Dandelion Chip with Olympus E-510

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DISCLAIMER:
IF YOU SHOULD CHOOSE TO FOLLOW ANY OF THE FOLLOWING DIRECTIONS ON YOUR CAMERA, IT IS DONE ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. IF YOU ARE UNSURE AS TO WHOM THE TERMS ‘YOU’ AND ‘YOUR’ REFERS TO- WALK TO THE NEAREST MIRROR AND THAT FACE YOU SEE DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF YOU AS YOU LOOK INTO THE MIRROR IS ‘YOU’ AND ‘YOUR’. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY OF YOUR ACTIONS.

I recently purchased an adapter to mate M42 lenses to my Olympus E-510. The seller gave me a set of directions referring to the E1 family with a couple of updates supposedly referring to the E-510. Needless to say, they didn’t work. I then found three other sets of instructions on the Internet in various forums. None of these worked, I am assuming the writers had never had an E-510 within fifty yards of themselves and had only reworked what others had written.

What follows is exactly what I found to work with the Dandelion chip and my E-510. They will include how I set the custom aperture and focal length.

These first steps have to be taken first every time a setting is to be changed -they put the camera/adapter into a programming mode -

Turn the camera on

Set the mode to A

Set the focus to MF mode

Press the FN button just below the wheel to the right of the mode dial.

Press and release the lens release button – a simple push and release – do not rotate the lens

Within one second of the above step press and hold the FN button for three seconds

Release the FN button

Press and release the lens release button – a simple push and release – do not rotate the lens

At this point the aperture value should change as the wheel to the right of the mode dial is rotated – if not – turn the camera off and start over. If it doesn’t work after several attempts you may have a different Dandelion chip version than I have.

Note – The above steps have set the camera and chip in to a programing state. The next value entered will access a particular portion of the chip. To set the aperture use f5.6; to set the focal length use f8.0 The focus and the aperture of the M42 manual lens have no bearing on doing the programing. Leave the lens wide open and set the camera to allow shutter trip without the focus LED being active (MF).

Note – After changing either the aperture or focal length turn the camera off. Don’t just start changing the other value – the chip will get a headache.

Below are the steps to be taken AFTER entering the program mode – one set for aperture and another set for focal length (which I am assuming from my experience and Internet comments sets the IS feature value)-
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To adjust the aperture value in the chip

Using the wheel, adjust the aperture value to 5.6 *

Press the FN button and release

a)Turn the wheel to select the first digit of the f value you want – referring to the values below

b)Make sure the lens cap is off and point at a fairly bright light source

c)Press the shutter completely down and release allowing only one shutter action to be completed – wait for the image to be saved on the card before continuing.

Set the second digit and do steps a, b and c again.

Press and release the lens release button

Turn off the camera

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F4.0=0 | F4.5=1 | F5.0=2 | F5.6=3 | F6.3=4 | F7.1=5 | F8.0=6 | F9.0=7 | F10=8 | F11=9

IE to set an aperture of 4.5 the first aperture value is 6.3 the second aperture value is 7.1

Values that can be entered are f1.0 to f8.0
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The value you choose should now be displayed and still there after turning off the camera, removing and replacing the lens and adapter and turning the camera back on

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To set the focal length –

Use the value of 8.0 rather than 5.6 *

Using the same values from the line above set five digits rather than 2

Otherwise each step is the same as for aperture

IE to set a focal length of 135 the values entered would be –

4.0 | 4.0 | 4.5 | 5.6 | 7.1

Values that can be entered are from 00001mm to 65535mm

The popular consensus is – the closer the focal length entered matches the lenses value, the better the IS works – thus it appears to be useful with a zoom lens you would have to fiddle each time you change the zoom value. I only use primes with these adapters. The default is said to be 65535mm, so either turn off the IS or set the value correctly before trying any actual photography. I was having a heck of a time the first time out after mounting the adapter with its original f2.8 and 65000mm+ setting. I was getting very out of focus and fuzzy results when the aperture was stepped down to 4.0 or smaller.

Using a Sears 50/1.4 I set the aperture for 2.0. I’ve found this setting to be useful with the RAW format from an actual 1.4 to 2.8 lens setting. The lens FL I set to 50mm.

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DISCLAIMER:
IF YOU SHOULD CHOOSE TO FOLLOW ANY OF THE PRECEEDING DIRECTIONS ON YOUR CAMERA, IT IS DONE ENTIRELY AT YOUR OWN RISK. IF YOU ARE UNSURE AS TO WHOM THE TERMS ‘YOU’ AND ‘YOUR’ REFERS TO- WALK TO THE NEAREST MIRROR AND THAT FACE YOU SEE DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF YOU AS YOU LOOK INTO THE MIRROR IS ‘YOU’ AND ‘YOUR’. I AM NOT RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY OF YOUR ACTIONS.

Olympus E-510 Received

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The camera arrived three days ago, but until this morning, the focus confirm M42-4/3 adapter hadn’t arrived. Until today all I had done was hold a Minolta lens in front of the camera to verify everything as working.

I made a few quick test shots today, none worth posting, to get used to the live view feature. I believe this might turn out to be a fantastic camera. By locking the mirror up and using the live view, it is possible to see the focus, framing and aperture adjustments in real time on the screen. I don’t see myself using the live view handheld, but, on a tripod I think it will shine.

Today I put a test roll through the Argus FA and dropped the roll off to be processed. The main thing I am concerned with are the dried out light seals. Depending on the results, I may have a project ahead of me. I have the material to use from other projects in case they are needed.

Another One

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I spotted this on eBay and figured why not ?

Olympus E-510, purchased from Olympus as a refurb in March 2009 and used for two months for birding. Then the burst speed was determined to be too slow for his taste and he went to a Canon digital. He was selling the body with free shipping for $225.

The registration distance of the E-510 is very short. This simply means that any lens with a registration of a larger value will work with the camera. Most of the lens brands already have adapters for them manufactured and on sale at the bay. See this website for further info on using lenses across brands. Registration Distance Information
Now I have
Canon 300D 6mb
Canon XTi 10mb
Fujifilm S2 6mb – Nikon F mount
Pentax *istD 6mb
Olympus E-510 10mb
(in order of purchase and the XTi being the only one purchased new) They all also use CF cards so that is one thing I don’t have to purchase and duplicate.

That covers about everything. The neat thing about the E-510 is that it doubles the lenses. So, my favorite 300mm 5.6 lens is now a 600mm 5.6 lens at much less than the cost of a new lens. The Fujifilm mated with an ARSAT 20N 2.8/20; the Pentax with the 8mm Peleng fisheye and the XTi with the Sigma 15-30mm zoom take ample care of the wide angle.

Also, the most I paid, except for the new XTi, was $250 on eBay for the rest of the bodies. Shop carefully and bide your time, what you want will come your way.

Non Canon Lens to Canon EOS Body Adapters

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First off, there is something called the registration. This is simply put, the distance from the lens mount to the surface of the film. Camera body manufacturers do not  share this distance with another unless they go into a manufacturing agreement such as Nikon and Sony did a couple of years back. Visit the address below for many examples of the different registration lengths. 

Registration Information 

If the registration for your lens is shorter than the one for the camera then infinity focus is lost. To regain infinity focus an optical solution must be worked out. An example is the one that allows the mounting of the Canon FD lenses on the Canon EOS bodies. The problem here is the lesser quality of the corrective glass in the adapter compared to the lens. If you remove the glass you can use it for a macro adapter and it works well at this.  

For those lenses with a longer registration, all that is needed is an adapter to allow the physical mounting of the lens to the body. There are many adapters for sale. I have some for mounting MF Pentacon Six lenses to EOS and others to mount M42 and M39 screw lenses to EOS. These I will talk about here since I have them and use them. My two Canon DSLR’s are the Rebel 300D and the Rebel XTi, what is written here pertains to my own experience with these cameras used with these adapters. None of this is cut and paste from other websites.

First the Pentacon Six (Kiev 60, Kiev 88 CM, Exacta 66). The first is one that simply mounts the lens to the body. The second allows what is called shift. The third allows tilt. See any reference to tilt and shift on the Internet if you aren’t familiar with the terms. All three work very well at doing exactly what they are designed to do. The gotcha here is all three make the lens act as a telephoto to some degree. A 45mm lens will act like approximately an 85mm lens in regards to the image area captured. This actually makes the latter two adapters work their magic as there is plenty of image circle left over for the shift and tilt mechanics.

Next is the M42 adapter. It works as advertised. The registration is corrected and the lenses work as designed.

The M39 adapter is simply a very thin and easily broken piece of metal with threads on the inside and outside. It screws into the M42 adapter and then the lens screws into the M39 adapter. A problem now exists. There are several registration distances for M39 lenses. A small amount of them will work with the adapter. Most will act as macro lenses with no infinity focus. I won’t get into which lenses are which. 

Lastly is the newest version of the M42 to EOS adapter with focus confirmation. I have two from different sources. They both work well. What makes it different from the basic mechanical mount is the small electronic chip that is incorporated into the adapter. It has contacts that mate with the ones on the EOS body. The chip tells the body that there is in fact a Canon lens mounted on the camera AND that it is in manual mode. The ones I have tell the body that it is a Canon f1.8 50mm lens mounted. Newer versions allow you to order custom lens information.

The idea of the two pieces of information being generated is twofold. (1) The camera will give aperture and shutter speed information in the viewer as if a 50mm f1.8 lens was mounted. This may be of use to you or not, depends on what mode you are using and what lens you actually have mounted. (2) The most important – when you achieve focus, the little green LED in your viewfinder will light up. You have to be using the M or TV or AV (not sure about the P- I’ve never used it) mode on the camera.

OH! I forgot to mention – NONE of these adapters allow auto anything between the lens and body. No auto focus. No auto aperture.  Its up to you to take a step back in time to before auto focus and auto aperture days.

08-18-2009 Quick update – The field of adapters has gone ballistic recently. M42 lenses will adapt to most every camera body, the new micro 4/3 bodies will accept almost every other lens made due to its exceptionally short registration distance. The adapters have gone into a 4th generation of the Dandelion chip. Most cameras now will enjoy being able to adjust for FL, f stop, EXIF date, and micro-focus (front/back) distance adjustment. The Olympus E510 (and some others in the E lineup) for example, has an adapter available to fine tune the lens FL to the IS of the body. The bottom line – check out Manual Focus Lenses Forum for a huge amount of information. Make sure the adapter, lens, and body combination will allow infinity focus unless you only want to do macro work.

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