GH1 + Canon NewFD 50mm f1.4!
Time for some major fist-pumping, kids! Just picked up a Canon NewFD 50mm f1.4 lens for around $40 US (3900 JPY, to be exact). And SWEET JEEBUS the 1.4 aperture is AMAZING!
Anyway, as always, the geeky technical notes:
- Adapter: from ciecio7 on eBay ($75 US)
- Using the adapter: The FD’s breech lock needs to engage at the single red dot, rotate to the double red dot (by which I mean the dot that is in line with the dot on the m4/3s mount side), and then push and lock back to and past the single red dot on the mount. For my 50mm lens, the dot on the lens is almost 1cm past the single dot on the lens mount. If you don’t fully tighten the lens onto the adapter, you may not be able to open your lens to the widest apertures.
- Fit and finish of the adapter: VERY nice and tight fit onto my GH1. Same for the lens, though it was a bit tricky at first because I didn’t know how to get the breech lock to engage. This particular adapter is very well made out of a solid piece of aluminum. There are a few spots where the aluminum failed to anodize black on mine, but they’re on the inside and don’t bother me.
- Lens: Bought used from my local camera store. Was rated “average” quality because there’s some of dust within it, but that sort of thing doesn’t have any impact on the image quality. It’s a very solid, hefty lens, thanks to the metal construction. Since it’s a NewFD, it’s multi-coated as well.
- Using the lens: Since this is a lens for a 35mm system, the field of view is approximately twice that of what the GH1’s sensor can capture. That means, it acts like a lens with twice the focal length (100mm) on the GH1. Don’t double the focusing distances written on the lens barrel, though… those work as written. Speaking of which, it is SO nice to have a real manual focus lens, instead of futzing around with the endlessly turning focus on the kit lens. I actually had a sense of where my focus was on this lens, without having to stop and enlarge the focusing area. And did I mention how freaking nice f1.4 is? Because it’s totally awesome.
