{"id":3344,"date":"2010-04-17T12:43:32","date_gmt":"2010-04-17T02:43:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/?p=3344"},"modified":"2012-10-17T06:36:59","modified_gmt":"2012-10-16T20:36:59","slug":"panasonic-patents-new-micro-four-thirds-adapter-to-allow-phase-difference-af-with-compatible-four-thirds-lenses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.ayton.id.au\/wp02\/?p=3344","title":{"rendered":"Panasonic patents new Micro Four Thirds adapter to allow phase difference AF with compatible Four Thirds lenses – and perhaps ANY lens including manual focus ones?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Micro Four Thirds camera system<\/a> is blessed with a multitude of lens adapters which allow for fun and versatility in using almost any lens ever made – either via contrast detect AF within the camera if the lens is compatible for this or via manual focus.<\/p>\n

The 43rumors team<\/a> have posted a link to a new patent by Panasonic which appears to add phase difference AF capability when using Four Thirds lenses not capable of contrast detect AF.<\/p>\n

See this pdf<\/a> for details.<\/p>\n

Unlike Olympus Micro Four Thirds cameras, the Panasonic bodies currently will not AF with a Four Thirds lens which is not contrast detect AF capable. (ps. the newest Panasonic bodies will now AF slowly even with non-CDAF OLympus lenses).<\/p>\n

This new adapter would appear to address this issue by adding phase difference AF capability (similar as to technology used in dSLRs) – and perhaps allow sports level AF with such combinations.<\/p>\n

The adapter will presumably be a Micro Four Thirds to Four Thirds adapter and use a pellicle mirror<\/strong> to deflect some light from the lens to a phase difference AF detector<\/strong> which responds to the user’s selected AF point via lens mount connections from the camera body and focuses the lens.<\/p>\n

For compatible Four Thirds lenses, the user can select either CD-AF or PD-AF method.<\/p>\n

If the lens is contrast detect AF capable, then the mirror moves out of the way and the camera’s contrast detect AF mechanism is used.<\/p>\n

If the lens is not compatible with CD-AF or phase difference AF, then the mirror is moved out of the way and the user resorts to manual focus.<\/p>\n

I think this is quite an exciting development as many Micro Four Thirds users will have or want to have Four Thirds lenses with a sports-capable dSLR such as an Olympus E-3, and this will allow them to gain AF when these lenses are used on their GH-1 or the new pro Panasonic camcorder for instance.<\/p>\n

Of course, it is only a patent which may never eventuate, but I hope it does as it will provide additional options for us.<\/p>\n

The extremely detailed but generic text of the patent suggests that this adapter may also work with a 2nd adapter<\/strong> – presumably similar to the recent Olympus patent <\/a>– an adapter which includes AF lenses which not only can AF ANY manual focus lens but has a 2x wide converter to bring native field of view to the 2x crop sensor cameras – now this would be exciting indeed!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Micro Four Thirds camera system is blessed with a multitude of lens adapters which allow for fun and versatility in using almost any lens ever made – either via contrast detect AF within the camera if the lens is compatible for this or via manual focus. The 43rumors team have posted a link to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[17,18],"class_list":["post-3344","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cameras","tag-four-thirds","tag-four-thirds-micro"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t