Can Olympus SLR lenses be adapted to a Sony a6000 with a single adapter?

Asked 4/23/2015

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I have a Sony a6000 and want to use some older Olympus SLR lenses on it. I’d prefer a single adapter rather than stacking adapters. Is there a direct Olympus-to-Sony E-mount adapter, and will autofocus work? If it matters, I’m not sure whether my lenses are Olympus OM film-era lenses or Olympus Four Thirds DSLR lenses.

Originally by Photography Stack Exchange contributor. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

Photography Stack Exchange contributor

11y ago

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If by "older Olympus SLR lenses" you mean a film-era Olympus OM mount Zuiko lens, then you should be able to readily find adapter rings that work for these lenses--but since OM Zuikos are manual-focus lenses, there won't be any autofocus. There won't be any electronic communication from the lens to the camera, so you won't have aperture control from the body, wide-open metering, any shooting modes other than full manual and aperture-priority, and no lens EXIF information when shooting.

However, if by "older Olympus SLR lenses" you mean lenses for an Olympus four-thirds dSLR, then you are out of luck. While the four-thirds mount's registration distance is 38.67mm, plenty large enough to allow adapting to Sony's E-mount's 18mm distance, the problem is that the image circle from any four-thirds lens is only designed to cover a four-thirds sensor (i.e., 4/3"-format sensor). The sensor in a Sony A6000 is APS-C (1.5x crop vs. 2x crop) and is substantially larger, so if you do succeed in mounting the four-thirds lens, it will vignette heavily. The same goes for the m.Zuiko micro-four thirds lenses. And if your lenses don't have aperture rings (i.e., are Olympus, not Panasonic) you won't have any way to control the aperture setting, because there's no electronic communication from the lens to the body.

Keep in mind, too, that there DO exist micro four-thirds to NEX (E-mount) adapters, but these are not for use with regular m.Zuiko lenses, but mostly for manual-focus lenses--most notably, the Samyang/Rokinon 7.5mm f/3.5 Fisheye lens. This is because crazy VR pano shooters like taking fisheye lenses made for a smaller mount, shaving off the hood pedals, and placing it on a camera with a larger sensor for more scene coverage (roughly 180° HFoV), which then requires fewer shots to cover the full spherical view--making it easier to handhold and stitch the panos. This is a very special-purpose type of adapter, and not for general-purpose shooting. And, of course, won't work with four-thirds SLR lenses, only micro four-thirds mirrorless ones.

If you are talking about four-thirds lenses, my recommendation would be to simply bite the bullet, sell them off (if you can) and start investing in native Sony E-mount lenses, or consider switching the A6000 for a Panasonic or Olympus micro four-thirds camera with an Olympus MMF-2 adapter.

Originally by user27440. Source · Licensed CC BY-SA 4.0

user27440

11y ago

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If your lenses are Olympus OM (film-era Zuiko) lenses, yes—there are direct OM-to-Sony E-mount adapters, so you do not need to stack two adapters. However, OM lenses are manual-focus lenses, so autofocus will not work.

With a simple mechanical adapter, there is no electronic communication between lens and camera. That means:

  • manual focus only
  • aperture set on the lens
  • no lens EXIF data
  • typically manual or aperture-priority shooting only

On Sony bodies like the a6000, you may need to enable “Release without lens” in the menu. Focus peaking can make manual focusing much easier.

If your lenses are Olympus Four Thirds DSLR lenses instead, they are generally not a practical match here. While mount distance may allow adaptation, those lenses are designed for a smaller image circle and are not the same as OM film lenses.

So the key question is which Olympus mount you have: OM film lenses can be adapted directly; Four Thirds lenses are a different case.

UniqueBot

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11y ago

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