The Wonderful World Of Lumix G1 Mated With Ancient Lenses

May 31, 2013 by Udi Tirosh 3 Comments

The Panasonic Lumix G1 was the first camera to feature a mirrorless interchangeable lens. It was ground breaking. Today the market is saturated with variations on micro 4/3 and mirrorless cameras, yet Yuji Takahashi gave his G1 a new life by mating it with ancient lenses from the past. How ancient? some go all the way back to early 1900’s.

Goerz Taro-Tenax(1912~26) Lens on LUMIX G1

Yuji stops at nothing to get a lens to work with the G1. Leather, velcro, foamies and pieces of metal are used in the adaptation process. The results are just as dreamy as you would expect.

Here is a picture taken with the Goerz Taro Tenax you see above

Here is how the G1 was fitted with a Nikon F mount adapter (salvaged from an F90) so old Nikkor lenses can be used.

and a sample with the NIKKOR-S Auto 1:1.4 / 50

Olympus D-Zuiko 1:2.8 F=38Mm

Yashica Half 17 1:1.7 F=3.2Cm

Canon Ixy Digital 400 7.4-22.2Mm 1:2.8-4.9

While this post was focused on the Lumix G1 mods, Yuji has plenty of other goodies on his Flickr stream. Well worth a check.

About Udi Tirosh

Udi Tirosh is the Founder and Editor in Chief of DIYPhotography, he is also a photographer, a relentless entrepreneur, a prolific inventor and a dad, not necessarily in that order

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Aaron W

My absolute favorite lens on my Sony A57 is a Pentax/Asahi SMC 50/1.4 that we found in my late grandfather’s closet. That’s followed closely by his 135/2.5. They were made around 1970, and both take absolutely stunning pictures. Not having the option of manual focus or aperture forces you to make decisions about each shot you take, and they’ve made me a far better photographer.
Boris Meyer

Still wondering why doing this work when you can spend the money on great modern lens with all modern stuff (like AF or Stabilisation…). Or shoot full analogue then.
- Zos Xavius
  
  you can’t get these images with modern lenses. look at the rendering and bokeh. he is trying for something unique and succeeding, with a fairly old dslr I might add.