I have a number of old Konica AR lenses, many from the 1980’s. In terms of quality my experience using them on my Panasonic G1 has been very positive. However, that is a crop sensor which selects pixels only from the centre–the best part–of the lens.
I recently got hold of an adapter that would allow me to fit these lenses onto my M9. I wanted to try the 135mm. The lens fits well on the M9 body, and does not block the view finder. But there is a catch. The rangefinder focusing mechanism does not work, leaving only the distance markings on the lens to estimate the focus. Shooting hyper-focal is an option, but with a long lens the range in focus is not that deep.
As I begin this experiment the focusing process is iterative. Fortunately years of computer science have taught me many search strategies; I’ve started with a binary search method.
click on picture to see more
Leave a Reply