Olympus E-P1 Review Diary – Part 10 – Pen Primes, Samples VI and Photo Meetup
This entry is mostly samples, an intro the Pen F 42mm f/1.2 and a quick hello to some excellent photographers. In Japan, I had the chance to meet up with my v good friend (and legend in the making) Tommy Oshima. The meeting place was at Kagurazaka in Tokyo and Tommy three friends Mika-Rin, Kayo (couleurs5) and Toki…
Below are the shots from the day. Most notable for this camera review's sake are the ones shot with the Olympus Pen FT's 42mm f/1.2 prime lens. Tommy owns a Pen F (as now do I) and brought the Pen F micro four thirds converter and this fantastic piece of glass. It creates an approx 120mm focal length on the E-P1 and looks great… I won't discuss this combination too much now as "old lenses – new bodies" it's a topic I'll cover in much greater detail in the coming days / weeks.
Kayo. Olympus E-P1 with Olympus Pen FT 42mm f/1.2
Mika. Olympus E-P1 with Olympus Pen FT 42mm f/1.2
Kayo. Olympus E-P1 with Olympus Pen FT 42mm f/1.2
Tommy. Olympus E-P1 with Olympus Pen FT 42mm f/1.2
Akuri. Olympus E-P1 with Olympus Pen FT 42mm f/1.2
View from Canal Coffee. Olympus E-P1 with Olympus Pen FT 42mm f/1.2
Tommy. Olympus E-P1 with Olympus Pen FT 42mm f/1.2
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The 42mm lens creates an 84mm equivalent focal length on the E-P1, not 120mm.
Hi Kai – thanks for the comment. That’d be true if the original Pen lenses was designed for a “full frame” 35mm body. However, the original Pen is a half frame camera and gives about a 1.5x multiplier on the field of view. This means that the 42mm is actually about a 60mm equivalent field of view on a 35mm camera… so the final result on a micro four thirds body is that gives a roughly 120mm equivalent fov.
Hi Lawrence,
Thanks for your reply!
It’s really not calculated the way you describe… and may I say thank heavens it isn’t, because it would make using the myriad of c-mount cinema lenses (all designed for 16mm frames) on the EP-1 a very much less satisfying experience!!
This is an area of great confusion in various forums lately, but it’s actually terribly simple :-)
The focal length of a lens is not tied to the frame size the lens was designed for: it is a fixed property of the lens, and a 42mm lens is forever a 42mm lens, regardless what camera it was designed for. A 42mm lens mounted on a PEN-F camera would indeed have the equivalent field of view – when mounted on the PEN-F camera – of a 60mm lens on a full frame [35mm] camera. When you put the same lens on a 4/3rds camera, that 42mm lens has what looks like the field of view of an 84mm lens mounted on a 35mm camera, because 4/3rds has a crop factor of 2x against a 35mm frame [and the 42mm lens is *still* a 42mm lens: it has defininely not magically changed into a 60mm lens along the way somehow]. Where your calculation is falling apart is in the retention of that 60mm equivalent length along the way – the lens isn’t, never was, and never will be a 60mm lens, so using 60mm an intermediate value for arriving at the final equivalent FOV in 4/3rds is incorrect; Simply put, focal length x 2 gives you the 35mm FOV equivalent for m4/3rds, regardless of what kind of camera the lens was originally designed for.
84mm FOV it is!
Incidentally, amongst all this unsolicited lecturing on my part (I apologize – my excuse is that it was late at night!), I forgot to say “thank-you” for writing about the PEN 42/f1.2 plus E-P1 combination. I’m really interested in that lens, and have even already managed to find a source for one of them in good condition locally. I just have to figure out how to “hide” *yet another* lens purchase amongst all the Christmas shopping from my better half ;-)
The great irony about the E-P1 was that I originally justified buying the thing as a way to “simplify” my gear. Smaller & lighter. But with the ability to mount just about any lens ever made on this thing, I’m finding myself chasing fast vintage glass from all over the place – feeling compelled to experiment with ancient lenses. If anything, I now have more lenses for the EP-1 than I ever had for the dSLR it replaces!
Cheers,
Kai
Hi Kai … you know, it’s funny. As soon as I started to read your reply I knew what you were going to say. Or rather, I realised “what was I thinking”. What you say is right. It’s the “sensor” size (or film size in the PEN F’s case) that causes the change in field of view / multiplying factor and this effect does not get magically carried over. I’ll borrow your “late at night” excuse too. 82mm it is.
So – I apologise to all to flaming the fires of confusion. It doesn’t happen often fortunately :)
As for the 42mm f/1.2, it’s a great piece of glass. Exceedingly fast given the focal length. It becomes an equivalent f/2.4 depth of field at that focal length when paired with the E-P1 but that’s still pretty shallow. I also looked for this lens online. One comes up every month or so on ebay in variable condition – there aren’t many. Another option is the 50mm f/1.2 on Olympus OM (of which there are many) – but it’s physically larger.
As for the c mounts – these are the most for me interesting as they’re not only fast but they have a very unusual quality. I started with similar assumptions to you and have also been led astray… I currently own four and it’s not getting any smaller. Check back as I intend to review each one individually in the coming weeks.
Hi Laurence,
I’m eager to read your c-mount write-ups; the more information out there, the better. I intend to write some of them up myself at some stage. There are a suprising number of c-mount lenses out there, but most of the published info revolves around a certain subset of well-known lenses (all of which seem to command the craziest prices at the moment!)
As it happens, I today received in the post an s-mount to c-mount adapter so that I could finally use a Cine Ektar 2/63mm I’ve had kicking around for awhile. Focus ring is a bit stiff, but I really enjoyed using the lens – it fully covers the 4/3rds sensor with no noticeable vignetting. You can see a couple of my early samples from today with this lens at http://www.flickr.com/photos/kai_g/sets/72157622707872429/
I like the design of it, very vintage feel to it. Plus it has a smaller form factor which is nice.
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