A few shots with legacy lenses (Pentax k bayonet mount 50 mm and a Russian made Industar 28 mm pancake lens)

Gotta love the internet.

There is a swath of high quality 'legacy' manual focus lenses that one can buy (with a bit of luck) on the cheap off the internet.

The first few shots are with a 1980's era pentax 50 mm lens. I bought this as a 2 for 1 deal when I bought a telephoto lens a few years ago. I was delighted with the telephoto lens but have generally overlooked the 50 mm pentax (on m43 the effective length becomes 100 mm). For portraits these lenses can give really cool effects, such as a blurred background behind a really sharp foreground subject - probably a function of shooting with low f/stops (apertures).

N. at Henderson Lake

I was drawn to the industar lenses because they are small and can be mounted on micro 4/3's cameras with an adapter. Even with the adapter they are still compact, and even with the focal length doubled because of the crop-effect of the 4/3 technology, you still get something that approaches a point and shoot of old (effective focal length is 56 mm). Here are a few shots.

ACC Halloween hike to Ironstone Fire Lookout

Review of Opteka 6.5 mm fisheye lens (paired w/ an Olympus OMD EM10)

I bought the Opteka 6.5 mm lens from 47th street photo... delivered, it cost $235 Cdn. The lens was made for a Canon EOS system and the package from 47th street included a Canon to M43 adapter. Everything worked well right out of the box.

The lens is quite large and heavy. It's manual focus, although there isn't a whole lot that you can do in terms of focus! Unless there are objects within 1.5 m (~5 ft), you can leave settings basically at infinite focus and away you go, it's that simple. That said, I have not been able to get really sharp focus at the more open f/apertures but that is a function of the lower light of late afternoon strolls in mid November here in Southern Alberta.

So far I am pretty happy with the lens although I find it quite big and heavy. For something smaller for 'grab and go' situations, I would sooner use the Olympus 9 mm f/8 lens cap.

Photos hosted here (on google photos)

Test shots with Olympus 9 mm fisheye lens cap lens and review

Quick review of  the Olympus 9 mm f/8 fisheye lens cap. I'm really happy so far!

1/50s ISO 4000

Calling this a Lens Cap is a total misnomer. That's just like the Japanese to be so low key.

Not to (conversely) overstate matters, but this is truly a fantastic little lens that is easy to use and consistently get great wide angle shots. I don't notice the fisheye effect that much and I am really finding this fun to use - you can be a beginner and have a lot of success with this Olympus mount!

Lethbridge Cenotaph Nov. 11th, 2016 (1/200s ISO 200)

You can use 'focus peaking' or the Olympus 'focus zoom' tool but those settings are not needed most of the time, just set focus slightly below infinite and it's off to the races.

I have been using in lower light and pics have been coming out ok with the iso cranked up to compensate for the fixed f8 setting and my lack of tripod.

In contrast to an Opteka 6.5 mm fisheye lens I also got recently (that cost twice as much),  the Olympus 9 mm fisheye is much easier to successfully shoot in focus, although for really skilled photographers there may be a slight decrease in sharpness versus a more expensive lens. For the cost and the size the Olymus 9 mm cannot be beat! $125 CDN from London Drugs.

One minor drawback - the lens doesn't stay closed, I am planning on building a cover to protect the 'lens cap'.

I have been using with my OMD em10 mostly in manual (M) mode or automatic (Iauto) mode.

Photos are sharp and snappy. This is a lens that I can see  myself see using quite a bit - it's so small and easy to carry around.

Photos hosted here (on google photos)..