HELP! Please Check That The Lens Is Attached Correctly.

[Mango Biche]

Apologies if this belongs in the 'Newbies' pile, but I did at least try searching the forum before writing this!

What I have are the following:

Zuiko Digital 40-150mm f/4 Four Thirds Mount.
Zuiko Digital 14-42mm f/3.5 Four Thirds Mount.
Panasonic Lumix G1 Body.
Valtrox JY-43F Four Thirds to Micro Four Thirds Adapter.
Generic Four Thirds to Micro Four Thirds Adapter.

My problem is that the 14-42mm lens generates the above error on my camera, irrespective of which adapter is in use and which body the lens is on.

The workshop say that as far as they can see the lens is working OK on the bench, but as soon as its connected to a camera body, this error appears.

The 40-150mm lens works with any combination of the above components with no problems, so I'm guessing that the issue is fairly minor.

Has anybody else faced a similar problem, and if so, how did you fix it?

Thanks for your time.

Mango B.

[Walti]

Re: Please Check That The Lens Is Attached Correctly.

Apologies if this belongs in the 'Newbies' pile, but I did at least try searching the forum before writing this!

What I have are the following:

Zuiko Digital 40-150mm f/4 Four Thirds Mount.
Zuiko Digital 14-42mm f/3.5 Four Thirds Mount.
Panasonic Lumix G1 Body.
Valtrox JY-43F Four Thirds to Micro Four Thirds Adapter.
Generic Four Thirds to Micro Four Thirds Adapter.

My problem is that the 14-42mm lens generates the above error on my camera, irrespective of which adapter is in use and which body the lens is on.

The workshop say that as far as they can see the lens is working OK on the bench, but as soon as its connected to a camera body, this error appears.

The 40-150mm lens works with any combination of the above components with no problems, so I'm guessing that the issue is fairly minor.

Has anybody else faced a similar problem, and if so, how did you fix it?

Thanks for your time.

Mango B.

I had some similar problems with one particular lens and resolved it by cleaning the contacts on the lens. The springy contacts in the camera/adaptor also seem to get a little sticky on occasion, so were also thoroughly cleaned.

[Mango Biche]

Re: Please Check That The Lens Is Attached Correctly.

Many Thanks to Johnheatingman and Walti for your replies,

Me being the innocent and believing soul that I am was convinced that this lens would throw a wobbly whichever body it was attached to. After all; Four Thirds & Micro Four Thirds are standards supported by numerous manufacturers; right?

Wrong! I've just attached the 14-42mm lens to an Olympus E-PL1 that I have for sale, and lo and behold, it's working fine! When I mentioned the fact that I was seeing the same behaviour on various bodies, I was talking about a Lumix G2 that I have knocking around. Being the 'dunderhead' that I am, I never thought to try it on an 'Oly' body!

So back peddling furiously here, it seems as though the lens 'Firmware' might just be the culprit instead! Being an IT man, firmware is something I understand, so I'm going to investigate this issue and if there's new lens firmware available, I'll install it and then try it on the Lumix body again! I think what 'threw' me was the fact that the longer lens worked without a problem, so it might just have a later firmware version?

Anyway, thanks for opening my eyes here as I wouldn't have tried the Oly body without your suggestions!

All the best,


Mango B.

[Petrochemist]

Re: Please Check That The Lens Is Attached Correctly.

I would still suspect dirty electrical contacts as the cause.
It may well be all your contacts are contributing slightly so that going via an adapter (an extra pair of contacts) is more than it can manage.

One quick method I've seen recommended elsewhere if you don't have a propriety contact cleaner handy is to use a pencil eraser. Hope you get it sorted!

[Ian]

Re: Please Check That The Lens Is Attached Correctly.

Check that the locking pin fully descends when the lens is mounted. If not, the camera may not recognise that the lens is mounted.

Ian

[Mango Biche]

Re: Please Check That The Lens Is Attached Correctly.

Hi Everyone,

A little digging has revealed that the 'fully working' ED 40-150mm lens has version 3 of the Olympus firmware installed, while the 'not working with Lumix' ED 14-42mm lens is only on version 2 of the firmware.

As I don't have a USB cable for the Olympus to hand, I've ordered one from eBay and will attempt the upgrade as soon as it arrives, whereupon I'll report back on the success or failure of the upgrade at curing the incompatibility issue!

In terms of the mechanical operation, from what I can see the locking pin is fine on all of the bodies tested and the connections look clean and 'springy' in operation.

Once again, thanks to all members for their input as it's been invaluable in narrowing this issue down.

Best Regards,


Mango B.

[Bikie John]

Re: Please Check That The Lens Is Attached Correctly.

You can certainly update Panasonic lenses on Olympus bodies, I think you can do it the other way round as well. You would use the Panasonic method which as far as I remember is downloading the update and copying to a card, so you don't need to wait until you get an Oly-specific cable.

The Panasonic firmware update page is at http://av.jpn.support.panasonic.com/.../download/fts/ . I haven't looked for your specific body and lens but they should be there somewhere!

John

[Mango Biche]

Re: Please Check That The Lens Is Attached Correctly.

Hello B.J. and thanks for your advice!

I managed to borrow a pukka Olympus cable from a friend to set about fixing this problem. So the first step was to download the "Olympus Digital Camera Updater' from the web, install it and connect the body/lens via the cable.

I'm delighted at how easy Olympus make this operation for the user as I had visions of having to setup an FTP server or something daft! Once the Olympus application was started, it correctly identified both components and their current firmware levels, offering suggestions regarding which firmware to upgrade to. Once done, it reported that all was OK and I was able to switch the camera off.

I always have concerns the first time I 'reboot' something after a firmware update, but I needn't have worried in this case; everything worked as expected! So much so that the Four Thirds based ED 14-42mm lens is now perfectly happy being mounted on a Lumix body and the quality of the photos it takes justify the 'glowing' reports I've read about this series of lenses in the trade press.

So, a first rate result as far as I'm concerned!

Again, thanks to the fine folks on this forum for their input!

Tropical Greetings,

Mango B.

[Bikie John]

Re: Please Check That The Lens Is Attached Correctly.

Well done - a good result!

Now if you could just send some of that tropicality over to Blighty .....

John