Electronic lens adaptors??

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jpgreenwood

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Is it possible to turn a manual focus lens into auto focus by adding an electronic adaptor?
Ive seen something on Youtube that looks like an adaptor which allows you to set your manual focus lens to infinity, and then by using the camera autofocus, the adaptor zooms the lens back and forth to achieve sharp focus.
However, this seemed to be specific to Sony and vintage lenses.
I have an Olympus EP7 micro 4/3 and would like to add some lenses for street photography, where manual focus is just a bit too slow.
Ive looked at Chinese products but got confused at all the different variations.
 
Why not buy autofocus lenses? Or am I missing something? My wife has an Ep9 with the Olly 14-42 lens, but I've put other M43 lenses on it for her from my outfit. Is the manual lens you refer to something special?
 
There's also the Nikon TC-16a, which is a 1.6x teleconverter that makes MF Nikkor AF. https://www.kenrockwell.com/nikon/tc16a.htm

Doesn't work on more modern Nikons, but you can modify the pinout arrangement to make it spoof other lenses so that it does.

Compared to the Techart as it's a TC it only has to move internal elements rather than move the entire MF lens forward and back.

Adapted lenses are never going to AF as fast as a native lens that just needs to move light internal elements - physics is against you there.

If you want fast focussing, either practice zone focussing your MF lenses or native lenses.
 
lindsay said:
Why not buy autofocus lenses? Or am I missing something? My wife has an Ep9 with the Olly 14-42 lens, but I've put other M43 lenses on it for her from my outfit. Is the manual lens you refer to something special?
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I have a fisheye lens already which is MF only. I was also looking at some of the highly rated MF lenses from 7Artisans/TTArtisans etc which are much cheaper than the normal brand names, but still produce excellent results.
However, Im now looking at secondhand 45mm F1.8 Olympus M43 lens which is AF.
 
Surely you rarely have to set focus on a fisheye? If you're close enough to a subject to need to adjust focus from the hyperfocal point they probably don't mind you taking a moment?

Similarly if you're not shooting wide open, decent DoF on other lenses stopped down mean manual focus with peaking isn't too much of a chore. Have you tried it? With focus peaking you can even anticipate, set focus then take the shot when the subject is in the plane of focus.

Though fair enough, if you want to shoot headshots/upper bodies on 4/3 at 45mm 1.8 you might want AF (though at say 3m you still have ~20cm DoF to play with wide open)
 
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The Techart Pro is only for newer E-mount bodies, I'm not sure why but it doesn't work on models older than the A7ii (and needs one of the later firmwares one that) It is basically a motorised helicoid that moves the outer mount & the attached lens by 4mm.
With telephoto lenses it is necessary to manually focus the near the right distance or the movement is not enough. It's outer mount is Leica M which allows further adapters to be used to most SLR lenses. I've used mine for a range of lenses from 14mm to 500mm & it works quite well, though it does have some quirks/limitations - Lenses heavier than 800g will strain the motor, adjustments to the cameras aperture control can screw up metering (leave it on 2.8 & use the lenses aperture ring)

Surprisingly I find its AF useful with my fisheye as it means I can have the aperture wide open & still focus on any likely subject. With long lenses it's proved useful at airshows too - peaking is just a bit too slow & imprecise, when things are rushed.

There have been AF teleconverters made by both Nikon & Pentax - I have the Pentax version of these too. It works on any AF capable PK body but it's 1,7x optics can be more than is desired (reducing lens speed by 1.5 stops) optically it's quite respectable, but unlike e-mount, longish AF lenses are generally reasonably affordable in PK mount so it's usefulness is less.
 
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