The new manual lens from Olympus 15mm f8 on the NEX-5

Jesito · Expire: 2015-01-07

Yesterday I thought in testing this lens on the NEX-5. The crop factor of 1.5 would turn it into an equivalent of a 22mm wide, whilst the micro4thirds cams would give results like if it were a 30mm on FF.

I used the NEX to m4T adapter. Not sure if it's right, I've got some difficulties to reach infinity with it.

And the quick test I could cook yesterday:

A 100% crop of the above:

Conclusions:

a) Does vignette a little.
b) Needs more light than in the m4T cams.
c) Doesn't reach infinity (might be the adapter?).
d) Better for close targets than for far ones.
e) With so many megapixels, vignetting is not a trouble, cropping is easy Wink

Jes.

poilu · Expire: 2019-08-29

Hi Jes, congrats for your new lens cap, have you a pic from top or side to see how tiny it is

Jesito · Expire: 2015-01-07

woodrim · Joined: 14 Jan 2010 Posts: 4060 Location: Charleston

Infinity can't be very far out; is there a focusing ring or is it fixed at infinity? I ask because the adapter may actually put it past infinity, which in my experience is more common with adapters - possibly by design.

hifisapi · Joined: 25 Sep 2012 Posts: 941 Location: USA

too much vignetting, cropping is not the answer as it makes the lens less wide angle.

Jesito · Expire: 2015-01-07

Jesito · Expire: 2015-01-07

philslizzy · Joined: 07 Aug 2012 Posts: 4748 Location: Cheshire, England

wonderfully wide, and not much less sharp than some I've seen. Worth a punt I'd say.

edwardconde · Joined: 14 Nov 2012 Posts: 7

Orio · Expire: 2012-12-04

Cool lens, Jes!
But you need not to be distracted too much by lenses, or you will need soon a new kitchen oven Wink

Pancolart · Expire: 2013-11-18

edz · Joined: 20 Aug 2009 Posts: 82 Location: UK

zakstev · Joined: 11 Mar 2013 Posts: 3

Good news! I had much better luck with this on my NEX-3. (For all intents and purposes a NEX-3 is the same as your NEX-5.)
The difference is that I used a different adapter; a Pixco m43 to NEX adapter.

It easily focuses to infinity, but the amazing thing is how very sharp the images are, at all focal lengths. Very much better than when I use my m43 cameras. There is the same amount of vignetting as in your posted samples, which can be cropped.

I also tried this lens with my new NEX-5R, and there was too much vignetting to be worth the while. Same thing with a NEX-7 which I tried it in a store. Undoubtedly the NEX-3/5's smaller 14.1 mp sensor makes the difference.

This is a huge success and I hope the OP sees my post.

Jesito · Expire: 2015-01-07

Jesito · Expire: 2015-01-07

zakstev · Joined: 11 Mar 2013 Posts: 3

By sensor size of course I meant the number of megapixels. The difference is very important to the way that Sony NEX cameras have operated WRT different manual lenses. The NEX-3 and 5 were 14.1 mp. The 3N, 3F, 5N, 5R, and 6 were 16.1 mp. The 7 was 24mp. Furthermore there were other differences. Extreme pixel density? or other factors on the NEX-7 made it incompatible with many wide and rangefinder lenses; surely that will be corrected soon with new 7N model which is expected. The 5R and 6 models have different sensors due to the inclusion of some AF phase-detection pixels. So all of this means that different models can behave differently with the same lenses.

Now about the unfortunate results the OP has experienced: I took another look at his photo and indeed that appears to be the very same Pixco adapter which I received...but there is a difference of a few months in acquisition. I can strongly suggest that the OP was given a defective example, with a too long or too short registry distance for the lens, resulting. That is not unusual for cheap adapters but Pixco has a name to uphold. So I suggest that they corrected this mistake in production. Obviously I got a good one. I'd post photos if I knew how.
How to contact the OP? I suggest he get his adapter exchanged.

zakstev · Joined: 11 Mar 2013 Posts: 3

Jesito (moderator):
In answer to your question about the increase in vignetting...There was NO increase in vignetting with my NEX-3 as compared to the OP's original NEX-5 tests. They were the same, because as I explained, the 3 and the 5 are 99% the same camera.

The QUALITY of my results was far better...that was the difference.

cirrus1500 · Joined: 29 May 2019 Posts: 3

cirrus1500 · Joined: 29 May 2019 Posts: 3

I received my NEX3 yesterday and tested my Oly 9mm on it. It looks about the same as using the same 9mm on my NEX6 - that is some slight vignetting. Unfortunately for the NEX3, there is no Clear Image Zoom function and so I cannot zoom in to get rid of the black corners. My 15mm has not arrived yet, so I cannot comment on that but I hope there will not be any vignetting on both NEX6 and NEX3. To my eyes, NEX3 picture quality from the 9mm is about the same as NEX6, so the observation that the NEX3’s older sensor somehow works better with these body cap lens is not evident for me. But that observation was done with a 15mm, so I am still waiting for the 15mm to confirm this. However, from my limited exposure to the NEX3 and NEX6 with the 9mm lens, I do not expect to see NEX3 do better than NEX6 with the 15mm.

So that is my short report of my findings. To me, there is nothing special about the NEX3 sensor being more suited to the Oly body cap lens than the newer NEX sensors. So, if you can get a newer model model NEX for not much more, so for it. On hindsight, I should have gotten an NEX-C3 which cost about the same for my NEX3 but has the 16MP sensor, but I only got the NEX3 for $50 (body only), so it is not too bad. All these just to satisfy my curiosity. It has been fun!

cirrus1500 · Joined: 29 May 2019 Posts: 3

OOC pics from NEX3 with 16-50mm kit lens:

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OOC pics from NEX3 with Olympus 9mm body cap lens:

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