Flight From Callahan County

 Here's a black and white image of the legacy Olympus OM-System 50mm f2 Auto-Macro on a modern micro four thirds camera -- the Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark III. Because this prime lens was designed for SLR cameras, it's big and heavy, although the Olympus OM-System was smaller than other SLRs. The grip and the size of the E-M1 III make it work well on this camera. I would not want to use it on my smaller PEN-F without a grip attached. This copy of the lens, which I acquired used on eBay, is in good shape, and looks great on the camera. The wide rubberized focus ring operates smoothly with its wide throw. For manual focus work, I prefer this approach to the focus-range switches used on later model macro and telephoto lenses. The aperture ring with click stops is located at the front of the lens. A focus-distance scale is found at the back of the lens behind the focus ring. A Fotodiox Pro OM-MFT adapter attaches the lens to the micro four thirds camera. This lens and virtually all of t...

I have always been a fan of Olympus cameras. My first was an OM-2, a 35mm film camera that was part of what was known as the OM-System. I owned three the OM-System cameras over the years. In addition to small size, a key factor in the success of the OM-System was the quality and variety of lenses. My favorite lens was the 100mm f2.8, rendering beautiful bokeh perfect for portraits. All of these lenses were manual focus. With the decline of film, I moved to the Olympus 4/3 format camera, a digital SLR that introduced me to auto focus. I had the E-420, then an E-620 before Olympus and Panasonic launched micro four thirds. The technical advancements are marvelous, and I am now shooting with an EM-1 Mark III and an MFT PEN-F with fast autofocus prime and zoom lenses. But I miss some of those OM-System lenses, even though they were only manual focus. I recently found a bargain on an Olympus OM-System Zuiko 50mm f2 Auto-Macro lens. Here's an image shot with that lens adapted for use on a...