Ok - I’m really excited about this latest update to the camera and the implication it has for the future development of the lens mount system. Like a lot of film shooters, I have an extensive amount of manual film era lens that I love adapting to digital cameras. The WLV-01 already handled this well but I’ve been wanting to expand the manual focus capability. I’ve been having this question at the back of my head for several months: What if I could manually focus my modern electronic lenses on the WLV-01?
One option is to reverse engineer the lens communication protocol for Sony and Micro Four Thirds. This would be a massive science project and investment and not sure if that is really in the spirit of the WLV-01. So, I took a DIY hack approach to this by adding in a helicoid to the sensor mount. It allows you to manually focus any electronic lens - in this example I’m able to focus a Zeiss Touit 32mm for the Sony E-mount system:
In addition, the helicoid is removable so you can swap in different lens mounts. I currently have Fuji X mount and Micro four thirds mounts available:
It also has the added benefit of giving you built-in macro functionality for any lens you attach (manual or electronic)
What about aperture control?
Since there’s no electronic connection, you can’t control the aperture from the WLV-01. Hack: Set the aperture on your main Sony/Fuji/M43 camera body and remove the lens while the camera is on. The lens should maintain your selected aperture. From there, you can attach the lens to the WLV-01.
Video Walkthrough: https://youtube.com/shorts/eG8-4yuSR6U?si=3-GZ_gElRvAoQg6x
Sample Images using the Zeiss Touit
If you would like to get the new adapter, I have it available here: Camera Link
Once again, thank you for following along and feel free to reach out if you have any questions!
Cheers,
Malcolm