Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III with MMF-3
– Give Your Old Four Third Lenses A New Life!
– Review by AL Lee, Posted by Melody Tan, Sub-Editor

31st October 2019, Singapore – And so the new Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III was officially launched last week. You can check out our earlier review here. As for this article aka the “Unofficial Part 2” –  it was not in our editorial plan and rather, the idea came up when I was doing my annual cleaning and all my Four Third lenses keeps blinking at me as if they are saying “use me Bro”!

Well, since I have the Olympus MMF-3, the Four Thirds Adaptor that allows the current crop of Micro Four-Thirds cameras to use the previous generation Four Thirds lenses, I decided to mount the MMF-3 to the New Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III and brought out some old lenses to test the compatibility, the operations of the functions etc.

 

The first Four Third Lens that I mounted to the E-M5 Mark III was the famous Olympus M.Zuiko 50-200mm F2.8-3.5 ED (equivalent to 100-400mm) that I dearly love back then before the Micro Four Third revolutionalized the Mirrorless market.

Image: (L) E-M5 Mark III Mounted with the 4/3 50-200mm on the left and E-M10 Mark III Mounted with 40-150mm PRO on the right for size comparison. (R) The 4/3 50-200mm, a legendary lens for 4/3 users.

 

Using the E-M5 + MMF-3 + 50-200mm was surprisingly fun! The focusing was not exactly any slower as perceived by many Olympus 4/3 users, in fact it was quite fast in my view. And the MMF-3 works seamlessly giving me quick focusing that is pretty accurate. Operationally, it gave me the feeling that I am back to the 4/3 days again which many Olympus users can relate to that feeling. And so, I took the E-M5 + MMF-3 + 50-200mm to the Singapore zoo!

Using the old 4/3 lenses with the MMF-3 on the new E-M5 Mark III does not affect the image quality or drastically affects the proper operations of the camera. All images in this article are cropped, added watermarks and posted without any other editing, so you can see for yourself what I am really getting from the Old-Lens-New-Camera Combo.

 

It really feels like good ‘o days again, the 50-200mm (100-400mm) was once the most popular super-telephoto zoom lens in the 4/3 line-up and almost every 4/3 user owns a copy of this lens. I am so glad that I kept all my 4/3 lenses!

I totally enjoyed using the E-M5 Mark III with the old 50-200mm at the zoo!

Next, I mounted another “legend” 4/3 lens to the E-M5 Mark III using the MMF-3 Adaptor. It’s none other than the Olympus Zuiko 35mm F3.5 Macro lens! Took this combo to Macritchie Reservoir for a walk.

I used the 4/3 35mm Macro for mostly close-ups in the past and I am very excited when I decided to take it out for a walk again after so many years. Lens focuses pretty much the same as it would when mounted to an old Four Third camera while on the E-M5 Mark III. It is not blazing fast but quick enough to get what I wanted to shoot.

 

The 35mm Macro is light by default, when used on the E-M5 Mark III + MMF-3, it is still very light especially if you start comparing it with other DSLR systems. I was pretty happy with this macro combo.

I managed to create these images with a few key factors in mind – the New Olympus OM-D E-M5 Mark III gave me more than enough resolution that I can crop quite a lot during editing, the Olympus MMF-3 Four Third Adaptor allows me to use all my old Four Third lenses (I have about 6 4/3 lenses) on the newer Micro Four Third system with very little loss on the intended lens performance, lastly I am very happy that my old Four Third lenses are given a second life again with the help of MMF-3. So glad that I didn’t sell them or gave them away.

Buy your OM-D EM-5 Mark III or the Olympus MMF-3 from our Accredited Merchants to experience the NEW Olympus OM-D EM-5 Mark III aka the Lil’ Monster with your older Olympus Four Third lenses.

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Reviewer: AL Lee
Chief Editor / Visionary & Brand Ambassador for Olympus Imaging Singapore


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Contributing Editor – Melody Tan

Loves quiet walks along beaches, has a mind of her own and decides everything in life in either black or white with nothing in between. Her priority these days revolves around her 2 lovely kids & teaching them music or photography. A lover of yoga and an avid traveler, Melody aims to visit at least 30 countries before she reach 40 years old – from what we know, she had completed 27 as of 2018.
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