By mistake Dpreview today announced that Zeiss would release the Zeiss 135mm and in MFT mount. They confused the M42 screw mount with the MFT (Micro Four Thirds) mount. Dpreview quickly removed the post but some of our readers still think that this was a correct news. That’s why I am reporting this.
The only Zeiss lenses we can use on our MFT cameras are the superb [shoplink 24401 ebay]Zeiss ZM lenses (her eon eBay)[/shoplink]. You have to use a M to MFT mount adapter for them. My favorite ZM lens is the Zeiss Planar 50mm (here on Slidoo eBay). But of course you don’t have electronic communication between these kind of lenses and your MFT camera. I can live with that.
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sorry to correct, but M42 lenses (from Zeiss or from others) can also be mounted on MFT cameras. OK, you need a thick adapter (much thicker than a Leica M one) but it is working…
Hey, they did say the original mount would be MFT! And by the way, also Canon and Nikon lenses can be mounted on MFT with adpaters 🙂
And so can all Zeiss ZF lenses with Canon or Nikon mount 🙂
Actually Zeiss Canon mount lenses are ZE lenses, not ZF. But aside from that you are correct, you can use Canon ZE and Nikon ZF lenses on m4/3rds with the appropriate adapter.
Yep. I have a couple of Pentax SMC Takumar lenses that use the M42 screwmount adaptors.
The Zeiss Ikon series rangefinder lenses are small and use the Leica M mount. It’s a shame that none seem to be faster than f2.8.
Leica M mount and L39 screwmount adaptors are 9mm thick vs. 25mm for Nikon, M42 screwmount and Olympus OM lens adaptors for M4/3. It makes a big difference in terms of general bulk. M/L mount rangefinder lenses coupled with M4/3 cameras make a really nice compact combo.
I’ve got a broken Olympus 35 SP with a perfect lens… I wonder if it could be attached somehow. Then I’d have a pretty amazing 84mm f/3.4.
There is also an adapter for Contax G lenses for Micro Four Thirds. It works with all lenses of longer focal lengths, for example the Zeiss 45/2 or Zeiss 90/2.8, both excellent lenses.
@admin: Any rumors about a long tele prime for µFT?
Something like a 300/f4?
nope. I have rumors coming about other lenses 🙂
FT5!
bring it on 😉
Before that new lens rumor I have to post an 17mm update…
I’m excited, admin!
Me too. I really don’t know yet if there is a surprise coming damn soon. I heard stuff, but I don’t know if that is coming now…
Not so bad. I have to spare money, my Nokton 25 arrived yesterday…
Please think on that, that your rumors can also be FT2.
Discussing about this “news” is quite nice!
How about two high grade zuiko zooms?
12-50 and 40-150, please! F2.8-4 for both, pretty please!
No idea about exact specs yet, but a high-grade zoom covering the ‘short to medium’ tele range from Olympus is in the plans for next year.
Please, not another 40-150mm!!
Which one would be the other high grade f2.8-4 ?
Will you correcting the text please admin!
If Zeiss releasing M42 screw it can also be use with MFT as I use two Fujica M42 lens with M42 to MFT adapter without problem. And yes all M42 is a manual (since is an old mount from analog era) so no need to stating it’s not do any AF. Of course this Zeiss will cost a lot.
So upset 🙁 when i saw that i got super excited, now my christmas has been stolen 😛
Hehe, M42 and m43 – how hard can it be…
What’s next… m44? 😀
on ebay you will find any adapter(m42,Canond FD, OM etc) to M43 …all will be manual but will work and you can pretty easy work on A mode(shutter spead calculates automaticaly) or full M …autofocus works only for m43 …also 4/3 but everybody says is too slow
you forgot about the zeiss compact cinematography lenses which do come natively in mFT. granted these are professional $3000-$20,000 color matched lenses primarily for video work and without autofocus so they are not for most of us.
CP.2 primes, CZ.2 LWZ.2 for example
http://lenses.zeiss.com/camera-lenses/carl-zeiss-camera-lenses/cine_lenses/compact_lenses/lightweight_zoom.html
http://lenses.zeiss.com/camera-lenses/carl-zeiss-camera-lenses/cine_lenses/compact_lenses/compact_prime_lenses.html
I only use manual focus Nikkor AI-S lenses on my GH2.
+100
Yes! I love my Nikon AI-S lenses! I have 20mm f2.8, 105mm f2.8 macro, 200mm f4 Macro and 300mm f4.5 EDIF. Those and my Voigtländers are my faves!
wow, the adapter brigade is out in full force. Yes, you can adapt pretty much every lens mount to m43, but the point of the original DPReview article was that (mistakenly) Zeiss was actually producing lenses in a native m43 mount, and therefor showing support for the m43 format. Adapt away!
M43 and Zeiss in the same sentence? Obviously a mistake.