FD to m4/3 Adapter

As many of you know already, I own a Panasonic GF1.  I really love this little camera it's fantastic.  If you're in the market for a camera that's big on quality but small on side.  You really owe it to yourself to check one out.  The lenses are interchangeable (similar to a DSLR), but there's no mirror inside and the image sensor is about half that of a 35mm sensor you'd find on a high end Canon or Nikon SLR.  But, the ability to change lenses really opens up a whole new (old) world for you.  There are tons of adapters for these micro 4/3rds cameras.  You can convert pretty much any lens onto one of these with ease.  Recently, I purchased an adapter to convert Canon's old FD mount lenses to my GF1.  I had a 50mm f/3.5 macro lens in my possession I just had to try out with it.  I was extremely impressed by how well it works! I should note though, that you need to use manual lenses to do this, meaning that you can't use autofocus or lenses with motors for the diaphragm to change the aperture.  It has to be manual (You can use auto focus/auto aperture lenses but you have to shoot with them wide open all the time, which isn't ideal, or you can set the aperture on your Canon/Nikon, press the depth of field preview button and then disconnect the lens with your finger still on the DOF preview button, but that's a kluge).  Anyway, the real great thing about using these older lenses is that you can by them for cheap on ebay, kijiji, or your local camera store.  To get a macro lens from Panasonic/Leica it would run you about $1000 for their 45mm Macro with image stabilization.  You can pick up one of these Canon 50mm for about $100-$150 used in good condition.  This is a great idea if you're not interested in always carrying around your DSLR when you go out.  Or, if you don't want to buy a DSLR this is a great route to go.  You can check out some of the pictures I shot with it on my Flickr account, here.  Enjoy!

/DG