Minolta Lenses on a Four Thirds Camera
Minolta produced many fine lenses during the film era and it would be a shame if they could not be mated with an excellent Four Thirds digital camera, which is highly adaptable to use legacy glass. Until recently the only adapter available was fairly expensive and difficult to find. Some problems were reported with adapters going from Minolta to 4/3 in the past. Such as the aperture pin extending into the mirror box, potentially damaging the mirror. Late this year (2007) a new adapter became available from a seller on , RJ jinfinance, who took some trouble to develop this delicate and tricky adapter. By the time you read this, some other adapter may be available as well, I just mention this seller as being the one I am aware of. (There are some new distributors now, just search in the adapters category for a seller of your choice 2008). Being one of the first to get this new adapter, I was eager to try my Minolta MD 45mm f/2.0 “pancake” lens. I found it worked well on the E-510, but the aperture pin on my version of the 45mm just barely scraped the “throat” of just inside the lens mount. The aperture was sticking, and I could feel the pin scrape when mounting or dismounting the lens. After filing a few thousandths of an inch of enamel off the end of the pin, the pin cleared. I did not have to do any major work on the lens and the mirror appears to be safely beyond the reach of the pin. The E-410 may work as well as the E-510, since they are similar models, but I have not tried one.
I found the results with the 510 and 45mm very good. The camera felt
much lighter and more compact using the lens and the image quality was
excellent. In fact, I shot a test against the 14-42mm kit zoom and the
edge sharpness of the 45mm was better at f/4 than the zoom.
I have not tried the MD 50mm f/1.4 lens yet. I’ve heard of mixed results with Minolta zoom lenses.
What is Four Thirds?
Four Thirds is a standard for digital single lens reflex cameras (DSLR)
led by the Olympus corporation defining a lens mount and image format.
Any company belonging to the consortium can make a 4/3 format camera,
and Panasonic, Olympus and Leica are members. More by accident than by
design, it turns out a 4/3 camera with a suitable adapter can mount
lenses produced during the heyday of the 35mm film camera, from the
1960s to the 1980s, which are called “legacy optics.” Although Olympus
produced an adapter to mount OM series lenses on E-System cameras
(their digital SLR line), at various times offering for free to
previous users or selling it for a fairly steep price, most
photographers adapting legacy glass to an E-System camera choose to
purchase an adapter from . A number of companies, mostly in China,
produce 4/3 adapters. Lenses from Pentax, Nikon, Olympus, Leica, Contax
can be mounted to a 4/3 camera and adapters are available for those
brands. Except for Canon.
Remember, the field of view produced when you mount a legacy 35mm lens to your Four Thirds camera will be about twice the 35mm focal length. So a 45mm lens mounted to 4/3 camera gives a field of view about the same as a 90mm lens on a 35mm camera.
Lenses
MD 45mm f/2.0 Rokkor-X Very sharp. Light, compact “pancake” lens. Well worth it for the fast f/2.0 lens @ 45mm compared to the slow kit lens, which is near to f/4 at this focal length. Should be a good portrait lens on 4/3 at this focal length.
Cautions
Please check your adapter carefully before mounting to a lens or to the camera. Some adapters consist of two pieces fasted together by screws. Either due to a manufacturing problem or shipping, the screws can sometimes work loose and stick up above the face, thus scratching a lens or camera mount.
Some of the other E-System cameras cannot accept Minolta lenses without modification to allow the aperture pin to clear (at least on lenses with the long aperture pin). I believe this includes the E-300 and E-330.I am unsure of the Panasonic or Leica cameras.Do not purchase a lens designed for an auto focus camera such as the Minolta Maxxum. These are entirely different lenses and will not work on your 4/3 camera. You want the MD or MC, MD Rokkor, MC Rokkor, etc. mount lenses or similar from the film era. If the lens fits a X-series camera (X-370, X-700, XG-1, XG-7, XD-7, XD-11, XD-5, XE-series, SRT-101, SRT-102 etc.) it will probably work with the adapter unless it is very unusual
When mounting the lens the first time you want to be careful the aperture pin is clearing the mirror and other parts of the camera. If you feel anything unusual, stop and check it. Minolta used different types of aperture pins on their lenses. Some are longer.