You need to differentiate strongly between Olympus OM mount film cameras
(manual focus, mostly mechanical and first released in 1973) and the
more modern Olympus 4/3 mount digital cameras announced starting with
the E-1 in 2003... some 30 years later.
Only independent lens makers such as Tamron, Tokina, Vivitar, Soligor
and a host of others made OM mount lenses besides Olympus. The Olympus
OM mount was considered proprietary and no other manufacturers ever made
OM mount camera bodies. The 4/3 mount, on the other hand, is considered
an "open" standard. Not free but you can get the specs and build your
own if you like. Leica and Panasonic also build 4/3 mount cameras and
lenses and since the 4/3 mount is a standard their 4/3 mount lenses will
also fit Olympus 4/3 bodies and vice-versa.
All camera mounts have what's called a "registration distance". This is
the distance where the lens comes to infinity focus behind the base of
the lens flange or the distance from the camera's lens flange to the
surface of the film or sensor. In the case of 4/3 bodies this distance
is rather short compared to an OM body or 1/2 dozen other contemporary
film camera bodies such as Nikon. Since the OM registration distance is
longer than the 4/3 body it's possible to build a mechanical adapter to
join the disparate bayonet mounts while still having enough room to
spare that the OM lens can still reach infinity focus on the 4/3 body.
The same goes for Nikon mount lenses and some others.
But this most definitely does not work in reverse. You can't put a 4/3
lens on an OM body since its registration distance is not long enough
for the lens to focus on the film at infinity. And even if you could
the lens isn't designed to provide an image circle large enough to cover
35mm film.
Chuck Norcutt
Matthew Granger wrote:
> So the correct term for the OM style mount is bayonet mount M-1?
>
> Also, I heard that other brands (maybe Leica?) make lenses that fit onto OM
> or Olympus digital. Can anyone tell me where to get info on this?
>
> matt
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