What does the mount look like on that lens, is it a screw mount? If so then it is probably an M42. In fact, if the lens really is from a Pentax K1000 then it definitely is an M42 mount, otherwise it wouldn't have fit on the camera (without an adapter).
Your PC should be fine unless its really weak in terms of RAM or something. Does it have USB 2.0 ports?
He has them all listed, and shows wether each one works on PC or Mac or both. All of them will have free trial versions, so when you find one or several you want to test drive just download and test it out. Monkeyjam is free and a lot of people like it. A few more freebies, but I think most of the free ones lack important functionality - depends on how serious you want to get I guess. In the beginning or for just messing around the freebies should be all you need, but if you're more serious you'll want one of the more fully functional versions. Dragon and Stop Motion Pro are at the top of the food chain and cost accordingly, but there are some decent ones for a lot less. I'll let Lio's list do the rest of the talking on that.
Ok, everything I've seen so far suggests there's no problem with using an M42 lens on an Olympus 4/3s camera. That one sounds like a winna! Even if I was wrong and it is a lens made by Tiffen, it still would have to be an M42 mount, so it would still work. I think with that one you're good to go.
You'll want to get a remote trigger for the camera if you don't already have one, so you don't have to grab the camera each time you take a frame. Here's one that looks good on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/NEEWER®-RM-UC1-Digital-Control-Display/dp/B003LYTFX0/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1347990937&sr=8-10&keywords=remote+trigger+Olympus+e520
These third party remotes can sometimes not work for particular cameras - if you read some of the reviews some people say it doesn't work for them. Didn't see a comment about it on your particular model. You could keep checking dofferent models of remote until you find one with a user comment saying it definitely worked on their e-520, or you could buy the Olympus remote which is probably a lot more expensive. If you google you can find online manuals for your camera showing all available accessories (the official Olympus versions) and where to buy them. The third party versiona work well as long as you find a decent one that works on your camera.
Ah wait - I just re-read and realized the lens is for a Pentax K1000... a quick goolge tells me that means it what's called a Pentax Mount or M42 mount. Let me look into that a bit.
Oh - just to explain - the reason I wanted to knwo what kind of Canon lenses you had is because I thought there was a chance the Canon FD lenses (older manual SLR lenses from pre-digital days) might work better than the EF series, because they probably do have aperture rings. But from everything I keep reading, apparently they aren't any good either - at least not for your Olympus Four Thirds mount, because the back part of the FD lenses sticks back too far inside the camera and can damage the mirror inside.
So I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that Canon lenses just aren't good for us at all.
Yes, you've got it exactly! The problem is that you have to move the camera and can't get it back exactly the same.
One problem I can think of with using the battery - even if you have an extra to be charging as you work - I believe you're supposed to run a battery until it's completely drained before recharging, right? That's what they usually say about rechargables batteries. With my cordless drill for example that means I'll have my spare battery charging but keep o using the same one until the drill peters out. If you do that while animating it just suddenly won;'t be able to take another picture and ypu[ll have to change the battery. So I guess you'd want to try to estimate it fairly close - it says you can take 650 shots, so maybe when you're getting close to 500 go to the end of that shot and change batteries before the next shot. (I've been doing 5 second shots, animating at 12 frames per second, and it takes 60 frames to make one 5 second shot).
Though I don't know how important it is to run the charge out completely before recharging, or what happens if you don't.
I don't think Tiffen makes lenses, do they? As far as I know they only make accessories for lenses, like filters. I'm thinking you might have a Tiffen filter on that lens and be seeing the name on that. They do make what they call Extender Lenses, whch are supplemental lenses that screw onto an existing lens like a filter would and turn it into a telephoto or wide-angle. I wonder if that's another Canon lens with a Tiffen filter of some kind on it?
You're quite welcome! I like doing this kind of research (found out it's actually an addiction, so I guess at least other people can benefit from my dopamine-fiend tendencies ) and I appreciate the chance to deepen and broaden my knowledge about lenses and adapters. A year ago I learned what I needed to knwo in order to get a set of legacy lenses (old manual lenses) for my Micro Four Thirds camera, and then I also learned a little bit from Nick about using NIkonlenses on a Canon (that's where I learned that Canon lenses really aren't good for stopmo). Now Im learning a bit about the Four Thirds cameras and lenses for them. If I keep this up one day Ill be an expert!
Wow - what heppened!!?? All that stuff I wrote is just gone!!
Let me re-write it quickly:
To pick up where I left off.. "it will work but it won't focus to infinity. You don't need infinity focus since you're working on a tabletop, but then all this talk about possibly destroying the camera scares me.
Personally I'd think about getting a type of lens that's definitely compatible with your camera. Here's a Nikon AI to Evolt adapter that is guaranteed to work and not damage your camera. It would mean getting a Nikon lens or two, but I really don't think you'll be able to get those Canonlenses to work. Canon lenses are notoriously bad for using manually for stopmotion.
Ok, I've been digging some more, and I'm afraid I have more bad news. You might not be able to use Canon lenses at all on your 4/3 camera. You definitely can't use Canon EF mount lenses, because they don't have an aperture control on the lens and you'd be stuck working wide open (unless you have a Canon camera you can put the lens on and set the aperture, then unscrew the lens while holding down a certain button (I could look up which one) - then it will set the aperture and it will stay there when you move it to the other camera. Clumsy but do-able.
I've been finding conflicting information about using FD lenses on an Olympus Evolt (4/3) camera. Let me just paste in a very enlightening couple of comments:
As an owner of Olympus Evolt-500 and also Canon F-1 film camera, the Fourthirds cameras will not accept Canon FD glass because of complications involving the mount and the protrusions at the back of the lens. These two factors will interfere and possibly damage the mirror and gold contacts on the body. It is my understanding however that FD lenses can be used with micro fourthirds cameras with the following caveats: 2X crop factor, some cameras do not have EVF only a screen viewing at arms length, also cameras are diminutive, FD lenses are heavy and bulky, the cameras and adapters are quite expensive. These comments are my considered opinion and in no way mean that using FD optics on micro fourthirds is not possible.
The flange back (registration) of FD mount is 42mm and that of 4/3 is about 38mm (38.67mm, according to wikipedia). Theoretically a mount adapter of 3+mm thickness should enable an FD lens to focus at infinity on a 4/3 camera.
However, since FD bayonet on the camera is designed to stick into the lens, the actual flange is "in" the lens barrel as opposed to most of other mounts. I don't know how far the flange sticks into the lens, but I would bet 3+mm is not long enough to accomodate FD mount and 4/3 mount so that FD lens can focus at infinity. Similar diameters of both mount should interfere each other, which may be another hindrance.
If you think about using your FD lenses on a digitalcamera, micro 4/3 should be the only way to go. I found the smaller optical viewfinder of DX format DSLRs are not very comfortable to focus manually (without relying on the focus indicator), so the even tinier viewfinder of 4/3 camera should be a pain to focus manually. Using live view on a 4/3 camera is far more clumsy than on a m4/3 camera.
So it's hard to tell if an FD mount lens would work or not. But I did manage to find this adapter on ebay that says it will work but won'
Comments
What does the mount look like on that lens, is it a screw mount? If so then it is probably an M42. In fact, if the lens really is from a Pentax K1000 then it definitely is an M42 mount, otherwise it wouldn't have fit on the camera (without an adapter).
Your PC should be fine unless its really weak in terms of RAM or something. Does it have USB 2.0 ports?
Here's Uncle Lio's famous stopmotion software page: http://www.stopmotionworks.com/stopmosoftwr.htm
He has them all listed, and shows wether each one works on PC or Mac or both. All of them will have free trial versions, so when you find one or several you want to test drive just download and test it out. Monkeyjam is free and a lot of people like it. A few more freebies, but I think most of the free ones lack important functionality - depends on how serious you want to get I guess. In the beginning or for just messing around the freebies should be all you need, but if you're more serious you'll want one of the more fully functional versions. Dragon and Stop Motion Pro are at the top of the food chain and cost accordingly, but there are some decent ones for a lot less. I'll let Lio's list do the rest of the talking on that.
Not sure if I posted this before, but with that camera you will need an analog/digital converter to get the camera's signal into the computer. Here's a good one at a really good price: http://www.amazon.com/Geniatech-iGrabber-Grabber-Button-Recording/d...
This is what you'll need USB 2.0 for (or 1.0 if that's all the computer has - it'll work too). Here are a few others that should also work just as well: http://www.amazon.com/Mygica-EZgrabber2-Capture-Adapter-Device/dp/B...
http://www.amazon.com/EzCap-EzCap170-Video-Capture-Device/dp/B004IR...
Oh - forget to post this - the adapter you want: http://www.amazon.com/Fotodiox-Adapter-Olympus-Panasonic-DMC-L10/dp...
That link is broken by a weird symbol - you can copy/paste the whole link into your browser and it will work.
Ok, everything I've seen so far suggests there's no problem with using an M42 lens on an Olympus 4/3s camera. That one sounds like a winna! Even if I was wrong and it is a lens made by Tiffen, it still would have to be an M42 mount, so it would still work. I think with that one you're good to go.
You'll want to get a remote trigger for the camera if you don't already have one, so you don't have to grab the camera each time you take a frame. Here's one that looks good on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/NEEWER®-RM-UC1-Digital-Control-Display/dp/B003LYTFX0/ref=sr_1_10?ie=UTF8&qid=1347990937&sr=8-10&keywords=remote+trigger+Olympus+e520
These third party remotes can sometimes not work for particular cameras - if you read some of the reviews some people say it doesn't work for them. Didn't see a comment about it on your particular model. You could keep checking dofferent models of remote until you find one with a user comment saying it definitely worked on their e-520, or you could buy the Olympus remote which is probably a lot more expensive. If you google you can find online manuals for your camera showing all available accessories (the official Olympus versions) and where to buy them. The third party versiona work well as long as you find a decent one that works on your camera.
Ah wait - I just re-read and realized the lens is for a Pentax K1000... a quick goolge tells me that means it what's called a Pentax Mount or M42 mount. Let me look into that a bit.
Oh, and happy birthday too!!
Oh - just to explain - the reason I wanted to knwo what kind of Canon lenses you had is because I thought there was a chance the Canon FD lenses (older manual SLR lenses from pre-digital days) might work better than the EF series, because they probably do have aperture rings. But from everything I keep reading, apparently they aren't any good either - at least not for your Olympus Four Thirds mount, because the back part of the FD lenses sticks back too far inside the camera and can damage the mirror inside.
So I'm rapidly coming to the conclusion that Canon lenses just aren't good for us at all.
Yes, you've got it exactly! The problem is that you have to move the camera and can't get it back exactly the same.
One problem I can think of with using the battery - even if you have an extra to be charging as you work - I believe you're supposed to run a battery until it's completely drained before recharging, right? That's what they usually say about rechargables batteries. With my cordless drill for example that means I'll have my spare battery charging but keep o using the same one until the drill peters out. If you do that while animating it just suddenly won;'t be able to take another picture and ypu[ll have to change the battery. So I guess you'd want to try to estimate it fairly close - it says you can take 650 shots, so maybe when you're getting close to 500 go to the end of that shot and change batteries before the next shot. (I've been doing 5 second shots, animating at 12 frames per second, and it takes 60 frames to make one 5 second shot).
Though I don't know how important it is to run the charge out completely before recharging, or what happens if you don't.
I don't think Tiffen makes lenses, do they? As far as I know they only make accessories for lenses, like filters. I'm thinking you might have a Tiffen filter on that lens and be seeing the name on that. They do make what they call Extender Lenses, whch are supplemental lenses that screw onto an existing lens like a filter would and turn it into a telephoto or wide-angle. I wonder if that's another Canon lens with a Tiffen filter of some kind on it?
You're quite welcome! I like doing this kind of research (found out it's actually an addiction, so I guess at least other people can benefit from my dopamine-fiend tendencies
) and I appreciate the chance to deepen and broaden my knowledge about lenses and adapters. A year ago I learned what I needed to knwo in order to get a set of legacy lenses (old manual lenses) for my Micro Four Thirds camera, and then I also learned a little bit from Nick about using NIkonlenses on a Canon (that's where I learned that Canon lenses really aren't good for stopmo). Now Im learning a bit about the Four Thirds cameras and lenses for them. If I keep this up one day Ill be an expert!
Wow - what heppened!!?? All that stuff I wrote is just gone!!
Let me re-write it quickly:
To pick up where I left off.. "it will work but it won't focus to infinity. You don't need infinity focus since you're working on a tabletop, but then all this talk about possibly destroying the camera scares me.
Personally I'd think about getting a type of lens that's definitely compatible with your camera. Here's a Nikon AI to Evolt adapter that is guaranteed to work and not damage your camera. It would mean getting a Nikon lens or two, but I really don't think you'll be able to get those Canonlenses to work. Canon lenses are notoriously bad for using manually for stopmotion.
Ok, I've been digging some more, and I'm afraid I have more bad news. You might not be able to use Canon lenses at all on your 4/3 camera. You definitely can't use Canon EF mount lenses, because they don't have an aperture control on the lens and you'd be stuck working wide open (unless you have a Canon camera you can put the lens on and set the aperture, then unscrew the lens while holding down a certain button (I could look up which one) - then it will set the aperture and it will stay there when you move it to the other camera. Clumsy but do-able.
I've been finding conflicting information about using FD lenses on an Olympus Evolt (4/3) camera. Let me just paste in a very enlightening couple of comments:
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