Alpha series cameras. I had participated in the discussion and shared the information I had about mounting manual focus lenses on the Sony Alpha 700. However, the DP Forum’s website seems to have had a technical failure, and about 5 days worth of forum topics have been lost. All the reply postings have vanished – except for the question itself. Bummer.
Zuiko/OM lenses on the Sony Alpha Part II
olympus/zuiko by Ajoy Muralidhar is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
text and images © 2008 ajoy muralidhar. all names, websites, brands and technical data referenced are the copyright or trademark of their respective owners. thank you for visiting olympus/zuiko.
April 7, 2008 at 1:42 pm
Hello,
Have you tried anything with a mount adapter with no glass? I am looking for a new digital SLR, and something that can use my C/Y and OM glass would be superb.
Thanks!
Steven
April 7, 2008 at 3:29 pm
Steven – if you are planning on keeping both your C/Y and olympus OM lenses, your best bet would be an Olympus DSLR. It uses the new Four-Thirds mount system, and there are adapters available to fit (almost) any of the major lens brands. These adapters have no glass, and provide infinity focus in spite of that – thats one of the beauties of the 4/3 system. However, you will probably be limited in how far you can stop down with the OM lenses. Olympus sells an OEM adapter specifically made to mount OM lenses on the new digital SLRS, but all other adapters are 3rd party. Here is a link…
http://www.cameraquest.com/adapt_olyE1.htm
You should be able to find the Original adapter made by Olympus on Amazon or one of the photography stores like B&H , keh.com or Adorama. As always, eBay is a good bet to find obscure items, even if you have to wait for a while to get what you want, at the price you are willing to pay
I hope this helps.
AJ
April 8, 2008 at 9:24 pm
Hello again,
I have thought of that, but for now, its not an option. I have been using a 1Ds, and that works fine with adapters as well, but I have never been a fan of how the Canons handle as machines, and the Sony cams look quite good, esp with the Minolta innovations incorporated. I was just wondering about how well it would work with adapted glass..
Thanks again,
Steven