I have an old Olympus OM 10fc and would like to use the lenses on a new Olympus digital slr camera?
I have an old Olympus OM 10fc and would like to use the old lenses since I have about 5 on a new Olympus digital SLR camera. What kind of Olympus camera would you recommend?
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It can be done, but there is a cost.
Your OM lenses will mount on an Oly digital using an adapter. There focal length will be more than doubled. So your 50mm standard lens will now give you the images of a 100mm (with the adapter, more like 115 or so) lens. This is good for telephotos, but bad for wide angles. Your 28mm wide angle will actually be pretty close to a 50mm on a digital body.
You will also have to manually focus and set your aperture. I don’t know if Oly allows metering with an adapter on the body or not. I understand that a completely manual camera is not a scary thing for some of us, but it is for others. The viewfinder in most DSLR’s is more for framing your shot than anything else, what you can see is very limited and much smaller than what you are used to seeing with a 35mm camera.
The top three models of the Oly line are where I would look, starting with the E-3, then the E-30, then the E-620. The E-620 has one feature that no other body has at the moment… a fully articulated viewing screen that can be used for live view. The Olympus (and Sony) live view system is not like Canon or Nikon, in that you can shoot at full speed. The Canikon version requires a delay between shutter press and actually taking the shot, the Oly and Sony methods do not.
I would recommend you get at least the kit 14-42 lens with your Oly digital. It will give you some wide angle to work with, and let you use all the features of the camera. An even better option, although it may be harder to find, is the 14-54 f/2.8-3.5 lens.
You need one of these lens adapters.
http://www.amazon.com/Fotodiox-Olympus-Adapter-Panasonic-DMC-L10/dp/B001G4SHYA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1273243171&sr=1-1
The smaller sensor used gives a doubling of focal length, so your 70-210 will become a 140-410 zoom..
You don’t get the benefits of autofocus and you’ll have to work the aperture yourself.
Once you use the small, light, fast autofocus new lenses you’ll go right off the old glass you have. I did.
The camera most like your OM-10 is the E-420 (10.1mp). It’s the base model and very good.
The E-520 adds Image Stabilising (which will work with your lenses) and is worth the extra cash.
The E-620 is similar to the E-520 but with a better sensor (12.3mp) and a lot of clever little modes and features.
You could buy a body only and save a little cash but the kit lens is well worth having.
You can do that with any of the Olympus Digital SLR cameras using a simple adapter (Olympus sells the adapter for about $100 U.S. but you can get good ones from third party manufactures for between $20~$50). I have both types and would not pay the difference for the Olympus brand again). In theory they should work with Panasonic and Leica Four/Thirds cameras as well but I have not tried either of them (because I am not rich enough to own all three brands).
Be aware that the focal length will be effectively doubled, the lenses will require manual focusing and “stop down” metering in aperture priority mode and there are limitations on the metering modes that will work. Olympus recommends a very narrow range of aperture settings but I find that OM the lenses work well at most settings.
There are also adapters with an electronic “focus confirmation” sensor that will provide an electronic connection to the auto-focus mechanisms on Oly cameras, this causes the audible/visible focus confirmation signal to activate when you have achieved best focus. I have not used any of these and have heard mixed reviews where some people loved them and others hated them. This can be important because the viewfinders on DSLR cameras are not traditional ground glass screens like those from manual focusing film cameras but rather are clear screens with focus points visible in the viewfinder. The ground glass style is considered unnecessary because of the auto focus capability.